Memphis Strat Copy

Can't complain, I play an American Standard and this neck is much nicer on my hand, it feels right; 22 fret maple neck. Enlarged headstock which was to avoid copyright infringement actually gives it more sustain. Three single coils, the bridge pickup is angled like on most strats. When I recieved this guitar, there were way to many springs on the tremolo and it didn't function well, but that is easily fixable. The tuners work perfectly, even for it's age I would expect one to fail by now. The tobacco sunburst is still glossy as day one, and hasnt faded at all over 20+ years of being around. 2 tone and 1 volume with a 5 way selector. I do not know the year for sure, but it is most likely 1977-1984

I play blues, and this baby cranks perfectly on any amp. If you want metal, this is not your guitar, but any rock to blues, even R&B; this baby will do the trick. The action is amazing and I never tweaked it. The sound and feel of this guitar are dynomite, I love this guitar. I prefer it over all the others I own. It is noisy if you push on the volume pot too heavily, I think it's just because I broke the solder on it by punching it or dropping it. I haven't fixed that yet, but it's a 5 minute fix. The only sound this will not enjoy making for you is a overdriven distorted metal sound, like Pantera etc... because the pickups can't handle it. Swap the bridge single coil out for an emg single coil and u have the most versatile guitar in the world.

I don't know about from the factory, but I can say now, the action is perfect, the finish is spotless, accept for the places I have left my mark, by dropping etc... The pickups are perfectly placed, and the perfect height. The body and the neck look meant for eachother and there is no flaw in the detail of the guitar. The only problem in the 3rd fret fretwire, but that's due to it's age, and I think it was stored with the string pressed against the fret, and it vibrated a grove in the fret wire. So I need to re-fret the guitar. Don't let that taint the guitar though, it is magnificent. The finish oin the neck is starting to wear through on like the 12-15th frets and on the 7th fret near the 1-3rd strings I dont know why other than it's an old guitar.

It is th emost durabke guitar ever! in my opinion. It is made out of I'd say 7 peices of particle board laminated together, making it very very heavy. So it will defintly survive live playing, but will your shoulder survive is a better question. The finish has no belt buckle rash, and I wear so pretty abbrasive buckles, the strap buttons are nice, they will hold your strap on through any live playing, now I wouldnt spin the thing around your head without strap locks, but I dont know of a guitar that can. I have depended on it and played it without a backup before and it hasn't failed me once.

They don't exist anymore as far as I know, so if you want to repair your Memphis, you're on your own.

If this guitar was ever stolen or lost, I would search the Earth for another one, it is amazing. It is my primary guitar, I am always looking at Memphis guitars I see for sale because I know they are an exceptional guitar at a ridiculously low price!
I play this Memphis strat copy through a Fender half stack and it really cranks blues, I can feel the sound through the guitar. My only wish is that I had 2 of them. When I bought this I chose it over a MIM Fender strat and over an Epiphone hollowbody I dont know which one, it beat them both hands down in sound and playability.

I Started guitar at 8 and it was an acoustic after about a year my brother gave me a strat with the name memphishe told me he got it in '99 new on christmas it has 22 frets black finish with a black pickgard two volume, one tone, and a three way selecter, two single coils not sure what pick ups has a strat style bridge with whammy hole has a D style bride

My styles are metal to alter to thrash to punk to blues I use a marshall mg 100 half stck with a dime wah line 6 live pod dime wah and nady wireless its wonder ful on clean but on distorted when you stop playing cover youre ears because it will screams its not the amp cause I used it on a peavy bandit 112 and its the same I really like the blues tone but not the dis.

I'm not sure bout the action my brother had it for four year before me it seemed and still seems to have no flaws

this thing can withstand hell Ive dropped it down 14 stairs and only a little chip noting a black sharpie cant fix. It came with poppy strap buttons so I put in strap locks. I would only use this for a back up if it only involved a clean channel

Never used it

it runs good for having it been use for 9 years I only need a couple hundred bucks for EMG's

The body looks like ash, as it has a clear finish and no paint, but after removing the back plate, it could be plywood. I can't tell and frankly the tone of this thing continues to blow me away after almost 28 years of ownership. I bought it new in the summer of 1980, right before my band started playing at frat parties, social events, weddings, etc. I've kept it in good shape - a few dents and chips, but from 10 feet away you'd swear it was new. Last year I wanted a bit more out of it, so I installed some Texas Specials. Unbelieveable! Awesome tone, can conjure up SRV right now. Fast neck (U-shape) with the large 70's headstock. I was going to retire it, but after playing some MIM strats and a few USA strats, I think I'll keep it. After so many years I need to re-fret the neck - I've got a ton of flat spots, mostly at frets 5,7, and 12 and I've been quoted $250 for the job. Based on the feel and sound of the MIM's, I'm sticking with my Memphis.

This is my blues guitar - SRV, Robert Cray, John Mayer, Clapton - it can handle them all. Not that good at metal, but it's got classic rock covered. I think the neck makes the difference - it is wide but it gives my fat fingers room to bend. It has the maple neck and fretboard which creates a bit brighter sound than rosewood, but at certain settings on my Peavey Bandit 65, it absolutely screams. The frets are very smooth at the edges, making it easy to play.

Was set up perfectly 28 years ago. I've made a few adjustments and have had to replace a saddle and will have to replace at least one more. The intonation is OK, not great, especially higher up the neck. People have referred to this guitar as a "starter", but I think it is way beyond that. I bought it at Apple Music in Portland, OR for $220, back when an American strat sold for $400-$500. I think the fit and finish is comparable to the MIM's.

28 years and going strong. I've worn out the frets, so replacing them is my next project.

What customer support?

If you can find one that hasn't been customized too much, or beat to death, buy it. It will never make you any money from an investment standpoint, but the playability is simply unmatched. I'm taking this one to the grave....

IT's a Black memphis dead knock off of a Fender Stratocaster.Well, when i got the guitar it had wiring problems , after fixing them it would plug in fine. What ever my Uncle did with it , it looks like he tried to re build it. but for being in an attic for 14 years , it aint half bad.

It's great for rock and Blues , but if your a metelar you might want to do some work to this.

I had to ajust the action once cause of fret buzz, what a nightmare was that, other than that it's ok .

it's very reliable guitar. it wieghs like an easy 10 pounds. I wouldn't depend on it to much.

Company died out like 20 years ago.

I'm going to rebuild it and repaint it a wood finish .

I believe it was originally white. It's been painted over many times, and is currently red and black zebra-striped. It's a blatant Strat Copy, but a good one at that. The parts are pretty generic, regular strat-style tremolo. The most interesting feature is the fact that its pickups were configured S-H-S. A Humbucking Bar pickup is in the bridge position, but it's the size of a single-coil pickup. A nice fat humbucker in the middle and a standard strat-style single in the neck made for some good sounds, but i rewired it so its now H-S-S*, where S* is the humbucking single. Usual Strat controls, 5-way switch, volume, tone, tone. Maple fingerboard, feels really nice.

I play all kinds of music, but this is my blues guitar. The warm, punchy tone i get on the neck is perfect, combined with the tone from the maple neck and fretboard. The Bridge pickup is great for rock, and you can get an uncanny Stevie Ray Vaughan tone from the bridge-mid position.

I play this guitar through a ProCo RAT distortion from the 80s and a Marshall combo i haven't managed to identify from the 70s.

The guitar feels great, the action is perfect everywhere on the neck. The bridge seems kind of flimsy, but it's held. My biggest gripe is the intonation, which after the 12th fret starts to wander.

This guitar has held up to 20 years of gigging, no problem. I never, ever play without a backup, since a string-breaking accident. But its definitely reliable.

Can't say i've dealt w/ em.

Overall, its an amazing guitar, i use it on many recordings and shows, for almost any genre. Too bad the company went out over 20 years ago...

i'm writting this review simply to concur with everything my scottish friend below wrote,and add some info that i recently uncovered.
but i must start with the neck, simply the finest strat neck i've played,perfect medium frets are rounded off without a sharp edge on either side of the fretboard.perfect slim ''c'' shape is extremely comfortable to play. mine has the gold memphis weird ''m'' logo.
yes its true, it is plywood. laugh if you need to, but i'll put this guitar's tone up against your custom shop $4,000 axe anytime.
it is a little heavy,and i did some upgrading,but i'm letting go of some fenders now.

i installed 3 vintage lipstick pickups[5.5k] and usa electronics. also kluson tuners as they fit the small diameter holes.
tele like twang in the bridge, fat yet cutting blues or jazzy octaves in the neck.
in-between positions are pure r&b cluck.
i even like the middle position,all 3 distinct and balanced.
the original pickups werent bad mind you,and i'm keeping them with the orig harness. but they were 7.6k and i like the glassyness of low output pickups.

action is low and buzz free everywhere. intonation is spot on.
bullet truss rod works as it should. vintage 60's fender style tremolo bridge is perfect. dont think about swapping it for a fender,it wont fit.
the neck is a little wider than an average fender neck at the nut,but widens significantly the higher you go. in fact it wont fit in a fender neck pocket.very unique,and i love it.

i'm guessing late 70's/early eighties. still looks new.

ok, heres the good news. not many folks are aware of this but these old memphis guitars were made at the ibanez factory in japan. they were a house brand guitar and were never meant to be affiliated with the ibanez name. but they were made by ibanez!
also FYI- the old memphis effects pedals [blue mxr sized boxes] were made by maxon,and are early examples of maxon effects.

you'd have better luck calling graceland in memphis for customer support!

i've played in variety of bands from rock/blues,country,funk to reggae.
my memphis strat/fender 6v6 amps[in stereo] and an classical electric cover all the bases.
effects-crybaby,memphis freq attack,ross orange phaser,
mxr dist +,mt-2,ibanez ad-9,dd5,rv5

The neck is something else - a superior kind of Maple with what looks like real Brazillion Rosewood on top - slim and smooth - and fast like me. If the body got itself run over I would have no hesitation in spending bucks in doing a re-build. I lined the pup pockets with copper and the whole of the back of the scratchplate. I'll do a fret polish the next time I change strings. The springs that hold the pups on were on the wrong way and when I got it - they flopped all over the place - sorted noo!. Swap photos with me of your Memphis - my name is Ken - email me: outcast@blueyonder.co.uk

It fell in the door, dirty and unkempt,after a bath and a clean up, I plugged it in - the result, I thought that I had made it to Heaven and God handed me this Memphis and told me ' That HE had kept this for me'. This is a Candy Apple Red Strat Copy and it blows my other 18 or so guitars away. I too have a neck on it that defies description - just magic! Inside, and all over, some teenybopper with a Mission with a screwdriver had done the crash course in taking it to bits - often.

The action was rubbish and I sorted it oot, toot suite. Intonation and action are as good as I can get it at this time, and I would like to get it to a Luthier that I know to get the relief looked at, as I feel that I can get the strings down paper thin spacing in time.
The finish is Eye Candy Red and looks like the real 50's gear. I took off the backplate to see what the wood was and my brain cell started to blow smoke - the body is plywood, and this is the best guitar that I have ever heard - how come?

This Memphis (aka The Memphis Sadie) named after my old neighbour who gave me the money for it (about ??39 Scots Money). I really believe that I stole this Git offof Ebay. It has turned me into a Git Detective (Scottish Branch). The pups are like no Single Coils that I have seen before. Straight up and down and not like the Fender and Clones that tend to be V shaped. There are Metal pup retainers which I am sure does something to the vast range of sounds. A Luthier pal said last week that it was the neck that gave it it's uniqueness. Tonight I noticed that the two Tone controls were 500K and ever other Strat I've had were 250's.

By and large do my own setups noo. I have the Memphis that doesn't have the curve under the M graphic. This is a quality git - even the screws are heavy chromed the way they should be, and used to be in days of old. Don't know how old it is - 21 Fretter and not a lot of abuse at all. Was looking at the fretboard in Rosewood tonight and I couldn't find a mark on it. I'm a Slurry Slob of a player and I can wreck a fretboard in no time. I usually hit it with a zillion notes then see how it is. No marks - fretwire lookin' guid.

Been playing a while - was playing in the same area as the Beatle's in Hamburgh in the fifties. When I brought my first electric Git through Customs in the 50's - the Customs Officers had never seen an Electric Git. Would never sell this, if you ever see one - sell your wife and weans and get it, steal it if you have to. Still find it hard to believe that the body is plywood - I keep getting the idea that this is 'hand made' - a prototype - an Exhibition Git. I have 4 Fenders and a Gibson and the Sadie has style.

I bought this guitar off ebay for 50 bucks about 2 months ago, Purely for nostalgic reasons. My first guitar was a horrible copy of a Gibson Dove with no brand name anywhere on it. I got it at age 9 at a horse race my dad was at. My dad paid some toothless guy 5 dollars for it and gave it to me. At age 12, dad took me to the pawnshop to get an electric for my birthday. All the name brand stuff was way too high dollar, but they had some guitars that were copies,all Memphis or Cortez brand. I wanted the black Memphis Tele copy or the Cortez Goldtop LP copy, but dad said nope,too much $$, if you want that, I can't afford an amp. So, I got a black Memphis strat copy and a Royce amp for the sum of 95 dollars including tax, cord, and strap. It had black painted plywood body and black faced head with gold MEMPHIS logo.it was like a strat but all the dimensions were slightly different. it weighed a ton, sounded horrid,could not be tuned and hurt to play,a total turd! After a year, I traded it and 25 bucks for a Hondo LP Custom copy that was not a lot better.I bought this one off ebay cuz it was the exact one I had,and I still had my Dove copy, so I thought cool,I'll have the shitbombs of my youth to keep. Yay!

This second Memphis was way off intonation wis, but I set it up and it plays REALLY good. Shocked me! although it weighs a ton, it has a nice tone,and the pickups sound very good. It's not noisy, and sounds good thru any of my amps or effects. The shocker is that I still have the Rancid Royce amp, and even though the Memphis of my youth was terrible sounding, this one sounds really good thru it! It has the ability to get all the good strat sounds, and honestly with my eyes closed, it feels and sounds exactly like a 79 anniversary Strat I own. Weird!

Set up sucked,pickups adjusted too high,etc., just like the one I got in my childhood./ I tweaked it all up with a scredriver in 15 minutes, and VOILA! Sounded and played good! go figure! It's hard to believe that two crap guitars that share the same poor quailities could play and sound so different!

Hell, I gigged on the Old Memphis at parties and at school in Junior High,and it was as awful a guitar as I was a player! Make no mistake this 2nd one is cheap and crummy too. But it sounds good. The thick finish is pretty durable. That said, this is not a guitar I'd take to a gig at all.It just isn't good enough. I have tons of cool gear that I would use instead. But if in my younger days, my old Memphis had been this good, I'd not have ever swapped for the Hondo (another shitbomb from days of yore!)

The pawnshop guy would not trade for it-I traded the thing for the Hondo in a record store.What customer service? This thing was probably made by Taiwanese children in a sweat shop.This one I just got is at least 25 years old and I bet the company was gone 20 years ago.

I've been playing 30 years now. I only got this for nostalgia reasons, and that was an impulse, not because I searched for it. I doubt it will be stolen, because it and the Dove copy are hanging 20 feet in the air at my office as decorations.I love that it reminds me of being young and excited about guitar, ANY GUITAR! I have a bonus room above my garage and have a studio in it, I own every guitar (either original or reissue) I ever wanted. Thats 37 guitars and 9 amps.I was really poor growing up, so I guess that is a way I compensate now that I have had some success in life. This Memphis was worth every dime I paid, because every time I look at it it warms my heart and puts me in a frame of mind to remember how wonderful music and guitars made my youth!

Not sure of age - guessing about 1980 from Japan. All standard Strat features. Single coil PU's - great sound! Mine has the skunk stripe down the back of the neck and it plays and sounds better than MIM Fender. Neck is straight, slim 60's style and FAST! Faster than Standard Fender Strat. Mine has the plain Memphis script on headstock without the funny "M". Maple neck with rosewood fret board. NOt sure the type of wood in body but sustain is great so it works.

Tuners aren't the best but look good and hold it in tune. 21 Regular size frets.

Very good tone combinations. Has Fender "Bell" sound, and better tone range than most strats. Little hum at high amp settings but nearly all single coil strats do. I may put some Fender Noiseless PU's in as long as I don't loose this fantastic sound.

Amazing fit and finish.

Solid..period.

Long gone out of business, but everything is regular strat stuff and easy to find if ever needed.

If you buy one of these Memphis Strats, you'll find your MIM Fender Strat sitting in the closet or For Sale on Ebay!

I'd like to submit a full review, but first wanted to point out that I think two different makes of guitars are being reviewed under this heading. This would account for some reviewers praising their Memphis and giving 10s to the same features that others are giving low numbers to, and trying to outdo each other in finding adjectives to express their disgust with their Memphis.

The "Strings and Things" guitar shop in Memphis (still extant but under a new name) made a line of guitars in the 80s and 90s. I believe they are called their "Memphis line," but have other names (I just twigged to this and am trying to learn more.) Then there is the guitar with the Memphis name on it - a distinctive font with a capital "M" that swirls under the "emp" part of "Memphis."

Making things more confusing is that both brands make great guitars. The latter, plain ol' Memphis, also makes some real bad guitars ("bad" as in BAD BAD not bad-good). BUT more confusing still, plain ol' Memphis has come out with some guitars that can stand up to any Les Paul made. Search through the reviews here for the term "beautiful wood" and you'll see a review that seems to describe my Memphis guitar to a tee--except mine is a double-cutaway, not a strat copy. I can't find any others like mine. My guitar teacher (35 years playing, including with Peter Green and Clapton in the late 60s) is BLOWN AWAY by my Memphis guitar. He can't believe how great it sounds, and calls the attack perfect. It's natural mahogany, maple, and rosewood make it beautiful to look at too. I wonder if it is a prototype, or custom? I've heard speculation that Ibanez made Memphis, but haven't been able to confirm. I'd love to know more.
Vivia.B@comcast.net

will submit later when issue I raise above is cleared up - not sure my guitar fits here. The "Strings and Things" Memphis line did include a double-cutaway Les Paul style in natural wood which they rave about on their website. But only 6 were made in the ten years they made them.

see above

see above

see above

more later ...

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).

I bought a used Memphis Strat for a backup in my road band. It is very similar to the early 70's Fender Strats, made of heavy ash, but great sustain. It is a three single coil model with staggered pole pieces. One volume, Two tone controls and 5-way pickup selector switch. It has a floating tremelo bridge and medium jumbo frets. I replaced the tuners, with some F tuners (Fender) and this guitar is a keeper ! It has great harmonic sustain without the high Fender price tag !!!

I play rock, everything from originals to Steely Dan, Hendrix, Santana, Clapton and use this guitar through a Peavey amp. It has a rich, full sound that is great for soloing and the bridge pickup has the "bite" of a Fender Strat !!!

The setup wasn't too good, I had to adjust each set screw to get the action where it would play good up the whole neck, then I had the intonation checked and adjusted a local music store. The guitar teacher at the store fell in love with it and offered me $125 for it, but I declined the offer and use it all the time.

The hardware is actually better than MIM Strats, the pickups are quiet, but can scream also. The finish is a cool shiny with a hint of the under-the-paint ash swirls. I thought about sanding down to natural, but decided the finish was too nice to chance it. This is one solid guitar that I believe blows the doors off any Standard Fender Strat....and at 1/2 the price !!!

The warranty was 5 years from Manny's (NYC) and they gave me good advice on setting it up. Memphis, a division of Gibson, has these guitars made in Japan, but the quality is right there !!!

I've been playing for 12 years and needed a backup guitar for gigs. As it turns out, this is my main guitar and my MIM Strat is the backup ! If it were stolen, I would try to find another one. For $100, this guitar could be modified enough (pickups, floyd rose, etc..) to be worth over $400 very easily !!!

All the features of a real strat, without the quality.

The pickups sounded even worse than I hoped, very clean, yet scratchy, almost impossible to produce any sort of distortion. And otherwise it was just sort of noisy like an open electrical transformer.

This is the worse guitar I have ever played, much less owned. Much much crappier than my first ever Harmony JCPenny catalog guitar. The finish on my Memphis was just standard black paint with a white pickgaurd. Actually it doesn't matter, no one who buys this guitar cares about stuff like finish. Any way, the neck and action is where this guitar really excelled in its horrificness. The strings were set very very high, yet a note could not be played past the 10th fret as it would just make a clink-clink noise, the same noise from the 10th to 20th fret. And just that noise, no note. Anything lower than the 10th fret was extremely buzzy.

It was quite a bit more difficult to destroy this guitar than I thought it would be. It took several slams agaisnt a concrete floor to break the body in half and the neck was still as good as the day I bought it.

I really would not bother.

I'll admit that I bought this guitar just to destroy it, but it's really all it was good for since songs could not be played on it. I had to end the guitars life lest it fall into the hands of a student guitar player who undoubtedly would have quit playing forever upon the purchase of this beast. In all fairness I owned the guitar for nearly a year before demolishing it, occasionally dragging it around and it always still had the price tag hanging from the tuners. And I actually played it on stage for a little intro thing with my band once and then just dropped it on the ground and picked up my real guitar. I smashed it later at home. I still have the pieces and have thought about glueing or taping it crudely back together and just resoldering the broken electronics and then trying to pawn it just to see the look on the pawnbrokers face. ("What? it works!"). Overall it served its purpose and I knew exactly what I was buying for $35 and actually kind of liked the guitar for being so shitty.

In 1984 I was stationed on board a destroyer in the NAVY(Never Again Voluteer Yourself). I was nervous about keeping my Les Paul on the ship so I went looking for an inexpensive strat copy. I had some old strat pickups I could swap out to make a serviceable instrument. It was Lake Placid Blue with a maple neck. It didn't play too badly but it was real heavy. Standard strat layout (or so I thought).

Dull and lifeless. Weak pickups. No sustain.

Like I said it played OK. When I went to swap out the pickups I discovered that everything on the guitar was slightly scaled down. I couldn't put on a different pickguard because it was too big to fit between the neck and the bridge. So I had to enlarge the holes on the old one. Then I had to enlarge the body cavity. That's when I discovered why it was so heavy. It was all the glue holding this particleboard monstrosity together!

Screws stripped out of the body in no time at all. Once the finish is removed the material underneath starts flaking away.

I never bothered trying. I was on a overseas deployment while I owned it.

This was the worst guitar that I ever owned. Eventually I got so fed up with it that I took all the parts out and took the neck off. Me and my buddies carved our names in the body and threw it overboard speculating about what someone might think when it washed up somewhere.
It sank like a rock... good riddance.

I purchased my Memphis Model 102D Strat style guitar new around 1982 from a store where I had done a lot of business and trusted the owner. I paid around $300 for it and purchased it after seriously considering an Ibanez that costed roughly the same amount. I also own a 1996 Fender Strat Plus which I will use for comparison.
It has a Strat style maple neck with a rosewood fretboard which is bolted on with 4 bolts. The quality of the wood used in the neck is nicer than that used on the Strat. It has 24 frets, the same as the Strat. I made minor adjustments to the truss rod when I initially purchased it, and have never had to readjust it, it's great! I'm not sure who made the tuning pegs, but they have no backlash, and the guitar stays in tune indefinately. The body is made from several pieces of wood that are laminated together. The outer pieces are mahogany, the center section is the same nice maple that the neck is made from and there are a couple of pieces of darker wood (rosewood?) between the center and outer pieces for accent. Overall, it has a Strat shape. The finish is excellent, and shows no signs of wear, although I have played this instrument extensively over the years. The finish is glossy, probably polyurethane, and is thick and transparent.
The pickups are two Bill Lawrence L500 series humbuckers. Electrically it is very similar to a Gibson Les Paul with seperate tone and volume for each pickup, the same Les Paul pickup selector switch, and a pickup phase switch. The main reason I selected the Memphis over the Ibanez was that the pickups sounded so good. I have modified my guitar with active electronics of my own design which leaves one of the original tone pots inactive. This worked out quite well!
The bridge is Strat style, no tremolo arm, but it adjusts identically to my Strat Plus, except for the fact that it has screwdriver adjustment for string height instead of allen key. I have no idea who made it. Strings attach thru body with brass cups to hold the ends.
The fretwork was very expertly done, at least as good as my Strat Plus. I have never had any problem with string buzz, and the tuning is perfect. The frets are different than those used on my Strat Plus, but show no notching or signs of wear, even though I have played this instrument extensively.
The guitar came equipped with Shaller locking strap accessories the same as my Strat Plus.
The case that came with this guitar is nothing to write home about. Cardboard, not terrible, but certainly not great like the Strat Plus case.

I usually play to amuse myself, blues-rock-metal style mostly lead guitar. I have used it with a wide variety of amps and effects boxes over the years. The Bill Lawrence humbuckers are quiet, quieter that the Lace Pickups on my Strat Plus. It always was capable of a wide variety of sounds, but the addition of active electronics has greatly enhanced this. It sounds different than my Strat Plus, but I like the sounds of both guitars.

The Memphis guitar was well set up by the factory. Action was a little high for my style, but I was able to easily adjust it to my needs and it has never changed since I adjusted it.
There were no flaws in the finish, and it has withstood the test of time. Beautifully finished, and made with beautiful wood and good accesories. Even though I modified the electronics, I am using the original pots and switches. Never a problem!

It has stood up for around 20 years, and looks like new! The Schaller strap buttons work great! It is very dependable as long as I replace the 2, 9 Volt batteries that power my active electronics every 4 years or so. I usually bring my Strat Plus if I am playing somewhere, but mostly for sound variety, not out of concern for reliability of the Memphis.

I have never had any need for repair and never tried to deal with the company. The dealer I purchased it from warranted it for 2 years, but I suspect this was his warranty and not the company's.

I have been playing for 48 years. In addition to the Fender Strat Plus I have already mentioned, I have a Danelectro single pickup I bought new in the late 50's (my first guitar), a Gibson acoustic I have had since the early 60's, a Fender acoustic purchased in the late 90's, and several other instruments including a 5 string banjo, a mountain dulcimer, a Roland keyboard, and A Mason & Hamlin Grand Piano.
For what I paid for it, I would buy another one tomorrow! No complaints!
I am surprised at a lot of the negative comments I have seen on Memphis guitars, they certainly do not apply to mine!

memphis strat copy,3 single coils,5 way switching,sunburst finish...
same specs as any stratocaster.this guitar has terrible tuners and an unreliable tremolo system (the damn thing broke twice!!!).has a uncomfortable neck with a sticky coat of black paint on top of a maple neck

this guitar is impossible to create a clean sound but creates a dark disgusting tone that sounds bad. tone knobs do nothing and is very noisy.

this guitar is the worst I have ever played or seen.bad innotation,bad frets , bad bridge and a poorly bookmatched particleboard body.is hard to adjust the action and truss rod

this guitar is imortal and will not go away no matter how hard you try.you will never be able to depend on this guitar for anything

what customer support?

do not even think about buying this guitar it is terrible.instead of playing this beast i got a squier strat pack which is supreme to any memphis strat copy.this is the worst guitar compaired to any cheap and nasty pawn shop special.

Oh God this was the first electric I got for my son in 85. Particle board body 5 way selector, single coils, spraypainted blue body, non working tuners. It was like the finish never hardened.It was like you could lick the finish off. I have been looking to buy one for the last year or so. The first disposable guitar.

This will kill you!!!! Because the the thing was so crappy my son could get tubescreamer sounds out of a fender PRINCETON clean channel. To this day that is the best overdriven sound I have heard. A pity the guitar melted. I'll give it a 9 because it wasn't supposed to sound good

Okay heres another thing. It had an unbelievably fast neck. Almost like a Carvin but the frets were somewhat rough causing minor flesh loss. Oh and the top was exquisitly bookmatched( The guy must have cut it from the same piece of particle board)

Here is where it gets good. My son left it laying overnight against an old 40 watt valvestate I had. It did get hot. So hot that the guitar melted just like an ice cream bar.

They were incredible. They sent two techs out who heated the axe up and bent it back into shape. I think they stole something from my house on the way out

For a few brief moments that guitar was

I dont know when this peice of shit is made. My friend bought from a pawn shawp for an overwhelming 200.00 I mean the guy at the pawn shawp saw him coming a mile away. He is probably laughing his ass off right now. My friend trys to convince himself its good but is without a doubt hands down the worst guitar I ever played No NO No Itake it back the worst guitar had to be his first one I dont know if that was a guitar but anyways, The memphis has a body like a strat but dont let it fool you I wouldnt piss on this thing to put out a fire but I would gladly set it ablaze. the frets stick out of the side of the neck and rip into your hands. Only a coal minor could handel this neck without ripping his hands to shreds

Oh my god this thing sounds like shit but worse id have to say the sound is the worst quality of all its all muddy dark the wires in this thing allways rub against each other and make it all fuzzy I do not like this thing at all.

the strings are two hard to push down making leads impossibe I tried adjusting the height of the strings but nothing helps. It is damn near unplayable

it will hold up because it ways a ton but it will never ever play good it is a peice of SHIT.

yeah right I dont think the company even exists anymore does it???

SHIT. DO NOT BUY THIS GUITAR ANYTHING BUT A MEMPHIS. CUT DOWN A TREE AND BUILD YOUR OWN FOR GODSAKES IF THE PAWNSHOP WANTED TO GIVE IT TO ME I PROMISE I WOULD NOT TAKE IT.

I only ever played a memphis strat clone when a friend brought one to school. it was his beater guitar. It was fun, i tell you. it sounded nice for a cheap piece of crap.
I'm sure there are better things to do with 100$ than buy a memphis
strat clone, but, who are you guys to complain? jesus, a good bridge costs 200$ these days, how do you expect to get a truly playable guitar for 100??? frets are filable/replacable, pickups replacable.
so basically you spend 100 on guitar, 150 on extras and its still a really good deal

This guitar sounded great for 100$ through a peavey multipurpose guitar amp. if you think it feeds back too much, then "splurge" on a set of fender noiseless and drop em in. thats only 100 bucks
I agree, it probably doesn't work for much more than blues.

the finish on the guitar i played was worn and scratched, but it looked like it had taken some abuse. it was playable after years of playing, and the bridge was standard for a strat clone (cheap)

it was a heavy brick of a guitar and it had taken some serious beatings, but it was still ticking.

a website would help, please

i played it for 15 minutes, and i fell in love with it's cheesyness and overall glamour of the sunburst finish. it looked like a guitar that might make a few trips to the shop, but no harm done. it was the closest thing to a fender unless you get a squire, but those things are worthless. i wish it was a 200 dollar guitar, and they had bothered to put fender pickups in it, but oh well. for 100 bucks this is the best guitar out there, but if your used to gibsons and fenders, its worthless. definitely a beginners guitar.

22 frets

solid top

five way selector with two tone knobs and one volume knob

3 shity single coils

body is probably made of alder with a maple neck and rosewood fretboard

the neck had a little bit of a satin finish

strat styled

standard strat style tremelo tailpiece

shitiest tuners possible, absolutely no precision, wont stay in tune long enough to play 30 seconds of a song(im serious too!)

thin neck with medium frets that stick out beyond fretboard, this damn thing used to cut the hell out of my hand, and on top of that you have to take the damn neck off before you can adjust it!

it was decent for a beginning blues player, but i didnt like it for anything besides that

i ran it through a variety of amps and if you use enough effects, they will cover up the sloppiness of this guitar

FOR BLUES ONLY

needs intoning bad

pickups were adjusted fine

this guitar has shity fret work on it, they arent even filed well

well what can i say... i destroyed it in aproxamitely 15 seconds flat

ive playing for 5 years, and memphis guitars can blow me

This was my first electric. It is a mid-80's model with a maple neck and a plywood body (I guess). I have taken this guitar apart in the past and in the processes, I destroyed the original single coil pick-ups. As a result, they were replaced with Seymour Duncans. The crappy tuners were also replaced with new ones from a modified Fender Strat. The neck featured 21 small frets and a 251/2" scale.

I have "new" pick-ups in this thing, the original pick ups were not too great and used to feed back too easily.

The guitar had a beautiful metalic black finish. The neck joint was poorly excecuted (I had to tighten the neck to make the strings line up with the pickups). The guitar played well, though. The strap buttons have become loose. I hated the thick clear finish on the neck. The workmanship was typical of a budget guitar.

I used to play this guitar alot (for years it was my one and only) and it has taken some abuse.

I don't know anything about Memphis except for this: there is no such thing as customer support

I have been playing for 19 years. I own two fabulous Fender Strats that I absolutely love. The Memphis was a Christmas gift from my father and was my very firs electric guitar. Actually, for a first Strat it was kind of ok. For beginners today, there are better quality guitars to choose from.

OKit looks like a strat( duh) has s/s/s pickups with a five way selector switch, 1 volume, two tone knobs,22 frets, black finish with a white pickgaurd, wierd tuners.It doesnt have anything impressive, but that tool sticker livens it up...........

Oh god the sound blows distorted..........imean sure it would be ok if the tone wasnt so deep and bellowing, its like having a bass pickup on the guitar.And the tone knobs help 0%.The bridge pickup is higher in tone, but seems flat?dry? a combination?And it just gets deeper as the pickup position gets higher.When in a postion that activates 2 pickups the noise is fine, but in any other it kills.Sounds very bluesy, when clean its nice for a blues riff.DO NOT DISTORT IT *?`~.?*'.TONE TO FUZZ......AND NOTHING BUT FUZZ.How i got it is interesting...see i went to my freinds with the old harmony guitar i refer to in many many reviews, with my dod pedal,and i brought some comics he wanted that i didnt read anymore.So his amp was broke and i played his acoustic.Low and behold in the corner of his room is a white guitar.NO after brushing the dust it was a brown/gray.No another brush reveiled its black.So he gave it to me for the comics, beings his amp was broke(and it was obviously not used).The tremelo is ok, doest put the strings out of tune THAT quickly.

Action sucks, frets buzz at certian areas.i bet witha new set of pickups, and some neckwork/replacment it would be nice, but with those improvements i can buy the new amp im looking at, and it wouldnt even be the same guitar.Im selling it.Its nothing personal,well yeah its really personal.Id be pissed had i bought this with money.The tone is stuck at mud-up-to-your-eyebrow level.

Well its been proven to withstand dust and thats about it.I wouldnt use this at a gig for anything..................unless i got a new guitar from some1 feeling sorry that i had to play live with it.

Never even heard of them, didnt buy it, not tracking it down.

i tried it with allmy pedals, all my settings, and all my knowledge of guitaring i gathered in the last 2 years and god this sucks.I did compare it wth another guitar, the one shoved up someones ?$$, but that tone was still clear compared to the mudd this puts out.

Late 80's Memphis Strat copy 22 frets 3 single coil P/U's 5-way switch, etc... Exactly like a Stat but Plywood. Came with Gorilla Amp.

Well, it doesnt sound all that good, but for $100, you wouldnt expect it to. It sounds good enough for someone who doesnt know better (ie, a beginner... it was my first). All pickups sound mediocre.

Again, the setup is npt very good. The guitar is playable, and certainly good enough for a beginner, especially for the price.

As stated above, the guitar is sold plywood, so its quite strong. If you dont use the trem it stays in tune fairly well. The pickguard will break upon the guitars first imact with the floor however.

Come on now... you know better.

Its a guitar... Its cheap... and it works. Mine was eventually disassembled in the name of curiosity after finding an 80's Fender Strat hidden in the closet of my local shop for $150. I still have many of the Memphis peices. A good deal.

This silly piece of excrement was constructed in the sad, dank, alleys of hong kong, probably by young, underfed children. "ha ha! these kids produce hundreds of low quality guitars for pennies a day!" This firewood has a plywood cutout body, a "maple" neck and a cracked rosewood fretboard. The neck loves to make like a german brautwurst and the body resonates like a shotgun and a garbage pail. Three pickups, i'd bet the magnets were stolen off of mama's deep freezer. Average 6 screw tremelo bridge, but watch out, those screws are as steadfast as convicts out an open door. The tuners are great as well, the sad aluminum and tin foil gears are covered by those annoying tent-shaped tuning covers-they do about as much as Bill Gates facing the y2k. I got a pretty good gig bag, though, and i use it to store my dirty socks in.

If you play green day, this guitar is fine, because you probably turn the gain and distortion up all the way on your silly little 10 watt crate. If limp bizkit's your style, this, too is a good guitar simply because tuning and sound quality is not a major concearn. If you're going to be stevie ray vaughn someday, at least get a squire strat or something quality. even a yamaha pacifica is a better guitar, and yamaha makes lawnmowers.
The Memphis is a pretty quiet guitar, if high yeild warheads are quiet. the five way selector does about nothing to change the sound, I think all the pickups are exactly the same. The bridge one is reasonable (REASONABLE), but again, somebody messed up when choosing the pickups. I'm not mad, i feel sorry for little johnny chang who works in a guitar sweatshop for 20 hours a day.
What kind of sounds does the guitar make, huh? Remember the movie pie? it sounds like some sort of shrill electronic scream, "Shut up! Shut up!" Give yourself a lobotomy. No variety,the volume knob does nothing. 1-2-3-4 are really quiet ass, then 5-10 is like nuclear ass.
My girlfriend once said, "I could shoot myself repeatedly in the head and call it music." Indeed.

The action is actually surprisingly good. The tremelo doesn't bend out to badly, exept when you try to use it. As i said earlier, the neck makes like a sausage when the temp is over 65 farenheit. But that's ok. Actually it really isn't. The finish is as nice as any mex strat, just an average sun-ass burst.
Yes, yes the wood is VERY VERY poor quality, but what do you expect from the nether regions of cheapland? The tuning pegs don't come loose unless you try to tune the guitar. Then the screws strip out and everything goes apeshit. Whee. The jack will never stay put, and i've gone on many a magical treaure hunt trying to find the screw and nut.

If the wires don't break, tyhe guitar will keep on running. Surprisingly, it doesn't break down once you've got it running. It sounds like a walkie-talkie in a sawdust machine, but it plays. the hardware will last through the next nuclear war, simply because it's so awefull and heavy. If you duct tape the strap on, the buttons are great. otherwise, just find some bigass screws, the wood doesn't hold a screw too well.
No, no i would never use this guitar in a gig. Ever. Well, if there was ten seconds before i went on stage, and my other three axes had been completely melted by a nuclear fallout, well that's another story.

I dunno. The guitar's generic. Like those Rock Axes they sell at Wal Mart. If it breaks, i'll make it into a clock or something.

all in all, i have one thing to say. ass.
I played this through an ampeg v-2 tube stack and it was god awefull. I played this through a mesa boogie dual rectifier and it was god awefull. I played this through a crate G-60 and it was goed awefull. Get it?
in all my years of playing, i have seen one worse guitar. it was a teisco del ray (maybee) that had been "overhauled" by a band called the Sweethearts. Somebody had painted it blue with tempra paint, and it had NO truss rod. It had homemade pickups and the cord was an integral part of the guitar. When the Sweethearts came onstage, the guitarist didn't like the sound of that souless piece so he smashed it over his knee and broke the neck clean in half. Yehaw.
Thus ends the sad and strange tale of the Memphis Stratoshitter. Please, do not buy this guitar. Buy a Harmony or an Aria, or even a Hondo for GOD SAKE!!!!! Jesus god man, listen to me! BUILD YOUR OWN GUITAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you.

I'm not sure the history of this guitar I bought it used cheap and I can't believe the sound I can get from it. The guitar looks essentially like a fender, with staggared poles on the three single coil pickups. It's got one volume and two tone nobs and a 5 way pickup selector. Judging by the look of the guitar it's probably a 70's maybe early 80's but it still works. The neck is real thin rosewood, and very comfortable, I actually prefer it to the more expensive models because it's easier to fit my hands around it and play fast. I guess there are 22 frets it's essentially a standard start copy in every way. The tuners are enclosed, the bridge is a standard tremolo bridge. The guitar itself is a cool pearl/cream color with matching yellowed pickups, very cool.

I really like this guitar, it fits my music style (Alternative, classic rock, clean stuff mostly), the clean channel sounds so good, the distortion is well a little too distorted, the high strings ring a little piercingly when you pile on the fuzz but the clean channel matches that Fender tone. The diversity of the sound is pretty incredible, I can get rich full sounds in the first and third positions and a bright as hell sound when I switch it to the fifth position. I can't say enough about the clean channel, I play my friends Yamaha pacifica regularly (I'm not sure which model but it's got a humbucker at the bridge) and the clean sound is ten times better. I feel like I picked up a 1000 guitar when I play it clean. The distortion is not the best I admit, my friends Yamaha is much better in that respect, but the memphis strat rocks for power chords (avoiding B&E strings give it a rockin' sound).

Like I said I bought it used and in pretty sad shape (it looked like it had been stored in a musty old garage for at least 5 years but I cleaned it up and now it looks great) so there's a little bit of fret buzzing when I drop the action super low but I can get it pretty low (not quite to the fender - no strings - feel but close) The finish is well done, it's certainly withstood all the hell it must have been through in the past and even for the year or so I've had (I can't tell you how many times my crappy backup strap has slipped off and the guitar has gone crashing to the floor.) I really like the color, it's a brilliant pearl shinny color and the matching yellowed pickups are a nice touch. I can't tell the wood quality through the finish (no chips). Some times I have noticed that the guitar cuts out everynow and then (it could be the cord I don't know). I messed around with the pcikups a little to get a better sound but I found that it was fairly easy to get the sound I was looking for.

I haven't had a problem with the guitar, for the price it's a rock, I wouldn't trust it live (at least not at a payed gig), but then who takes an $80 guitar to a gig.

never tried, don't know if they still exist.

I've been playing for three years now, and I know I'm no expert, but I have messed around with expensive guitars that friends own and with really expensive guitars in music shop, and I've never found anything near this price. I only have this guitar and two accoustics (you can tell I'm not a metal guy) I plug into a bullet reverb amp and can get a suprisingly good sound from it (much better than those damn crate practice amps) I really love the sound the guitar makes in the clean channel, this is my favorite feature, although I'm also very fond of the sound diversity. I wish that I had known about the fret buzz, it's a pain in the ass because I want to drop the action as low as it will go but alas i cannot (although I must admit that the neck is fairly bowed and in need of a truss rod adjustment maybe that'll help things) Overall I think this model (not sure which one it is) is the best for the money anywhere (where you gonna find a $80 guitar that sounds like a fender). The necj is really cool, I haven't found a guitar with a neck like this, it so thin and so fast, I can grip it so much easier than any other guitar I've played.