Mexican Strats

[60's guy]

I have a crew of millwrights, plumbers, and electricians that I've been directing this week and next week. Most of these guys are guys that I've worked with before over the past few years and a couple of them are guitar players and we a common interest.

This past Monday morning one of the guys told me that he bought a relatively new Mexican Strat for $200 and he said it was buzzing bigtime. He asked me if I knew anyone who could set it up for him. I told him him to bring in with the next morning and that I'd take it home and take a look at it.

My visual inspection revealed that the guitar appeared to be in fairly good condition except that the frets appeared to be very worn in a few spots being a relatively new guitar. Cheap fret metal?

There was ZERO neck relief and it buzzed up and down the entire fretboard.

The intonation was OFF by a mile.

The action was fairly acceptable (to my touch).

After installing a new set of strings, adjusting the truss rod, intonating, and adjusting pup heights, I was pleasantly surprized as to how easily playable the MIM Strat is.

The only downer is the pickups themselves. They suck.

Now I know why Apl replaced the pups on his MIM with Carvin pups.

All in all, the MIM Strat is a good bang for the buck.

 

[apl]

Now I know why Apl replaced the pups on his MIM with Carvin pups.

Actually, it's a made in Indonesia Squire Bullet hardtail with a thin plywood body. But the color is cool. I put in new tuners, a string through body bridge, and Mighty Mite alnico pups, all off ebay. The critical mod was having the nut recut. The tolerance stack up results in them building with a nut that's cut too shallow; err that way and the guitar is still playable, but you can't do a good setup.

Yeah, the ceramic pups sucked big time. But hey, for $89 for the guitar plus a free set of Elixirs at GC, maybe $40 net for the eBay parts, and whatever I paid the guy who did the nut, it's a very decent guitar.

 

[SHEPPARDB.]

When you pull a guitar off of the shelf and it plays nice and has a nice price
tag, that is good bang for the buck.
When you pull a pure turd off of the shelf and spend $$$ on it it is called a bad investment.

 

[60's guy]

It's funny you mention the nut.

I forgot to mention that the nut was misaligned.

What do expect when it's MIM......attention to detail?

 

[60's guy]

When you pull a guitar off of the shelf and it plays nice and has a nice price
tag, that is good bang for the buck.
When you pull a pure turd off of the shelf and spend $$$ on it it is called a bad investment.

I agree.

From what he told me he bought it without having played it and he ended up being pissed, but with a little TLC and tweaking by me he'll end up being a helluva lot more satisfied.

My question is......why can't the workers in Mexico put forth a better effort to produce a better product?

The question is rhetorical.

 

[ez_willis]

When you pull a guitar off of the shelf and it plays nice and has a nice price
tag, that is good bang for the buck.
When you pull a pure turd off of the shelf and spend $$$ on it it is called a bad investment.

A $200 investment in a Fender Strat that needs to be setup is not a bad investment.

 

[JCM900]

Its not a "Fender Strat" its a mim replica... It just carries the Fender name... Ask any owner of a "Real" strat... they will tell you the same thing.
You pay $200 for it... thats what you get... a $200 guitar.

 

[apl]

When you pull a pure turd off of the shelf and spend $$$ on it it is called a bad investment.

It wasn't a bad investment because it wasn't an investment to begin with. I was looking for a travel guitar, something the airlines could lose or break. One of those mini-strats would have worked, but I saw this one and really liked the color (the shade of blue reminded of the Estonian flag) and it was $10 cheaper. I didn't put that much more money into it and it was a lot of fun shopping for parts and doing the mods was a satisfying experience. Now I've got a decent, playable faux strat that's unique. I like that. Besides, any idiot can buy a guitar that plays well at a good price, but not just anybody can buy a turd for next to nothing and transform into a workable instrument.

 

[apl]

Its not a "Fender Strat" its a mim replica... It just carries the Fender name... Ask any owner of a "Real" strat... they will tell you the same thing.
You pay $200 for it... thats what you get... a $200 guitar.

You forgot to say, "...any snooty owner..."

 

[32-20-Blues]

Its not a "Fender Strat" its a mim replica... It just carries the Fender name... Ask any owner of a "Real" strat... they will tell you the same thing.
You pay $200 for it... thats what you get... a $200 guitar.

Don't know what you mean by "real" strat - I have an American model.

And no, the Mexican strats aren't replicas. They are exactly what they claim to be - Genuine Fender Strats made in mexico.

 

[ez_willis]

Its not a "Fender Strat" its a mim replica... It just carries the Fender name... Ask any owner of a "Real" strat... they will tell you the same thing.
You pay $200 for it... thats what you get... a $200 guitar.

Go get a clue and come back to talk to me. It was a used FENDER Strat. It was $200.

 

[Zaphod B]

Its not a "Fender Strat" its a mim replica... It just carries the Fender name... Ask any owner of a "Real" strat... they will tell you the same thing.
You pay $200 for it... thats what you get... a $200 guitar.

Dude - country of manufacture doesn't matter.

MIA, MIM, MIK, MIJ - they're all Fender products and if Fender calls it a Strat, it's a Strat.

 

[jfrog]

I agree.


My question is......why can't the workers in Mexico put forth a better effort to produce a better product?

The question is rhetorical.

It's a matter of how much effort (& how expensive parts) they put into a $200 guitar more than the country of origin. My $700ish MIM Tele is really a nice guitar....great action, sound.

 

[Fusioninspace]

I'd vote for checking out the MIM models any day of the week. I bought my MIM strat several years ago - it's still one of my fav guitars (out of 12-13).

Yes I did a number of swaps on it, but I would have done that with an american strat as well to get the guitar I wanted. The basic, fundimental construction, finish, etc. is top notch. Actually, the fret ends were finished nicer than the american ones.

When I was trying out tele's a couple of years ago, I ended up getting the Affinity tele (made in China) because they all sounded/felt about the same - but every f'n tele in at GC (american, MIM, China) had fret ends that needed to be filed down. So given I could file frets on a $140 guitar or a $1,400 one, I chose the $140 option

 

[32-20-Blues]

It's a matter of how much effort (& how expensive parts) they put into a $200 guitar more than the country of origin. My $700ish MIM Tele is really a nice guitar....great action, sound.

Lately, the quality and consistency of Mexi guitars has risen dramatically. The primary differences between the American and Mexican models are the pick-ups and the number of pieces that make up the body. American guitars have between 2 and 3 boards, while Mexis have, or did have until recently, anything between 5 and 7, with a single piece laminate top and back, on the sunburst models, to hide the joins. This means that a sunburst Mexi guitar might have as many as 9 seperate pieces of wood in the body.

They are damn fine guitars, however.

 

[Flamin Lip]

In my days as a Fender dealer, I saw plenty on USAs that had MAJOR setup issues, and plenty of mexis that simply killed. PuP replacement and a GOOD setup on a nice Mexi will gitchooo fahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

 

[CoolCat]

the setup is #1 imo..thats what turns me on or off.

daaang..this global mfg. thing is crazy, because it's fairly overwhelming at this point...it's in so many forums and discussed all the time.

my industry has been nearly killed off by the global outsourcing, the labor cost reduction thing....but the product is often not effected at all.

As in computer chips. Japan used to be laughed at too, as cheap crap...now they are known for Quality, then Taiwan was cheaper, now it's China and maybe Africa next?

I bought the first Squire year and my old Fender dealer said the Squires were initially US parts only assembled in Korea.

I had the exact same idea as the post about the Affinity Tele, Butterscotch one, it was frkn great and the $1400 one wasn't... its crazy.

Used to be 20 guitars in the shop.. fhk!! now there's like 800 million to choose from? its a trip.

and when the crack monkeys in GC, zoom by and ask "can I help you?" but walk off before you say anything....its all just really weird.

think I'll go change my strings....on my $100 tele copy, american flag paint job, MODEL: AMERICAN, Company: Indiana, US, manufactured in China, overseen by a US company's guitar luthier, near exact replica of a tele/Fender style that Leo invented many years ago. I think it was his pickup that started a lot of it, he patented a single coil amongst a few other things, as I understand it.

whoooa fhk

 

[jimistone]

Its not a "Fender Strat" its a mim replica... It just carries the Fender name... Ask any owner of a "Real" strat... they will tell you the same thing.
You pay $200 for it... thats what you get... a $200 guitar.

I have a vintage strat that is a really good guitar, so I guess that would qualify me as an owner of a real strat. I had a MIM strat that I traded for a flying V a few months back. IMO, It was a well made guitar that sounded pretty good.
I changed the pickups out..but I'm going to do that with any strat...I like experimenting with pick ups.

There are some drawbacks to MIM strats:
they have different string spacing so the bridge, trem block, saddles, and bridge plate parts from an american strat will not enterchange.
The tremblocks on MIM strats are lightweight pewter looking crap.
(Is it really THAT expensive to put a cold rolled steel block in the damn thing?)
The pickups sound good distorted but don't do "clean" that well IMO.
The keys are OK but not on the same level with the double line klusons on my '66 (but then, neither are the keys on the newer american strats)

All in All mex strats are pretty damn good guitars IMO. If I buy another strat I would buy one again...but....I would get one with the vintage style bridge/trem setup (like the Jimmy Vaughn or the 50's, 60's, or 70's series)

 

[Frambo]

Check this link for a comparison of the American Standard Strat versus a Mexican: http://www.bothner.co.za/products/fender/mexvsus.shtml
To my ears its the pickups that let down the mex strats. If it plays well and is set up well or you can see it will set up well why not put in a set of your favourite pickups? The last unAmerican strat I modded I replaced the pickups with used USA Fender std and replaced saddles, nut and string retainers with Graphtech parts. That definitely helped the sustain and tone. Now my main axe is a Line 6 Variax

 

[JCM900]

Thanks anyway..... I'll keep playing my american made guitars.... I happen to like people in the good ole USA to have good paying jobs.... I dont want to send my money to mexico china japan or any of those places when I have a choice.
My comment on the "real" fender strats refers to AMERICAN MADE... like when they first started.... owners of the real deal are not "snooty".
I dont like it when a company outsources to other countrys, sorry if you dont like it or agree... it is afterall a free country...
In my opinion... if an company such a Fender which has always been an american company now has guitars manufactured outside the country unlike the original strat or tele... then its a copy...nothing more... yeah it says Fender on it.... but its not an american guitar built by american hands in an american company.... bogus.
I guess you all support the free trade agreement too...