I like this guy- he is a total crack-up... check this out:

"The Body is made out of Alder, a tonewood that many companies are using for their lower end guitars or guitars they know will not have a transparent finish. Fender uses alder on their American strats too, but I have a feeling that they come from better stock"

Id like to know where he got his facts from. He cannot substantiate this as he says that "I have a feeling". As you know, the Customshop use alder amoung many other woods. Who said they did come from better stock? at the end of the day, it's just wood. Whats the difference between the alder on my Am Deluxe and the alder on my Standard Strat? They both sound relatively the same, most people wouldnt even notice it. Get them on stage and would you tell? I dont see why people care so much about the topic.
Truth be told, Basswood is Japanese Alder. That does not make it less quality. Poplar was used frequently in early nineties for MIM and American standard and no-one really complained did they?, but what is this all about? Cost of the wood?, the species of the wood,? or does it just have to be Alder for the sake of most strats are alder?

Getting back to Basswood (remember this is a species of alder) & Poplar, we associate it with Japanese Squier guitars and MIM guitars and a stigma more often than not gets drawn into them. Has anyone here actually played a strat made of Poplar? I have, and I have owned one for a number of years. Acoustically, it was the best sounding strat Ive played. It was loud, all of the strats I own arent as loud as that one.

"I’m making an assumption, so it could be completely false. Alder isn’t exactly the prettiest of woods, but it’s similar to higher ones so they might as well use it if they got it."

Ok, how did this guy make it through college/media school? He is making assumptions and he clearly has no research behind him. What kind of statement is that in the first place? lol What is it about Alder that isnt so pretty? like I said, it's just a working man's wood for a working class guitar, it's not AAAA curly maple.

"I have no idea about the state of Alder trees, so if you’re interested in that, go do some research and send it my way too." Again, this is the sort of thing you dont do when writing a coloumn... ask your readers to do your research. I mean, this review seems pretty sloppy. I aint no english scholar either...

"The polyurethane finish is so thick and there’s probably filler in some bad spots on the guitar, so the resonating properties one could associate with a thin finished Alder body are probably hindered by all of the coating. Personally, I can’t hear it, but i’m drawing conclusions from what I read and assume." Interesting comment. FYI the finish is actually Polyester- again he is assuming in his column review.. obviously he didnt read into what he was reviewing...not good. I know media students that might get a good laugh out of this.


So here's my verdict as I own a MIM standard, and a MIA Deluxe. There is nothing wrong with a MIM guitar. It will play nicely, the neck feels nice the finish quality is the same. Truth be told, the Mexico plant workers are more meticulous in their day to day jobs at the fender plant than the Corona facility. If you dont believe me then there is a string of photos from a guy who went on a tour of both factories, he took hundreds of photos and it is really obvious. The floors are clean, workers are wearing protective gear etc... everything is neat and tidy.

The MIA Deluxe, on the otherhand- it has some nice appointments. but some could be easily overlooked, and I have tested fellow forum friends on this. The wood is selected, you will find MIM standard rosewood lighter that MIA Deluxe line rosewood, which is somewhat darker it seems. Body wise, both are finished to a high standard, I give them both the same rating if they were side to side. The neck however on my MIA kind of leaves more to be desired. The MIM neck satin feels nicer, and the shape feels more comfortable to palm. The MIA feels more sterile and generic.

Pickups on the MIA- lets face it, they are better sounding- but thats personal taste. However, the MIM is HSS and the humbucker tone is more truthfull as a humbucker, whereas the S1 and the cobalts just 'fatten' the sound. Tuners on the MIA are locking, though I have a Floyd Rose on the mim so to be truthfull, I couldnt care less about the locking/non-locking tuners debate. I lock the strings down after a couple of days after a string change- then Im not going to worry about tuning it for a long while. Perhaps a tweak on the fine tuners and the odd adjustment to get equal play on the thread of them, but thats it really untill the next set of strings a month or two later. No big deal.

I think money wise, the MIM's are good quality and good fun. I prefer to play it over my other guitars, because to me- the neck feels better in my hands, the action is nice and it really is a nice sounding guitar, and the thing reminds me of the one I learnt on many years ago. But to be honest, it could really give an MIA Hss a good run for it's money any day

Here are shots of the deluxe neck and the MIM neck:







A small difference for a large jump in price?

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