I'm selling this lovely late Made in Mexico Classic Series 70s Strat in natural finish, which has aged beautifully to a kind of amber hue. The date under the scratchplate says it was manufactured in May 1999.

The body is swamp ash and it has a rosewood fingerboard. The guitar has a 7.25" vintage radius, but plays really well with action at about 2mm on the bass side and 1.75mm on the treble side. The neck is a nice C shape, although I've seen these described as "U-shaped". Either way, it's very comfortable to play. The frets are in pretty good condition with just one visible dent in the cowboy chord are. There is plenty of life left in them. It has the 70s three bolt neckplate, which has a micro-tilt adjustment for tweaking the neck angle.

There are three vintage style staggered single coils with a five-way switch and traditional wiring of one volume and two tone controls for the neck and middle pickups. The tuners work well and are period correct and "F"-stamped. On the large 70s style headstock there is a bullet truss rod (which turns freely) and two string trees. The three ply scratchplate is in good condition, but has aged along with the guitar. The rear cover is in place, but one corner has broken off at some point. These do tend to get brittle with age, so it's not unusual to see this. The tremolo arm and original, somewhat tatty, Fender gigbag are included.

There is some finish lifting on the headstock on both the front and rear, but no other significant dings or scratches on the rest of the guitar. The only issue of significance is that my mate owned this for many years and at one point converted it to a "Clapton Strat", with the mid-boost circuit. He routed out a space for the circuit board under the scratchplate, which is shown in the pictures. You can't see any sign of it and wouldn't know it was there, but I want to be totally transparent for any prospective buyer. All the original wiring and pickups were put back in the guitar, so it is as it was when it was made in 1999.

All in all, this is a really nice, period correct tribute to a 70s Strat, but without the weight. This one comes in at around 8lbs or so. It plays beautifully and has those classic Strat sounds. Check out the N Stuff Music video - the guitar being reviewed is identical to this one and it sounds just like the one in the video.