Well, my first question to you is what was it that made your Mexican Strat so horrible? I have a '96 Mexican and I -love- it! Yea, it's poplar instead of alder but that really doesn't have too much to do with the tone at all. In this whole debate about tone woods, you have to remember that this is a very subjective debate that has been going on for decades. There are sooooo many other factors that effect the sound of an "electric" guitar...the pickups, the bridge/hardware, the amp and even the finish...the tone wood really is fairly insignificant (unless you are planning on playing your guitar unplugged in a quite bedroom). The truth of the matter is that in most cases, all other things being absolutely equal, if you took three Strats...one made of Alder, one of Ash and one of poplar...chances are if you were wearing a blind fold, you really wouldn't be able to tell which was which just based on the "sound of the wood".

In this case, you said your "Mexican Strat body was horrible"...if we're talking a tone issue, are you absolutely positive it wasn't the pickups (MIM's are notorious for crappy pickups!)? Are you sure it wasn't that dinky little zinc alloy trem block that the older MIM's came with? Do you simply think that it was horrible because in your mind American bodies are somehow better? What was the specific reason you felt it was horrible? This will determine whether or not you would actually like the Japanese bodies.

That said, I've only played 3 Japanese Strats but in every case, they were exceptional instruments. I just saw one at a local guitar show and it broke my heart to have to walk away from it (but I already had a Yamaha bass in my hands!). To me, the Japanese Strats actually sound more "Strat-like" than a lot of more contemporary instruments that I've played. Even here though, a lot of that comes down to the e-tronics...which is why I just put Japanese pickups in the Partscaster I just build .

Anyways, the Japanese Strats...bodies or otherwise...are just like like any other guitar; either you like them or you don't. Most of it comes down to the other pieces/parts that go into creating the whole guitar. Don't like the sound? Try a different set of pickups. Don't like the feel? Try a different neck. At the risk of sounding like an Einstein here, "It's all relative".




There is just one little comment I have to make in regards to that statement...

Leo Fender was...according to everything I've ever read...a rather frugal and practical individual. While I have no way to confirm this, I'd be willing to guess that a good portion of Fender's choice to use Alder and Ash in his early instruments had more to do with issues such as price, availability and how easy the wood was to machine more than it specifically did with "tone". Let's look at Alder specifically...back in the 40's and 50's, Alder was very plentiful out on the West Coast, it was inexpensive, it was solid enough to build a "solid body guitar" from (which was the whole point to begin with...avoiding that whole feedback issue with more traditional designs of the day) and it was also fairly easy to machine without too many issues. It's a fairly straight grained wood that isn't terribly porous so you can get something that "looks" pretty nice without too much effort...a very important consideration when you are planning to mass-produce something such as a guitar. Very honestly, if Fender had of been based here on the East Coast instead of out in CA, a great many of those early Strats could just as easily have been made from poplar instead of Alder.

Again, I could be wrong here. I never met Leo Fender and I certainly never had the privilege of ever talking with the man but from everything I've ever read, I'm willing to venture that his choice of Alder really didn't have that much to do with tone...at least not specifically in and of itself. Leo Fender wasn't a musician or a die hard tone freak the way so many of his disciples are...he was an inventor, a tinkerer and a businessman and I'd be willing to bet those factors influenced his choice to use alder (and ash) more than anything else.


L8r,
Jim

Yes, I knew about the ash being used first...I was simply using alder as the example because it's so popular now for folks to think of Strat bodies as alder and that somehow that's what makes them "better" than bodies made from other woods such as poplar, basswood, etc..

Peace

I have a mid 80s MIJ Fender strat, nice guitar but as heavy as hell, if basswood is lighter than alder, WHAT is it made of??

A Linden Tree

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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

Hell's teeth!

I know a well respected tech/luthier who favors vintage over modern tuners because of the tiny difference in weight - he has a very bad lower spine and says he can feel the difference.

He'd be kinda wasting his time with that thirteen pounder, wouldn't he? Is that a Strat or a field gun?

- C

My doubleneck Strat only weighs 12.55 pounds!

My heaviest (singleneck) Strat is one-piece ash from 1975. One of these days I'm going to drag it to the friendly local guitar shop to have them weigh it. I'll report back when I do.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

I've just weighed my 'heavy' strat, admittedly on my crapy old bathroom scales, and it tops out at just over 8 pounds. So maybe it's not so heavy after all!

Perhaps the scales are inaccurate, or more likely my subjective assessment is inaccurate. It is much heavier than my Malmsteen strat however (which has just gone back to Fender with a twisted neck). Surely the missing wood from the scallops can't make that much difference LoL!

Saying the wood doesn't matter is ridiculous. If you have a crappy piece of wood even $200 Dimarzios's aren't gonna turn it into a jewel. Speaking of which I had $200 Dimarzio's installed. The guitar sounded very scrappy and trashy. A very low budget sound. Personally I think I got what's called a lemon cuz I know many others have Mexican Strats that they really like. I too have owned other Mexican Strats before and I don't recall them sounding this bad.

The wood is the one thing in a guitar that you cannot change so you better end up with a good piece of it.