MIM Strats. The "Sweet Spot" or "No-Man's Land"?

[xStonr]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder=playability is in hands of the player.

 

What's good for some is shyte for another.

 

Me, I go through a love/hate with my MIM. It's been totally upgraded since I got it many moons ago. Multiple pickup changes, new trem block, new saddles, new neck. I don't play it as much as I used too but when I pick it up I always wonder why I don't play it more. Until I song comes to mind that sounds better with another guitar. Then it gets lost in the shuffle until the next time.

[Ralph onion]

It is the difference between Ford and Chevy pick up trucks. You can get the full size or the midget ones. MIA Fender Strats and Teles captured my heart way back in the 60's. My only experiece with MIM Strat was not good. Then on the other hand I have 3 Squire 52's that to me are perfect. I dont think I am a decal slut but I just prefer the MIA, have 2 of them, maple neck and rosewood and have no fault whatsoever with either of them. Both my Teles are MIA. But I am a collector also and I have watched the resale value on this stuff, need I say more?

[KATMAN]

I bought my MIM back in 2000 and love it. The only flaw was that the strap in came out,but Elmer's Glue and toothpicks fixed it up better than ever.I paid a whopping $200,and it's worth every penny to me.I agree that they are a hit and a miss,but then so are other guitars.

[nuke_diver]

I bought my MIM strat in 04. It was my first electric. Before buying it I played maybe a dozen other guitars in the same price range (Squires, Epi, etc) that the shop had. Of those guitars I liked the MIM strat best. It had a comfortable feeling to it that the others didnt have (Squires the necks were too rough, Epi just weren't a comfortable playing for some reason). At the time I didn't know if I would stick with it so I wasn't going to spend a grand for a guitar.

Last year I went to GC and played all of the strats I could get my hands on. MIA deluxe, MIA standard, MIM standard, Highway 1. None of them I liked better than the one I had so I decided to keep it and put more $$ in it to make it a better guitar (even though it already was good). I swapped out the pU because I Bryan's pu and it was a sale so I couldn't refuse. And I got it refretted with Stainless.

To me its as good a guitar as I have now. Of course your mileage may vary

[Selsaral]

I play my MIM (deluxe lonestar) more than my American Standard. I've seen some MIM dogs, but many are downright great guitars. The Squier CV 60's strat I had was inferior to my MIM IMHO.

[noisebloom]

I have two Strats, an '07 MIM and an '04 Highway One. I like both, but I think the MIM is my favorite of the two.

I adore the neck of the Highway One, which has a satin finish and feels like butter. It's the reason I bought that guitar. The MIM's neck is rougher and doesn't have the satin finish. But the fretwork is actually better on the MIM. The fret ends are all nicely finished on both, but the frets are dead level on the MIM. The Highway One needs more TLC to bring its playability up to the MIM.

The pickup comparison is no contest. I like the grittiness of the Highway One's singles, although I find the Atomic Humbucker uninspiring. The MIM's singles are just ordinary, but they're still a couple of steps up from the MIM pickups from the 90s.

I think both of my Strats have the same US-made bridge, which is good. I think the saddles are a little better quality on the MIM, though. I've never been completely happy with the saddles on the Highway One, so they will need replacing.

I bought the MIM used a couple of years ago. When I received it, I found that the previous owner had, for some reason, loosened the trem claw screws so that the bridge was in a "pull up only" position. I immediately unwound the strings, tightened the tremolo claw, and reset the bridge to barely floating. After that, the action was excellent, and the guitar has been sweet for me ever since. I've really bonded with it, and I just love playing it.

The build quality is remarkably good on today's MIMs. If they were to make the necks as smooth as the Highway One and put in better pickups, the MIM might become an irresistible alternative to MIAs. I used to own an '01 HSS MIM. I've also played MIMs from the 90s and as recent as '08. I've played better Strats, but my '07 is the best MIM I've ever played. Maybe I just got lucky.

[Alex W]

Never liked the necks on MIM's. I dunno if it's the spacing or the actual neck itself. I actually don't really like Strats in general. I want to like them but I just end up hating how they sound in my hands. I much prefer a Tele or even better one of Fenders offset guitars a la Mustang/Jazzstang/Jazzmaster/Jaguar.

[Baddass]

I bought 2 Milano strats [ only 200 made],one for 450 the other 499. 12 inch radius neck , noiseless pickup's .white with gold hardware and rosewood board. Absolutely a couple of the BEST strats I have EVER played:thu::thu: . Better than some of the so called custom shop strats. Supposedly the neck and bodies where made in the USA and they are assembled in Mexico . By the way isnt Clapton's favorite strat a MIM strat? I think so according to the book he wrote.

[ChrisGansz]

I have two Strats, an '07 MIM and an '04 Highway One. I like both, but I think the MIM is my favorite of the two. I adore the neck of the Highway One, which has a satin finish and feels like butter. It's the reason I bought that guitar. The MIM's neck is rougher and doesn't have the satin finish. But the fretwork is actually better on the MIM. The fret ends are all nicely finished on both, but the frets are dead level on the MIM. The Highway One needs more TLC to bring its playability up to the MIM. The pickup comparison is no contest. I like the grittiness of the Highway One's singles, although I find the Atomic Humbucker uninspiring. The MIM's singles are just ordinary, but they're still a couple of steps up from the MIM pickups from the 90s. I think both of my Strats have the same US-made bridge, which is good. I think the saddles are a little better quality on the MIM, though. I've never been completely happy with the saddles on the Highway One, so they will need replacing. I bought the MIM used a couple of years ago. When I received it, I found that the previous owner had, for some reason, loosened the trem claw screws so that the bridge was in a "pull up only" position. I immediately unwound the strings, tightened the tremolo claw, and reset the bridge to barely floating. After that, the action was excellent, and the guitar has been sweet for me ever since. I've really bonded with it, and I just love playing it. The build quality is remarkably good on today's MIMs. If they were to make the necks as smooth as the Highway One and put in better pickups, the MIM might become an irresistible alternative to MIAs. I used to own an '01 HSS MIM. I've also played MIMs from the 90s and as recent as '08. I've played better Strats, but my '07 is the best MIM I've ever played. Maybe I just got lucky.

I dunno - I have a '93 and a '97 MIM strats and I honestly have no problems coaxing Knoffler or Gilmour tones from either.

[Bro Blue]

The Deluxe series MIMs are well worth the money. I have one MIM Standard and the difference between it and my Deluxe Ash and Deluxe 60th Anniversary is night and day. The Deluxe Player's Strat is an awesome guitar.

[fretmonster]

MIM Fenders rule. Folks should play what they like, but the Fender factory in TJ is just as high tech as the one in the US, and the luthiers there have been making guitars for 20 or 25 years: long enough to learn their trade.

 

 

Absolutely right. Beyond the spec differences, there is very little distance between the two IMO. Two piece, three piece, give me a break, these are all utility instruments slapped together on an assembly line. You pay a little more for US labor, a better block and perhaps a better switch. As somebody else said, short of Custom Shop, every case is specific; there is very little consistency from either factory. That being said, I would say that based on my experience that the QC is much improved in 2010 in both MIMs and MIAs - GC set ups are near perfect now for both right off the shelf.

 

A few years ago I helped a friend select an American Standard from GC. At that time S1 switching was all the rage and set ups were terrible on anything less than the sig models. As some have said that they never picked up an MIM that they clicked with, that was our experience with the S1 models. I begged my friend to cough up a few more hundred for a EJ Sig (about $400 more back then), but he refused. We settled on a Sunburst non S1 that sounded very similar to the EJ but didn't play near as well. That American Standard just would not set up well and when we pulled the neck off for a shim we found a huge gauge where the dremel slipped. I suggested he take it back then, but he refused. Now a couple years later, that guitar still doesn't have good action (my three MIMs are a hundred times easier to play) and now the truss rod is froze up on it. My point is that all Fenders are a bit of a crap shoot.