Even the ball ends of Fender strings (made in the mexico factory) are outsourced to Germany.

To be fair, this official Fender video (which alwaysstrat pointed us towards) gives a pretty unequivocal impression that the Highway One is a USA built guitar. As it largely is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqSYDHNpAx8

Cheers - C

Flplayer....to your point, your personal preferences are as valid as anyone elses. Of course, if one is perfectly happy with the MIM or MIJ or MI?, they should stick with it. At the same time, what makes people happy may be different than what makes you happy. So, it may not be fair for you to criticize the discussion of the differences and someones preference for one or the other while you acknowledge that there is a significant difference between the MIM and the MIJs. Its like saying that someone is wrong for prefering one that is higher quality or made in america. They arent wrong, but they arent more right than you either.

OK. Im done preaching.

This thread is getting way too philisophical and I might be splitting hairs, but "made in America" could imply North America, Central America or South America.

"Made in the USA" is much more explicit and, if parts of the Hwy1 were in fact made outside the USA, even if they were assembled in the USA, its still misleading and Fender should disclose that.

Conversely, I cant honestly say that I know what parts are alledged to be manufactured outside the USA. I had heard that from so many sources that I assumed it to be true. I recall even reading about it in guitar reviews.

Fender has done this before, of course. The "California Edition" Strat was marketed as "made in the USA", when it was really only finished in the USA. That guitar was essentialy a Deluxe with TexMex pups.

without any solid proof of manufacture of the neck and body being USA made then you have to conclude they are MIA. The pots pickups trem tuners and nut can all be replaced should they be found to be not to your liking. Unless they have made on mars or wherever stamped on them you must conclude they are mia. whether they look the same as a mim's parts or not. Its entirely feasible that the parts are still mia. Afterall parts filter down to mexico japan and korea from mia guitars as new products become available. That doesnt mean that the mia plant cant make em anymore. Unless someone comes up with cast iron proof, i.e a Made in stamp or some fender employee saying 'these parts are made in outer mongolia' i wont believe it.

On that, does anyone know if Fender actually make any of the metal parts they use? We know for sure that over the decades many tuners and some bridges have been outsourced, including to overseas manufacturers (Schaller for example). Probably to Japanese companies too.

Casting, stamping and coating metal parts is specialised work requiring a lot of plant. Do Fender do any of that in house? (Strings we know about...)

Cheers - C

Parts such as Tuners, Bridges, Pots, Switches, Jacks, Jack plates, Neck plates, etc. used by most if not all Guitar companies are made overseas to specific specs from each Guitar company.
If a product is put together in the U.S. from a pile of parts it is considered made in the U.S. it doesn't matter where the parts are made.
Aftermarket replacement parts are made at the same plants overseas, but not to the exact Guitar company specs.