Up for sale is a Fender American Exotic Acoustasonic Stratocaster guitar neck. Neck was declared a factory blem with USED stamped on the back of the headstock and part of the serial number removed. This indicated a defect of some kind. Cosmetically, light wear with some scratches. Functionally, it has a bulge at frets 1-3 in the inlaid wood fretboard; this bulge, I do not know the cause. It has caused the first fret to stick out, it is very sharp and cannot be played as-is. The truss rod turns fine; when loosed it has a moderate forward bow. When tightened near the maximum, it gets straight. It may function fine in that regard as-is, HOWEVER, I have not strung it up. Insofar as the bulge, it does not seem to be on account of the truss rod as the rod does not change it. It seems to be a factory defect in the style of manufacture.