DiMarzio are known mainly for their pickups, but back in the 1980s they put their name to a full range of spare parts from hardware to bodies and necks.
The neck of this guitar is coated in a see-through red plastic-like finish, known as the "cellophane" finish. The grain of the wood beneath is clearly visible, despite the vivid colour. Some guitars just featured the cellophane red neck on non-cellophane bodies, such as played by guitarist Earl Slick or Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick).
The production of body and neck is often attributed to Charvel during their legendary San Dimas days. As indicated by Steve Blutcher at DiMarzio these cellophane necks were made in Japan by a small company called Harayama (now defunct) and not Charvel.
Charvel did indeed start making bodies for DiMarzio in the late 70's - early 80's to fill a gap in cash flow until Grover Jackson could get his own line of guitars under production but that agreement ended prior to 1984 when the first of these cellophane necks and bodies were made because Charvel was well into the production of its own Charvel brand and had no need or available resources to sub-contract parts manufacturing out to other companies.
Anyhow, this guitar is one of two DiMarzio Stratocaster style guitars built for Leslie West, one with 3 single coil pickups and this one with DiMarzio MegaDrive pickups.
