Hi all! I recently became the proud owner of a Telecaster Highway One Texas, which I love, but my heart still loves the Strat more. I have had my Mexican Standard Strat for 2 years. Part of me wishes I had stuck with an upgraded Strat...

So my question is to you all, is a Mexican Strat worth upgrading? The action could be better, and the neck isn't A+ either... but it is my first love. Is sinking hotter pickups into a Standard worth the time and cash? Or am I better off trading up to a stock, American made Strat?

You can do a lot of things for a lot less than buying an American strat. I say upgrade and save some cash.

Pickups and other things you can swap out without too much trouble ,but as long as you like the way it feels and plays, it should be ok.If it doesnt play or feel the way you want it to (and it is set up properly) you may want to move on.I will say the necks on the MIA strats fell nicer and seem to play faster, but i have tried some MIMs that played pretty nice too.

If you like the guitar and want to upgrade it, then do it. The only person it should matter to is you.

_________________
Chet Feathers

Authorized TonePros Dealer
Authorized WD Music Products Dealer
F/A Official Southpaw Compliance Certification Tester http://faamps.com/

http://www.facebook.com/cafeathers


I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

+1 w cafeathers

on the other side mim strat are an excellent starting point to start customizing your strat.
personally i like mim strats. if you want to customize your strat, ebay has stratosphere where this persons sells anything from loaded pickguards to bodies, and necks. worth a looksie.
might be a worthwhile satisfying project.....

Its your call. If you want to upgrade, fire away.

It is ideal for modding.

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

I just read "The Black Strat" this weekend.

If reading that doesn't motivate you to hot rod your MIM and take some chances, nothing will.

Personally I can't think of a better guitar to use as a starting platform for hot rodding.

High enough quality to start with to make it worth the investment, but
you're not hacking up an American Deluxe...

Not to mention the personal satisfaction of tweaking your guitar to your own taste.

Just save all your old parts. Eventually you will end up replacing everything, and then you will end up with enough leftover parts to build a second guitar. Happens all the time.

_________________
'95 Custom Warmoth Soloist Solid Flame Koa Body/Neck, Duncan Classic Livewire SSH, Sperzel locking tuners, Wilkinson VS100 bridge, all black chrome.
2008 MIM Lonestar Strat Black/White Pearl
2008 Taylor 114 CE

Have you ever heard any Los Lonely Boys music?

The last time I read anything on them was the following. Henry Garza gets an MIM, puts on an 57 r.i. neck, puts in Tex Mex pickups and puts 11's on the guitar. The MIM's are good enough for him to mod. Sure a lot of it is in his hands and his amp & pedal set up. But he still goes for an MIM.

I agree.. Upgrading is a lot more economical than going new! You have the baseline of a very dependable and playable ax. The Mexican is a sturdy instrument. Mine has given me some great service the past couple of years.

He's my go to guy for a lot of stuff. I'm working on a project strat right now where the majority of the parts are from him.

I agree with both of these guys. I had an MIM years ago that I picked up at a garage sale for $75! I thought this would be a great strat to customize so I replaced all the pickups and put Sperzel's on it w/a graphite nut. It was a screamer and wouldn't go out of tune.

_________________
The mind is like a parachute; it doesn't work unless its open-FZ

In my experience, if I would have just gone ahead, bit the bullet and bought my American Deluxe Strat in the first place, I would have pretty much broken even. But I would have saved a lot of time and aggravation trying to get my MIM strat to play like I wanted, at which I never succeeded. It sounds like you are dealing with playability issues as well as wanting to upgrade components. That can be an expensive an frustrating experience. Count the cost and I would be willing to bet that, including selling your MIM, you would be able to buy at least an American Standard or do like I did and get a gem off e--- or craigs----. As others have said, there is a difference.

_________________
2004 American Deluxe V-Neck Strat w/Kinman Blues
2007 American Deluxe Tele w/Kinman Broadcasters
Mesa Boogie Lonestar Classic 2X12
Fender Cyber-Twin SE

Exactly! You play it. If you like it upgrade it. It'll be fun too.

The neck on my Mexi Strat is incredible, so I don't see the need to swap a neck unless you REALLY don't like it.

I'm going to upgrade mine to an HSS (already routed that way) setup and add a Super Vee vibrato in the future, but now I'm just having too damn much fun playing it.