MIJ Stratocaster - Opinions?

[Henk]

I played a MIM 50's classic player selected out of a bunch yesterday, amazing little guitar and so powerfull compared to the others! Nice maple neck/ash body or alder body dont know anymore, but it sounded very bright and sparkly. Also the 'soft V' chunky neck shape was just perfect for my hands. Amazing little guitar, and so light!

The only offputting thing was its horrible setup which makes me think about how good it will be when properly setup, and the feel of the poly finish was kind of weird too.

It sounded better then the MIJ JV IMHO.

[Philly Q]

Yeah, the Classic Player Strats are great!  :D  The bodies are alder, and the poly finish is supposed to be thinner than usual so the body resonance is less "damped".  

I like the wiring on the '50s model too, you get neck+bridge in position 4 instead of neck+middle.  I'm going to copy that on my Strat.

The only reason I didn't get a Classic Player was that I really didn't want a tremolo - so I got my hardtail Robert Cray Strat instead.

[Henk]

The only reason I didn't get a Classic Player was that I really didn't want a tremolo - so I got my hardtail Robert Cray Strat instead.

Same here, BUT on the other side i would like to have one since i dont even have 1 guitar with tremelo anymore :oops:

The pickups on the classic players are great, its just a total finished package which is kind of appealing. On the other hand i seem to get something really nice out of my efforts on old guitars.

Ill be letting this whole strat thing sink in a bit more untill i find something im 100% sure i want. Im pretty sure it will have a maple neck and alder or ash body, prefer a good sounding alder body most, but if i cant find one ash would be fine.

Makes me wonder if a floyd would be much better then a vintage type tremelo.

EDIT: I would like to add that out of the 5 classic players i tried 3 were absolute firewood(sounded really dull and flimsy acoustically), one was reasonable for a maple/rosewood/ash combination but i dont think this combination works that well unless you really have it made perfectly, its kindoff a complex sound which just has to be tweaked the right way IMO.

[Fourth Feline]

I've joined this thread a bit late, but I have a MIJ '57 re-issue Strat I bought as my main gigging guitar in 1997. It  proved to be a real 'winner' at less than half the price of an American version.

The only draw back ( to be nit picking )  - being that the pots and electrics where the smaller import type, and although they never failed on me, I  did not rest until I had replaced them with CTS pots and sheilded the pickup cavities e.t.c.  Still great for the price though !

I must stress however, that it gigged and sounded good straight out of the box, with the usual minimum tweaking and fret / fret board cleaning.

It has proved very versatile, and prior to obtaining a Baja Tele, was the only guitar that was the sonic equivalent of a Swiss army knife.

F.F.

[Mr Ed]

Yeah, the Classic Player Strats are great!  :D  The bodies are alder, and the poly finish is supposed to be thinner than usual so the body resonance is less "damped".  

I like the wiring on the '50s model too, you get neck+bridge in position 4 instead of neck+middle.  I'm going to copy that on my Strat.

The only reason I didn't get a Classic Player was that I really didn't want a tremolo - so I got my hardtail Robert Cray Strat instead.

FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!