Neck Through Stratocaster 1977 - 1980 by Fresher Japan (MIJ Strat rivals Fender, Greco, Tokai)

The Fresher Straighter neck through is a one of a kind made in Japan Stratocaster. The coolest fucking Stratocaster built in the late 70's, early 80's. This is built by a relatively unknown brand Fresher based out of Nagoya, Japan but it has all the pedigrees of a quality manufacturer. Nagoya is a hub for Japanese Manufacturing and Suzuki, Ibanez, and Aria were all founded in Nagoya.

Fresher production was initially done by Matsumoto Musical Instrument Manufacturers’ Association and then moved on to Chusin Gakki. Chusin Gakki is a well regarded manufacturer that was responsible for making guitars for Jackson/Charvel from 1986. There is no way to tell for sure, but since Chusin Gakki was known to be making other neck through guitars in this era (see El Degas 980, El Maya brand), I think we can say with good certainty this guitar is also built by Chusin Gakki.

Chusin Gakki closed up shop in 2011, but their lineage continues as luthiers from Chusin Gakki went on to work with boutique brand Caparison, known for making guitars for metal players. The Caparison TAT Special model are neck through super strats that share the same center double stripes as this guitar. Is it a coincidence ? Maybe, but I'll let the reader make the decision on that.

This guitar plays and sounds like your classic Fender Stratocaster, with the neck through construction giving you superior access to the higher frets. It has seen very little play over its long lifespan and is ready for a new owner that will give it some love. All original except the tremolo arm (saddle set screws have been replaced but will ship together with the original ones). I'll put up a demo video soon so please check back soon!

Frets

Frets are in good condition, 70-90% left. Measured around 0.81 - 0.91 mm. Could benefit from a crowning but completely playable as is.

Neck

Absolutely stunning neck through. The neck is 3 piece quarter sawn maple with thinner rosewood in the middle of the maple pieces (the rosewood is the brown stripes on the guitar).

Finished maple fretboard. There is some dings on the fretboard finish on the 16th and 17th fret (see last picture). You can just barely feel it but it doesn't affect playability.

Body

Japanese Sen body. There are various small dings on the clear finish, but overall in very good condition for a 40 year old guitar. The dings can be seen close up but are hard to see from an arm length away.

Hardware

I replaced the saddle set screws on this unit as they were rusty and very long. The original set screws will be included.

Equipped with Gotoh branded through hole tuners. They spin smoothly and work very well. They should be original to the guitars since I've seen other Fresher Straighter models equipped with them. You can see screw holes filled in next to the tuners but they are covered over with the same finish as the rest of the guitar, so it perhaps was a neck intended to be shipped with some other tuners.

The vintage style six point tremolo unit works great. I have it set up to float and the guitar keeps its tuning well.

No original tremolo arm. I will include a non original tremolo arm with the guitar but it will fit any 6mm threaded strat tremolo arm.

Pickups and Electronics

Electronics is same as Fender's late 70's stratocasters, 5 way blade switch with master volume and tone knob for neck and middle pickup (no tone control on bridge). The 2nd and 4th position is not hum cancelling. 500k pots. Inside is absolutely clean.

Pickups sound great, resistances measures at 5.7k on neck , 5.7k on middle, 5.8k on bridge. Will put up a video for sound demos so please check back soon!