Guitar Thread - Page 43

On January 30 2014 00:16 Ben... wrote:
I own one (or more) of each MIA, MIM, and MIJ and here's what I've noticed. I've been a Fender guy for a long time so I guess I can chip in. I guess it helps that I'm also kinda nitpicky and like to tinker with guitars.

Quality-wise, the American and Japanese are about on par, maybe a small edge to the American stuff, and both are noticeably better than MIM in most, but not all, cases. When I did a complete teardown, I found the American Strat I own is basically flawless. The frets are perfectly dressed and levelled, the finish is perfect, and it stays perfectly in tune as the bridge seems to be quite a bit more stable than the old style bridges found on MIMs. The necks on the newer (post-2007) American instruments are significantly better than MIM (pre-2008 they are about the same. They changed them for 2008). On instruments with maple fretboards, the back of the neck is satin while the fretboard is gloss, which I do think is the ideal way for a maple fretboard neck to be. For the cost you do need to keep in mind they come with a beefy hard case, which I imagine factors into cost a bit (the case for my Strat is really nice). Structurally, there are very few if any issues in any of the American instruments I've played. The neck pocket in my Strat is perfect and is nice and snug without being too tight. In constrast, the pocket in my MIM Precision Bass requires a fair bit of shimming to get the action (string height) to a playable level.

That said, there is nothing wrong with MIM. 99% of people will be perfectly satisfied with them if they find a good one. For the price doubly so. I certainly like mine. There are MIM instruments that are on par with MIA quality-wise, I have no doubt about that. You just have to find them. The issue is that the quality of the instruments can be hit or miss so trying before buying is a must. I've owned 5 MIM instruments over the years and have sold all of them but 2. It is all about finding the good ones. The one Strat I sold was a FSR (special run) Strat that sounded great but had huge issues with the frets that no amount of tinkering would fix outside of a refret (I didn't notice it when I played it at the shop. Now I take more time to check for flaws). Likewise, I also had a 5 string Jazz Bass that had 3 different high frets that had to be brought down. That bass also had issues with tuning stability. I sold it to get my current main fretted base, which is a MIM Classic Series 50's Precision Bass (All the Classic Series stuff is astoundingly good. I am getting a Classic 60's Jazz sometime in the future). My Precision was a b-stock, so I knew it would have a couple issues to fix, but so far it has been the best MIM instrument I've owned. Other than the neck pocket and a high fret, it has been great. This is what I mean when I say you have to find the good MIM stuff. I thought the P-bass was butt ugly when I saw it at the store but was completely blown away by it when I played it. It continues to be one of my all-time favourite fretted basses. My first guitar was a '96 MIM Strat, and it also is quite good. It has endured many botched repairs over the years and continues to play great. It has the most stable neck of any instrument I own. It never shifts with temperature changes. With an upgraded set up pickups it sounds great too.

Japanese Fenders are definitely the happy medium, or they would be if they were easy to get. They're roughly the same cost as MIM while being roughly the quality of MIA (in Japan anyway. Importing drives the cost up quite a bit. I'd only recommend it for instruments you cannot get a MIM version of). I've had my MIJ fretless '62 Jazz Bass for over a month now and the thing continues to blow me away every time I play it. I've taken it apart multiple times (truss rod is on the heel of the neck so I kinda have to take it apart to adjust the neck) and the neck pocket is just as good as those found in MIA. Snug but not so tight that it feels like you will chip paint removing it. The common comment people make about MIJ is that they are MIA quality but with worse electronics, though I haven't noticed as I quite like the vintage-style pickups in my Jazz. The finish is great, as is the neck. I love Jazz Bass necks in general (they're wider than Precision Bass necks and slightly thinner) but this one is especially good. It has no flaws from what I have found (though with no frets there's less to go wrong). The bridges on the Japanese basses are much nicer than those found on MIM basses, much heavier. Sadly, Fender has pretty much stopped using MIJ for the international market and have reserved them for Japan only now outside of a couple artist models. The Geddy Lee Jazz Bass and many other artist models used to be MIJ, as were many special run instruments but most have switched to being MIM. Now they basically only use MIM outside of a couple things like the Marcus Miller Jazz Bass. The domestic market Japanese Fenders are by far the coolest from what I've seen. They have a lot more variety to the selection of instruments available. But since they are domestic market you can't get them outside of Japan unless you go through a place that does importing (I did. It went perfectly smooth. Was stressful though because I don't trust the post office with fragile stuff).