Memphis Strat Copy

This was a late 80's version, but in VG cond. The neck on this guitar was unbelievable !!! I seriously thought about putting it on mt Fender Stratocaster, but due to cosmetics (logo, etc), I've decided this is a good "bang-for-the-buck" guitar. I don't know who Memphis is - and I searched around the web. All I can say is that "The Memphis Strat Style Guitar is the best damn guitar I've ever played"

This guitar has about 7 or 8 different sounds, surprisingly, the whammy bar stays in tune better than my MIM Strat ? The setup is "primo" and the Neck is like butter ! It almost plays itself !!!

This guitar had some cosmetic nicks and scratches, but seemed to withstand all the smoky bars & gin mills it had been played !It has a nice, war, broken-in-type thing going on and you just gotta love it !

The most reliable guitar I own !!!

The store I bought at has been very good, I go there for intonation check - perfecto - everything awesome !!!

I wish I knew what other guitars this comapny makes....they are QUALITY built and I can't say enough about the sleek, fast necks !

Don't know the year it was made. I'd guess late 90's. The guitar itself sounds decent through my rig, but the neck is the real surprise on this baby ! No sharp edges as you run your hand up & down the swirly maple neck w/ rosewood board like some Fenders !

I swapped out the single coils for dimarzio air nortons and it makes this guitar sound better than a standard stratocaster. Did I mention the NECK ? This neck is fast and smooth and a pleasure to play !

Probably made of ASH as I can see through the sunburst finish. No flaws, sounds great with pickup change (see above), THE NECK is the BEST Neck I've EVER played on a guitar...no kidding...this maple neck w/ rosewood fingerboard MAKES this guitar !

It fell down the side stairs of the stage and was still in tune, however, it damaged the beautiful finish, but THE NECK is still primo and I may put this neck on my MIM Stratocaster ?

Never dealt with manufacturer, but Guitar Center set it up and it sounds fine !

Been pickin' the guitar for 23 years, this is a great addition to my collection of Gibsons and Fenders. I wouldn't be surprised if someone put a Fender neck on this guitar, but it says Memphis in a cool logo, and you can see the swirly bird's eye maple on and behind the headstock & neck.

I was just reading some of these reviews because I happened to "find" one of these at a local music store in New Hampshire, so I figure, why not submit my review. I have only had this for 3 weeks now, but it seems like a fine guitar. What impresses me the most is the neck. It has a maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard and great medium jumbo frets. They are not sharp, like some of the Standard Fender Strats I had tried at $400+, but rather smooth and the neck feels great. The pickups (don't know if original) put out a variety of tone from chime-like to growling and overall it was a great buy.

I play in several bands and play oldies, surf, R & B, Rock, Blues, Jazz and Swing, this guitar sounds very good in all these types of music. I use it through a Fender Hot Rod Deville for gigs and a small Line 6 Modeling Amp for recording. I like the action of the neck so much that I'm considering swapping it out on my MIM Strat.

The guitar was setup well when I bought it, but I still tweaked it a bit to make it even better (IMHO). The body seems to be ash or alder but the neck is the best thing on this guitar. It has 22 frets and was 1" too long to fit into my standard Fender HS case. There are no flaws as far as I can tell so far after using it on 3 gigs.

This guitar seems more durable than the non-american Fender Stratocasters, I've read that mentioned in these other reviews and I agree 100% with the reviewer's comments. The hardware is solid, as is the whole guitar !

Never dealt with them ?

I have been playing for 40 years, "What other gear do I own" ? Too much to mention at this point, let's say 20 something guitars, tens of amps, a multitude of pedals, etc. I came upon this guitar while my band was on the road at a little music shop in New Hampshire's White Mountain area. I had played the previous night on an ES-335, and walked into this shop and saw it. The salesGIRL knew nothing about the guitar. It was priced at $150, I offered her $125 after playing it through a small Crate amp, she made a call, then hung up and said, "Joe said OK" - so off I went, back to the hotel and started playing, tweaking and liking my new found guitar !

i used only the bridge for a distorted sound, fret for a cleaner, fuller richer sound. the middle one's pretty much there for sake of..i dunno...it's just there. there's also a coil tap for the humbucker. i use it to add more richness.

i'm kind of afraid to use the tremlo. it goes outta tune real quick if you bend it a little too far. but for the kind of music i play, i dont' really need it.

i've gone through the blues phase, the 80's metal phase, the vai phase, i'm also on the worship team at my church...it's super flexible. the fret pickup sounds just amazing for blues. the bridge pickup is good for metal and punk. i use a digitech RP 200A with my memphis. You can pull just about every kind of sound outta this guitar.

the fret's flatter than a strats, and a little wider, good for finger work.

i don't know how old this thing is. i'm guessing around 20 years old. it's as solid as a fricken rock.

*shrug*

It was in excellent condition when i bought it. The only sign of age is the rust on the pickups, and the crackling noise it makes when you turn the volume knob. (btw, yeah, the volume knob is pretty much an on/off button. it doesn't change the sound that much, it adds intensity at 10, off at 0) This was my first electric.

I've played expensive guitars on expensive amps. I'm a strong believer in finding cheap gems. this memphis strat imitation is a gem. i have a friend who has an earnie ball evh and sometimes he admits that mine does sound better than his.

and i am also a strong believer that the player makes the guitar, not the other way around. and i think i've made my guitar into something special.

I don't know what year it was made but it looks like it's brand new. This guitar has 22 frets. It is a solid ash body with sunburst finish. It has 2 tone and 1 volume control and a 5-way pickup switch. It has 3 single coil pickups that I don't know the make but sound good. It is a transparent sunburst finish. This guitar looks like a Fender Strat. The bridge is also like a Strat.

This guitar stays in tune better than a Strat. I play blues and it gives a nice warm deep tone in the middle position. This guitar can make about 7 different sound combinations. I like this guitar because it looks good and it sounds good and it costed me $100 on ebay !

The action was a bit high, so I lowered it and it is much better now. The pickups were adjusted perfectly. The see-through finish shows the swirly wood underneath. Nice ! The nut is graphite and allows for smooth whammying.

This guitar will definitely withstand constant playing. I used it on a cruise ship last week and even exposed to the salty sea/air it stayed perfectly in tune. I think I got a bargain for $100 for this guitar, I like it better than my Gibson SG !

They are wonderful and friendly to talk with. I called to get the schematic for the wiring and they emailed me a .pdf of it within 2 hours ! VERY FRIENDLY girl also ;)

I've been playing for 12 years and thought you had to spend over $500 for a quality sounding guitar. This Memphis Guitar changed my mind about that. It's too bad that they have gone out of business. I'm sure these will be collector's items at some point. They could have easily charged more money for these and got it & perhaps stayed in business ?

I've seen a lot of these for sale lately, so when I saw one posted on craigslist.org - I went and bought it for $100.-

I was super-impressed by how much it sounded like my 89 Fender American Stratocaster. The pickups were staggered-pole-piece and after I replaced the stock tuners with sperzels, and set the intonation, I felt like I had a $500 guitar here.

I play all styles of music which makes this guitar a perfect fit for my style of playing. It is good for whammy-ing, blues, jazz to downright in-your-face shredding !!! The 5-way selector switch is very unique in the sense that you can toggle the "in-between" notches (like on Telecasters) and have 7 different pickup/sound combinations.

The body is swamp-ash and the neck is a swirly maple with a rosewood fingerboard - a nice combination. The finish is very hi-gloss which makes for a slick looking axe. It is a blue color, but you can see thru to the ash grain - looks super nice !

Now--this guitar will withstand heavy gigging--it did need the 32:1 ratio sperzels instead of 14:1 standard tuners, but with that little mod, I feel that I have a great, durable, nice looking & sounding guitar.

Called once - they were friendly and told me about their other products, one of which is a Les Paul style--I would love to find one of those !

I wish I didn't have my Fender because it collects dust now that I have my Memphis. Also, which is more likely to be ripped off from a stage or gig ? If anyone has a Memphis Les Paul style, please contact me if you want to sell !!!

This is a late 90's Memphis Strat style guitar. A friend was going to put it on eBay, but I bought it for my son to learn on. I have two Fender Strats, but neither compare with this fast neck ! It is a maple neck with rosewood board, the body is ash, and it has 3 staggered pole single coils pups. Although I bought it for my 13 yr old son, I find it very comfortable to play myself and even favor it over my Fenders !

The sound from this guitar through my Fender Champ is mind boggling. It is very strong, clean, and with my Digitech Effects processor, it sounds BETTER than my 2 Fenders ! The neck pickup is a real Robin Trower type sound, but kick in the bridge pup and you're Clapton, or go for middle Mark Knopler sound. It all sounds VERY good.

The action was a bit high for my taste, so I adjusted and it plays really nice & low with no buzzes. The frets are medium jumbo which allow for easy bending in the G and A positions (3rd & 5th frets).
The tremelo STAYS IN TUNE ! How many Fender do that ? All in all, it is the best $125 I've ever spent on a guitar.

Well, you can't do the Steve Vai thing - but under normal playing situations, it is very reliable, stays in tune, looks and sounds good. It's kind of a heavy beast, about 10 lbs (probably northern ash ?)I might even do gigs with this guitar and sell my Fenders. This guitar proves that names don't mean much. This guitar would blow some Fender Strats away !!!

Never had to use.

I've been playing since the Silvertone days of Beatles on Ed Sullivan and the Vox sound, british invasion. I own 4 other guitars. The thing about this Memphis that I really like is that if it's stolen, I'm only out $125 - but if one of my other guitars are stolen - I'm out four times as much. A very giggable guitar made with craftmanship and a clone to a Strat.

The best thing about this guitar is the neck. It is a fast, smooth neck (rosewood board)similiar to the old Gibson SG necks. The guitar itself isn't bad either.

This guitar is good for rock & roll. It is based on the Fender Stratocaster and even looks almost identical. I'm using it with a Fender Concert Reverb and it sounds good. I bought it as a backup but find that I'm using it more as my main guitar.

The action is comparable to a Fender Strat. Pickups at good height, finish is a nice gloss sunburst.

It appears to be made durable - I just got it so time will tell ?
The strap buttons are very solid and dependable bridge.

I called the company to get a schematic and they emailed it right out to me in .pdf format

I've been playing for 30 years and I bought this on an impulse because it looked and sounded so good for the money. I would say it compares pretty much to a MIM Fender Strat.

I just bought a Memphis Strat style from a local pawn shop. It is made by Gibson in their Japan plant. It has 22 medium jumbo frets. The controls are similiar to a Fender's. It has three single coil staggered pole piece pickups. The body seems to be ash or alder with a maple neck. It is string-thru-body floating bridge tremelo. The neck is a nice "C" shape and very fast with nice action.

I play original garage rock and it sounds powerful and cuts thru the mix pretty good. I use it thru a Peavey Amp. The guitar makes a variety of sounds with the 5-position switch and for the money, I'd call it a "poor-boy's Fender Strat".

I always mess around with the action, bridge and pickups, but with these staggered pole piece pups, they sounded great. There were no imperfections that I could see on this guitar. The neck is just so smooth, it plays like butter.

I don't know how much this guitar originally cost, the guy at the pawnshop told me about $200 ? Everything about it seems real solid...the strap buttons, controls, tuners, electronics. The finish is a sunburst and very nice looking as well as durable looking and shiny.

Never had to deal with the company.

I also own a Charvel and Fender (MIJ) but this Memphis guitar puts them both to shame. I've been playing almost 20 years. I love the sound of it, especially the sustain. I heard they are a discontinued model and that's too bad, because I'd like another one for a backup in case anything happened to this one.

This is a 22 fret clone of a mexican fender stratocaster - it might be a notch better than the fender even ! It has 3 single coil pickups and 5-way selector switch with some nice sounds. The neck is especially nice for bending strings with the medium jumbo frets and rosewood neck.

The guitar could fall down a flight of stairs and still be in tune (like a Fender Strat)- I'm surprised Fender doesn't have a lawsuit against Gibson for making this Stratocaster clone ? It sounds BETTER than my MIM Strat !

The action is smooth and the wood is ash on the body and maple neck, with rosewood fingerboard. The trem stays in tune, even after fairly heavy dive bombing. The finish is done nicely in a three tone sunburst. The guitar is the equivalent of a 1966 Corvette - very cool looks and sleek looking.

I've used this for 2 years and never had a problem with the electronics or bridge or anything !!!

Warranty is for 1 year on parts & labor - same as Fender MIM's I think, I called company once to ask about truss rod adjusting and they were very helpful.

I've been playing about 15 years and this guitar can hold it's own against any Fender that I've ever played (and I've played many).