Fender USA vs MIM

[jwebb1970]

How many Mexicans do you think work in the US plant ? How many parts do you think are made in Mexico and assembled in the US ?

here is the actual racial breakdown of the town of Corona, California where the so-called "American" Strats are made:
White Non-Hispanic (47.0%) You can be sure 99% of these people don't do factory work
Hispanic (35.7%)
Other race (17.5%)
Black (6.4%)
Two or more races (5.3%)
Filipino (2.7%)
American Indian (1.6%)
Vietnamese (1.2%)
Asian Indian (1.2%)
Other Asian (0.8%)
Korean (0.7%)
Chinese (0.7%)

The difference in US and Mexico -made Fenders is 70 miles and many employees go to and from both plants but that is hearsay..
don't know how accurate that info is..

When I was @ the Corona facility in '98, the workforce was primarily white & Hispanic. And several of the top brass @ Ensenada were American citizens.

Regardless, the improved quality of the MIM Fenders from the mid 90s to 2013 is palpable.

 

[X2203xman]

I've tried emory cloth on the neck,set up,string gauge,and english lessons,but I could never get a mexi strat to feel like a made in USA.The big diff for me was always the feel of the neck,especially above the 12th fret.This said,some of my old mexi strats sounded very good.I have a mexi body that I put a USA neck on,and that strat is a keeper...The old Duncan hot rail is working for that axe as well.

 

[poeman33]

The neck is a big difference for me too. Just not as much fine tuning in an MIM as a MIA Sometimes the will use the same metal or electrical components depending on the model...but the real difference for me is the quality of the wood. MIA just uses better wood. Fender had a video on it's website awhile ago where it talks about wood selection. The Custom Shop will get first crack and the wood, then the Deluxes, then MIA, then MIM. That's not saying that all the wood is bad or anything...just that there is a picking order and the best wood generally goes into the most expensive guitars.

But good wood can still be sent to the MIM factory too...and they make the MIM deluxes from the best of their selection. I have a couple of those bodies. Two Ash bodies from MIM deluxes. They are great bodies. But I also have an American Deluxe with an Ash body. It is just in a class by itself.

 

[All4Tone]

In my own experience, I'd agree that the US strats, teles etc have better, or at least nicer looking wood than the mim counterparts. I have almost identical teles, one is US and the other is mim. The US one has much nicer grain and the neck has a different shade to it than the mexi, but the feel of both is the same. In a blindfold test, unplugged, I doubt many people would notice the difference between them. Plug it in and if you know what the typical mexi pickups sound like, you'll guess it right away. This is true for the strats I have, except I have different neck profiles on my strats, so naturally they feel a bit different from each other. I have a classic 78 Olympic white/black pickguard strat, yet I actually prefer the newer C neck profile to the 78. I love the differences between the guitars, otherwise I'd only have one!