It has a MIM Road Worn body and a MIM Robert Cray signature neck which is 60’s style but with a 9.5 inch radius and jumbo frets. The tuners, trem/bridge, jack socket, strap buttons are all reliced and I think are Fender Custom Shop. The wiring is from a MIA 62 reissue but I modded it like Rory’s so the tone now works on the bridge pickup too. The pick ups are Fender 57/62.
For a long time this was my main guitar but I have since acquired some MIA bodies and one of these has a MIM player neck on it which at the time I bought it has a 12" radius. That’s the same as a Les Paul which I also play so I tend to favour that now. However, I’m not too sure I can tell the differences between neck radii when playing.
I’ve put Bare Knuckle “Irish Tour” pickups in my Strat back in 2008, chasing Rory’s scorching tones and style | Most underrated guitarist ever!
@gijosh28 Rory’s Strat sold for around a million and that is still in Ireland. No I haven’t sold mine. I removed the Robert Cray signature from the headstock but it still has the MIM serial number on the reverse.
I did plan to be a Rory tribute which is why I mimicked his guitar but alas not his playing…
I picked up a MIM stratocaster, sunburst with a mint pickguard. The knobs and pickup covers are beige and really ugly and dirty looking, but the body of the guitar and neck and head all look like brand new. I think this was wall art. Never played. So I assumed the deteriorated plastics were sun damaged or something like from hanging on a wall near a window. I did notice that this guitar sounded AMAZING. Seriously, super clean sounding. I ordered a black pickuard and knobs and pickup covers to make this guitar look new again, and when I took the pickguard off I noticed Rory Gallaghers signature silked on to the back. I think the pickguard is a Fender Custom Shop Pickguard and the pickups do not look like stock MIM pickups. Anyway this guitar just sounds a lot like what you described above.
@gijosh28 if that pick guard, pickups and electrics are all from a custom shop Rory Gallagher Strat then they would be quite valuable. Why someone would put them on a MIM Strat is questionable.
Also possibly fake.
My Strat has a 60’s style neck with the truss rod adjuster in the heal not the headstock
I don’t think it came from a Fender Custom Shop guitar. But maybe someone ordered a loaded pickguard or they were running some kind of promotion. I thought maybe it was like a “Rory Gallagher” edition MIM Strat, but I didn’t find anything in my search that they had one of those in 2008. I didn’t think this was anything super special, but maybe just a special edition Mexican Strat. I honestly have on idea what it is, and I can’t seem to find anything on it. But it looks nice, and it plays beautifully. When I saw yours and read your story I thought maybe I had bought your old MIM strat :).
@gijosh28 your Strat has vintage wiring and electrics which is not standard in a MIM Strat. Normally the wire would have plastic sheathing but yours is material. It is however not 60’s spec pickguard because some of the holes would be in a different position. Also there would be a cutout where the truss rod adjuster is.
Just to clarify, my RoryStrat is not a standard MIM model. It has some parts that were MIM but is a Frankenstein. The body is a Road Worn reliced and the neck is from Robert Cray signature that is also MIM. The neck is 9 1/2 radius and jumbo frets.
I have another MIM Classic Player neck that is 12” radius the same as a Gibson. The Mexican and Californian factories are only about 100 miles apart but parts have a vastly different price. I wonder whether there is such a difference in quality?
Enjoy 
| Most underrated guitarist ever!
I found the pickups in my MiM strat a bit dull and soft, these have a bit more bite. It’s not that it is a world of difference though. 
