Trying to decide between three Strats, buying in a month

[Tone2TheBone]

What! Non American Strats are toys?! This is an outrage! This is a scandal!:flamemad: :tongue:

Oh in a late answer to one of your questions I've got Dimarzio Class of 55s in my 60s Strat. Great low output vintage belltone. Noisy too but hey they gotta be noisy to be "authentic"...American or otherwise. My MIM Classic 50s Strat has the stock vintage wound pickups and they also provide sweet low output vintage bell tones. I'd like to buy me a set of those just to have around for future project guitar.

 

[Iago]

Just put some good pickups in any decente guitar (don't have to be made in USA for that) and there you go.

I would just tell someone to do the blind test. blindfold your eyes and let someone bring to you 10 guitars, a mix of americans, mexicans and if you can japaneses too, I'm really sure everyone that has this misconception will be surprised... and I'm not even talking about the bang for the buck factor.

 

[player]

Just put some good pickups in any decente guitar (don't have to be made in USA for that) and there you go.

I would just tell someone to do the blind test. blindfold your eyes and let someone bring to you 10 guitars, a mix of americans, mexicans and if you can japaneses too, I'm really sure everyone that has this misconception will be surprised... and I'm not even talking about the bang for the buck factor.

true enough agreed however how many places are going to honor a request like that.reality: you would be hard pressed to find one IMHO

 

[tremoloman]

So did you order your Strat? I would go with the MIM and then spend the spare $$$ on whatever mods you wish to make. The MIMs that are out now are really super guitars.

Of course, if you had the $$$ I'd say get an American Deluxe.

 

[Danzego]

I picked up an American Standard, trem. It's great, with the exception of an issue I'm having above the nut where the B and G strings sound when playing them open (they make a tinking sound, the same pitch as when you pluck strings at the headstock).

I'm returning it and getting a new one, but I have to wait until late next week when school is out for the quarter. I've just had way too much work (and plenty more to do) to get around to returning it and having a new one sent my way. The salesdude already said it's cool if I go over the 30 day return policy, so I told him late next week and it's fine. That's when I'll be ordering the next one.

 

[player]

Thought?? - String trees on Nut.E B anyway.roundwound G? things to think on.this way it may not have to be returned at all unless that is a done deal made already

 

[hubberjub]

That's not a major problem. Mine does that too since I took off the string trees. If the nut to tuner angle is fine without the trees you can put a rubber band or hair tie around the headstock between the nut and tuners. That will get rid of the sympathetic vibrations.

 

[coachj]

Did you buy it yet?

 

[TS808]

Just my opinion, but I don't think you can go wrong with any of the options, whether the strat is made in Mexico or the USA. I've owned many strats over the years, and have settled with my 2002 and 2003 American Series strats. I've owned MIM standard strats and hot-rodded them with better pickups and bridge saddles, and they turned out to be awesome guitars both in terms of playability and tone. The quality of the MIM Fenders is as good (if not better) than some guitars sold at much higher prices.

I've been playing now for 38 years, and bought my first strat in 1983..I've never had a bad experience with a Fender product, whether it was a guitar or amp. It just depends on how much you want to spend. You can always upgrade them to better pickups and saddles.

 

[Danzego]

Update: I ended up getting the one I returned back. It's just become WAY too much of a hassle with the clowns at Guitar Center.

Basically, the dude offered to have the repair guy fix it, I said "nah, I didn't pay 900 just to put it in repair" and did the return. He said they were in stock at Fender and should be in relatively quickly. After three weeks, I called and asked what was up. Yet again (as happened with the Lonestar), the guy was all "I don't know. Now it says out of stock, blahblahblah. I can't even say when it will come in."

He said that he still had the one I returned and if I wanted it fixed, so I finally caved after making sure that they weren't going to just toss some crappy All Parts brand plastic nut on there. He agreed to have a graphite nut put on there and, long story short, I have it back.

HOWEVER, it was a big time hassle getting that done. The guitar wasn't done when I got there even though they said it would be done earlier in the week (had to ding around the area for several hours, wasting the whole day) and I had to start raising my voice in the store for them to sell the guitar back to me for what I originally paid for it. Seems Guitar Center recently went to fixed prices and they claimed they couldn't adjust the price down to 900. Problem is I was trapped there and couldn't get the money back since they had the credit on my account and it was paid largely by gifts cards in the first place. Finally, the sales manager came over and was able to push the sale through at the original price. :whatever:

Now that I have my guitar, I think I'm about done with that place. :AOK: