Ok, so as far as I can see, I've had four, possibly five of these through the years. They're outside of my collection focus, so I've passed them on, but I do find them hard to resist when they (fairly frequently) turn up for sale. There are two reasons for this: they're a) usually very cheap (like JPY 20-25k still) and b) they're just excellent strats.
In my opinion, they're up there with the best as players, and since they pack Gotoh grey bobbins, they're firmly in Revival/Springy/Goldstar/Silver Star territory tonally. Just great guitars, and extremely hard to beat in terms of value for money, imo.
So what are they?
Answer: unofficial, out-of-catalog entry-level instruments, apparently from 1982 to 1984 or thereabouts. The Limited Edition moniker turns up again during the 2nd half of the 80's but on superstrats, superteles and decidedly 80's-style basses. But these are basically vintage copies (though not of a single vintage - pls read on). They do turn up in a few guitar magazine store ads, labeled ST-38, -40 and -45, but that's the extent of the documentation available on them.
The specs vary slightly, possibly over time. Some look almost identical to RST-50s, but the most common config is as follows:
There are some variations. One of mine had a laminate 11-screw pickguard and pickups with white and black leads, possibly the same as in the RST-50 '76 model, not sure. Some have the stone logo neck plate of the time, and both Revival bridge saddles and Klusons have been spotted, which would bring the guitars up to very close to RST-50 standard.
The background of these is murky, but it seems possible that dealers considered the 50k JPY price tag for an RST-50 a bit high for an entry-level model in the early 80's, and that the Limited Editions (there are at least PB's around as well) were improvised to meet that demand. Fernandes were heavily committed to the vintage year-perfect Revival vintage copies at the time, which may explain why these never made it into the catalogs.
Anyway, nice guitars, well worth keeping an eye out for. Personally, I slightly prefer them to RTS-50s, due to the slightly larger neck profile, they really are that good.
A variation with laminated pickguard, apparently original. The pickups have black and white leads, not black and blue.
CAR and 3TS are by far the most common finishes on these.
An unusal black one with maple neck.
Typical Matsu body cavities. The pickup rout shape in very similar to the one used by Fujigen, but the control cavity is different. In Fujigen builds, it's the same depth as the pickup routs, with an indentation to accomodate the switch, while Matsu routed the whole control cavity deeper.
The infamous "Kawai hole", hiding like a dirty secret under the neckplate. Same as on four-screw Revivals, a clear indication that Kawai did the painting and therefore almost certainly the assembly as well.
Typical electronics, very similar to Tokai Silver Stars.
The one I have currently have (top pic) came with warranty slip in the pocket of the maroon vinyl soft case. The google app struggles with the handwriting as usual, but you can make out that the date is Jan 13 1985 (written as Showa 60 according to the imperial calendar) and that the model is given as "ST-45 CAR" with a JPY 45k list price, but sold for 29.2k for a total of 32.7k incl case. It does seem cheap, but we can see from other store ads that guitars were frequently sold for significantly less than the list/model no price. Maybe this one had been hanging on the store wall for a while. It seems likely from the date of issue that the guitar is a 1984 build.
In my opinion, they're up there with the best as players, and since they pack Gotoh grey bobbins, they're firmly in Revival/Springy/Goldstar/Silver Star territory tonally. Just great guitars, and extremely hard to beat in terms of value for money, imo.
So what are they?
Answer: unofficial, out-of-catalog entry-level instruments, apparently from 1982 to 1984 or thereabouts. The Limited Edition moniker turns up again during the 2nd half of the 80's but on superstrats, superteles and decidedly 80's-style basses. But these are basically vintage copies (though not of a single vintage - pls read on). They do turn up in a few guitar magazine store ads, labeled ST-38, -40 and -45, but that's the extent of the documentation available on them.
The specs vary slightly, possibly over time. Some look almost identical to RST-50s, but the most common config is as follows:
- Basswood body, sourced from Matsumoku judging by the routs. However, the typical fifth hole through the neck pocket (probably used to suspend the body in the paint shop) says that the guitars were finished and assembled by Fernandes' usual Fender copy manufacturer, Kawai.
- Pre-CBS-style neck, often with a slightly wider and deeper profile than the RST norm, in my experience. Possibly another Matsu part, though there are no definite tells. Rosewood veneer fretboard seems to be most common, but there are one-piece maple necks around as well.
- 1970's-type trap tuners with a Fernandes F logo, the same as on 1976-style RST's.
- Blank neck plate.
- 1950's style single-ply pickguard with 8 screws.
- Gotoh grey-bobbin pickups with non-staggered pole pieces and black and blue leads, no markings. Resistance 6.0 - 6.2k. I really can't tell them apart from Silver Star pickups, visually or tonally.
- The rest of the electronics (incl 5-way switch) seem identical to RST-50s. I haven't seen date-coded pots so far.
- The bridge has a separate alloy block and appears to be the same as the one used in RSTs, with one difference, the saddles are blank, not marked "Revival ESRG".
There are some variations. One of mine had a laminate 11-screw pickguard and pickups with white and black leads, possibly the same as in the RST-50 '76 model, not sure. Some have the stone logo neck plate of the time, and both Revival bridge saddles and Klusons have been spotted, which would bring the guitars up to very close to RST-50 standard.
The background of these is murky, but it seems possible that dealers considered the 50k JPY price tag for an RST-50 a bit high for an entry-level model in the early 80's, and that the Limited Editions (there are at least PB's around as well) were improvised to meet that demand. Fernandes were heavily committed to the vintage year-perfect Revival vintage copies at the time, which may explain why these never made it into the catalogs.
Anyway, nice guitars, well worth keeping an eye out for. Personally, I slightly prefer them to RTS-50s, due to the slightly larger neck profile, they really are that good.
A variation with laminated pickguard, apparently original. The pickups have black and white leads, not black and blue.
CAR and 3TS are by far the most common finishes on these.
An unusal black one with maple neck.
Typical Matsu body cavities. The pickup rout shape in very similar to the one used by Fujigen, but the control cavity is different. In Fujigen builds, it's the same depth as the pickup routs, with an indentation to accomodate the switch, while Matsu routed the whole control cavity deeper.
The infamous "Kawai hole", hiding like a dirty secret under the neckplate. Same as on four-screw Revivals, a clear indication that Kawai did the painting and therefore almost certainly the assembly as well.
Typical electronics, very similar to Tokai Silver Stars.
The one I have currently have (top pic) came with warranty slip in the pocket of the maroon vinyl soft case. The google app struggles with the handwriting as usual, but you can make out that the date is Jan 13 1985 (written as Showa 60 according to the imperial calendar) and that the model is given as "ST-45 CAR" with a JPY 45k list price, but sold for 29.2k for a total of 32.7k incl case. It does seem cheap, but we can see from other store ads that guitars were frequently sold for significantly less than the list/model no price. Maybe this one had been hanging on the store wall for a while. It seems likely from the date of issue that the guitar is a 1984 build.
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