Strat ID - follow from Clive`s thread

[olemuso]

I didn`t want to hi-jack Clive`s thread so I started a new one.

A friend of mine has a black Strat, and would like it identified.
He bought it from a local music store around 1987/88/89 and "thinks" they told him it was new. The store (Mersey Music, Wallasey) closed down last year.
A few months back he was stuck for money and asked me how much it would be worth, but I`ve had to throw up my hands and say I honestly don`t know.
I`ve only seen it once but this is what I can remember.
It plays like my old `69 Sunburst used to - a dream!
There is the remains of a serial number sticker (transparent?) at the base of the neck, on the back, in the same place that mine is on my Jap `62 reissue. You can`t make out any detail on the sticker.
On the stub of the neck is pencilled; "CS TD/62"
That really is all I can remember. I was wondering if it`s an early Custom Shop and if so, how can we positively identify it?
Any help or advice would be most welcome.

Just thought I`d add - everything on it seems authentic.
I`ve no photos cos he`d put it back together by the time I`d thought of getting the camera and he`s very protective of it.

[peterbower]

Hi
If your mate bought it new, does he have any of the old paper work that came with it and the Fender label?

If it was around 87, the Custom shop would be in its infancy but may be wrong. Black would not be a custom shop guitar more possibly a 'signature' model, but again that would be in the early days. Is the neck rose wood or maple, if maple is it birds eye, flame or regular?
Again it was not that common to find the ID sticker on US Fenders at the heel of the neck. Having said that they did move them around a bit in those days. Is there any writing on the neck plate?

Is the Fender logo on the head stock under the varnish finish or over it. That would tell me a lot.

Cheers
Peter

[olemuso]

Hi Peter.
It`s a rosewood fingerboard. I don`t remember seeing anything on the neck plate.
He said he might have paperwork for it but it would be with his accountant. I told him to try and get hold of it.
(I sold my `69-er a couple of years ago but I still have the HP agreement for it AND the HP agreement for the Columbus guitar I bought 6 months previous then part-exed for the Strat - but then, I`m a natural hoarder) ;D
It`s that long since I saw it I really can`t remember much else. I`ll try and get a good look at it one day soon

[Charlie Hall]

A Custom Shop body should have the fact stamped on the neck pocket but it would mean removing the neck to see it. My sunburst Custom Shop body was from a 1988 guitar, is finished in poly, and it has this stamp on bare wood where the neck contacts the body. It also had a modern version of the micro tilt adjustment at the neck to body joint (but I did not use that feature for the guitar I had built up).
Regards,
Charlie