Were alder strats made in 1974?

basic question I need an answer to -
as a tele player I know nothing in this realm...

Is it possible Fender didn't make strats in alder at that time period?

?

Anything's possible, but this would be the first time I've heard of it.

If you don't mind me asking, why do you ask? :wink:

Yes they did. I had a 74 SB in alder it was a great guitar. I sold it some years back to Daves Guitar shop. He told me it was alder and he knows strats.

I had an alder '75, so I would think an alder '74 would be possible. I've seen some weird stuff on 60's and 70's Fenders over the years.

Vibrasonic mentioned Dave's Guitar Shop... Dave has a 60's strat in his personal collection with a factory original Korina body.

I used to play with a guy 20 years ago down in Lubbock who had a '68 Tele with a factory Mahogany body.

Odd things certainly came out of that factory in those years, so an Alder '74 would not really surprise me.

Lots of stuff happened in those days that would not be allowed to happen under modern quality control standards, and not just to Fenders. My first Les Paul was a '75 Deluxe I bought in 1991 from the original owner. It had factory gold hardware, except for the pickups, that were chrome covered. Looked a little weird, but the owner of the local music store swore up and down that it came out of the box like that, and was indeed originally sold that way.

One thing I learned when I was brokering and dealing vintage guitars is that some of the hard and fast rules, are not all that hard and fast. That's why I always roll my eyes a little when somebody is super quick to declare something "fake", because it was "only ever done" one way.

Is it possible Fender didn't make strats in alder at that time period?

Anything's possible, but this would be the first time I've heard of it.

When I re-read my reply today, I realized it was unclear. Sorry about that. I was replying to the second question, as quoted above.

I have no reason to believe that Fender did not make alder bodied Strats in 74. I thought alder has always been the standard wood for Strat bodies?

I don't know for fact, but it seems to me that ash and mahogany bodies were introduced in the 1970s, but they never replaced alder, they were in addition to it.

Just from memory, the first time I remember seeing laminate and basswood bodies was the 80's, and the first time I saw a poplar body on a Fender was the 90's.

This is by no means a definitive timeline, just how I vaguely remember it. That doesn't mean much though.

(I'm not running for president, but HELLYES! I inhaled! :razz: :oops: :lol:)

Alder has been used for Strat bodies since 1956.