Fender strat: American or Japanese.

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IIRC its only certain year jap strats, not all of them. The ones that say made in japen on the back, as opposed to the headstock.
 
No expert here, but I am a true Fender fan.

Have played maybe 4 to 5 Japanese Strats, maybe 12 to 15 American Strats, embarassed to say my fingers touched probably 7 Mexi models...

Overall the American models kicked ass...made with better wood, better feel , better sound, better action.

There was one Jap model I played that almost fooled me...it felt pretty damn good, but lighter....sounded about as good. But overall the american models kicked ass.

Don't get me started on Mexi models....ughhhhh :(
 
Bdgr said:
IIRC its only certain year jap strats, not all of them. The ones that say made in japen on the back, as opposed to the headstock.
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but mine doesn't say made in japan anywhere. the only way i could tell was by the serial number.

i played a 74 Telecaster at the music shop today, and it was HORRIBLE! sounded farty and was really uncomfortable. It was however, very very pretty with a nice light kind of yellowywhite finish. they wanted 1500 for it!
 
blipndub said:


but mine doesn't say made in japan anywhere. the only way i could tell was by the serial number.

i played a 74 Telecaster at the music shop today, and it was HORRIBLE! sounded farty and was really uncomfortable. It was however, very very pretty with a nice light kind of yellowywhite finish. they wanted 1500 for it!
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If you bought yours used, somebody may have taken the sticker off. The ones Bdgr is talking have the sticker on the heal of the neck and it's under the finish, so it can't be removed.
 
there is no comparison.

I own a new American USA strat, I took the pickhaurd off and it's 3 cavity body. No swimming pool shit. Thats CBS era strat crap. Of course a Jap strat is better than one of those, if thats what your comparing it to.

But get real. The wood, the circuitry is all better than a Jap strat.
I ahd a Jap sytrat and after 2 months the tremlos arm stripped and fell out. A cheap piece of shit no matter how you butter it.

I tried out int he store about 20 Mexican STrats and about 40 USA ones, I picked the best int eh store and it was a USA Strat.
The Mexican Strat re-issues, 50's,60's and 70's looked cool, but the tuning pegs were cheap. The volume and tones control didnt roll as smoothly. The entire guitar was about 5 lbs lighter than a USA. The bridge assembly is cheap garbage.
A tremelo arm ona jap or Mex strat would last 2 weeks in the hands of Hendrix or Blackmore. They dont play Mexican or Jap so neither do I. That's just cosmetic stuff too. I plugged them in and the best Mex or Jap strat still didnt sound as good as a USA model. Not to my ears, I heard differences, even after the obvious cosmetic and physical difference.

But, you take a Mexican or Jap strat and put ner circuitry in it you may get abtter guitar, but it still wont sound as cool as a handmade USA strat.

I honestly can't sit here and say that a Jap Strat is as good as or better than a handcrafted USA made strat. They just dont have the lasting power.

thats funny.

Jeff Beck aint playing Japanese Strats. The strat tone is in the USA built guitars. End Of Story.
 
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I dunno many people that actually keep the el cheapo components in their MIJ Strats for more than a week. And not all MIJ Strats are good. Not all MIA Strats are God's gift to guitarists either.

Last time I played a 60's reissue MIJ Strat, I liked it a lot better than the MIA Strats I played. The electronics are crap and on some the trems do blow pretty hard, but that's about it.

I do believe that Fender is still using veneers on their guitars, which I REALLY do not like. Atleast they got rid of the "swimming pool" routing. They've got G&L beat in that respect.

By hand-crafted, are you talking about Custom Shop? You couldn't be talking about your run of the mill American Strat because those aren't hand crafted.
 
What's wrong with the electronics in MIJ Strart? It only costs about $3.00 to make the very best pickups and a switch ether works or it doesn't. All the best electronics come from Japan.
 
Ya maybe be Japan makes the best televisions...but last time I checked, television rots the mind...and music...I am all open to everyone liking what they like, and I tend NEVER to rag on anytype of music, but don't get me started on J Pop!...

It seams to me that Americans sold technology to Japan, and guitars and amps use old school fox radio stuff anyways and I forgot what I wanted to say....
 
I can take any supposed crappy off the wall Strat and set it up to play killer.

The truth is, a lot of guys can play guitar, but have no clue as to how to set it up. A strat is a difficult beast, so when it's not set up properly, a guitarist usually blames the guitar. I've tried lots of off the wall Fenders that were set up badly. But all it came down to was taking the axe and adjusing the tremlo system and intonation and the action. Working each string and each fret until the buzz is gone. finding the sweert spot. but I've yet to find a USA strat that doesnt have the sweet spot. But sometimes you need to really set the guitar up to find it.

The Jap strats are made of different wood. You cannot attain the true Strat tone with one. The fact is, none of the greats really used them instead of a US strat.

I've owned quite a few Jap Strats. I always wished they were the real thing because these were built too cheap. Frets would start buzzing, tremelo arms would strip and fall out, the neck shape was too stiff, and setting up to play in a optimal set up was difficult. I've always had better luck with USA Strats and I'm sure Clapton has as well.

Next time instead of buying a jap strat, I'm gonna get a sunburst body from allparts.com, get some dimarzios, a maple neck, some wiring and a floyd rose, and just build the axe myself using high grade us made hardware, right down to the volume pots. And thats what I'd reccomend to anybody wanting a Srat without getting a real USA Strat.
 
SRV played them for a while. Here's an ad from from the July 1985 Guitar Player.

TokaiSRVGPjul85w.jpg
 
Ha ha, ol' Albert King woulda kicked Stevie's ass for that!!! ha ha,

I've never seen that before, but still, the tone you hear on Stevie's album is US Strat. I think he figured out the blues purists wouldnt accept him with his Tokai!!! ha ha...


If I was gonna buy Japanese I'd buy Ibanez or something good.
 
Ace2000 said:
If I was gonna buy Japanese I'd buy Ibanez or something good.
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The MIJ Fender guitars from the early 90s were made in the Ibanez factory.
 
Ya, I know.....but still,

It's been my experience that if your going to buy a Fender Strat, a USA made is the way to go. Now thats purely my opinion.
I've owned a few MIJ strats in my day....I owned an Ibanez, the Ibanez was the best of the bunch. I sold it a while back though.
I had it int he early 90's.
 
It's the USA made Fender guitars that do that fotoflame junk. I've just been doing some reading at Fender's web site and the MIJ guitars were made from Alder and Ash. These guitars did not have the fotoflame, it hadn't even been invented yet.

I've played dozens of strats over the years, but I never bought one until I found one of MIJs from the early 90s. It sounds better than anything else Fender has made sense CBS bought the company in the late 60s.
 
The USA guitars aren't photoflame unless that's what you go out of your way to buy.

The photoflame editions have a marking on the headstock indicating so.

The new American Series Strats and Standards are made of real wood, real finishes.

photoflames were mid 90's and marked on the headstock as being so...if it wasn't already obvious.

Fender Japan was established in March 1982. the idea had been for Fender Japan to produce guitars for their home market. In 1984 CBS decided to get out of the instrument business. In fact it has been estimated that as many as 80% of the guitars sold in the US between late 1984 and mid-86 were sourced from Fender Japan.

CBS Sold Fender in 1985.
 
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In 1986 most of my instruments were stolen, thanks to my 2nd ex wife's mouth, among which was a '64 duo sonic that through insurance adjustment turned into a '86 made in Japan strat with the little things that lock down the strings on the peghead and micro tuners on the whammy bar. To this day I still carry it around as a second stage guitar. It's aged well and is reliable as hell. From the Fender timeline I guess it's an Ibanez but I don't know for sure.

Though I'd likely be happier with a vintage American strat, this one does the job quite well.
 
Ace2000 said:
The USA guitars aren't photoflame unless that's what you go out of your way to buy.

The photoflame editions have a marking on the headstock indicating so.

The new American Series Strats and Standards are made of real wood, real finishes.

photoflames were mid 90's and marked on the headstock as being so...if it wasn't already obvious.

Fender Japan was established in March 1982. the idea had been for Fender Japan to produce guitars for their home market. In 1984 CBS decided to get out of the instrument business. In fact it has been estimated that as many as 80% of the guitars sold in the US between late 1984 and mid-86 were sourced from Fender Japan.

CBS Sold Fender in 1985.
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Not just the mid 90s. According to Fender's legal department, all guitars made in the USA from 1990 through 1997 were made from Poplar and all the sunburst guitars were fotoflame. The MIJ guitars from this same time were still made from Ash and Alder and still used the old style routing. These guitars have all the great surf and blues tone of the pre CBS guitars and are a fantastic buy because of their low price (they are not concidered collectable by most).

If you want to buy a guitar as an investment and hang it on your wall, you may do better buying a USA made Strat. However, if you want a guitar that sounds great at an affordable price it would be hard to beat the MIJ reissue Strats from the 90s.
 
Hey Firebird,

Does that mean my MIJ '86 strat isn't a worthless piece of crap after all?
 
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