Originally Posted by: Fenderalltheway(Quote Lordathestrings)
Not to forget Fender's favourite:

>(1972) natural SR500S stratocopy<

How can that not be a Fender. Did Fender give them rights or something?Because the similarities isn't funny. In a few words....thats a Fender Strat.

As Lord stated, this guitar was from the lawsuit era of japanese guitars. Ibanez, Tokai, Fernandes, Yamaha, and a couple of others were making replicas of familiar american designs and Fender and Gibson both sued these companies and forced them to make minor alterations to these guitars like headstock shape. Funny thing is, that at the time, these companies were actually making better copies of these designs than the american manufactures of the time. The Les Pauls and Strats of the early 80's weren't very desireable at the time, and not just 'cause pointy guitars were popular at the time. They just weren't that great. Especially the strats of the early to mid 80's. Bad neck pocket fits, heavy woods, crummy p/u's, cheaper hardware, etc...

These japanes copies of this era are actually more desireable to knowledgeable collectors than the "real" thing.

And that is one nice Yamaha...If I had a place to hide it I'd jump on it. I just don't know where I could hide it, and I prefer my bed to the couch! :D