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Post subject: Made In Japan Strats
Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 3:06 pm
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I've heard that MIJ or CIJ strats are often superior to the quality of MIM strats and sometimes even MIA strats. Does anyone know why they aren't sold in America anymore?

Also, does anyone know of any Japanese series of guitars that were reported to be especially good or whether CIJ or MIJ tends to have better guitars?
I'd like to keep an eye out on Ebay and I'm not really sure what I should look for.


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Post subject: Re: Made In Japan Strats
Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 3:42 pm
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i dont know much about Fenders, but i always wanted one and when i finally decided to buy it, i spent many months reading about the subject, comparing data, reading reading and reading, THEN for weeks i kept going to music stores and playing various fenders stratocasters at all price levels... until i found what i was looking for - in a Japanese '62 reissue model.
I keep reading posts on this forum pretty much every day, learning new things all the time, and i am absolutely satisfied with my purchase. I strongly believe that Japanese Fenders are worth every bit of their asking price. they look awesome, they play awesome and and beautifully put together.

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Post subject: Re: Made In Japan Strats
Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 4:32 pm
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allmyguitarssuck wrote:
I've heard that MIJ or CIJ strats are often superior to the quality of MIM strats and sometimes even MIA strats. Does anyone know why they aren't sold in America anymore?

Also, does anyone know of any Japanese series of guitars that were reported to be especially good or whether CIJ or MIJ tends to have better guitars?
I'd like to keep an eye out on Ebay and I'm not really sure what I should look for.


In order to educate you all the different models of MIJ/CIJ and how they stack up against, US and MIM would take longer than a reply post. Instead I suggest you hang out here a while, maybe post a couple of links from ebay on guitars you are considering and we can give you opinions, facts, and relative merits of each one.

As for why they are not sold here in the US as much, you just need to look at the dollar to yen ratio and it will quickly become clear the MIJ Fenders have priced themselves just about out of the market...along with the fact that Fender has their MIM plant just down the road literally and have models that compare favorably now with the MIJ ones.

HTH

T2

PS...I own all three US, MIJ, and MIM. Everyone is an exceptional guitar in it's own right.

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Post subject: Re: Made In Japan Strats
Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 4:38 pm
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Honestly, I didn't think about the fact that the Japanese lines would kind of be useless in America after the Mexico factory was started. That actually makes a lot of sense.

By pricing out of the market do you mean exorbitantly high?


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Post subject: Re: Made In Japan Strats
Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 5:55 pm
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allmyguitarssuck wrote:
Honestly, I didn't think about the fact that the Japanese lines would kind of be useless in America after the Mexico factory was started. That actually makes a lot of sense.

By pricing out of the market do you mean exorbitantly high?


No. I mean when a MIJ guitar costs nearly as much as a US Made one, it no longer makes sense to sell it in the US and compete with yourself. Even if the quality were the same, why split your profit with Fender Japan on a guitar your selling when you could keep all the profit?

T2

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Post subject: Re: Made In Japan Strats
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 1:31 am
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I have to agree with T2.

My suggestion is to go and play the models you want to look at. All manufacturing plants make them in good quality, in relatively the exact same measurements and tolerances. QA tends to be very consistent.

Quality was at a particular time in the 80's on par with USA with the Japanese squires but that is irrelevant when comparing the models on offer today.

But go out and draw your own conclusions, that's the best I can suggest. There are a lot of opinions about the quality of manufacture from all of the three main countries, lots of speculation and very easy to get caught in the Internet hype.. Which a lot of it is.

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Post subject: Re: Made In Japan Strats
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2014 2:01 pm
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Blertles wrote:
There are a lot of opinions about the quality of manufacture from all of the three main countries, lots of speculation and very easy to get caught in the Internet hype.. Which a lot of it is.


+1!

It used to be possible to order a guitar directly from Japanese Fender dealers and have it shipped to the states (Ishibashi was one of the major ones). However, Fender USA did not like this practice and apparently pressured Fender dealers in Japan to stop selling directly to US consumers. If you do some googling, you can probably find threads on some of the various Fender forums that discuss this.

If you want a Japanese Fender, you're best bet is probably E-bay. There was a dealer who specialized in used Japanese Fenders (http://www.guitargai.com) but his site has been down for some time, so I think he's out of the business now. He always had a nice inventory, but his guitars tended to be overpriced IMHO.

BTW, I have a CIJ Telecaster Thinline that is awesome. I like it better than any other Fender I've played (including American ones.) However, this doesn't mean that ALL Japanese Fenders are superior than ALL other Fenders, of course. I got mine on E-bay and had to replace the pots and repair the jack, but it was worth it. YMMV.


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Post subject: Re: Made In Japan Strats
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2014 2:27 pm
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I have played Strats for years and own or have owned American made and the Mij and the mim and I my opinion they are all great guitars. There is a difference in the electronics between the different levels and also the fit in finish but if set up right they all play amazing set up of the guitar is key With the Fenders there are a few different neck contours that effect the feel and with all the different reissues its possible to pick the feel you like with out having to save the money for a original 57 strat. One of my favorite electric guitar I have now is a mim Nashville tele that I had set up by a great guitar tech with the usa tex mex pickups that I had him put in people that hear it and have played it can't believe its a mim tele. I say try them all. Just my 2 cents.

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Post subject: Re: Made In Japan Strats
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 8:08 am
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I own four MIJ strats. For me it was just preference. I had a similar US version of the same guitar, and I just preferred the MIJ version.

The one thing that sucks is, the US doesn't offer as wide a variety as they do in Japan.


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Post subject: Re: Made In Japan Strats
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 11:13 am
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Mid '80's MIJ Strats were far superior to any Fender Strats being made in the U.S. at that time and some even better than present day Strats made in the U.S. and Mexico. But that is my personal opinion.

As to why Current day MIJ/CIJ Strats are not available in the U.S.? I don't personally know. I do know that the Strats available in the U.S. are well built guitars that sound and play well. You just need to try as many as you can to find the one for you.

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