Mexican Standard V USA Standard?

[asimmd]

Hi All

I have been wanting a White/Maple Neck Strat for a while now and I have been looking at the prices.

A USA Standard comes in at £879,and a Mexican is £349,approx.

Can anyone say if the USA Standard is £500 better than the Mexican,and what are the major differences between the two?

Many thanks

Alan

[shadfan4]

I have owned a 1976 US Standard strat since 76' and bought a Mexican Classic Player 50's Strat with 59/62 vintage pup's and probably play that more than the US. (Having said that I'm praticising Shadoogie on the US right now) only because I have strung the US with 12-52's and fitted Kinman pups, the Mex is 11-49's to make bends easier.

If you are wanting to get the Shads sounds, then the Standard Strat of either will not give you the vintage pups you need to get close for the older Shad sounds.

The build quality on my Mex is as good as the US strat to my eyes and feel/playability.

Cheers

Mike.

[asimmd]

Thanks Mike

The pickups are not a problem as I have a few spares from other projects I can use in a Mexican which will be better than those fitted as standard.

I was mainly interested in the build quality of the Mexican and whether it was worth the extra £500+ for a USA.

Alan

[piotrek]

Hello,
From what I know, a Standard Mexican Strat has pickups with ceramic magnets with flat poles as against American which has Alnico magnets. I happen to own a Standard Mexican and I replaced the pickups almost straight away.
regards,
Piotrek

[peterbower]

I don't think the US standard Strat is £500 pounds better than a mexican Strat. The Mex can be upgraded with pups and may be a steal sustain block, and in my opinion could end up better than the US Strat and for less money.

Peter

[asimmd]

Can someone explain the virtues of a Steel Block please?

I have 4 strats,one a Custom Shop,and they all have the kit that came with them.

Thanks

Alan

[peterbower]

Alan
The virtues of the steel sustain block have been extensively covered in other parts of this forum. Just check out the various post headings.

Peter

[asimmd]

Peter
I have done 3 searches using Steel Sustain Block - Replacement Block and Sustain Block and all I get is this thread.
Perhaps you could point me in the right direction,must be having a senor moment-----again.

Thanks

Alan

[peterbower]

Hi Alan

Try CeltRocka on this forum or google it where you will see his web site.

Cheers

Peter

[asimmd]

Thanks Peter,got it.

The forum looks great,will have a look round and join later.

Alan

[clivea]

Hi Alan,

I bought an Arctic White Standard Mex Strat (£294 new) 19 months ago and had 19 months of trouble in as much that I could'nt get anywhere near the sound I wanted.

Following loads of help and advice from many fellow Proboard members, a few weeks ago I finally got rid and bought a Mex 50s Classic (around £425) and fitted a set of John Collins' (Aus) p/ups have not looked back since! You would'nt believe the difference in sound.

Also I fitted a cold steel block bought from celtrocka (approx £20, see forum on For Sale and Wanted section) and again improved the quality of sound and sustain.

I hope my experience helps you and maybe answers some of your questions. Rgds - Clive

[asimmd]

Hi Clive

Many thanks for the reply.

My first question would be where you found a Standard Mexican Strat for that price?
I can't do better than £349.

I do already have a Fender Classic Player 50's Strat,but it's not standard Mexican fayre,having had a lot of input from the Custom Shop,I expect the Mexican Standard to be a totally different beast.

This fitting a different block is bothering me,I had never heard of this until it was mentioned here.I have the celtrocka site,I will take a look.

Thanks

Alan

[clivea]

Hi again Alan,

I definately paid £294 plus £10 pp from GAK - www.guitarampkeyboard.com/ this was 19 months ago.

I paid £400 for my 50s from a local store.

Re the steel trem block - have a look at the comments from other members on celtrocka's thread on the 'For sale, Wanted' section to give you an idea of what others think.

Let's know how you get on mate. Rgds - Clive

[martyn]

Dec 28, 2009 21:05:20 GMT asimmd said:

Hi Clive
I do already have a Fender Classic Player 50's Strat,but it's not standard Mexican fayre,having had a lot of input from the Custom Shop,I expect the Mexican Standard to be a totally different beast.
Alan

Hi Alan,
How do you rate the 50s strat? I've read various threads saying it's one of the best of the bunch for the type of sound we're after but I note they also do a Classic Player 60 fitted with '69 pickups and I wondered how these differ from the 57/62s fitted to the 50s version.
Cheers,
Martyn

[jaybee]

Martyn,
I think the Mexican Classic 50's guitars give you the 'best bang for your buck'. Very well made and finished.
I have a couple of Fiesta Red Strats which I modified with USA gold hardware and pickups (57/62s) and I'm very happy with the look and the sound. It is as close as I will get without going the Custom Shop way and than just won't happen!
I'm sure there are others on this forum who will agree.
Happy New Year to all.
Cheers,
JB

[asimmd]

My Classic Player 50's Strat is really nice now I have had the faults fixed and it has had a Pro setup.Initially,there were major probs with the guitar,but it wasn't going back so I paid to have it sorted and now I wouldn't swop it for anything.

I am not a lover of the modern thin "C" shape necks,I much prefer the Boat Shape or "D" shape of the Custom Shop Guitars,that was another reason for choosing this model.

The sound from the pick-ups is excellent through my Tonelab,and I hope that will improve when I put it through my Heritage 15Watt Combo, which I have not tried yet as I am waiting for a Weber MiniMass Attenuator from the USA.

I have heard good things about the Classic 60's model but i have not tried one,and from my experience with the 50's guitar,I would strongly recommend trying one before purchasing.

Happy New Year (Decade)

Alan

[andygp]

Hi,

I am new to this Forum and, since happen to own a MIM Strat, have thought to share my experience with others...
My Strat is a Daphne Blue Classic '50s MIM; I bought it (online) because, after more than 20 years of "leave" from music (due to professional reasons) I decided to go back to my first love and buy another electric guitar and went for this model because I liked the colour and didn't want to invest in a more expensive model, not knowing yet how much time I was going to devote to music.
The first thing I noticed after the purchase was that the pickups sounded rather muddy, so I replaced them with a set of Kinman Traditional MK II (I was originally determined to buy the Hank Marvin set, but Kinman himself on his site advices to buy the MK II for that "vintage" Hank sound). The next upgrade was the bridge (replaced with a Callaham American Vintage) and finally the tuning machines (replaced with a set of Gotoh vintage locking ones).
The guitar now sounds much better compared with the day I bought it, but... I really cannot get over the neck/action issue.
My problem is that the neck has a V shape and a radius of 7.25" and I have seen that, since I happen to have rather big hands, I am much more confortable with a C-shaped 9" neck.
I have considered the possibility of replacing the neck as well, but a good (original) Fender neck sells on the well known auction site for about 450 $, so in the end I decided to buy an American Standard Strat (they have a really great action, comparable with the Custom Shop models) and then replace the pickups with a set of Fralins Vintage Hot (I think that they sound better, compared with the Kinmans, even if they are not noiseless).
I wish I had known what I know today before buying the MIM Strat...

Regards and Happy New Year to all.

Andy

[asimmd]

Hi Andy

Interesting story and I wonder how much better your guitar would have been if you had sent it to a Pro Guitar tech for setup?
It would have cost far less that a USA strat but,USA strats are very nice.

I personally don't like the "C"neck but each to his own.

Alan

[philbarker]

Knowing there to be a lot of satisfied MIM owners, a few months ago I bought a fiesta red 50s classic. I already had a USA Standard Strat, so I was interested in making a comparison and to use the MIM to experiment on rather than the USA. I had read that a well set up cheaper make strat can sound better than the most expensive poorly set up custom model. To be honest I don’t think, sound wise, there was a lot to choose between either, so on that level there should be no disappointment to anyone buying a MIM. However, everything else about the MIM was sub-standard to the USA. The body was not contoured as sleekly as the USA, similarly the neck. The sustain block was a joke and I replaced it. At one stage I even put the USA neck on the MIM body. I did learn quite a bit from taking it to bits and reassembling but I sold it a few weeks ago as it became surplus to requirements.

I therefore have absolutely no problem in advising anyone that can afford the extra to go for the USA standard.

Phil B

[asimmd]

Thanks for the comments Phil,My initial question was is the USA Strat £500 better than the MIM.I guess you have answered that in your comments.

It would be nice to know if there was such a Strat that had a neck other than the thin "C" shape that seems to be the norm nowadays.

Do they all come with such flimsy feeling necks?
Without going Custom Shop,is there really no other alternative?

Yes,I could buy a Standard USA and have a nice Birdseye neck made for it,Mmmmm
anyone know how much that would cost?

Alan

[andygp]

Hi Alan,

I cannot complain much about the money spent, because I bought all the parts online and installed them myself; for example, for the pickups I paid the price asked by Chris Kinman on his website (much lower than the price asked by -say- Thomann.de). And the same goes for the Callaham bridge, purchased directly from Bill Callaham.
I cannot really complain about the setup either, because after many (painful) weeks the guitar is now set up to my liking. It's just that, playing another Strat with a 9.5" neck, I've found it much more "comfortable" and less "tiring" and later, doing a bit of research on my own, I discovered also why it was so.
Here is a link to an article that really enlightened me:

www.ratcliffe.co.za/articles/radius.shtml

So, in the end, it all depends on which kind of neck you are comfortable with, and that in turn depends on factors like the size of your hands, your playing style (including the ratio of rhythm playing vs. solo playing) and so on.
My problem is that the '50s Classic, like the majority of the vintage Strats, comes with a 7.25" neck...

Regards

Andy

[shrek]

hi, I own an American standard Olypic white with a maple neck, I and others who have played it can not fault it absolutley fantastic. I have tried several of the mexicans and although good guitars i wouldn't swap 2 of them for my american.

steve