u/leonardogussoni

I finally made one of my biggest guitar dreams come true: I bought a 2002 Fender Tom DeLonge Stratocaster in Surf Green, in excellent condition!

I live in Italy and paid €900 including shipping from Germany (which is roughly $1000 USD).

Before buying it, I was a little concerned because the serial number didn’t appear in Fender’s online Serial Number Lookup (which, as you know, is actually quite common with early-2000s Mexican-made Fenders). We contacted Fender directly, and they were incredibly helpful and replied very quickly. They checked their internal records and confirmed that the serial number corresponds to a 2002 Tom DeLonge Strat RW SFG. That gave me the confidence to go ahead with the purchase.

As soon as it arrived, I took it to my guitar tech for a complete setup and some much-needed care:

- Frets polished
- Rosewood fretboard cleaned and conditioned with lemon oil
- Bridge and saddles thoroughly cleaned
- Ernie Ball Paradigm 10–46 strings installed
- Bridge, action, neck relief and truss rod fully adjusted
- Pickguard removed and the original volume pot cleaned
- Full final polish using D’Addario guitar polish

Of course, I didn’t replace any of the original components. My only goal was to bring the guitar back to life, restore it to its former glory and preserve its originality.

I’ve wanted one of these for such a long time, and it feels amazing to finally own one!

I have a question out of curiosity. Why was the Seymour Duncan Invader pickup on this ES-335 later replaced with the Gibson Dirty Fingers? Was it simply to align its sound with his other newer Gibsons, or was it because the Invader didn't sound good in a semi hollow body guitar? I've always wondered whether it was a purely tonal decision, or a more "political" one after he officially switched from Fender to Gibson and was therefore expected, or even pressured, to make the change. Thank you!