Author Topic: MIJ Stratocaster - Opinions? (Read 10087 times)

Mr Ed · « **Reply #15 on:** December 03, 2007, 09:39:46 AM »

My MIJ 57R Strat will hold up against any US-made Strat. Easily.

mikeluke · « **Reply #16 on:** December 03, 2007, 11:01:42 AM »

I have a 54-Reissue Jap Strat and the build quality is excellent - upgraded the electrics and pups (Texas Specials, sorry but I got them in the USA for £65.....) - with few exceptions, the Jap Strats have vintage-style frets and only 21 of them - you get 22 on the USA ones.

I have owned (bought and sold) many Jap Squier Strats and my cost v quality recommendation would be to go for an E-Series MIJ Squier - they are post JV series but the build quality and most fittings are excellent - much better than the 'Silver Series' which you see quite often on eBay. Change the electrics and pups and you have an excellent Strat for not much £££.

Mike

Mr Ed · « **Reply #17 on:** December 03, 2007, 11:29:41 AM »

I got rid of the Texas Specials in mine too - replaced with a trio of Lace Sensors, Red in the bridge, Silver in the middle and Blue in the neck.

Replaced the tuners too, I don't like the split-shaft ones and also fitted a Tremol-No to lock off the trem.

It's a $%&#ing beast now.

38thBeatle · « **Reply #18 on:** December 03, 2007, 12:27:02 PM »

Fundamentally, any MIJ Fender is going to be basically good and any shortcomings are fixable and worthwhile. I'd echo Mr Ed's comments-on mine the tuners are not that great and I am considering blocking off the trem the old fashioned way or maybe a temelo-no as has been mentioned already.At some point I will probably go for a callaham bridge and trem block but the guitar is worth spending money on for sure ( it has Bareknuckle Slowhands in it for instance). I would say that construction and finish are easily on a par with my old US Strat-having said that, the old one is my "go to" guitar because I have had her so long. I am currently thing of retiring the old girl and am looking at either promoting the MIM Tele I have or getting yet another Strat-I have tried a couple of the MIM "Player" models and both felt extremely good but I only played them "unplugged" in a noisy environment so couldn't really judge and so did not buy as I was pushed for time. They are worth looking at as Philly said. Check out Far East guitars too as he tends to have great quality 2nd hand grey imports from Japan- the "crafted in Japan" models I mentioned earlier.

Elliot · « **Reply #19 on:** December 03, 2007, 12:50:00 PM »

It should be added that the 'crafted in Japan' label is the internal market designation from 1997 onwards - prior to that it was 'Made in Japan' as after about 1998 Fender Japan didn't (officially) export 'Fender' labelled guitars on all but a special basis (even though you could always buy them in UK and Europe).

Scotty477 · « **Reply #20 on:** December 03, 2007, 03:30:12 PM »

Thanks for the advice.

There certainly seems to be a lot of variation out there for Strats in general.

I'll be keeping a close eye on ebay for a bit now.

_tom_ · « **Reply #21 on:** December 03, 2007, 03:52:42 PM »

Quote from: Mr Ed

I got rid of the Texas Specials in mine too - replaced with a trio of Lace Sensors, Red in the bridge, Silver in the middle and Blue in the neck.

Replaced the tuners too, I don't like the split-shaft ones and also fitted a Tremol-No to lock off the trem.

It's a #$%!& beast now.

How is the red one in the bridge? I'm currently looking at different options for my strat, leaning towards going HSS as I always find the bridge singlecoil too thin and weak compared to the neck and middle, and its too twangy/not compressed enough for rock imho.

fwiw, I've had good experience with MIM Fender products, currently got a MIM neck on my strat and it feels great once you sand the shine off the finish. Also had a MIM '57 style neck that I bought from PhilKing which was really nice, just not my style. I found that on the modern MIM necks, the rosewood was more comfy, tried my mates which has a maple neck and the sides kinda digged into my fingers a bit :\

Mr Ed · « **Reply #22 on:** December 03, 2007, 04:04:11 PM »

Quote from: _tom_

How is the red one in the bridge? I'm currently looking at different options for my strat, leaning towards going HSS as I always find the bridge singlecoil too thin and weak compared to the neck and middle, and its too twangy/not compressed enough for rock imho.

That was exactly my dilemma. For choice, I'd have a humbucker in the bridge but the Red Lace Sensor is really hot, it's not as hot as a humbucker alone... but when I use it with my clean boost on my JCM900's dirty channel, it wails like a humbucker. Tone and sustain up the wazoo! Cleans up quite well, especially in position two which mixes with the Silver which is supposed to sound like a slightly fatter 70's singlecoil. The Blue at the neck is like a classic 50's singlecoil and they are a lot quieter than regular singles but do retain the thin glassy characteristics.

Dirty channel, lots of gain and just the Red is noticeably fatter than a singlecoil, hotter too... but for me you really need a clean boost or an EQ set with a mid-range hump to drive it into 'bucker territory.

They sound "true" enough to me to warrant having a Strat but still have enough power to melt your face. Singlecoils, real low power ones, are not for me but I still adore Strats.

Very worth it, it gave my Strat a whole new lease of life and prevented me from having to get it routed.

Scotty477 · « **Reply #23 on:** December 04, 2007, 05:09:36 PM »

I just bought a Japanese Strat on ebay :D

The price was just too good to pass up and it had a hard case. Seller is 100% as well.

I'll post picks on a new thread when I get it.

38thBeatle · « **Reply #24 on:** December 04, 2007, 07:23:32 PM »

Cool, looking forward to the pics.

mikeluke · « **Reply #25 on:** December 04, 2007, 07:36:01 PM »

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Japan-Fender-Stratocaster-Case-Strat-not-Squier_W0QQitemZ180188789602QQihZ008QQcategoryZ33039QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

If it was this one then you got it for a song.......

Real bargain

Scotty477 · « **Reply #26 on:** December 04, 2007, 08:49:20 PM »

Quote from: mikeluke

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Japan-Fender-Stratocaster-Case-Strat-not-Squier_W0QQitemZ180188789602QQihZ008QQcategoryZ33039QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

If it was this one then you got it for a song.......

Real bargain

It was indeed this one :)

It was a bit of a leap of faith as the pics weren't the greatest but I'm confident that all will be well.

It had only been listed for a few hours and I kind of had a feeling that it wasn't going to be there in the morning.

I'll let you know how it looks when I get it.

Scotty477 · « **Reply #27 on:** December 08, 2007, 02:08:34 AM »

The Stat arrived this morning and I'm pleased to say it was exactly as described.

It does need set up but I think I'm going to treat this as a project and modify it to my liking.

I'm thinking Irish Tour pup's initially and then I'll take a look at the rest. It has Gotoh keys which at first look seem to keep good tuning, although the 5 spring trem needs to really pushed to get any action.

What can I say? For a couple of hundred quid I'm happy :D

Henk · « **Reply #28 on:** December 08, 2007, 07:08:13 AM »

Congratulations!

The E series is very highly regarded together with the JV series.

I have tried a JV last week, it came very close to an original 60's strat ive played some years ago. The pickups needed a good kick in the rear tho....

PhilKing · « **Reply #29 on:** December 08, 2007, 02:14:48 PM »

I have a 54 MIJ strat and a 62 MIJ tele custom. The strat is from 82 and the tele from about 92. The neck on the tele is exactly the same shape and feel as the neck on my real 1962 tele. The difference is the pickups and body wood. The strat is very different to a 54 (I have played a 54, 56 and I own a 57). The older necks were much fatter than this one is, though the newer MIJ models are closer (I had a Hank Marvin which had a 54 neck which was massive). I also have a MIM strat, which has a nice C shape generic feel neck. Overall, I would have no problem in buying either the MIJ or MIM, but the MIJ is more accurate for the vintage feel.