Mexican Fenders

Gassage · January 2016

@andypwudtone

That bridge- does it include the block? What is block made from? Saddles?

andypwudtone · January 2016

Gassage said:

@andypwudtone

That bridge- does it include the block? What is block made from? Saddles?

£29.99 ( on sale at the mo from £39.99) gets you a Wudtone CP plate, shim and bearing screws. It is the Wudtone CPVT version. Made from steel equivalent to the original 50's Fender plates, has MIM 2 1/16 mounting spacing and string spacing , so compatible with MIM blocks and saddles.

kind regards

andypwudtone · January 2016

MattFGBI said:

Fuzzdog;938046" said:
Dan said:

Different feel to USA strats, I find they are great but some are a little cold?

I'd definitely say that about the US Standards - they just feel a bit bland and devoid of character to me. Solid working guitars though, and good platforms for upgrades, I've just never played one made in the past 20 years or so which really made me smile.
You haven't played the right one.

Excluding Custom Shop, if I had to buy a new Strat today it would be the American Standard. Yes the Mexican made guitars are very good but most of that is down to the talent of the builders. On paper they shouldn't play or feel as good as they do.

...... I do think the new American Elite guitars might change my mind though. The previous Deluxes left me a bit cold but the Elites have features that make sense and the new N4 pickups sound like real pickups.

I guess it's horses for courses. It really does depend on what you want out of the guitar and where you're going to use it.

any strat with a two post bridge will be relatively "bland and devoid of character" "thin and pingy" "lacking in fat creamy vintage tone" , not my words just the kind of opinions you will always hear and it is due to the poorer dynamic efficiency, energy transfer of a floating bridge plate.

That is why you will also hear stories of MIM strats smoking USA American Standard strats in blind tests etc.

As far as dynamics are concerned there is no way energies can get from a bridge, only connected via two knife edges , into two small radius pivot posts into a guitar body, which then loop back into the strings. It is the efficiency of those dynamics that drive everything to do with a guitars performance, feel and resulting tone :

It also affects the

efficiency , responsiveness to your inputs

length of notes chords etc

level of light and shade you have at your fingertips

detail of clarity and detail the bridge materials can deliver.

Fender's two post platform ( along with other similar later 70's early eighties inventions , eg PRS grooved screw, Ernie Ball Luke ) all have something in common and that is they all employ indentations in fixings ( to help tuning stability) and this lifts the bridge plates off the body. This has totally transformed (and compressed) all the dynamics of the guitars.

The dynamics drive everything to do with the guitar's performance and tone. It may have stabilised the tuning problems of the old vintage plates but it destroyed the better dynamics and killer tones. In those terms it was a huge backward leap

Sorry @MattFGBI but no floating plate type guitar ( including all USA Fender's that have them ) is ever going to be on the course, nevermind deliver a satisfying ride. Just IMHO as always

kind regards

Sambostar · January 2016

Articulately put. It's like bows and arrows, except because you can't quantify tone in terms of distance and velocity, people sqy it's nonsense.

Gassage · January 2016

I have to totally agree with andy's post.

Thing is, people tend to look at a single component.

A strat sounds like a strat due to 5 or 10 things all going on together- the reverb in the trem springs, the hollowness of the saddles, the thick tool steel of theblock, the 6 screws holding the plate to the body.

This is all about kinetic, magnetic and electrical energy transfer. Change one thing, all else changes too.

Tele's - ditto.

meltedbuzzbox · January 2016

Clarky said:

MattFGBI said:

You'll find Mexico bodies are normally 3 or 4 (more often 3) and the US ones will be 2 upwards, but again, mostly 3.

my Strat is a 3 piece.. it's a 1978 ash Panzer Tank

edited for accuracy

HPhillipsmusic · January 2016

I adore my 3 MIM's (classic 50's Strat, Classic 50's Tele, Classic Series '69 Thinline) now that i've swapped the pickups to CS 54's in the strat, 51 Nocasters in the Tele and now the superb CS Blackguard pups in the Thinline (they really bite). I like the weight of the classic series as well as the vintage spec necks and tuners. I own a Custom Shop 63 tele from '97 which is like a ferrari and is a monster for high octane lead playing, but there's something about the responsiveness and sweetness to the maple necks on the Classic Series that when paired up with decent vintage low pick ups really makes it feel more vintage than even the custom shop does.

I could be totally wrong but I would imagine that the MIM Classic Series are probably closer to the early 50's Teles and Strats in terms of feel and pricing and parts value back then than super expensive American made instruments today. When Fender started making the guitars in the 50's and 60's that are so highly prized now, at the time they weren't held in such high esteem, otherwise presumably everyone would have held onto theirs as an investment. Am i making any sense?

I'm yet to play a modern spec mexican or american made guitar that feels as good to me as the vintage spec MIM's.

Harry

Clarky · January 2016

meltedbuzzbox said:

Clarky said:

MattFGBI said:

You'll find Mexico bodies are normally 3 or 4 (more often 3) and the US ones will be 2 upwards, but again, mostly 3.

my Strat is a 3 piece.. it's a 1978 ash Panzer Tank

edited for accuracy

lmao... it certainly weighs the same...

Neil · January 2016

HPhillipsmusic said:

I could be totally wrong but I would imagine that the MIM Classic Series are probably closer to the early 50's Teles and Strats in terms of feel and pricing and parts value back then than super expensive American made instruments today. When Fender started making the guitars in the 50's and 60's that are so highly prized now, at the time they weren't held in such high esteem, otherwise presumably everyone would have held onto theirs as an investment. Am i making any sense?

No, you are not really making any sense.

When Fender were making guitars in the '50's and '60's they were held in high esteem because they were so very expensive.

In 1967 a Strat with tremelo was $299.50 which equates to $2137 now.

A new US Standard is around half that price.

All guitars are far cheaper in real terms nowadays than they have ever been, and of course they make many more in parts of the world with cheaper labour now also.

nickp · January 2016

i am a bit late to this party.

I have two mex fenders. one a classic big headstock 70's reissue in Ikea furniture wood. change pickups to oil city, change trem to wilkinson, get a nut job and locking tuners, decent string trees. Result, the best feeling and sounding strat I've ever played. Stays in tune too.

Other mex fender. thin neck. lowish frets. did similar work, but it's a kinda superstrat. not a wonderful guitar but useful tool. will not stand against a usa strat.

so my guess is pick the right mex strat and it can be a wonderful thing as long as you look at the tuners and bridge as replaceable items if you want it to stay properly in tune - but mine can suffer a lot of trem abuse and stay in tune nicely.

jeztone2 · January 2016

When they first came out. They were gash. But they've gotten better. I tried a Baja Tele & I was knocked out. But some of the early ones in the 90's were not great. But yeah good guitars.

ICBM · January 2016

jeztone2 said:

When they first came out. They were gash. But they've gotten better. I tried a Baja Tele & I was knocked out. But some of the early ones in the 90's were not great. But yeah good guitars.

I agree with that. The first ones were noticeably inferior to Japanese ones, and about on a par with a Korean Squier. I think they've (just) overtaken the Japanese ones now though.

Richardj · January 2016

Not sure if I was lucky but the body and neck on my '90 are really nice. The rest of it was 'OK'. Of course the joy of the Fender design is that everything could simply be unscrewed/soldered and easily upgraded.

Philly_Q · January 2016

ICBM said:

jeztone2 said:

When they first came out. They were gash. But they've gotten better. I tried a Baja Tele & I was knocked out. But some of the early ones in the 90's were not great. But yeah good guitars.

I agree with that. The first ones were noticeably inferior to Japanese ones, and about on a par with a Korean Squier. I think they've (just) overtaken the Japanese ones now though.

I had an early version of the Jimmie Vaughan signature model. The woodworking felt pretty crude, but I have to say it sounded great, acoustically speaking. I only sold it because I didn't like the V neck.

It also came with a proper USA bridge and Gotoh Kluson tuners rather than the Ping(?) ones they use on most MIM models. I don't know if that's still the case.

ChuckManual · January 2016

I had a MIJ Aerodye Tele that was fantastic, the other day I played a MIM Robert Cray Strat that I really liked - and I own a US-made Stratosonic that I'm going to be buried with. Fender's QC seems to be exceptional.

On the other had; I visited both Andertons and DV247 during the great 2015 Les Paul price war (with money in my pocket) and didn't find a single guitar I could bond with ...and I really want a Les Paul Junior, Special or Deluxe.

SNAKEBITE · January 2016

The only US one I have had is a Highway 1, and it was fantastic.

(Yes, I know it was really a Mexican assembled in the US therefore being badged US!)

I now own a MIM and it is also fantastic.

I bought the H1 because I'd always lusted after a US model which I was going to keep forever. Sadly things didn't work out that way, but at the end of the day it was really a bit of snobbery, it was all about the logo on the headstock.

JD50 · January 2016

How are the CP 60s Strats? I've always fancied one I sonic blue.

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