❌SOLD❌ Fender Stratocaster Left Handed Made In Japan Blonde, 1987

It’s unusual to see a Fender Stratocaster Left Handed, from the start of the ‘New’ Fender era when much of Fender’s production was Made in Japan.

When CBS sold Fender to its management team in early 1985, the deal did not include the Fullerton plant or equipment. Fender was also facing significant competition from Japanese, Korean and other Asian manufacturers who had improved their quality and kept their prices well below what Fender could do with US production.

To serve the rapidly growing Asian market, in 1982 Fender Japan was created as a partnership between Fender USA, Yamano Music Instrument (Fender USA’s distributor) and Kanda Shoki, the distributor of Greco guitars. Actual production was performed by FujiGen Gakki in Nagano – who had been producing Greco guitars, copies of Fender and Gibson products, distributed by Kanda Shoki. As part of the arrangement, FujiGen and Kanda Shoki had to stop making Fender copies.

Moving ahead to 1985, Fender’s new management found itself with orders but no factory. While searching for the new plant – eventually located in Corona, California – Fender USA chose to have Fender Japan do the vast majority of Fender’s production. At its height, 80% of the production was from Japan. The instruments from this period are very good, with some models using Made in USA hardware.

Here, we have a Fender Stratocaster Left Handed built during 1987 at the FujiGen Gakki plant in Nagano, in Blonde finish with Rosewood fingerboard. The original pickups have been replaced with Seymour Duncan models, and the original pick guard with a faux-tortoise unit. This really works well with the Rosewood fingerboard.

This guitar is in good clean condition, with little wear to the finish or frets and plays well.

A molded hard shell case is included.

This example has a ‘Made in Japan’ decal on the heel. This helps to date the guitar. The Fender Japan contract specified that at the point where other factories like Tokai or Dyna Gakki supplemented FujiGen’s work, that text would change to ‘Crafted in Japan’.