1988 Robert Cray Stratocaster?

[kyleivanblake]

I bought a Partscaster today off a fellow. He claimed the body is “from a early 90s Robert Cray USA made Stratocaster.

So I got it home, and this is what I see inside the neck:



It looks to me like it’s stamped “88”. Anyone know what all the markings are?

[kyleivanblake]

Re: 1988 Robert Cray Stratocaster?

[beaubrummels]

Re: 1988 Robert Cray Stratocaster?

I can’t read anything that looks like a date to me, but I see a bunch of holes that shouldn’t be there. Could be a legit Fender body, can’t really see enough to tell.

[kyleivanblake]

Re: 1988 Robert Cray Stratocaster?

I can’t read anything that looks like a date to me, but I see a bunch of holes that shouldn’t be there. Could be a legit Fender body, can’t really see enough to tell.

It’s definitely a legit fender body. I suspect it might be a MIM Cray and not a USA though.

[ehdwuld]

Re: 1988 Robert Cray Stratocaster?

I'm gonna show you a picture of a big toe
Its definitely Tom Cruise's toe
How old is he in the picture

[Ayrton]

Re: 1988 Robert Cray Stratocaster?

MIM body. The neck pocket and barcode tell you that. Fender started using the locating hole in the neck pocket around 2003 I believe.

[mojosman]

Re: 1988 Robert Cray Stratocaster?

I have a first year very early production model Robert Cray Strat. It is one of my most prized guitars, one night back in the late 90's the great Ronnie Earl played it at one of his gigs and signed the back for me. It was very cool. The guitar has never sounded that good ever since, and I could never part with it.

These first early ones in the late 80's were made in the original custom shop, which was in the old factory before they moved. They had very shoddy records then, and couldn't tell me much about when mine was made. By looking at those pictures I tend to agree with the body maybe being a MIM Cray body. When I had mine apart I don't recall any bar coded inventory stickers like yours has, and the neck pocket markings were different. I'm by no means an expert though, but I think if you sent Fender Customer service some pictures they could shed some sort of light on this question.

[playas]

Re: 1988 Robert Cray Stratocaster?

Before I even saw the responses above I was going to suggest that it´s probably a MIM due to the 21st August neck pocket stamp in Spanish ('21 Ago').

I have very little idea of Fender markings but with both the M stamp also in the neck pocket and the serial number starting with 'M'...

[kyleivanblake]

Re: 1988 Robert Cray Stratocaster?

Ima go ahead and call it a MIM Robert Cray body. I was pretty convinced it was based on how new the finish appeared to me, but he insisted it was USA and from the early 90s, he was wrong. He is still claiming to me it is USA.