How do they compare with “made in Korea” and “made in U.S.A.”? What are prices for these in your area?
I’m looking at up to ~1200$ CDN for U.S.A., and ~500$ CDN for Korea or Japan. Availability (i.e. flying to Tokyo, taxes, duty, yadda yadda) would not be a consideration for me, I’m just looking for honest opinion regarding value.
Labor costs are high in Japan so manufacturing tends to be on the higher end. Haven’t seen a Japanese stratocaster but have a Winchester rifle made under license by Miroku in Japan. Quality, fit and finish are as good as any firearm I’ve ever owned including an Anschütz.
Japanese reiusses made in the late 80’s are regarded as pretty good guitars. I had a 62’ Tele Esquire reiusse that was awesome. I wish I hadn’t sold it back in the day.
I can’t comment on current Japanese or Korean Fenders. I now own a US Tele and am very, very happy with it.
Korean Strats are cheap reissues, not that that’s a terrible thing. I have no experience with Japanese Strats, but have heard they aren’t quite as good as a good vintage USA Strat. The conventional wisdom I’ve always heard was: USA 1, Japanese 2, Korea 3 (maybe 4).
Go to the Google Group rec.music.maker.guitar and do a search on variations of the topic and you will find LOADs of commentary.
Bottom line:
Each guitar is unique, so play as many varities of guitar as you can (in this case, if you are sure you want a Strat - I think they are great, BTW - play as many Strats as you can.) Get a feel for what you look for in a good one.
Ask players and sales people at stores to point out ones they think play particularly well, and ask why they think the guitar plays well (great neck, fret job, set up well, whatever). See if you agree with their judgment (they may like different things than you), then see if the guitar you’re considering plays like that.
play the guitar unplugged a lot before you play it plugged in. It forces you to focus on the playability and the inherent tone of instrument - if it doesn’t sound good unplugged, don’t buy it.
In the world of Strat’s, US is considered better than Mexico, which is considered better than Korea. Resales values vary accordingly. I don’t recall where Japan fits in - I seem to remember that old J-made Strat’s were considered great, but I can’t speak to newer ones - check the Google group.
I would also definitely ask the salesperson what kinds of wood the guitar is made of. If possible, ask to try an ash, an alder, and whatever else they have (I’m talking about the body only). See if you like a rosewood fretboard versus a maple fretboard. One of these varieties may sound more like the strat you want than the others do. Do the pickups vary between the Japanese, Korean, and US strats? My guess is they do, and this will also make a difference. Now, this will sound crazy, but you might want to ask to try a string-through non-tremolo model if you can find one.