fender the ventures tribute strat

[dani]

scored a mid 90s (circa 96?) mij fender the ventures tribute strat. gerry mcgee purportedly had a hand designing it. i must say this is a pretty mint piece. fender japan definitely did not skim on the quality of materials and workmanship.

apparently it was a limited edition release and not much information is available with the exception of john blackman's mij fender website and a few japanese sites. the specs are,

Stratocaster(ST-165VR)
BODY: LIGHT WEIGHT ASH
NECK: MAPLE,OVALTYPE,324SCALE
FRETBOARD: ROSEWOOD,184R,WHITE BINDING
NUMBER OF FRETS: 22,VINTAGE
PICKUP: LACE-SENSOR GOLD(USA)
BRIDGE: DIECAST BLOCK S5D VINTAGE
MACHINE HEADS: VINTAGE STYLE
PICKGUARD: WHITE PEARL 3P
CONTROLS: 1VOL,1TONE,1MID BOOST ACTIVE CIRCUIT[006P 9V BATTERY]
SWITCH: 5WAY
COLOR: SBS (see-thru black sunburst - i think.)

my findings;
- 2-pc really light ash body compared to the current crop of ash bodied strats. not to sure if its swamp ash or japanese sen. (wood grain is really obvious so i don't think it is baseball bat ash.)
- read that the hardware is gold plated?!? no rust, oxidation or de-coloration is evident for a 12 or more years old guitar in a 90% to 100% humidity climate all year round.

please do share if you've heard/read or had any experience with this. any info is greatly appreciated.

thanks as always,
dani

btw, here are some pics;

 

[danglybanger]

Re: fender the ventures tribute strat

...now buy the matching JM and Jazz bass

Yeah everyone manages to forget these exist... Do love the JM, though I like the stock guard/switch arrangement better I'm not a huge fan of lace sensors at all, but don't pull them like the guy in the first pic did lol

Nice axe!!!

 

[DazH]

Re: fender the ventures tribute strat

block inlays look dead cool.

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: fender the ventures tribute strat

Those Ventures models look awesome!

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: fender the ventures tribute strat

Really beautiful. And that fretboard just makes it really unique for a Fender!
Congrats!!!

 

[baritone]

Re: fender the ventures tribute strat

That is a coool-loooking Stratocaster.

 

[stateofmind]

Re: fender the ventures tribute strat

You are really lucky!

 

[beandip]

Re: fender the ventures tribute strat

You are really lucky! Congratulations.
I have two of these guitars. I found them in Vietnam. No one knew what they were sitting neglected on the wall, so they were going for $400 but all gone now. That was several years ago.

I see your location is Singapore and that makes sense. The bulk of these guitars didnt make it to the US. I ve seen some for sale in Europe. I read that it was only 100 or so that were imported to US. They are really beautiful guitars and a photo doesnt do it justice, because the finish is a transparent black on a slightly green or grey or aqua background color. Depending on the light. It goes really well with the gold hardware.

Only drawbacks are that the pickguard was perloid. The real nitrocellulose layered kind. This deteriorates in the heat , and a place like SE Asia can really affect it. On both of mine its started to shrink and peel up at the edges. Not sure why they wanted such an authentic pcikguard. The highlights in the shimmering pickguard go nicely with the gold hardware.

Another point you missed is that the body is 2-piece ! You know what you have to pay for that these days? Its a real well made wood body. The ash is super light. They say it is real "swamp ash". That would be nice but its hard to really know if your not an expert. It looks like it is highly figured on mine.

The finish is a thick poly, but not too bad. Another drawback is the internal hardware. It is meant to be the so called "Clapton circuit" which is the same as the Buddy Guyy guitar. That has a mid range boost, with active electronic DBX tone control . The volume pot is not a normal volume controll so it doesnt change tone with increasing violume. I forget what its called. Its hard to learn to adjust the guitars options while playing because its not like a regular stratocatster.

But- the ones that came with this guitar were made in Japan and very inferior . All plastic housings on the input jack and the pots are smaller than real Fender parts. Its just real fragile and cheap compared to real Fender. They are literally smaller and the wiring is thin too.


If you are lucky enough to find one of these, I suggest you make some changes to it . Switch out the pots and jack for a replacement Clapton Curcuit by Fender. There are some problems with the battery holder being inferior also. You might need to replace that if its worn.

You might have to Gerry rig the tone and volume controls a a little also. For example, the volume knobs that come with this guitar have gold lettering and look nice. But the inside splines are smaller than the shaft on the real Fender put so they wont fit. I tried finding replacement knowbs that fit the new tone puts but opted to save the old ones and try and get them to fit. - not the best solution.

You have to find a way to route them larger or find alternative knobs- something you probably dont want to do as it changes the look of the guitar.
You also can put in a real steel block. I used Callaham's. Thats helped out a lot too.

The guitar is really beautiful, and this run of guitars seems to have great care to the craftsmanship of the body and neck. So its worth it to replace all the insides. I just think its one of the most prettiest guitars Ive ever seen. Next to the standard 57 sunburst strat of course. But this one really gets some curious and admiring looks.

Its really light too. People say its a work of art. I wonder what happened? why didnt these ever catch on or get delivered to the states? I just dont take it out anymore because too many people keep checking it out and the gold and blue grey is just amazing in the dark. Good luck finding one ! If you want to sell yours please contact me too.

A little editing to remove the painfully hard to read block of text. Don't have the time to fix the rest.

 

[Bass_Medic_05]

Re: fender the ventures tribute strat

Nice find....your a lucky man !

 

[SrDeMaFp]

Re: fender the ventures tribute strat

That's a ****ing sexy strat!