Every website says something like: 'The S500 switched to a more Strat-like body after 1988.' There's even a pic on the Greg Gagliano site of a 'rare' exception S500 made more recently than 1988 still in the old style.
What I can't find online are any pictures of a Strat-bodied S500 , labeled as being between 1988 and 1990 . You go straight from the Skyhawk-esque '87s to the '91 Signature S500 (with Fender style body.) My question is:
Would an '88 - '90 S500 have used the SC3 or Skyhawk Signature style body, immediately after the earlier metal plate body guitars were made? Or did the S500 leap straight into the more Strat-like body, while the Skyhawk made at the same time used the smaller but still Strat styled SC3 body with pickguard and no plate?
Were any S500s even made between '88 - '90 , aside from one-off earlier style guitars? Were they all Signatures during that period?
Thanks Craig- So if those three generations are the only ones that exist, the S500 never shared bodies with the later 'Strat Style' SC3/Skyhawk? Break-down is: Early era ('82 - '90 ) with typical early G&L shape & control plate, middle era ('91 - '96 ) where the Legacy style body was used, and late ('96 - Present) with the four bolt etc.
Bought an '88 S-500 off the wall in Dale Hyatt's office. He said if you took the body to fender and the measured it out, they wouldn't be able to tell it wasn't a Strat.
