The Fullerton-era American Vintage Reissue Stratocaster represents the first three years of the most accurate reissue program Fender ever produced. Built from late 1981 through the first weeks of 1985 at Fender's original Fullerton, California facility, these instruments emerged from the same plant that built the originals from which they were copied. Among collectors of late twentieth-century Fender, Fullerton reissues occupy a singular place — they are the only AVRI Stratocasters built in the same factory as the 1957 and 1962 guitars they were designed to recapture. This page documents the Fullerton era in detail: the plant's history, the identification markers that distinguish a Fullerton reissue from a later Corona example, the differences between the '57 and '62 specifications, the V-prefix serial system, and the reasons these guitars remain at the top of the AVRI collector market. For background on the broader reissue program, see our AVRI Stratocaster collector's guide.
The Fullerton Plant and the Origins of the Reissue
Leo Fender opened the Fullerton facility in 1953, and it remained the company's main production site through the original golden era and the entire CBS period. By the late 1970s, however, build quality had slipped. Fender's recapitalized leadership in 1981 directed a shift in approach: rather than chase trends, they would reissue the company's most-coveted models. Production began in earnest in 1982. Because the Fullerton plant had retained period tooling, jigs, and production knowledge, the 1982 reissues were unusually faithful in spec and construction — and also unusually inconsistent in their details, since the company was still working out manufacturing variations during that first year. Production at Fullerton continued through 1984, with the last Fullerton-built reissues shipping in the very first weeks of 1985 before operations transferred to the new Corona facility.
Fullerton-Era 1957 and 1962 Reissues
Fullerton-era '57 reissues featured a single-piece maple neck and fingerboard with a soft V profile, three '57-style single-coil pickups, and an eight-screw single-ply pickguard. Earliest 1982 production used "red bottom" pickups — phenolic baseplates with a distinctive red-pink hue — which Fender phased out by mid-1983 in favor of the gray-bottom variant. Pickup cavities on the very first 1982 examples were fully routed for all three positions, a holdover from prototype manufacturing; later runs were routed only as needed. Standard finish was two-tone Sunburst in nitrocellulose lacquer.
The Fullerton '62 reissue used a maple neck with a slab rosewood fingerboard, modern-C profile, and three '62-style single-coil pickups. Standard finishes included three-tone Sunburst, with the line offered in genuine Fender Custom Colors — Fiesta Red, Lake Placid Blue, Olympic White, Candy Apple Red, Sherwood Green, Sonic Blue, and others — applied in nitrocellulose. Custom-color Fullerton '62 reissues are among the rarest production AVRI Stratocasters and command significant collector premiums.
How to Identify a Fullerton-Era AVRI Stratocaster
Fullerton-era reissues carry a V-prefix serial number stamped into the neckplate, in the format Vxxxxxx. Numbering began near V000001 in late 1981 and ran sequentially through the Fullerton era. As a rule of thumb, V000xxx through approximately V020xxx serials correspond to Fullerton production; the very lowest serials (V000001 through V001000) are extremely rare and were typically reserved for early-production guitars and presentation pieces. For a precise year estimate based on a specific serial, use The Fender Reissue Shop's free AVRI serial number lookup tool, which uses verified neighbor-bracketed estimates tighter than any published serial-to-year chart.
Every Fullerton reissue has a hand-stamped or hand-written neck date on the neck heel, in the format M-D-YY — for example 5-13-82, 11-7-83, or 9-29-84. Combined with the V-prefix serial and the body date penciled into the neck pocket, these three pieces of dating information form the core authentication trio. Pots underneath the pickguard carry the CTS code: a six- or seven-digit number where the first three digits identify the manufacturer (137 for CTS) and the last four indicate year and week of production. A pot stamped 1378245 was made in week 45 of 1982. Pot codes typically predate the neck date by a few months, since pots were stocked in batches.
Beyond serials and dates, several physical signatures point to genuine Fullerton-era manufacture. Tremolo blocks were cold-rolled steel — heavier and slightly larger than the diecast blocks introduced for some later reissue models. Body construction used period-correct alder, and pickup bobbins and pickguards used period-correct materials throughout the era. Original-issue tweed cases with full case candy add documentable provenance. Documentable rare features — neck-pocket serial-number stickers, factory-routed all-three pickup cavities, and red-bottom pickups — are hallmarks of early 1982 Fullerton production and significantly increase a guitar's collector value.
Why Fullerton-Era Reissues Remain Coveted
Fullerton-era AVRI Stratocasters appeal to collectors for three reasons. First, they were the first reissues, and the only ones built in the original factory that produced the 1957 and 1962 guitars they replicate. Second, they were built before Fender's specification drift — every Fullerton reissue has an alder body, a single-piece maple neck (or a maple-with-rosewood-slab on '62 spec), and nitrocellulose finishes; later reissues introduced incremental changes that moved further from period-correct construction. Third, they are now themselves more than forty years old, putting them squarely in collectible-vintage territory: the lacquer has cured, the neck wood has stabilized, and the best examples have aged into instruments that look and sound closer to true vintage Strats than any contemporary reissue can. Compare against the broader Corona-era inventory or browse the full AVRI reference guide for additional context.
Below you'll find The Fender Reissue Shop's curated inventory of Fullerton-era American Vintage Reissue Stratocasters, including custom-color examples and rare-feature early production guitars.
