Today I got up the courage to take apart my 1993 Japanese Fender 1962-style Strat in preparation for a strip-down, a refinish in Daphne Blue, and the fitting of a Clapton boost circuit. The alloy bridge block is marked 'Fujigen', so I'm assuming that's also the factory it was made in.
Whilst not a FotoFlame model, it's got a FotoFlame front and back - which means the body is basswood rather than alder. I picked it up used in 2001 or 2002, when it already had most of its battle scars. But it was the nicest playing of all the Strats I tried in the shop and already had the Graphtec saddles fitted. But some of the cracks have lengthened over time - and cracking finishes has always been an issue with the FotoFlame guitars.
I fitted a 'Traditional' Kinman pickup set (AVn62/AVn56/AVn56) to it a couple of years after that - which vastly improved the sound. Well the old pickups were the cheap and nasty ceramic pickup glued on the back types, so almost anything would have sounded better.
Here I've tried to show the gouge+ extended crack damage more clearly, but it's not that easy to photograph.
And here it is with all but the machine heads removed (which I did afterwards). As you can see, it has a nice traditional pickup rout. You may also notice the lack of finish on most of the neck. This is because I've been reprofiling it to feel more like my Dave Gilmour Strat with a soft V neck. I still need to do a little work on the neck to remove a couple of ridge lines, but it's pretty much there.
Next step is to strip the body, The top and back should be relatively easy to do with a belt sander follower by random orbital, sander. But the sides and inner curves could require a lot more effort.