The specs correspond to a very late production 1968 or a very early production 1969, but in either case with some odd features. An "ugly duckling," in the Stratocaster world, if you will.
For one thing, you do not see many maple board Strats in 1968/early 1969, especially with a hardtail and a wide neck. This would suggest that someone ordered this guitar special, but why? In the 1970's, when the fashion was for bright guitars with lots of sustain, the maple board/hardtail combination was pretty common, but not with a D neck. Wide necks were more an '80's phenomenon and even then, they liked them thin. This neck is like a baseball bat or a club, which is also weird for a guitar made then. Anyway, this guitar seems to have been either a freak or ahead of its time.
If you look closely, you can see that the neck is a maple veneer, which is correct through early-mid 1969. For some reason, Fender Custom Shop guitars which purport to recreate this era get it all wrong.
The neck is shot in nitro; the body in poly. When Fender was transitioning to poly finishes in 1968-1971 or so, you saw a LOT of guitars with all combinations of nitro and poly necks, bodies, and clear coats. The only constant was that the headstock fact was always finished in nitro, as the decals Fender used were incompatible with the poly.
Look closely at the decal.
The neck pickup is a BKP rewound Fender CS '69. The middle pickup is a BKP rewind of a 1975 or so flat pole. My explanation would be that it was a replacement for a blown pickup. The bridge pickup is a Fender TexMex. The tone cap is a NOS green chicklet, which would only be correct for a 1968, but some spilled over into the next year.
The pickguard is a "pearlback", correct for 1969-early 1970 Strats. CBS/Fender bought a ton of pearloid pickguard material; Mustangs got mother-of-toilet-seat pickguards; Strats in those years used the same material, but with the pearloid on the inside. I have no idea why Mustangs got the "fancy" pickguards and Stratocasters did not. I also have no idea why Fender cannot get this right on their Custom Shop guitars, especially for that price tag.
The sound? Bomb-ass. The neck and middle pickups are sweet and stinging with no icepick. Countree Music! The bridge does a freakish Guns and Roses imitation, the kind that make people think Slash has walked into the room. Actually, so do the neck and middle pickups. Especially since I tuned down to E flat.
Oh yeah, note the bridge saddles. Not the cheezy "Fender - Fender" cr@p that Fender tries to pass off as "vintage" nowadays.
