Fender USA is poly finished.

Most Fender custom shop stuff is also poly. You have to ask for nitro.

The Highway 1 line was a matte nitro but that line has been discontinued. Still, the cheapest way to get into a nitro finished Fender if you find them used.

If you wanted one in nitro, wouldn't it be easier to buy a raw body and stain/tint it? You could put all the Fender hardware on. The guys on the telecaster board Build them from scratch.

I bought a MIM Tele in butterscotch blonde in February. Great guitar.

I know my Custom Shop strat is nitro and so is my brothers GE Smith tele.

Let me clarify. The straight up Custom Shop Strats are poly finished. I just checked the website.

Any of the signature stuff is done to the artists specs. So if they want nitro they get nitro. Most of the vintage tribute stuff is also nitro since that's what was used on the original.

I doubt the custom shop ones are nitro either. VOC laws. Unless they do it with rattle cans LOL. All the Fenders that I know of are poly finished with that God awful basecoat filler.

My 51 p-bass re-issue is as poly as it gets. It's the color of most school busses as well.

As I said, they are very good. You couldn't build a guitar of that quality for the 300 bucks you pay for the thing at walmart.

Because its made of reprocessed cardboard from god knows where with cheap chinese parts made under unknown conditions like every other cheap POS power drill/sneaker/barbie doll that floods US big box category killers.

How Fender splits its US/MEX manufacture and assembly is a NAFTA mystery...I was told for example that ALL necks are made in USA and some are sent to MEX for final finshing and come back as MIM instruments. So who knows.

The point is - don't buy cheap chinese import copies.

That must be a new policy. I haven't seen them all, but Im sure I have not seen a single guitar from the Fender Custom Shop built in the last 10+ years that had a poly finish. Every Team Built, Master Built, Relic, etc., I've ever seen played or owned has had a nitro lacquer finish. Not like the finish on a '50s guitar, but still nitro lacquer. Even the 'thin skin' non custom shop USA guitars that were built for the big retailers like Music Machine & Dave's are nitro. Even the Roadworn MIM bodies are nitro..

Well, polyurethane really is a superior material to nitro. Nitro yellows, cracks and crazes over time. Now, we think that's cool now because it shows the guitar has been through some use. From a purely protective standpoint though, poly is better.

Some people say nitro breathes better, I've never been able to hear a difference between a nitro finished and a poly finished guitar. I think a lot of that stuff is placebo effect.

Yes, I know I'm not helping the situation, but the facts are these:

Times are not good in the old US of A. No matter what you hear about the record stock market, people are working harder for little pay and fewer available jobs mean they'll stay right there and keep doing it.

When the job markets open up again the labor market will force wages up and workers will demand some life balance again.

I would agree on not buying Chinese knockoffs, the Classic Vibe Squier series is not a Chinese knockoff though. Those are actually some of the best bang for your buck Fenders being made today.

Don't get me wrong, I think the US Fenders have a place too. I love my American Standard Tele. I also love my MIM strat!

I have a hard time paying more than $1000 for a guitar, I can't tell any difference in the sound and if my guitar was that expensive I'd be afraid to scratch it so it would probably waste away in the case.

If they are not some kind of nitrocellulose lacquer, do you know what the finish is?

Fender advertises it as nitro and I know the finish on my strat is completely different than what's on my Epiphone.

THis is what I understood....although the 'nitro' on the cheaper gits is shot over poly base coats.

Gibson USA and Gibson Custom shop are all "nitro". But- what F&G are calling "nitro cellulose" today is not what was being shot in the 50s and 60s...its too damn toxic for use.

We re-finned this one with nitro lacquer...smells unreal, and did for months after

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The early guitars were sprayed with automotive colors that they could get from the paint manufacturers cheap. Leo liked inexpensive. All of Fenders early colors cross over to Ford and GM mixes. They used real nitro because that is what was available and it dried quicker than enamel. Fiesta red is a 55 Thunderbird color. They used a lot of Cadillac colors as well. PPG paints has a conversion chart somewhere on line reranch may have it as well.

This absolutely true. I still love me nitro. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1384487712.jpg

yes they are still just spraying nitro over that awful poly base, so what's the big deal? It means nothing other than a selling point. I just finished a PJ bass in nitro from the bottom up, finished it months ago, You can still smell it in the music room. It takes a long time for nitro to "gas off"

So if the "nitro" finish is a thin skin of nitro over poly, what's the benefit? Even those who think nitro breathes better would have to admit that the poly undercoat negates any breathing effect.

May as well buy a good MIM strat and upgrade the electronics. You'll have a better guitar for less $$$.

You are really lucky that you can't hear the difference. I really wish I couldn't hear the difference. It would have saved me a lot of money over the years.

Yeah, people claim to hear all sorts of differences. Some people SWEAR a strat sounds better with the tremolo cavity cover taken off, supposedly let's the guitar breathe.

Right.

This is not the description of an MIM strat btw.

I can tell the difference between a low end Squier and an American strat, but some of that is electronics.

Put the same electronics in a good MIM strat and I bet you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between that and a strat with similar electronics.

Rick, imho- Fender has bastardised its product and its brand to the point where I can longer keep up or am even interested in keeping up. But Im not the market, the last brand new guitar I bought was in 1982.

I see a difference between Fender making USA and MIM guitars at different price points (regardless of what NAFTA black magic is going on) and Fender making nasty chinese knock offs of their own products and selling them in 7-11s for $300.

Stuart I agree that Fender has lost their way. To my mind there is no reason a slab of wood with a bolt on neck should cost $10000.

The Strats that we all revere now were the equivalent of the MIM Strats of today. They were mass produced and priced to allow an average player access. Custom shop stuff is just a bit ridiculous today, IMHO.

Don't even get me started on the relic craze...

ding ding ding.......

Rick- their are lots of things you have to do to strats to make them sound right and eliminate "stratitis'....they can sound find 'clean', but then you had some volume and gain and these sounds appear.....cavity insulation, guard insulation, spring dampening- and then there is the big one....the trem block.

Gibson....just play em.

About to put my money where my mouth is, lol.

Got some Custom Shop 69 pickups on the way for my MIM strat, then it will have the same electronics as a custom shop strat for a ton less money.

At the risk of making your head spin around and spit green goo, I have a Les Paul copy called a Tradition S2000. It's a pretty nice guitar.

I'd love to own a real Les Paul, tough to swallow spending $2500-3000 on a guitar though. I always keep an eye on Craigslist, maybe the guitar gods will smile on me some day.

I agree...ive owned quite a few strats over the years, Custom Shop, USA- even a MIM. All have come and gone. the blue one pictured is my fave. Its a 1991 JPN 62 reissue.

I gutted my used MIM fretless J bass, added a set of 66 re-issue PU's and a set of TV TV stacked pots,. after shielding the whole set up I added a set of Thomastik flat wounds and I would put it up against any Fender fretless bass out there. I have about $500 invested in it.

That's part of the reason I built mine. :D And the fact I'll probably never have the disposable income to ever buy a real 1959 LP.

I have a Fiesta Red MIK Strat Squier that play nice and sounds nice. Bought it at a pawn shop back in 92 and it had no wear marks on it. Got it for a song with a genuine Fender hard case. Frets are worn and the rosewood is showing wear now days.

Saw this the other day.... 1961-62 Fender Telecaster

Shame its not original.

This is problem with Fenders....theyre all partsocasters.

I never had a love affair with the Strat. I owned a Japanese Squire that I purchased for $50. back in the 80's, last time I checked they were selling for a thousand dollars :eek: I have always liked the look of the Telecasters though and if I could ever afford a USA Fender, it would probably be a HSS Tele if I could find one.

Some of original JPN market only 'JV' Squiers, and later under 'Fender' up to around 1993 are indeed very collectable. Some say they are amongst the best fenders around.

Cool! This warrants another trip to Sweetwater.

Thank you BlueSkyJaunte!

The Blackstar ID30 blew my mind. What a wonderful early Christmas present to me. Rebate check request for $70 goes in the mail tomorrow.

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In the end, I played the Peavey VIP III, Mustang III V2, and the Blackstar ID 30. The Blackstar was heads above the others.

Thanks to everyone who posted too. I learned a great deal. I thought I was going to get a Strat and I got a Tele. I thought I was going to get a Fender amp and can't believe the fantastic sounds of the Blackstar ID 30.

All that fantastic sound pouring out of that 12" speaker thanks to the TVP. Why they even let you disable that button, I will never understand.

I would do more YouTube lessons, but right now it's late and my fingers are really tired.

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Nice!!! I would rather have a tele, than my strat, but it was calling my name.

Good choice Doug. The Blackstar gear is great, the big stuff and the little ones. Small modelling amp, definitely the go for home use.

And ofcourse, you've done your bit for the Chinese economy too.

Fat chick singer we had a few years back, knocked my '83 SG off the stand and gouged the crap out of the neck. It was Polar white that had turned the appropriate shade of yellow. I called Gibson to see about a repair and they shot me over to the custom shop. Guy says "You can do what you want, and we'll be happy to refinish it, but you need to understand you're talking about a vintage guitar now."

Still has the giant gouge.

Nice setup Doug, it should serve you well. I too have become a Tele fan over the years. I have been a gigging guitarist in one form or another since 1969 and have collected a guitar or two along the way, most bought used and cheap. A little used 2003 Olympic white Corona Tele caught my fancy a few years ago and it is now my #1 axe. We simply speak the same musical language so when I play she usually comes along.

Enjoy!