GRAF

I've got a DK2M, Japanese made. And frankly, out of the dozen or so guitars I've owned in my life, it has the fastest, nicest and most easy to play neck of them all. Super low action and feels like glass. The only reason I've kept the guitar all this time is for the neck and if something happened to it I'd certainly replace it.

Well, because of this thread I decided to head to my local GC and play my way through a bunch all over again... perhaps I'm just an idiot, but I've been playing for 15 years now and frankly I can't tell any real difference between the MIA and MIM strats. Obviously there are tonal differences in the various blends of pickups as well as differences in neck woods, etc. But, where as one MIA would sound okay, the next MIM would sound awesome, and then the next MIM would sound okay but the next MIA would sound awesome. My conclusion, there is really no difference and in fact I dare say the only differences to be found are between the guitars themselves and not at all where they're made or who makes them. Thanks for the opinions and points of view, this thread really is helpful!

LOL...well I didn't say they were fender! They're seymour duncans made by esp. My strat This would be equivalent to high end custom shop or master built level from fender. Fender Japan also has a custom shop from what I understand and they make some crazy nice guitars too. There are so many models from Fender Japan that it's hard to make generalizations about wood etc. Funny, I just remembered a mexican tele my friend and I played. It had a "custom shop" neck plate on it (mexican custom shop??) and it was pricey. Around 800 bucks. But the neck on that thing was basically as nice as the neck on my SD tele. Felt amazing. So it just goes to show that there are exceptions if you look hard. But generally they do tend to fall in line with price. Oh snap! That is beautiful! And I agree with you 100%, it seems with the MIMs, the more expensive, the better the neck. Some of the signature models come straight from the box playing perfectly.

My guess would be finishing. I'd assume that all of them are CNC'd and then given to someone for some final sanding, coating etc. I'm guessing that the USA's spend more time in someone's hand getting a more personal touch. Probably a matter of orders to fill and deadlines to meet. To me it's what sets the really great guitars apart. I have two fender high end japanese copies. Hand made. And that's where they just slay everything I've ever layed hands on. The feel of the necks seem like it was gone over and over and over till everything felt perfect. Just not enough time to do that in a mass production environment. Oh totally, I would imagine the MIA Fenders get more time in the hands of a tech before getting thrown in the box. I've never played a MIJ Fender but everyone says they're some of the best out there, which is interesting as they supposedly use lesser quality woods and electronics than the MIA ones?

Don't own either but played a bunch helping a friend look. The obvious difference to me was the necks. The MIA nearly always felt much nicer. There was the odd mexican that felt better than the odd USA but that was rare. And to me there is nothing trivial about the feel of a neck. In my opinion it's probably one of the most important things along with resonance. See, thats the only difference I can even corner down on a regular basis, yet I'm terribly confused by the fact that the MIM factory doesn't even make necks. In fact, all MIM Fenders have MIA necks on them. But there is certainly a difference, my guess is they use lower quality woods for the ones to be exported?

MIA, they have a nicer finish on them and the maple is nicer. I prefer the pickups too, and the trem and basically everything about them Agreed. However, as many swap pickups it seems the remaining differences are trivial and have nothing to do with tone. But there's certainly differences in QC and wood selection.

I've recently been able to play many of each and as long as the pickups are equal I can't really find any differences. Sometimes it seems the necks play a little faster on the MIA but I think that might be more psychological than anything. I trust many players here have and do own both and probably have personal preferences for why they pick up one over the other. So, what has been your experiences? Worth the extra few hundred to go MIA?