1982

Adolph RickenbackerGeorge Beauchamp

Telecaster

Electric Guitars carrying the Fender brand are currently made in 4 countries. America ( USA ), Mexico, China and Japan. American made models are generally easy to identify as they follow a naming convention such as: American Professional, American Elite, American Special to name but a few.

USA Fender Stratocasters Built in Fender’s Corona, California factory, USA Stratocasters set the standard for quality, tone and playability. Made with premium tonewoods (usually alder or ash), custom shop pickups, and master craftsmanship, the USA Strats are sure to please demanding players across a variety of styles.

The first major difference between the two – besides the price – is the wood used for the bodies. While an American Fender has a three piece body made of ash, its Mexican equivalent is made either superior choice in wood and build.

That being said, Mexican Strats are still excellent sounding guitars. They deliver the same versatile range as the American Strats, with that same snappy tone quality. They just don’t have that extra oomph that makes an American Strat an American Strat.

Do you have a problem with being able to get an MIM so cheap? It’s cheaper because the Mexican worker is payed less in the Mexican factory than his cousin that works in the U.S. Factory.

Almost no modern guitars hold their value. As a general rule (and there are one or two exceptions, but Mexican Standards aren’t amongst them) a guitar is worth around 65% of it’s new value the minute it leaves the shop.

The Hardware is better on the MIM but the quality and play ability is the same. As far as quality goes Classic 60’s, Baja Telecasters, Classic Series 50’s strat/tele MIM versus IJ ST62 or st58 I would say is pretty on par.

I’ve owned two Japanese strats and many American Strats (how on earth did you know that Quora?) and Japanese strats are amazing. Right up there with American stats for quality and workmanship. But, like the pre-CBS Fender (1965), Fender Japan was better in the 80’s.

Fender Japan, Ltd. The collaboration began in 1982 and ended on March 31, 2015, with Fender’s launch of Fender Music Corporation (Japan) taking over the Japanese business effective April 1, 2015 with a Fender-manufactured product line.

generally speaking, the japanese make great guitars. you do sometimes find that non-japanese companies with a japanese subsidiary may (note, i said may, not necessarily) deliberately handicap their non-top-of-the-range (i.e. Japanese) models so as not to cannibalise their USA-made models (e.g. Jackson).