I had one in my contemporary '86 Fender and never got dirty or scratchy.

But what really gives this pup and pot config away is the famous Japan YM-50 'sealed' 5 way switch. Looking under the hood we find the mid 80's Gotoh black and white wire Alnico pickups, and your M serial Pots that are exclusively Japan, Korea is Cort, I don't know what china is I stay away from chinese stuff. To the best of my knowledge, this particular logo design was discontinued circa 1997 in favor of the modern, 'All Caps' version of the logo. This headstock change is the important one, as you'll see LOTS of Fernandes guitars with these shapes offered as 1970's or 'early' 1980's models. Note how the tele 'pointed nose' got even pointier. 'The next major change to the headstocks took place in 1986-1996, when both the headstock shapes (for the strat and tele clones) changed again, and the logos changed slightly. Below you can read what was written pertaining to this headstock and logo design on this beautiful 1957-59 RI Lawsuit Fernandes Stratocaster. Looking through the changes and knowing the electronic scheme the rest wasn't as hard. Type that in and it should take you there. The one I found was easy to google 'date fernandes guitars by headstock shape & logo design'. The only way is to find a site that has the different headstock changes over the years. Finding the exact date on this beautiful in Excellent near mint Fernandes lawsuit copy Stratocaster wasn't easy.

Fernandes guitar serial number l117788