Fender Telecaster.....Japanese made though.

  • Thread starter Thread starter endserenading81
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AFAIK, Ishibashi stopped shipping to the US.
 
Richard Monroe said:
Japanese Teles are fine. Mexican teles are fine, some of the time. Some of them aren't. For the same price as the MIM tele, you can get a highway one that is assembled in the US of Japanese and Mexican parts. Mine is just fine. There is nothing worse on Earth than a Chinese Squier Tele.-Richie
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OMG - How wrong is that! A year or two ago I posted about my quest for a tele. The bottom line was that I played about 6 different tele's - American, Mexican and Chinese Squire Affinity. I won't go into the sordid details, but the Chinese was equal with all on playability, necks, sound, etc. The problem wasn't that the American's were better, the problem was that they cost 800 to 1200 and weren't any better.

So I walked out the door with a $140 Affinity.

But the real bottom line here is that you have to play the damn things to get an idea if it's really something you want. I recommend devoting an afternoon to hanging out at GC and other local music stores and play a boat load of guitars. Then go home and think about it. Go back and play your first choices (and you should have several in mind), and then base your buying decision on that.

Don't worry about the country of origin. The American praise comes because people paid more and have to justify why they spent more. That's not to say that America doesn't have some excellent stuff - but it's more than the country of origin that makes a guitar great.

Plus if you limit to just a certain country or brand, you really cut yourself short of the incredible variety of quality stuff out there.
 
My MIJ is a RI 63 and was made for the Japanese market in the late 80's. It was sent back to the states by a friend who was gigging in Japan for a summer. I had tried dozens of strats and when I played this one I was hooked. Only nit...the 5-way switch got a little strange after about 5 years but I sprayed it out and good as new. Having been played regularly for over 20 years, it has a great vibe . It's not for sale but I've seen them on ebay for $$300-$500 depending on condition.


chazba
 
Well, Fusion, I applaud you on your good luck, but I stand behind my assessment 4 years later. My buddy Karl was looking for a cheap tele, and I played 16 Squier teles in one day, looking for one that didn't have major problems. I saw everything from an outright cracked nut to a defective tuner to a loose bridge to a genuinely warped neck. Not one of them had even remotely acceptable intonation, and 80% of them buzzed on some fret or other. The pickups sucked across the board, even on the 60% or so that didn't have dirty pots or earth-shattering hum due to bad solder joints. If you got a good one, I'm proud of you. Maybe we can go to Foxwoods some time. I'll be happy with 50% of your winnings. Congrats.

And BTW, I'm not an American-made guitar snob trying to justify my outrageous cash outlay. I've got a Korean made Epiphone Les Paul and a MIM strat that I'm very happy with, and even a Javanese Mitchell beater that is truly amazing at it's price point. I just haven't played a Chinese made guitar yet that doesn't suck, and yes that includes all those pretty Ibanez Artcores. I admit I have faith in the Chinese, though. They've learned how to make a guitar that looks good. Soon, they'll figure out how to build one that sounds good. If there's money in it, they'll do it.-Richie
 
I wouldn't trade my MIJ Paisley for any other Tele in the world. Saw it hanging in the store, put my hand around the neck and I knew it was mine. It's been with me since 1987.
 
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