For heavens sake, some of you guys are chumps.. yeah, thats right.

Now I actually enjoy reading posts and talking to some of you... but please let it be known-

1- Fender can do what they want with their products with regard as to what they want to make them out of and where the parts come from. If you dont like them, dont buy them. Buy a Gibson.

2- In my part of the world, and im sorry to say- certain products made in the USA people in my country wouldnt go near- niether would our neighbouring country so please dont get the idea that if its American.. its high grade. Fender products are made of a consistent quality and allways have been popular. thats the key to thier success.

3- I dont care where your families come from to be honest- I only care about playing my guitar, enjoying what I like most and not wasting my time watching arguments about who came from where. Get over it. In fact-dont even mention Natives untill they get the respect they deserve because the way you so called americans treat them to date has been appauling..

Can we please enjoy this forum? If you cant then like I said- go buy a Gibson, and for God's own sake- deflate your ego's before someone's gets hurt.. You americans have a habit of going a bit OTT.

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it's funny you bring this up.
i have friends in Enfied England that say
they would not buy most american stuff.
and that brittish made guitars are much better than USA
made guitars? well i dont know about that. now as far as
a gibson i personaly would not give a penny for a way over priced
gibson of any kind. MIA/MIM/MIK/CIJ strats today are all quality made.
most are cut from the same woods and same type machines.
now i would say that the MIK'S and MIM'S strats craftmanship are
the same level of quality as most MIA strats.

Again, I love my Fender Higway 1 Stratocaster, I do not care if it is only 80-85 percent Made in America. I do not care what the headstock says as far as Made in ___________. If it plays good, sounds good, and was bought at a good price it is the guitar for me. To me it was definately worth the $640 I payed for it. I would have bought the same guitar if it said "Made in China" or "Squire" on the headstock as long as it played and sounded as good as it does. And to be honest with you people, would you ever buy a guitar that said Crafted in USA (CIA), come on.

Great read evryone, very informative. I love this Forum.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

i'm with you brother. the highway one strat in my opinion and many others to be one of the best prodution strat fender has put out in
many years. much better than the new american standards and i
compare the highway one to my 1970 strat. its simply a fantastic strat.

I would have to agree with you. I think MIM MIJ MIC MIK are just as good, if not better than the american counterparts..

Its funny how asian made products and electronic consumables are top quality whereas 25 years ago it was not the case.

But in regard to the first post- regardless of where your guitar was made, you got a good one.

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I'm realy looking forward to the new MIM (made on Mars) strats that should be out in 2053.

i have a MIK 2007 lite ash stat with the duncan alnico pro II pu's
and i would match that strats craftmanship with any and i do mean
any prodution MIA strat that fender has put out and with no
problem doing so.

Me too- Im looking towards a mexican standard re-issue...

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Theres some truth in those statements.
Everyone i know who has owned a american car hated it after the honeymoon period. Most noteably a neighbour who had a 5ltr odd pontiac and said his 950 metro left it standing up to 30mph and around any corner. I hasten to add american cars are not made for british roads. A mini metro is going to die trying to do route66. likewise if you want a car to go round bends fast and accelerate quickly without watching the fuel gauge drop go to japan. I owned a honda accord 4wd 4wsteering. that refused to lose grip even cornering at 70.

On british guitars i have to agree too. To bring balance to it most english guitars are one off's there are no mass production facilities here that are credible. Certainly nothing along the fender lines. If you buy a custom built one off guitar then the only FMIC product you can compare it to would be a masterbuilt one off jackson, gretsch, fender or charvel. Its the attention to detail that kind of production demands that stipulates quality.

Theres a lot of truth in the statement 'if it greives you so much get a blahblahblah. The whole thread is becoming a downer. Who cares where their pots are made? country loyalty is a good applaudable thing but please dont confuse it with tunnel vision.

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No no and no

i must say a good point

What are some brands of British guitars?

I voiced part of that statement wrongly.

There are crebible guitar builders here just nothing knocking out the kind of quantities fender usa produce.

[/quote]

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No no and no

The part I bolded is the only part i don't really agree with.

I don't think they're worse, but I was playing a few down at the shop.I found the Am. STD's to be what a strat has been for a while.I didn't like any of the standards or HW1's as much as my older strat, but we all love our kids and think they're smarter and better looking right? What i found with the HW1 was although a Strat through and through, it had a pretty different feel. the necks are pretty different.

While the Am. std 's offered typical Strat sounds across the pickup selections, the HW1 offered a bit wider range of sounds. They however sounded a bit less "Stratty' to me. I guess the trade off for having more diversity from pickup to pickup. I will note I only got to play a black one with a hummbucker, some jerk was playing really bad metallica riffs ( he was bad, not metallica,) on the SSS daphne blue one. I don't really like the humbucker in it, but thats personal.

All in all I would put them mostly on par with each other. I will say on a couple I really liked the nitro finish, and if the Daphne Blue is out of production, I might have to go rescue the one in the shop. I didn't like all of the colours as much, but then I don't like all the colours on the standards either.

for me all said and done, I still prefer MY strat to any of the ones i played that day. I actually went to buy the Eric Johnson maple neck i wanted, but they sold it a day or 2 earlier. so if you want one PULL THE TRIGGER!!!! Now i have to decide if i want to order one. I think I will, before the weekend, just don't like buying stuff i can't check out first.

I know at the time that I bought my Highway 1 Stratocaster I played many, many, many different Fenders within my price range. At that time I decided to buy my current guitar because out of all the MIM's, Classic series, and Highway 1's I played, the one I bought was the one that spoke to me. On that day, with all those many guitars I played, the HWY 1 was the best. However, I have played a MIM strat recently that if I had the money to buy it, it would have been my #2 guitar. Unfortunalety I did not go in to buy a guitar that day, just strings.

Why did I buy mine; sound/tone, good set-up, comfortable to play, sounded awesome both with and without the amp. Best $640 I spent on a guitar. Easily my #1 all time favorite guitar I have ever owned.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head