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Post subject: Fender Japan Guitars
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 11:57 am
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I see a lot of Fender Japan guitars on EBay that are left-handed. Are they as good as American Fenders?

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Post subject: Re: Fender Japan Guitars
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 12:27 pm
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phantom_mike wrote:
I see a lot of Fender Japan guitars on EBay that are left-handed. Are they as good as American Fenders?

Depending on the year, I would say so.
Keep in mind that Fender Japan doesn't make guitars - they outsource the job to instrument manufacturers in Japan, who make them to spec.
The first couple of years of Fender Japan guitars could be iffy in some cases, but the quality has steadily gone up, and has become very consistent. There are even a couple of bad years for Fender where Fender Japan models are often considered better than Fender USA.

I would not hesitate to buy a MIJ/CIJ guitar if it were what I wanted. You also don't have to go to eBay - you can buy them new from Japanese stores that export them. Rakuten is your friend.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Japan Guitars
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 5:20 pm
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I would have to add that the Top of the Line Japan guitars are easily on par with say the American Standard, but they are not quite as good as the US vintage reissues. My reasoning here is the electronics, pots, switches, etc on the export MIJ have not always been as high as a quality as their US counterparts.

If you can get one of the Not for Export MIJ reissues they can be just about equal. I have one of the 62 Reissue (not for export) and it is on par with the US models with the exception of the pickups...they seem much brighter (although not thin) than the 57/62 models. They offer a nice change but they might be a bit too bright for some.

Of course if you ask 10 folks you might get 10 different answers and reasons for it too, but for the most part, they are excellent quality guitars.

T2

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Post subject: Re: Fender Japan Guitars
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 8:29 pm
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I've had a few MIJ strats up to this point in time and am more than happy with each and every one.

The Fender ST54-110DMC was by far the best strat I've ever played.

Got it from rinkya.com which is a middle man service that you can use to surf yahoo Japan. Some great deals there each day on a multitude of strats. Do yourself a favour and at least surf that site for a while.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Japan Guitars
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 9:29 pm
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this is a Fender Japan bass guitar, plays great sounds great
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Post subject: Re: Fender Japan Guitars
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 9:43 pm
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T2Stratman wrote:
I would have to add that the Top of the Line Japan guitars are easily on par with say the American Standard, but they are not quite as good as the US vintage reissues. My reasoning here is the electronics, pots, switches, etc on the export MIJ have not always been as high as a quality as their US counterparts.

To be fair, pickups can be switched easily enough, and some of the Japanese models these days come with American Fender or DiMarzio pickups.

The guitars themselves seem to be very well made, and yes, there are a lot more leftie models. Could be because Fender Japan use 3rd party manufacturers, who may be set up for rapid cell switches or more concurrent productions, and thus cheaper sinister runs than Corona can do.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Japan Guitars
Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 4:13 am
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As T2Stratman said " My reasoning here is the electronics, pots, switches, etc on the export MIJ have not always been as high as a quality as their US counterparts. "

This was my experience too, the pots and switches on my CIJ strat were basically poor quality but the neck and body and everything else was top notch, aside from the cost of replacing duff electrics the job is simple enough.
Once binned and replaced I'm left with a very sweet example of a 58 reissue.

.. Al


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Post subject: Re: Fender Japan Guitars
Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 10:10 am
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arth1 wrote:
T2Stratman wrote:
I would have to add that the Top of the Line Japan guitars are easily on par with say the American Standard, but they are not quite as good as the US vintage reissues. My reasoning here is the electronics, pots, switches, etc on the export MIJ have not always been as high as a quality as their US counterparts.

To be fair, pickups can be switched easily enough, and some of the Japanese models these days come with American Fender or DiMarzio pickups.

The guitars themselves seem to be very well made, and yes, there are a lot more leftie models. Could be because Fender Japan use 3rd party manufacturers, who may be set up for rapid cell switches or more concurrent productions, and thus cheaper sinister runs than Corona can do.


Did not see the OP ask if it was fair to have to remove the pickups! He asked if they are as good and unless the model has US pickups they aren't quality wise, tone wise is a matter of personal taste.
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Post subject: Re: Fender Japan Guitars
Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 8:30 pm
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Mid 80's MIJ Strats were much better than U.S.A. made Strats of the same era. They did a lot of Re-Issue's from the 50's through the early 70's, But also did some Standard's. It takes s little knowledge of Mid 80's MIJ's to tell some of the RI's from the Standards.
I used to own 6 of the Mid 80's MIJ's but now only have 2 (68RI, 72RI). All have been excellent guitars!!

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Post subject: Re: Fender Japan Guitars
Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2015 8:24 am
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The MIJ and CIJ vintage reissues are very well made Guitars in terms of fit and finish that are let down badly by their electronics. On all four that I've owned, the pickups have been very shrill with little or no low end. I had to have the tone dialled way down all the time. because of this I've had to modify them.

I still own a 1994 MIJ 62 reissue Strat with foto flame top and a 1994 MIJ 62 Reissue Jazzmaster. The Strat has Custom Shop Fat 50 pickups installed and all the pots, pickup selector and input jack have been replaced. The Jazzmaster has Lindy Fralin Jazzmaster pickups and has also had an entire electronics overhaul.

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From what I've seen, the standard Fender Guitars they do are similar to the MIM ones. If you buy Japanese, be prepared to do modifications.

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Post subject: Re: Fender Japan Guitars
Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2015 8:33 am
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Modifications are usually based on the model numbers. The DMC I had needed no modification whatsoever.

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Post subject: Re: Fender Japan Guitars
Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 1:50 pm
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Solid Body Love Songs wrote:
this is a Fender Japan bass guitar, plays great sounds great
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...and pretty as HAIL !!!!
very cool


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Post subject: Re: Fender Japan Guitars
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 9:11 am
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These are just my own personal experiences and opinions with MIJ's...please take them as such.

I think that like most things guitar related, a great deal of it tends to depend on the era of the instruments as well as the individual instruments themselves. Personally I believe the mid-80's MIJ "E-Series" that came out of the Fugigen plant are singularly some of the best made Strats EVER. With the possible exception of Custom Shop, I have yet to see an American made Strat that has the same level of quality as those E-series instruments have. Looking at the quality of craftsmanship for example, the cavities on those mid-80's MIJ's have the cleanest routing I've ever seen...absolutely pristine. Likewise, the hardware and even the pickups are truly top notch on those instruments, rivaling, if not surpassing that of vintage American instruments. In my 30+ years as a guitarist, 2 of the best sounding guitars (Strat or otherwise) that I ever played were both mid-80's E-Series Strats...one Fender, one Squier...both equipped with EMG pups. I have quite literally played hundreds of instruments over the years (currently have around 30 in my own collection) but those 2 guitars left a definite lasting imprint.

With that said, my experience has been that the MIJ instruments made more towards the late 80's and early 90's tend to be of somewhat lesser quality than those mid-80's instrument were. I don't know if it's true, but I've read various rumors suggesting that Fender actually had the Japanese plants back off a bit on the quality as they found themselves competing with...well...themselves, LOL! I would add however that any of the 90's MIJ's I've ever played have still been very good instruments as a whole, very comparable with the MIM's of this same era. I would also add that while I'm typically the odd-ball around here, I actually prefer the MIM's...particularly the mid-90's Standards to American made Strats. For my money, they are a MUCH better value.

In my book, hardware and pickups are a bit subjective. Certainly many of the newer low end instruments use lesser quality e-tronics. Those dinky little import tone pots for example...yea...I change them too. Likewise the bridge plates on a few of my Squiers (or knockoffs) tend to be thinner and use lower quality plating and such...and obviously a pot metal bridge saddle and/or trem block just isn't as good as a decent quality steel. On the other hand, many of these things aren't difficult to upgrade either and for the money you save (when compared with something like an American made instrument), you can still have a very high quality instrument when all is said and done.

Likewise I tend to find any comments about pickups to be equally subjective. Certainly a lot of folks (on this forum at least) swear by American Standard pickups (out of an anal sense of pride perhaps? LOL) but the truth is there are just as many who don't really like them...otherwise you wouldn't have companies such as Duncan, DiMazio, EMG and others. With only very rare exceptions, I've never really been a fan of Fender pickups...American, Japanese, Mexican or otherwise. As a whole they tend to sound rather thin to my ear and typically aren't that responsive to the dynamics of my playing. Of the dozen Strats I currently own, the '85 MIJ E-Series has stock, the '87 MIJ E-Series has Fender VN's and my '95 MIM has stock (although it does have a synth pickup now)...the rest have been upgraded, mostly with Duncans, although my '93 MIM currently has a set of GFS that I gotta admit I'm really lovin'! Ride the wild surf baby! LOL. Like the choice of guitar or amp, pickups really are just a personal taste thing.

With that however, as others have already stated, pickups and hardware can usually be changed out easily enough. This is obviously just my own opinion, but personally I think the single greatest reflection of "quality" is how the instrument feels, how well it plays and how it sounds unplugged. When I got my first Strat back in '96...an MIM Standard (brand spankin' new at the time)...I actually turned my nose up on several higher priced instruments (yes, including a couple of Americans). My wife got the guitar for me as a birthday present so I really could have picked out just about anything. That said, I don't buy something like a guitar just because it's expensive or because "so and so played one" or any other such silly rubbish, I get a guitar because of how well it plays....always have, always will. I may be attracted to a guitar by how it looks, but if the feel just isn't there, I walk away. At the time I got my '96, I really wasn't that crazy about the color...Lake Placid blue (I -really- wanted a 2 tone sunburst) and plugged thru a Twin, the pickups just sounded really flat and lifeless (as most stock Fender pickups do to my ears). There was something about the feel however of this particular guitar...my fingers just glided over the strings and unplugged the body was wonderfully resonant. Over the years she's been heavily upgraded...she now has Duncans, a Callaham trem block, LSR roller nut (which in hindsight was kind of a mistake), etc...even the Lake Placid blue finally grew on me. And to this day she's still my #1 favorite guitar.

Since the OP mentioned it, I would add that I do typically discourage folks from buying guitars on Ebay and such where you can't actually play the instrument first. Catalogs are a little different in that you can usually get a hassle free refund if you're not happy, but Ebay can really be dicey in this area depending on the seller. If we're talking about something like a $100 instrument being purchased as someone's first guitar, then it's not really that big a deal (most newbies can't tell the difference between a Bullet and a CS). For a more seasoned player however, the difference between 2 instruments, even from the same production line, can be rather substantial. The only real way to know which guitar is "better", regardless of origin, is to simply play it.

So to come full circle here and sum this all up, in answer to the OP's question; it depends on the individual guitar and what other individual guitar you're comparing it to. Guitars, regardless of origin, by their very nature are all individual and unique instruments. If you can put prejudice aside, there are some well made American instruments, some really great Mexican made instruments and some truly incredible guitars have come out of Japan (and other countries). I even have a couple of newer Chinese made instruments down in the studio that I enjoy. As always, I suggest worrying less about "where it was made" and more about whether or not you simply like the guitar :-)

As I've said so often, regardless of origin or cost, the "best" guitar is simply the one that you enjoy playing.


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