Made in Mexico
- Thread starter rsm
- Start date
MadAsAHatter
Well-known member
So does this mean all the MIM Fender's will now be Chinese made?
311splawndude
Well-known member
Glad I got mine in 2008. It was my first guitar. Not bad. Nice frets. Good resonance. Holds tune. Swapped Humbucker.
Floyd Eye
Well-known member
My old man has a few Mexican Fender basses around, but I don't have any Mexican basses or guitars. In fact I have probably given away at least 5 or 6 Mexican P basses. Somehow they keep falling into my lap. I repair them, set them up and give them to kids or other people who lack the means to get a decent bass. I don't care for P basses or Fender basses in general. I have a great American Telecaster and a '61 Brown Deluxe. That's the extent of my Fender collection.
Thumbpicker
Well-known member
I bought a Squier J bass that played well... Put DiMarzios in it and a preamp turning it into an active bass and beefed up the bridge... The only thing that's a bit dodgy about it is tuners which I haven't worked out how to swap them out for good ones because they are a weird size... I use very light funk strings on it by choice. So basically the idea was to pay peanuts for a donor body and neck - cheaper than a Warmoth. I did play a few of them - some of them played terrible but the neck on this one is a gem. I guess it's really a Squier in name only now.
Floyd Eye
Well-known member
By the time you did all that you could have bought an American J bass.
Speaking of which, I only ever played one Fender bass I liked. My old man has an American Deluxe with active pickups and a super sweet neck. Other than that I've never played one I liked.
My Spector is 1000 times better than any of them.
Thumbpicker
Well-known member
Getting up there yes... but at least an MIM one.
American J Basses are passive though so mine is a bit different.
Floyd Eye
Well-known member
Not all of them. Standard J basses are. My old man's Deluxe isn't.
Laputan Machine
Well-known member
MIM Fenders> MIJ Fenders
Floyd Eye
Well-known member
You are out of your mind.
Laputan Machine
Well-known member
All MIJ Fenders have garbage pickups and hardware. Plates are always thinner gauge and the pickups are always mega hot and trebly and sound like ass. All the MIM Fenders I've had came with AVRI hardware and pickups. Every MIM I've had played great out of the box.
Floyd Eye
Well-known member
That's why the vintage MIJ sells for double what the American shit sells for. Cuz it's garbage.
NowYou'rePlayingWithPower
Well-known member
That's why the vintage MIJ sells for double what the American shit sells for. Cuz it's garbage.
I would say MIM have come a long way since the 90s/00s, but not to MIJ status. Maybe some better than others, but still... There does seem to be various tiers of both nowadays, so I guess I could see a Vintera and some Players even being a bit better than some of the entry MIJ stuff. A lot of recent MIJ stuff is basswood and uses korean hardware. But overall MIJ>MIM.
Floyd Eye
Well-known member
I honestly didn’t know they were still making them in Japan. And other than pickups, electronics and hardware MIM might as well be MIA. I’m guessing most of the ones coming out of Corona are made by Mexicans anyway.
NowYou'rePlayingWithPower
Well-known member
There's new JV models, Aerodynes, and an International series, I think they're called? Basswood on all models if I'm not mistaken.I honestly didn’t know they were still making them in Japan. And other than pickups, electronics and hardware MIM might as well be MIA. I’m guessing most of the ones coming out of Corona are made by Mexicans anyway.
I bought a few of the MIJ Aerodynes for Christmas gifts, and they're pretty decent and also a couple of the... sshhh, don't tell anyone... MIM Acoustasonic Players. Which are actually just as nice as the US models. Well, for what they are
Floyd Eye
Well-known member
I once went to buy a Teleacoustic and ended up going home with a sweet playing Ibanez AE-10 ( China).There's new JV models, Aerodynes, and an International series, I think they're called? Basswood on all models if I'm not mistaken.
I bought a few of the MIJ Aerodynes for Christmas gifts, and they're pretty decent and also a couple of the... sshhh, don't tell anyone... MIM Acoustasonic Players. Which are actually just as nice as the US models. Well, for what they are
rsm
Well-known member
I had MIM, MIJ and MIA Fender Jaguars; I only have the MIM now. My only Strat is also MIM. Works for me. The differences weren't that big of a deal to me.
I have two Ibanez PS 60 made in Indonesia; one PS 120 Made in China; and one PS 10 Made in Japan (Prestige). The PS 120 and PS 10 have the same pickups, binding and inlays. The PS 120 is a little less than 3x the price of the PS 60, but the differences are noticeable; The PS 10 is roughly 3X the price of the PS 120, and the differences are subtle, and you really have to look close to see them.
I like the PS 10, it's a keeper, but for the money the PS 120 wins IMO.
My main Jacksons are X series, neck through, Duncan Blackouts, Made in Indonesia. The MIJ are almost 5X more; MIA are even more, maybe 6X or 7X. The X series Warrior doesn't have the Blackouts, but the pickups are good enough. After getting the first X series Rhoads, I decided I didn't need the more expensive models.
EBMM is a different story; MIA only for me.
I have two Ibanez PS 60 made in Indonesia; one PS 120 Made in China; and one PS 10 Made in Japan (Prestige). The PS 120 and PS 10 have the same pickups, binding and inlays. The PS 120 is a little less than 3x the price of the PS 60, but the differences are noticeable; The PS 10 is roughly 3X the price of the PS 120, and the differences are subtle, and you really have to look close to see them.
I like the PS 10, it's a keeper, but for the money the PS 120 wins IMO.
My main Jacksons are X series, neck through, Duncan Blackouts, Made in Indonesia. The MIJ are almost 5X more; MIA are even more, maybe 6X or 7X. The X series Warrior doesn't have the Blackouts, but the pickups are good enough. After getting the first X series Rhoads, I decided I didn't need the more expensive models.
EBMM is a different story; MIA only for me.
Laputan Machine
Well-known member
Gibsons sell for a lot of money...That's why the vintage MIJ sells for double what the American shit sells for. Cuz it's garbage.
MIJ Fenders have a massive hipster tax. Every idiot thinks Japan guitar=awesome. They have good and bad stuff like everything else. How do you think Fender makes MIJ stuff so cheap? They make Gretsch over there and those are pretty expensive, but all of those MIJ Gretschs are amazing. MIJ Fenders are mega overrated by this myth that everything made in Japan is awesome. I've had Edwards guitars that were amazing, others that were basically like low budget Epiphones.
Even back in the 90s the MIM Fenders were great, probably better than now (like a lot of 90s Korean stuff) Friend had a Tex Mex in like 97 and it was an awesome guitar.
I build guitars, here's a secret: building guitars is super "easy"...at least from a mass production stand point. As in, there really isn't much craftsmanship in building one per process, it's the whole shebang that makes building one difficult or a skill. Any company, in any country can build fantastic guitars, it just depends on what the factory wants to do. You can take any process in building a guitar and get a monkey to do it expertly after a couple days. Every factory is just a bunch of monkeys doing one task all day. MIA as a stamp of quality (or MIJ for that matter) as mass production guitars go is a load of horseshit.
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NowYou'rePlayingWithPower
Well-known member
Dude, I think you might be romanticizing a bit.
Anyways, yes; Guitars built on Earth can be good or bad.
Anyways, yes; Guitars built on Earth can be good or bad.
Floyd Eye
Well-known member
I disagree with almost all of this. I’ve waded through literally hundreds of Telecasters, MIM and MIA looking for good ones. I’m not primarily a guitar player but I am a guy who does a lot of tech work for local bands and has been setting them up and doing repair work on them for a couple decades. Monkeys or not the electronics, hardware and pickups in MIM fenders are and always have been junk. The likelihood of finding ones that have straight necks and play well is about equal to MIA though. You really gotta dig through piles of Fender guitars to find good ones regardless of country of origin.Gibsons sell for a lot of money...
MIJ Fenders have a massive hipster tax. Every idiot thinks Japan guitar=awesome. They have good and bad stuff like everything else. How do you think Fender makes MIJ stuff so cheap? They make Gretsch over there and those are pretty expensive, but all of those MIJ Gretschs are amazing. MIJ Fenders are mega overrated by this myth that everything made in Japan is awesome. I've had Edwards guitars that were amazing, others that were basically like low budget Epiphones.
Even back in the 90s the MIM Fenders were great, probably better than now (like a lot of 90s Korean stuff) Friend had a Tex Mex in like 97 and it was an awesome guitar.
I build guitars, here's a secret: building guitars is super "easy"...at least from a mass production stand point. As in, there really isn't much craftsmanship in building one per process, it's the whole shebang that makes building one difficult or a skill. Any company, in any country can build fantastic guitars, it just depends on what the factory wants to do. You can take any process in building a guitar and get a monkey to do it expertly after a couple days. Every factory is just a bunch of monkeys doing one task all day. MIA as a stamp of quality (or MIJ for that matter) as mass production guitars go is a load of horseshit.
From a historic perspective, vintage MIJ Fenders are top of the heap for good reason.