There are a lot of components and complete guitars being offered where the seller states they are original pre cbs Fender made parts and guitars in their original unmodified condition (vintage 1954 -1965) BUT I can tell immediately that these claims are untrue. For example, I regularly see repro strat knobs and string guides being sold as original pre cbs parts ... check the size of lettering and numbers against originals ... they did NOT change from 1957-1975. There are perfect repros for the knobs available now for 60 usd and they are easy to age .. be very very careful ..if you havent seen the guitar they came off ... well .. be worried... might as well buy the repros and dont take the risk. String guides .. 1957-65 one shape .. after 1965 until 1980 another .. the modern fender reissues are identical to 1965 on but NOT the same as pre 1965 .. check it .. beware... When I see a pre 1964 strat for sale with the wrong string guide it suggests to me the neck has been refinished .. (or it is a complete fake made from scratch .. easy to do .. I do it !!) it was very unusual to remove your string guide and then lose it .. but guitar repair shops in the 70s and 80s were notorious for losing little bits ( I know it happened to me and I did it myself in my workshop !) Neck screws .. these were without exception in my 30 yrs looking .. that is many many guitars .. ALWAYS 2 inch philips number 8 screws ... partially threaded until around 1961 then fully threaded but there is a crossover .. but always 2 inches .. after 1967/8 they were 1 3/4 .. modern screws are 1 3/4 ... many original screws were changed out for 1 3/4 because the 2 inch screws would penetrate the fingerboard .. or simply the screw got damaged and chewed up during removal for neck adjustments etc OR REFINISHING AGIN BEWARE .... BUT they came out of the factory between 1956 and 1967 with 2 inch screws .. be careful before you pay 100 usd for screws I can buy for 40 cents ... and age them perfectely !! Every strat and tele I have seen which I know to be all original pre cbs guitars always have 2 inch neck screws without exception .. the screw type varied. Bridge saddles ...... originals varied considerably but at random .. all saddles from 1956 - 1971 were basically the same .. tooling marks varied .... so before you pay for a 1959 set of saddles .. they could have come off a 3 bolt 1971 guitar .. Fender introduced the mazac/alloy saddles in 1971/72!! still valuable though ! Look for tooling markson the pre 1971 saddles ... there are many repros with the words fender pat pend but the lack these obvious tooling marks. best to compare side by side to known original but there are good photo refs available on the internet. I hope this helps ..... there is a great deal of inaccurate information on the internet which is misleading people and giving them a false sense of security .. in other words there are some "reputable" info sites that show photos of repro parts mistakenly stating they are original .. today alone I have found 2 sets of strat knobs that are claiming to be 1962 originals and are simply 4 dollar modern repros. There are necks that claim to be original that are clearly early 1980s reissue necks with the wrong truss rod and wrong shapes etc (wrong is a bad word to use but you know what I mean) where someone has just stripped the lacquer and written in pencil the date ... but they wrote the date wrong ... pencilled dates are easy to forge .. may 1962 on needs a rubber stamp with correct font .. 1959 had no date ... easy to fake .. no ?? Be careful of 1959 strats ... easiest to fake .. decal had no patent numbers, no neck date, possiby with single ply 8 screw pickguard ... genuine celluloid 'guards are expensive and very difficult to fake. Easiest guaranteed way to check if a neck is NOT original pre cbs .. check the thread on the truss rod adjuster nut (and therefore the rod) this thread (and rod size) was changed in 1966 .. it was made slightly bigger - if the truss rod nut from a vintage reissue fits on the rod perfectly .. it is NOT an original pre cbs neck unless the truss rod has been replaced at some time in its life .. quite common actually .. in that case you have to look for the tell tale signs of repair .. damage to fingerboard near the first fret, totally new fingerboard .. usually if you see a neck where ALL the clay dots have been changed .. it is a new fingerboard .. and therefore not worth anywhere near as much as an original untouched neck. REFINS on body .. fairly obvious in photos because the front and back of body usually gets sanded too much and you can see the edge roundover contour is no longer round enough. A pro faker would simply make a brand new body - very simple - and paint it from scratch as per the original method and materials .. takes a long time for the odour of the nitro cellulose to fade away .. could be 4-5 years in the cavities unless the job is done very well and car taken to eliminate this. One tell tale sign of a REFINISH .. if the hardware (knobs, tuners, bridge saddles, neck plate and screws) look like they have had lots of use and show significant deterioration and oxidisation .. then the paint will show MUCH more .. the paint was the WEAK link .. it cracked split and fell off within a few years .. we were refinishing custom colour fenders in the late 1960's because the original paint was very poorly applied ( and was not a durable type of paint) .. the sunbursts lasted much better. So if the paint looks good but the metal and plastic parts look used .. it is probably a refin or te parts have come from another set of guitars .. do not forget the neck plate with serial numbers were identical irresepctive of model .. how do you knw if a neck plate came off a strat a tele mustang jazzmaster duo sonic .. simple you DO not unless you bought it in the shop in 1962 !! Same goes for pots, many screws, string guides, tuner bushings, jack sockets, strap buttons. I will enhance this guide when I have more time.