American strat vs Mexican strat

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Did you know...

Straight question / Straight answer.... is the American Strat better? YES.

But... did you know, that the Fender factory in the US is only 30 miles
from the factory located in mexico?

The materials made in both guitars are pretty much the same now.

All the materials for both factories comes from the same place
and they share them.

The only reason there is a mexican strat in the first place is price point.

In other words... if you can pay a mexican worker $6.00 an hour to build the same guitar as an American who works for $30.00 an hour, you would rather
only pay $6.00 an hour and make a bigger profit right?

The problem Fender had when considering this move was that Fender guitars are considered an "American staple".

If ALL Fenders were made in Mexico, they would go out of business because their reputation would crumble immediately.

So... what they decided to do was raise the price of the American Strat a bit and then offer a Mexican strat at cheaper price point.

They only had to downgrade the electronics a bit in the Mexican strat and hire a few less quality control people there to justify the difference in
the price.

The craftmanship of the Mexican Strat MAY be slightly less quality than the American Strat, but the only real major difference (ever since the two factories have moved closer together and share materials) is the
electronics.

To begin with, change out the electronics and you will have a decent Strat.

In all honesty... the American factory will always recieve the best quality
materials. The necks and bodies are seperated in the warehouse by "first quality" and "second quality". 1st goes to the American Strats and the 2nds go to the Mexican factory.

Also... the quality control guys and the finish work in the American
factory will do a better job most of the time.

But, if this suggestion makes you nervous, spend the extra money for the American Strat. you can't go wrong. It only cost a little more to go
first class in this world.

If you opt for the Mexican, do the following "upgrades" as desired (and as you can afford them) in the following order:

1. Change all of the electronic componants (not just the pickups)
2. Chance the tuners
3. Change the bridge (only if you don't like the one that came with it)
4. Get a really good fret job
5. Buy a better case for your new and improved strat

At the end of the day, you may spend slightly more by upgrading the
Mexican Strat than if you were to just buy the American Strat in the
first place. But it's sort of like a payment plan. You can pay for the
improvements as you are able to afford them.

Bottom line... if you have the money for the American and you want a
good guitar for a lifetime, buy the American Strat.
 
Fast_Eddie said:
I have a Mexican Strat and to tell you the truth, it sounds EXACTLY like the American Strats I've played! Maybe I got a little lucky, because it also sounds better than any other Mexican strat I've played too...

The only thing I wish it had way a Floyd Rose trem. The standard sucks ass!
Click to expand...

A Floyd doesn't belong on a strat.
 
mastahnke said:
Well, I would say get the Mexican if you must have a Fender. All fenders (with the exceptions of the JAPS) are made in Mexico anyway. For a guitar to be considered "American" it just has to be 60% ASSEMBLED in the USA. They are made in teh same factory. It takes a while, but you can usually find a Mexican Strat that is really nice, they are made on most of the same machines as the Americans anyway. The real differences are the hardware and the neck treatment.
But my real question is do you want a REAL Fender? Cause G&L is the only company that makes 'em. Get a basic S-500 for a little more than a good mexican and a lot less than the FAT Strat. It will blow any fender that is not custom shop away. Guarenteed. Plus they have locking tuners, and phase reversal switch. The S-500 is Leo's final definition of what the strat should be.

MIKE
Click to expand...

I've never seen a G&L that cheap. Where can you find them?
 
mastahnke said:
Well, I would say get the Mexican if you must have a Fender. All fenders (with the exceptions of the JAPS) are made in Mexico anyway. For a guitar to be considered "American" it just has to be 60% ASSEMBLED in the USA. They are made in teh same factory. It takes a while, but you can usually find a Mexican Strat that is really nice, they are made on most of the same machines as the Americans anyway. The real differences are the hardware and the neck treatment.
But my real question is do you want a REAL Fender? Cause G&L is the only company that makes 'em. Get a basic S-500 for a little more than a good mexican and a lot less than the FAT Strat. It will blow any fender that is not custom shop away. Guarenteed. Plus they have locking tuners, and phase reversal switch. The S-500 is Leo's final definition of what the strat should be.

MIKE
Click to expand...

They aren't made in the same factory. But close. The two factories are only 30 miles apart. One is in the US and One is in Mexico.
 
I recently went down this road... http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=152644

I still say I should have kept the blond mexi I had, and only paid 200 bucks for......truly a "Best bang for your buck" item!

I played so many strats over the last couple of weeks it's not even funny! Most of them didn't justify the cost in my opinion.....but the one I bought did........but then again, it did cost me a pretty penny. :(

One difference I did notice was in the fretts. The Standard strat (MIM) has smaller fret wire on it, where as it's American counter part has Medium Jumbo fret wire. Also the moder trem/bridge on the American standard is in my opinion much, much better.

If you want the best of both worlds, you can by the "Lite Ash Strat", it comes in three colors- Natural, black, and Vintage white. I came really close to purchasing one of these, but the fret wire eventually turned me away. They say they have medium jumbo wire on them, but in reality it's like what is on the Mexi's......not what's on the American Standards.........other than that this is one nice axe for about $550.00 US. It's got a birds eye maple neick and fret board, moder tremolo, seymour Duncans, and decent tuners.....plus an lite ash body. I was able to find two of these to actually play, and they both played well.......nice low action and feel. Maybe I should have bought this one and just had some fret work done on it (You'd be amazed at what just having the frets "polished" will do for the feel of your axe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), but I had some money burning a hole in my pocket, so I spent it. :)

Rick
 
Did you consider checking out the Highway 1 strat? It seems to bridge the gap between Mexican components and US quality control. Sits right in the middle price-wise and many people believe that the flat finish enhances the resonance of the body.
 
Ok people...actually READ what H2H posted!!!

This thread is from 5 years ago, and I'm sure this guy has long ago decided whether to get a mexi or usa strat. No need to continue it.
 
True, but since I have just been doing the research on this, there may be others out there that could benifit from this............I wish I would have found this thread .......but I didn't :(

Rick
 
Or, if somebody was looking at strats, they could just get a custom Warmoth instead :p

A cool strat that only got made for a couple years was the "California" strat (I have one). It's basically got vintage-style parts (nice hardware, not the Squier crap), got painted/sprayed in Mexico (to avoid environmental laws in California), then assembled in the U.S. They were $500 USD new, so they're probably floating around for less than that. I dig the old-style tuners with the hole in the middle of them, plus it's got a great candy-apple red metallic finish.

- Jarick
 
my mexican tele that i paid $349 played and sounded way nicer than the highway one US tele at GC.
 
I actually had my Warmoth order form all filled out...........Swamp ash body w/ quited maple top, AAA birds eye maple neck, 12-16 compound radius, custom pickguard, Translucent finish, all gold hardware....blah, blah, blah.............It totaled up to 1200.00 bucks with out any pickups or case. Then there would be a initial level/re-crown- polish charge for neck work done here locally. So it'd end up being right about 1600, and I was ready to pay it for a "one-off" guitar, but I caved and bought the "already done" strat. :( :)

Rick
 
I have an American made Strat. It's natural ash with rosewood fretboard.

I like some of the Mexican made reissues though. As has already been mentioned make upgrades to the electronics etc as you go alonog. But I may get a Mexi made 50s reissue strat...some of them play really nice.
 
Even said:
Granted I suppose if I had a Paul Reed Smith I would swear by it and never go back. But as it stands I like how each of my guitars plays.
Click to expand...

I own a Paul Reed Smith and I am actually in ther market for a Mexi-strat for a different flavor.
 
Mexican vs American

If you visited each factory you would probably find brothers, sisters or cousins working in each plant. Most of the workers mostly likely came from south of the border anyway. I went through the plant in Corona before they moved and it was almost all south of the border workers who couldn't speak a word of English. I guaranty the Arizona plant has loads of illegals working in its plant. I know they will say they don't but fake docs are for sale on about every street corner these days. So who's building what I ask?
 
Guitars are individuals, so I'm sure that there are good Mexi Strats out there... although I have not seen one that I would buy.

I think that they are closing/closed the plant down, but I have a Korean Strat and it's a dream. It's better than any Mexican that I've played and it's a worthy compeditor for the Americans, without the pice tag.

Here's one now:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/StratLtAshNat/
 
Japanese Squire

I have a Japanese Squire Strat . I bought it used so I don't really know how old it is but it's an older model. It plays nice and sounds decent too. Tremelo isn't very good. It's noisy because of the single coil hum. It's real heavy too.
It's the only Strat I've ever owned so I can't really say if it is good or bad compared to other strats.
How do the older Japanese Squires stack up against the MIM Strats? Anybody?
 
correct me if im worng but besides electronics and maybe frets, isnt the only difference between american and mexican fenders is where they are finished, supposedly all of the guitars are made in america (except the japinese ((sp?)) ones) and they get sent to mexico to be painted because you can only paint a certin amount in america a year to keep the whole in the ozone layer down. Theres no limit to the amount that can be painted in mexico, plus they can pay the workers less, but in america the workers cost more and theres a limit to how many can be painted each year, so fender can jack up the price 3 times with their "made in america" tag
 
The mexican strats are made by the mexicans that didn't get across the border.

Mex strats are pretty decent guitars. Same with the old Japanese strats. HWY 1 strats are US made but have cheaper prices. Do they still make them?
 
I have owned many MIM's & MIA's

IMO - There is no comparison to the USA Strat. Changing pickups on the MIM will help, but it will never play like the USA.
 
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