If you pull apart a MIM Strat and an MIA Strat and inspect the components (pots, wires, pickups etc) the MIA guitars have slightly better components.

The same holds true for the hardware (tuners, bridge).

If there was no difference between the two instruments, there would be no point in having a US plant.

Are the MIA's "better", at least from a looks good, sounds good perspective not really . Play both guitars "clean" through a decent amp and you can hear a slight difference though.

Are the MIA's "nicer", sure they are. Just like leather seats are nicer than vinyl seats in your car.

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

I agree with your post. But, specifically for the tuners, do we know for sure that they are different? They seem the same.

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

Yes they are different tuners on them except for the HWY one that uses the Standard MIM's seal std. ping tuners as a cost saving measure.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

CV, you can't pull your friend out of the bushes lately. What happened?

Its hard to argue the truth. I am amazed that some think they have to defend MIM's and the HWY ones or justify having them, there nothing wrong with any. They all have there place and there good qualities or people would not buy them to start with.
Could be our Friend is helping EVH out in the business.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Bottom line is if you like the way it feels and plays, who cares here its made.If it speaks to you then dont worry that the MIM is the redheaded stepchild of the MIA .JK

There's a difference in guitars. It's not that Mexican people are less concerned with quality than American people, including Mexican-American people here in SoCal. It's that Fender uses three levels for their guitars. There's Squier from China, the Mexican Fenders and the MIA Fenders. I don't have a Mexican Fender, but I do have a Squier that I'm holding on to that I'm going to give to my kid. I play a Highway One that was made in the U.S., with upgraded CS Tx Spc pickups in it. It's super light and resonant for a solid body guitar, the nitrocellulose paint and 3 pieces of wood body built so beautifully that it's invisible even with transparent paint really allows me to play it unamplified. It's got a steel block with stamped steel bridge saddles. It's got jumbo frets that are great for bending and never fret out. The CS TX Spc pickups that I put in are simply beautiful in tone. The difference isn't Mexican workers, but that Fenders top-of-the-line is the American.

Now, my Squier is fine and I played it for years and enjoyed playing the heck out of a cheap guitar. Frets are small but you get used to it. The ceramic pickups actually sound like a Strat, but you don't want to hear them next to the CS Tx Spcs because then really they sound crispy and not as beautiful. The Squier has a slightly smaller body, but it's much heavier, probably due to the glue and the several pieces of wood. I mean, it's a fine guitar, and still play okay although I've got a little problem with some static just recently that it didn't have before, but it's not in the same class.

Mim's I've played are good and definitely better than the Squier. It's not because Chinese or Indonesian people are careless - they make everything inexpensive now. It's just that the better quality and quality control is still in America. The reason is simple because you've got a better-educated, long-term work force in America, with no funky stuff going on with the government, and you know Americans love guitars. I'm sure many of us would love to work for Fender. My Highway One as adjusted by Mark at Wild West is really a very top-notch musical instrument. It really doesn't take a back seat to anything I've ever heard. The action and the resonance and the feel of the 9.5 inch radius neck are all just sweet, and the pickups are classic. That's the beautiful thing about Fender. I mean, Clapton's Blackie was his composite of three guitars that came right off the line at Fullerton. They're mass-produced and they can be uniformly very, very good, like even the Artist series, and then there's Custom Shop to take it even further especially for tribute and relic.

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"Now, bring me that horizon."
-Capt. Jack Sparrow

Incidentally, I'm not slamming Mim stuff at all. My Blues Junior is Mim and it's a work of art.

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"Now, bring me that horizon."
-Capt. Jack Sparrow

Also, the tuners on my Highway One are fine. Guitar never goes out of tune and that's what I want from tuners. If the tuners are loose and it goes out, they have screws on there to tighten them up a little bit so they hold tune. That's something I love about my Highway is it holds tune for months of daily play. There's another level with the staggered on like an Eric Johnson or a Custom Shop Pro, but the string trees don't bother me and the strings stay seated well, like they're supposed to with string trees.

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"Now, bring me that horizon."
-Capt. Jack Sparrow

My MIM Deluxe Players Strat is awesome. I don`t care where it was made. Read the specs

I don't feel the need to justify or defend anything, but I do have a few things to add.

First, I don't see the vintage style trems on MIM's as lesser than the newer two point on MIA's. I have a Standard and Classic 50 both set up to float and with propper set up(as with any trem guitar) they stay in tune remarkablly well. Granted, the two point is easier to set up and is a bit more user friendly. If I get another MIA Strat it will be something 'Vintage' anyway and will have the six point. Tuners on MIA are higher quality, but I can't find fault with the tuners on my MIMs. So as long as they do there job it's kind of a moot point.

Second, alnico and ceramic are in my view different rather than better or worse. Depending on the sound I want I can use my Standard with ceramics or my 50's with alnico. It's all about application and what is suitable to me at the time.

Finally, I love my AmDlx BSB Tele! It spoke to me instantly. But I didn't go out looking specifically for a MIA guitar, and it wasn't the higher quality parts that sold me on the guitar, it was quite simply 'the one'. It was in fact the only one on the wall so I had nothing in it's range to compare to anyway. I did however play about a dozen MIM Standard Strats before I found the one I own today. My 50s Classic Strat was another that I felt very strongly about even though there were no other Classic series guitars to compare it to.

So here I am, while some need to justify the extra money spent on MIA, I can understand there point. And at the same time some need to defend there MIM instruments, I can understand that aswell. But like I said earlier I don't need to justify or defend any of my guitars because I love them all; Fender or otherwise, and they are all priceless to me regardless of level of QC, cost, quality of parts, or point of origin. And if I still have anyones attention....Fenders Rule!!!!

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http://www.reverbnation.com/dirtbeggers

Amen M Brown

If they assembled a "Standard" using "MIA" components in Mexico, it would still be a different guitar than a "MIM Standard". It seems to me that the guitars coming from Mexico aren't setup as well as the Americans though.

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1994 Standard Strat, Blue
2000 Standard Strat, Black, with GFS block, and GFS Lil Killer pickup.
2004 Standard Telecaster, Black
1971 Gibson SG
1985 Kramer Baretta
1986 Kramer Vangard
Carvin X60B
Marshall 50 watt 2x12 combo

I agree,and the fret sprout is more a problem with the MIM than a MIA guitars .The MIAs have more of a broken in feel.

I bought a guitar from them (a beautiful Dean Z), Music Gallery, many years ago. Anyway, I have seen their pictorial, from 2003 IIRC.

Here's the most recent pictorial tour (covers both the Ensenada and Corona factories) that I know of (from mid-2006):

http://picasaweb.google.com/meridianmus ... ryTour2006
It shows necks in full production in Mexico. At the time of that Music Gallery tour, the necks were being made in the US!

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.