Well I figured this is as good a time as any to stop lurking and jump in.

I am about two years into fulfilling a life long desire to learn to play the guitar. I have owned 3 guitars, not counting the little accoustic I played around with when I was about 2.

1. I saw a Squire Strat package at Costco and couldn't resist. I still have that one and probably won't get rid of it because it was my first.
2. I thought I "needed" and HSH with a dual locking FR type trem so my wife (who has fully supported my little hobby and has never made me put on headphones and just shuts the door so I can play loud!!) let me pick out an Ibanez RG5EX1 for Christmas this year. I only kept it a month, it was a good guitar, but I really like Strats
3. Just picked up a Standard Strat (MIM) after taking the Ibanez back and I am loving it. It is Sunburst Brown with a maple neck. I know its a MiM but, it is a real Strat to me.

I have been self taught with help from books and online resources such as Jamplay, and I have progressed to where I can play recognizable if not perfect songs. I can improvise over backing tracks such as Coming Back to Life and while I do it in my own way, people recognize what I am doing.

My pup question is related to the position of the posts with regards to the strings. I never paid attention to this but I was just looking at the cover of Rock Guitar by Hal Leonard and there is a Strat on it. The strings align with the center of the pup posts on all three pups. On both my Squire and my MiM the bridge pup aligns this way, but the mid and the neck are slightly offset the neck pup more so than the mid. Is this normal?

Don't know what you mean by a "MIM being a real Strat to me". It IS a real Strat.
As to your pup question yes, I believe that "misalignment" is normal on MIM and Squier Strats. At least its like that on my MIM.

I had someone say it wasn't a real Strat after seeing the serial..anyhow..

Is there a reason that the pups would not be aligned? Does it even make a difference? Just curious and I am I don't have a complaint about it, but the engineer in me is craving an answer.

Great, Thanks

A. If the person is saying it's not a real Strat because it was made in Mexico (the serial no. would read something like MZxxxxxxx) Then they don't know what they are talking about.
B. My understanding is that for the more expensive guitars like the American Standard, the pups are individually made specifically for each position on the guitar, with the spacing of the poles optimized for the specific posiition on the body that the pup occupies. On the cheaper models, like the MIM, each pup is the same exact pickup as the others with the exact same spacing of the poles. In other words, the Am. Std. has 3 different pickups with different pole spacing, the MIM has three pickups, all the same. It's a cost cutting measure and, as far as I know has little effect on tone. Some, but not much.

In regards to the misalignment of the pickup magnet polepieces I believe the string spacing at the nut and at the bridge is wider on an American Standard than on an MIM or a Squier. I think I read somewhere it's 52mm as opposed to 56mm on the American? That's how the alignment will differ as the pickup dimensions are the same and are totally interchangeable between models.

It's definately nothing to stress over.

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MIM Std Tele, MIM HSS Strat, Homemade Mongrel Tele, Blues Jr, Champ600, coupla pedals...sweeeet!

Is there any problem with the sound? If not, don't worry about it. And if it's made by Fender, then it's a REAL Fender. My first guitar was a MIM strat, and it was great. I never had a single problem with it.

We'd REALLY like to see pictures of your guitar.

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"I like the way he puts Yngwie J. Malmsteen on his album covers. You know,....so you don't confuse him with all the other Yngwie Malmsteens in the business"


2008 Fender MIM Stratocaster
2010 Epiphone Masterbilt
2009 Fender Super Champ XD

You are on your way to learning something that will bring you pleasure for the rest of your life, make you the toast of the party or maybe something more. Right now I would not worry what others are saying about your gear just practice as much as you can and then try and find someone to play with. You might like to check out some DVDs on technique or to play some things note for not correct. Here is a great site that has it all www.licklibrary.com.

In my book, if it is made by Fender and if Fender names it a Strat, then it is a real Strat.

Bingo! mhainz hit it right on the head here. Basically you have two types of string spacing on Strats, "vintage" which is 2 7/32" and the "imports" (including MIM...which yes, it's a real Strat) that use metric. It's only a very slight difference...just a few mm really (or a few 1/16's of an inch depending on which side of the pond you're on) but it is enough to look just slightly off with a visual inspection. For example, I had a set of the Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups on my '96 MIM and yes, there did appear to be a slight mis-alignment as there was with the original pups. Those pickups migrated to my '08 Squier Standard for a while once I put Duncans on the MIM and the misalignment issues was still there on the '08 Squire. Just the other night I put those pickups on my '85 MIJ Squier which actually uses the vintage spaced bridge and not metric and...you guessed it...no misalignment.

Basically a Strat pickup is a Strat pickup in this specific regard. I'm sure there's probably a couple of anally retentive snobs out there who think they can hear a difference but the truth is it really just doesn't matter at all.

Now I am going to add one little addendum here...just because I did run in to this one with a Hondo LP copy. I've never seen this with a Strat (MIM or otherwise) but I did see this one case with a Hondo LP copy where the bridge had actually been placed out of alignment. In this specific case, the strings clearly didn't align with the pole pieces of the pickups but they were also clearly mis-aligned all the way down the neck (and towards the heal of the neck, they were actually off the fretboard...yea...that bad). In other words, as long as the strings are straight down the fretboard like they should be and as long as it plays well and sounds good to you, don't sweat the rest

Peace,
Jim