How to Tell if a Fender Stratocaster is Real or Fake - Don't Get Scammed!

How to Tell if a Fender Stratocaster Is Real or Fake - Don't Get Scammed!

In this guitar video we show you how to tell if a Fender Stratocaster is real or fake so that you can protect yourself from getting scammed!

The Fender Stratocaster is arguably the most popular electric guitar in the world and its design and style have been copied by other guitar manufacturers for decades. Most of these Stratocaster copies, will be properly named with another brand name other than Fender.

However, some unethical companies have made fake illegal copies of the Fender Stratocaster, with the Fender logo on it in an attempt to deliberately deceive people with a counterfeit Fender Stratocaster guitar.

These fake Fender Stratocaster guitars are sold as the real legitimate guitars to scam people out of their money.

It's not always easy to tell if a Fender Stratocaster is real or fake, so in this video we will compare a real Eric Clapton Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster with a fake Chinese Fender Stratocaster and show you the details to look out for.

If you are wanting to learn how to tell if a Fender Stratocaster is real or fake, make sure you watch this video!

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[beefnacos]

I don't mean to be over exaggerated but you are a true guitar hero. What an awesome guy. You were looking for a custom shop Eric Clapton strat then you found this one and you realized it wasn't what you were looking for so you passed on it. Then you turn around and you thought about it and you didn't want some other person to get scammed so you turn around and you buy it. Your a guitar hero dude

[robertknight]

Well done. You are the first person that actually pointed out the spacing of the 12th fret dot inlays. I look at the dot inlays and if they are too far apart on a “fender” I’m automatically suspicious. Most of the time I’m right in thinking it’s a fake. Great job. Really.

[RileyReneau]

Just found and shut down a scammer in my area with your video as proof! Thank you for this, it made it very easy!

How can you scam people out of Thousands of dollars? The worst of the worst type of people.

[jorgedelgado]

Always check the last fret (the last woods space only) of the closest pick. The original has the circle form, on the other hand, the fake has the rectangle shape as the generic form.

[cayote]

I just bought a used Fender Highway One HSS 60th Anniv. model. I have the double wafer pick guard with the black in between the two layers. It has the offset Screws on the back of the body. It has the walnut lined truss rod adjustment hole. The face of the head is clean and the only lettering is the Fender Stratocaster/ Original Contour Body Patented. It does have the raised round silver 60th Anniversary sticker on the back of the head and the narrower 12th fret dot spacing. Can't see anything else that prominent.

[ericb]

I kept waiting for you to mention it but in addition to the areas you mentioned, one of the first things I saw on the fake was shape of the neck heel. Looks like it’s cut squared like a Tele and not a rounded heel like a Strat neck.

[deandee]

also hate to tell you but even the fender is not an accurate replica, it should have a heel adjust and dime tree.. solid walnut plug, its a 57'... not even close, should have patent comma patent..

[markbrown]

I bought a fender Stratocaster in Pomona California in 1976. It had to string trees on it. I paid $350 for it brand new and I paid another $35 for a nice hard shell case. That shows you how much things have gone up over the years. Thank you so much for your videos. Super cool stuff.👍🏼😁😁😎🎸

[zGrego]

Just wanted to thank you for answering most of the comments like you did. It’s really kind ! Great video btw.

[DeeTee]

The square neck, where it meets the pickguard, on the fake one is a dead giveaway, in he beginning his hand was covering the 12th fret so I couldnt see the distance of the dots, along with the two string trees…

Great video, thanks for sharing.

[patrickshannon]

I make fake guitars here in China thank you for this observation. I now will make it harder to tell the fake from the real one.

[kurtc]

Son got one off Reverb for Christmas. Subscribed because of your kind act of taking the fake off the market and found the video informative. Keep up the great work!

[michaelp]

there is a lot of information on the back of the neck when you unbolt it from the guitar - worth checking that out too.

[Musicsports]

The neck radius is vintage 7.25 soft v on the Clapton model. The fake looks like a flat wider fret board like a 10-12 Compound radius neck. The reason the real Fender has the 8 screw single ply pickguard is that it is a 1957 Strat replica. The Custom Shop tries to make their guitars as close to the original model guitar being duplicated as possible. They do add modern features when requested or if the Artist prefers a specific modification. The Clapton Artist Strat has the Active boost pot in it, with 9 volt battery.

[HoobitRabbit]

One more difference I noted: Look at the bottom edge of the neck. On the genuine "Blackie" the bottom edge is curved, while on the fake it's squared with just a slight rounding on the edges where the bottom edge meets the sides

[sarguitars]

The dot spacing at the 12th fret might be more of an optical illusion than anything. As you did the close up on the bridges I could quickly see that the E to E spacing was wider on the real CS guitar ( 2-3/16 as it would have been in blackies era, verses the 2-1/16 of the more modern fender bridges and almost all clones) this showed up well in the video when looking at the strings vs pole pieces on the bridge pickups. Also the Clapton guitars should have a 3 way switch as he doesn't like the 5 ways.

[kevinscott]

Great video. But... How did they sound?? How different??

[hanamccarthy]

The strap buttons are stuck on at different angles too. The real one follows the curve whereas fake ones are just stuck on pointing straight up and "break the line". Something I noticed as I am a dancer 😂

[solarismoon]

You can also see that the pickup poles are not the same as they do not have the bevel nor are they staggered in height. The end of the fretboard is flat like a Telecaster whereas the Fender is always round. The size of the fretboard markers are also bigger on Fender guitars. The pickguard on the fake Strat has a THREE PLY pickguard - not two. And Fender ALWAYS has a gloss finish on the Eric Clapton model. Also worth mentioning is that the font and size on the back of the fake is too big and Fender NEVER put a serial number for the Eric Clapton model there - it is always on the neck plate. Fender also uses a three spoke design for the volume and tone knobs inside so that you know if they're legitimate or not. The aftermarket ones are always four spoke design no matter WHO makes them! Plus the Eric Clapton guitars always have a 9.5" inch radius and the Chinese copy has a 12" inch radius. That''s plain to see even in the video. I already know my guitars and I've owned I don't know how many Fender guitars and Fender style guitars so I'm not fooled and I know what to look for. Thank you for sharing this with us any way. It helps for those who don't know better. But all the pirates on evilbay selling cheap copies with fake Fender logos does not!

[enricogervasoni]

Does the fake one have the Mid Boost and the TBX preamp circuit in or it's just a plain normal strat style guitar? (Given that the real EC model is popular for these two features)