Link : http://www.axlchina.com/guitar/news/detail.asp?id=1334

it says something like :
- Google Translate.




Caption : "Basswood used on body, the weight is like in between Fender MIJ & American Standard."




it says "pickups has it's classic Fender Strat's sound"
I've found the spec in another web saying :
"拾音器 : CUSTOM SHOP超级拾音器"
Pickups : Custom Shop Super Pick Ups.






the last 3 pictures' captions are : "Almost exactly the same as American Standard."

here's a video comparing Fender MIC White and American Standard Sunburst:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzE1NjE1NDg0.html

My question is : Is this AXL Music Instruments CO., Ltd., Corp really is the partner of Fender and they really manufacture Fender guitar in China now?

If they're real, RMB1,999 (US$ 310) for a Fender Stratocaster....

Thanks!

Yes. It's real. The modern player series is from China. In other forums and from a few friends, Fender took a bit of heat from the confusion of the backplate holes being symmetrical, but I don't care, because those are some nice guitars.

_________________
1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Also, the tuners are supposedly interchangeable with MIM stuff.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Well, this scares the crap out of me. God knows there is enough mischief on eBay now, but there are going to be a lot of fake USA necks for auction fairly soon.

I'm looking at the pics real close, but I can't see any difference except the logo inside color is silver instead of gold. . .

Some of the Korean strats necks and bodies aren't interchangable with USA and MIM strats, hopefully Fender will have tweaked the China specs so they aren't either.

Nothing with an American trademark but built in COMMUNIST CHINA is real to me!



Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

My brother is a communist. He's one of the smartest people I know and has been cutting down extremists and fundamentalists for years.

_________________
1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

He's actually moving to a few countries over his lifetime. He's fluent in German, so he might settle in Germany.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Politics... away... now... wrong place & wrong time!

Either way, I think it looks pretty cheap and nasty. How does it work out price-wise? Above/below Mexican?

_________________
'01 American Deluxe HSS Strat.
'87 Japan HSS Strat.
'11 Custom Shop FMT HSS Strat.

"Without music, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines and dates by which bills must be paid."

the average price of modern player stuff is in the $300-$400 range I think. I haven't seen that many pop up for sale to tell you an accurate amount.

_________________
1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

How long have they been out? Have I had my head up my jacksie or something..?

Literally heard nothing about these. Guessing it's the same sort of thing as the Korean ones though, i.e. Lite Ash, Showmaster... yaddiyah.

_________________
'01 American Deluxe HSS Strat.
'87 Japan HSS Strat.
'11 Custom Shop FMT HSS Strat.

"Without music, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines and dates by which bills must be paid."

They were released about a month or so ago. I'd take this over a blacktop, tbh.

_________________
1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

I'm glad that my Strat was made in Mexico.

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Bill

Yeah but there will be people claiming their Chinese strat is just as good or better than your Mexican strat for a fraction of the price.

There has never been a better time in history to voice your opinion with your wallet. You are either for out-sourcing which creates low prices and even lower domestic wages or you are against it. Put your money where your mouth is.

My Gawd but when I think about the ramifications of buying one of these things on a VISA card in a slow economy .... when China underwrites so much debt already .... the mind reels.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Well I own Fenders, a Chi Com Epiphone and Squire guitars made in the US, Mexico and Indonesia, plus a Brawley from Korea and as far as quality goes, the MIM comes in last, then Indonesia, the USA built EJ and the Korean Brawley's are next but the best one of all turns out to be my Epi Masterbuilt acoustic from the new factory in China! Its darned near perfect and sounds better than a Martin.

We all know that the quality and attention to detail of the Japanese Fenders is legendary and there sure are some terrific Indonesian Squires out there that unfortunately aren't distributed in the USA but I'm expecting these new Chi Com Fenders to be as good as anything out there and if they're well accepted by the American buying public (And I think they will be.), we'll be seeing a lot of em.

Were just going to have to accept the fact that the world has changed, all of the major brands are owned by a small handful of huge corporations and Thayer thinking globally.
Locally be damned!