Fender '69 Telecaster Thinline Reissue

This is a 1986 Japanese made tele. It has a natural wood finish, perloid pickguard, 1 volume, 1 tone, and to single coil pickups. The key difference with this guitar than the other teles out there is that it is partially hollow with an f-hole. The tuners were replaced when I bought it, and they work great. I wouldn't trade this guitar for anything!

For most all styles of play, this guitar sounds great. It is a little noisy, but it is an old guitar that i have to do some work on. I use it mostly with a Marshall tube combo, and it has that nice american sound. My biggest complaint is that for some ballsier styles, it doesn't get quite enough gain, but it is a tele, so i didn't really expect that. This is a great blues, emo, or rock guitar.

I bought it used and the guitar had just been set up. The finish is really nice. The pickup selector is messed up, so I have to take it to the shop, but other than that, this is an awesome guitar.

I would depend on this for any gig w/o a backup. The hardware is all good, but of course, put on straplocks as a precautionarry measure.

n/a

If you're considering this, get it.

Japanese-made. The serial on this one dates 1986: Sem-Hollow Tele; vintage-style bridge (which i love for some reason - the new tele bridges confuse me after having played this one for going on five years now), Gotoh tuners (these may have been an after-market touch), mahogany body, natural finish. Standard "vinatge" (aka cheapie) Tele Pikcups.
The neck on this is very thin and has a very small radius. I know a lot of players who find it akward and a little weak, but for my style (which includes a lot of bending of minor thirds and more), it's a dream. Maple neck with maple fretboard, both dyed to look a little older. okay enough babble - other than the f-hole, this guitar is pretty standard, but extremely functional.

I play a lot of blues / rock, and many many solos. I've been on an SRV kick for the last year or so, so this poor baby's been kinda shelved, since my Strat is much more suited to that sound (of course). This guitar gets a really apt Jimmy Page kinda sound (keeping in mind he used Teles in the studio extensively), which is right up my alley since Jimmy is one of my heros.
But this guitar gets a really wide range of sounds. It really squeals on the bridge pickup (and i mean that in a good way) - I usually use the bridge for lead tones, and when i'm putting it through lots of overdrive. It's not always great for clean sounds, but whne you want that twang, it's always there.
The neck pickup is great for clean rhythm sounds - and it shines! I use this position more than any others. It's also incredible for distorted leads, since it gets that squishy, single coil attack sound when it goes through my Big Muff.
THe middle position is awesome too, but enough on that.
I play through a varying array of effects pedals into a crappy amp that i plan on replacing with something better very soon. However, when playing live, I mostly borrow my buddy's Hot Rod DeVille, which brings the nuances of this guitar out really well (though i don't think I'd get a Hot Rod for myself). THis guitar plays just about everything I want it to, though it's worth noting that I don't play an metal. This guitar is NOT a metal guitar (though the bridge pup's tone might be apt in some cases for metal-kinda leads).
This guitar is MUCH less noisy than my strat, but the pickups could use a little more balls. I'm considering putting some Lace pup's in to get rid of the noise and for more clarity. But this guitar has served me SO well for the four or five year's i've been playing it.

I got this guitar used, and after i had it set up it played incredibly. I have to get it set up again (it's been a very long time), but i'm dead broke. This might be another part of the reason i'm not playing it as often - it's turning into a lot of work. But when it's well-adjusted, this thing is my best friend.
The body and finish are all fine, except for the big ding i put in the top (i won't explain because i'm still ashamed). I can't complain about the beauty of this guitar.

The only problem I can say I've had with this guitar is the pickup switch crapped out on me about a year after i got it. But this problem is definitely endemic to the Japanese made strats. WHen i got my 50's re-issue Strat (Japanese made), the first thing i did was replace the pup switch.
This guitar is a MACHINE. I play the hell out of it, and it keeps coming back for more.
I put strap-locks on it, and since then i haven't had any trouble (i blame all strap problems on the shitty straps i prefer to use).

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing for going on six years, and not to pat myself on the back, but I've done a hell of a lot in those six years. I consider myself versatile and most of all demanding. This guitar suits my needs very well. This was my first electric guitar - I picked it because it was unique and played well. I don't think i even plugged it in then.
If it were stolen or lost, I'd cry a lot. I woudln't replace it if it came up missing because i can't afford one, but I'd track down the piece of trash who stole it and teach him a hell of a lesson.
I just wish it had a beefier clean sound on the bridge. But that's the tele sound for you. The clean tone on the neck pup is more than enough to make up for this inadequacy.
In closing - I really love this guitar.

Japanese, '97... Semi-acoustic in natural finish (Ash, I think), single F-hole, maple neck, and pearloid pickguard. Two single coils, 3-way-selecter, tone volume.

No extra features... the bare minimum for a guitar, but the fact that it's a semi-acoustic evolution of the very earliest Fenders (like the tele-like Nocaster) give it a uniqueness.

I've mainly seen this guitar used by country and blues players... I play an electic mix of stuff, and already having a rock guitar, wanted a smoother, cleaner sound. Unplugged, it's fairly quiet for a semi, but louder than a solid body and very well balanced, giving a nice rich sound.

Plugged in, clean, you can probably get away with using it in place of an acoustic on the rythm setting with a little tone rolled off - it hasn't got the same ring, but the smoothness and body and the fact it's a semi using single coils not humbuckers make for an interesting sound that can certainly be used in a band situation and sounds better than most electrics do clean.

Of course, this means that cranking the thing up for a heavy rythm sound is a challenge. The middle setting is probably best for this as the bridge pick-up is rather clangy on it's own, but there's not enough edge on the neck pick-up.

For lead, both neck and bridge are interesting, the neck for a smooth jazz sound and the bridge for more traditional, but warmer, Tele kind of sound.

Very warm, fairly versatile, but not one for heavy rockers and punks. I personally love it as it's just so smooth, without being too bassy.

FANTASTIC build... the finish is superb, although can chip but it's not noticable and the small dings in the varnish could probably be easily touched up. Everything appears to be seated well and the neck is gorgeous to play, with the frets finished to perfection. Only cosmetic gripe is inside the F-hole, where the finish on the inside edge could be neater.

Stays in tune better than any guitar I've spent a lot of time with too... it can last a gig without anything more than the odd tweak. The Gotoh tuners are fantastic.

The scratchplate looks great, and the edges are finished to perfection, with no tabs. As usual with a lot of Teles though, the selector switch knob has gone walkabout...

All good apart from very tiny features. I haven't seen the american version, but apart from higher grade components, I can't see that there would be a large difference.

I've just cleaned it, and after four years of good (though little gigging) use, it looks fantastic... only very tiny dings, very little rust, too, with only one noticable tarnished screw to the top of the neck pickup. Considering a lot of showroom guitars are missing the Selector switch knobs, It looks better than some!

Never failed on me... the strap buttons aren't the most solid out there, but other than that, it seems pretty durable. Only problem I've had is I had to fix one of the tone pots as it proved to be a little delicate on removing the scratchplate, but it was fixable without having to by a new pot.

With a little care, I expect it to last a lifetime as a studio guitar, or have a good gigging career. I haven't dropped it, but I reckon it would survive... I've whacked it pretty hard and it's still working.

This isn't a rock guitar, but if you want something a little more mellow which can still sound good with moderate distortion, has a smooth clean rythm and a nice thick lead sound, this is a great guitar. If you love the feel of Teles, but want a different sound, then it's also great.

It won't be for everyone, as the sound is quite unique for a fender, and for a semi-acoustic - It's not as hollow as most, so don't be disappointed when it lacks the resonance of a Gibson semi. However, I love it. Don't compare it to other guitars and take it on it's own merit.

1990 model, mahogany, two single coils, Made in Japan. Fat maple neck with separate maple fretboard. rear skunk stripe for truss rod, gotoh tuners. Natural finish, white pearly pickguard. Str8 ahead three way tele switch, one vol and one tone knob.

I had played tele copies ranging from crap (Hondo) to nice (G&L) and wanted the real thing. This guitar disappointed me; I realize it is not the standard solid tele, but I did not even get the hollow body sound I wanted on blues or jazz tunes. the neck pickup was weak, the bridge pickup was thin and extremely prone to squealing. Overall it had an okay clean sound, rather pretty through the right amp with a little reverb, but not commensurate with the brand name hype or the price paid!
I also swapped the neck to a Carvin replacement for the bigger frets and flatter radius (see below) but this only made the sound more anemic.

The low vintage frets made it tough for me as I was used to the more modern G&Ls but that personal preference aside it did play very nicely. I soon put a Carvin wider & flatter neck with tall frets on it and it played better for my soloing but I put the original neck back on pretty quickly as that ruined the overall look and vibe of the guitar.
When purchasing it I spent a good 3-4 hours playing every Fender tele on the wall from Squiers to the expensive American Historic '52 model (this was pre-Custom shop and pre-Mexico). They all ranged from bad to worse. BUT- There were two identical Japanes thinline '69 reissues, both played perfectly. Beautiful wood, light weight, excellent set-up, they put both the Korean and USA- mades to shame. I couldn't even decide between the two, they were so consistent (I noticed this with most Japanese Fenders throughout the 80s). I closed my eyes and did an eenie meenie mannie moo.
The flamey wood grain and beautiful finish really got me a lot of compliments!

The guitar went dead the second time I used it, neccesitating a resolder as the studio clock ticked and my band's money went down the toilet. #%&$* Fender!!
Other than that I guess it was okay.

never dealt with

I guess this guitar is okay if you must have a thinline tele and can't afford the vintage models. However, this was about all that was around in 1990; now there are many psuedo-Teles (G&L, etc) form low priced to supre high end and I think you can do much better. I would NOT buy one again and I sold it to my band's singer for half of what I paid for it. ( No resale value on the Japanese Fenders although I feel that has slowly begun to change). At the very least I would encourage Fender enthusiasts to check out the 70s reissue with humbuckers; not quite the standard Tele sound, but you won't get that with the semi hollow body anyway. Perhaps those HB pups will give you a little extra pop! Mine certainly needed it!
About the only time I really enjoyed this guitar was when I set it up as a Nashville fake 12 string (using high string tuning to emulate a 12 string with 6 strings) A very nice sound I used on ballads to fill out my band's sound which I don't think I could have done with a solidbody as well.

1998, Japan, Mahogany, Wilkinson bridge, Tele texas Special pickups, natural finish, white pearly pickguard, maple neck

beautiful sound, more bass than your average solidbody Tele, I highly recommend swithing your stock pickups for fender texas Specials

I removed the Wilkinson bridge an installed a vintage 3-saddle bridge, so I set it up and reintonated it myself

check adrianesparza.com---I use it a lot for live work, plus, I am a session guitar player at El Paso's Rosewood Studios. I played it on a Mexican disco record last week. It was great!

Chris Grimmett--he is a super cool dude--see below

I love this guitar! Que viva el '69!!!!!!

Amazing reissue of a '69 Thinline Tele. Made in Mexico, I bought this guitar brand new, natural mahogany body, maple neck and fretborad. It came stock with 2 vintage Fender pickups (neck & bridge), through the body vintage 3-saddle bridge, vintage F-tuners, and pearloid pickguard. Semi-hollowbody, this thing feels like your could play for 8 hours straight without any cramping in your shoulder, man this thing is light. I've been playing Strats for some 8 years now, but I've always wanted a good quality Tele. Feature-wise this is thing is pretty simple 1-volume control, 1 tone control, just the way I like 'em. Bout the only thing I would add or change would be to install some locking tuners, not that it has problems staying in tune, it's just a good precautionary measure I think I'll take.

I play in a very eclectic band, mainly blues-rock, but we delve into a little harder rock, jazz, funk, and some acoustic-driven folk/country. I have to say this guitar keeps up pretty well. It's been played through a variety of amps, Marshall JCM 800, Fender Blue's Junior, a small Peavey, and some old Yamaha. My effects consist of a Crybaby, Danelectro Overdrive, Tube Screamer, and delay. No getting around it this guitar is noisy, clean, overdrive, it doesn't matter, but hey what do you expect from single coil pickups, set into a hollowbody? Deal with it, the tone is fabulous (learn to use your volume control). Running clean on the bridge you get that classic Tele twang, switch to the bridge, you get a real full bodied sound perfect for open chords, or a nice warm lead tone (I prefer playing lead in the bridge position), roll the tone back a bit and it seems to accentuate the hollowbody characteristic, nice for some sweet jazz chording, throw on some overdrive and a wah you can conjure up some sweet tones reminiscent of 60's Cream/Hendrix (no lie, try it out), this guitar sings. If you need a variety of tone and sound, but can't afford three of four separate guitars I highly recommend one of these babies.

Beautiful guitar, this is a natural mahogany body, and the wood grain shows up really nice. Nice dark brown in color, everything was set pretty well, the neck, frets, really nice quality work, (like I said dont' be fooled by the "Made In Mexico" label). The action was nice, came with Bullet 9's on it, exchanged those with some Super 250's, setting the intonation is a little trickier than a 6-saddle bridge, but not a real hassle. The only real "flaw" is some overspray in the f-hole (which appears to be a common problem), and a little glue residue along the edge of the hole, it easily rubbed off. There were also some minor scratches along the sides of the bridge, almost like etches in the metal (???) Nothing major, not even noticable until you getting really close and go over the guitar, not sure if it was from the factory or from the store I bought it at (nothing that would have stopped me from buying it - I just expect it to be "perfect" if you buy it brand new)

Notched a nick in the headstock after banging it pretty hard on a cymbal stand, the thing didn't lose it's tuning, the neck held up fine. So I'll say it's pretty reliable, no problem with the electronics. I am going to put some strap locks on it, just to be safe. It seems to be a pretty solid chunk of wood though. I've played it live numerous times, and counltess hours at home, all I've had to do is change strings. I have played it live without a back-up, not a good thing, it's never wise to play without a back-up, changing a broken string during a harmonica solo is kind of tacky.

Never had any reason to call Fender. So I can't say how good customer support is.

Playing Strats for awhile, I was wanting something different. I tested several guitars, until I realized I wanted a Tele, I played a Deluxe Nashville, Muddy Waters Sig. Model, finally decided on a nice American Std,....until I picked up this '69 Thinline, it had a real "lively" sound. This guitar has quickly worked it's way as my "number one". It's got a beautiful sound, and I would definetly get another one if I lost it, in fact I hope to get another one as a back-up. Workmanship, and reliabilty aside (which themselves are high-quality) this guitar has a voice that's very unique, yet at times very familiar and for the versatility of tone and price you can't go wrong.

I just purchased this Tele, new. It is a Mexican Reissue of the original Telecaster Thinline. Maple Neck, Vintage (small)Frets, Dark Natural Finish Mahagony Body, Fender Tex-Mex Pick-ups, Three piece vintage Tele bridge. Having owned many tele's over the last 35 years, I can say this is very authentic.

Reissue or not, US, Mexico, Japan or whatever. This is the sweetest sounding Telecaster I've ever played. I picked it up and it made me sound better. The original thinline always combined some of the best Fender tone components and balanced the sweet fender tone with the bright and twangy tones. This one is, maybe, better. The Tex-Mex neck pick-up combined with the semi-hollow mahagony and the maple neck and thin frets, gives you a perfect balance. What is so amazing is the depth of the tone and the nuances. It's the kinda thing you pay thousands for in a vintage guitar. I could go on forever. In the neck position I get this really thick, creamy tone but still plenty of presence and snap. Think SRV tones. In the middle postion - it's twangy and funky but still fat. The bridge just screams. I play blues, R&B, and blues influenced jazz. I generally play pretty clean - this guitar really works for me.
The down side - NOISE. The pick-ups hum like crazy. At first I cranked my noise gate to get rid of it but it was really compressing the sound at that level. I'm just playing louder and letting the chips fall. It's worth it. One other thing - if you're not familiar with Teles you should know that the high E has somewhat less output on a tele than most any other guitars. The great Tele-masters play around it. Dig in on that E string and it sounds fine.

I ordered it fro Musicians friend. I came direct from Fender. Almost perfect. I did go in and loosen the neck a little. Warning, the truss rod can't be adjusted without removing the neck. But that was probably more my preference. The action is low. The frets are just beautifully finished. Overall finish is flawless. Well...there some overspray of some sort visible through the "f" hole.

Who knows? My experience with Mexican Fenders has been good. Until fender raised the bar on the Amewrican Series last year, I really couldn't tell the difference.
I buy guitars about as often as I buy Big Macs (a lot), but I gotta felling I'm gonna have this one for a long long time. If i could fine someone to do a cream binding on the body - this would be my dream guitar.

Fender's pretty good, in general, but usually not the best source for support.

What can I say - I love this guitar!

I believe it was made in '93 or '94. I purchased it new in the latter half of '94 about. 21 frets on a maple neck with chambered mahogany body and cool-looking f-hole. Volume, tone, three way selector and the three-barrel vinateg style bridge. This model was made in Japan.

This guitar has a great classic sound to it. I don't use the neck pickup too much, but it's fun to kick it for some really thick solo tones (doesn't sound too great on overdriven chords however). Can also get a great jazzy sound as well. This thing is a feedback machine, but I like that. Sounds great unplugged as well as plugged in. It's overall sound is best described as chunky/bright and perfect for classic rock and bluesy applications. I've used it in live setting for heavier sounds and does this fine as well. And like any Telecaster should, is got that great twangy snap.

The wood grain and finish look great on this guitar. It kind of almost looks like a classier version of regular telecaster, but it's still a chunky-sounding guitar no less. I've not needed to adjust the neck or action, because I'm not all that picky. The volume knob looks a little crooked and the selector feels kind of chintzy, but overall it's pretty solidly put together.

I think this thing will hold together pretty nicely. It feels a little more delicate because it is a chambered body, but this guitar has been dropped on the floor before and has not suffered at all. I've used it live and it performs like a champ.

I own other Fenders, and this guitar is one of my favorites. I will admit it's more of a backup live guitar, but I've done some really awesome things with it in the stuio, and have had no problems using it live. I love the feedbackiness of it...I know that will sound strange to a lot of people, but it really inspires me creatively. It feels more at home playing rhythm, and in that area it really shines. If I were playing as a living, this is guitar that would make it into my regular rig.

Features as below. I got the transparent natural one. MIM. I was having tuning problems; gears slipped and strings contantly binding in the nut. I quckly swapped the tuners for a set of Sperzel locking, the nut for a Graph-Tech. Solid. Maybe a bit over the top for a fixed-bridge guitar, but it NEVER goes out of tune now once the strings are broken in. And I loved the tone of the stock pickups but not the hum, so I put a set of Duncan Vintage Stacks. Slightly more powerful, but almost the exact same tone. BIG smiles. But it's a Tele so it shouldn't get a 10 in this category.

This thing sounds great. I use it with a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. Very full tone. Goes from jazz to rock to blues to country to metal. Guess that covers it. I can't get enough of it. This guitar makes me WANT to play.

I couldn't belive how well it was set up when I picked it up off the rack. Until I played this, I always HATED Tele's. Glad I picked it up. Perfect for me in all aspects. Intonation is no problem. The finish is incredibly good (even the shop that installed my pickups was amazed.) Everything including the neck pocket and fretwork is perfect. The only 'flaw' is excess glue visible through the f-hole. Am I knocking it for THAT? No way! Just to be fair, I've tried others since I got mine and they were nowhere near the quality that mine was off the shelf.

Had it for almost two years now and it is still in near mint condition. Seriously. I generally play at least one show a week and practice with it for hours on end. NO finish wear yet, not even on the neck/fingerboard, and fretwear is so minimal it's not even worth mentioning. And I play hard and bend a LOT. I've gone through USA Jacksons and Fender Strats quicker. I depend on it daily with no probelm/no backup.

Contacted them once on an out-of-warranty Lone Star Strat. The neck was giving me problems but they still offered to fix it or replace it, for FREE. That was great. But I traded the Lone Star for this and haven't looked back. For this guitar, I haven't had to contact them, but their previous record with me leaves no doubt that they'll help.

I've been playing 15+ years. I was never satisfied, for one reason or another, with a stock guitar. And, even though I've altered it, this guitar grabbed me from day one. Did I mention I used to hate Tele's? Oh, yeah. Anyway, I've since played other Thinlines (Fender USA, Fernandes, Suhr) thinking I'll find something even "better," yet NONE of them made me ditch this cheap MIM beaut. I finally found my guitar- but others who play it agree that I picked a winner. And to think I was brought up on metal and shredders.

Everything you'll read in this review is "IMHO".

I've had two of these bad boys over the years. Both were MIJ's, which are totally superior to the MIM's. First was Bought at American Music in Seattle around '88-'89, second bought at "Skip's tent sale" at Skip's Music in Excremento.. uh, I mean SACRAmento in the late '90's. 21 frets on classic 25-1/2 inch scale. Clear finished Mahogony body and I forget whether the top or the back was glued on after routing out the sound pockets. Two wonderfully microphonic pickups, two knobs, one switch and one jack. The only weak link was the lightweight tin or stamped metal bridge.. it sounded good, but setting the intonation was maddening. Gotoh tuners. I give this a 9 because limited useful features are much better than a million cheap add-ons.

Hallelujah! The one I bought in Seattle was better of two but they both sounded great. I took some getting used to, low power pickups and around fretboard radius, but the rewards were clear. It either coincided with a big change in the way I play, or it CHANGED the way I play. Of course, single coil pickups buzz near the TV or a Neon beer sign. I got around that by turning the fuzz down on my real tube tube driver and letting the guitar and '64 bassman amp talk, it sounded great. For some reason, I think it's the hollow mahogony body that made notes "sing" in their decay, after they'd twang or jangle on initial pick attack (sorry for using "guitar player" verbage, I promise I won't use "snarky"). The neck pickup had a bulbous cover on it.. I think that extra air pocket increased microphonics.. and when you back down on your preamp or pedal gain, that just turned into tone. I've played MIM's that did not sound the same, the MIJ's for some reason have an extra intangible that makes them sound better. Single coil buzz stinks, and for now there's nothing anyone can do about it, although several companies now are making reasonable approximations of single coil-sounding pickups without buzz. That's another issue!

Variety? Rock blues country, probably never metal or goth or death or other kid rock, the Sterms play fenders for Jazz so I guess jazzers cound enjoy this.

The bridge on the Sacramento guitar seemed to have a misalligned on the two bass strings. A replaced the bridge on the Seattle guitar with a heavy Gotoh and a Duncan stack pickup, but it wasn't the same. It "hardened" the tone.. the springiness with which notes jumped out of the guitar was gone. I've picked up some MIM's in music stores in which you can see the bridge pickup routing peeking out from under the bridge, an instant turnoff. I've also been able to stick CREDIT CARDS in the sides of neck pockets on MIM's.. not so on my dearly departed MIJ's. I give this a high score, because I paid less than $600 for the first one, and $325 for the second! Value:Price in bth cases was right on.

Foolishly, I traded out both guitars, so I can't give a reasonable long-term "Reliability/Durability" analysis. But they're TELE's for crissakes, the mules of the guitar world! Nothing's going to happen to them!

Will this guitar withstand live playing? Lot's of players use them regularly.

Does the hardware seem like it will last? Didn't like the bridge, never found a suitable solution, but my quibble was minor.

Is the finish good enough to last, or does it seem thin and easy to wear off with lots of playing? Good finish.

Are the strap buttons solid? Never needed straplocks.

Can you depend on it? WIsh I still had'em!

Would you use it on a gig without a backup? I'd have two!

n/a

I've never been tempted to buy a MIM, once I pick up the instrument and see the problems close-up.

BUT... If I ran across a clean MIJ at below $550, I'd pick it up in a minute. The overall rating is linked to the price of the instrument.

Unfortunately, many dealers (the enemy of musicians, second only to collectors in greed) have picked up on the MIJ v. MIM quality issues, and they jack-up the price on the formers. Prices for MIJ's now seem to hover in the $500 - $600 range.

But consider the collector's pricing on old '70's Fenders. These were the butt of the CBS era, poorly made instruments. So bad, musicians wanting real good strats and teles were forced to look for pre-cbs Fenders in order to get playable instruments. Face it, most of the MIJ thinlines were better than the original issues! I remember one guy in St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights, IL back in the late 70's had a brown thinline... on any given day, either the high-E or the low-E string would be hanging off the fretboard. One of those fender guitar history books from the '90's told of a passage where American employees inspected a Japanese copy, and CRIED, because CBS wouldn't let them make guitars that good.

Despite this, collectors and dealers have steadily been jacking-up the prices on '70's fenders.. a trip on gbase will show very few, I'm guessing none, for below $1,200-asking price! Obviously the market is there to support this. Already, I've seen some MIJ's listed for ridiculous prices, because some dealer decided the sum of a "matched set" of MIJ's in one color is worth more than if the instruments were sold separately.. to MUSICIANS who'd otherwise use them for PLAYING MUSIC.

It won't surprise me at all before the greed factor comes into play on these guitars.

** SO.. the highly subjective overall rating is a 9.0 - 10 for the MIJ's.. until dealers and collectors screw with these the way they screwed with older Fenders. "If" the day comes when you can't get one of these guitars for less than, let's say, $800.. I'll resist and go with Warmoth components... and pick and choose the parts I want. It'll cost more, but considering that you get to fine-tune every detail in the building process, it'll be worth it.