Profile Sillhoette Strat Copy

Early '80s made in Japan, two piece solid Alder body (but light weight)with standard strat pickups (4.6Kohm)and non-staggered pole pieces. A 3 Way selector is fitted with Vol-Tone-Tone controls. Neck is Maple with a hidden truss rod (no skunk stripe, adjuster is under the pickguard. The neck is perfect being the thin side of clunky The bridge is quite heavy chrome steel. Finish is poly lacquer tobacco burst. The guitar is a '62 copy with a small headstock and 8 hole pickguard. Originally made in the FujiGen factory, so top class Japanese workmanship. sold originally in Australia, though some found their way to Canada and England. Later in life Profile was bought up and made inferior Ply body versions in Korea, so make sure you get a solid body.

Play everything from Jazz to Rock, via blues. I mainly use a Cornford or (backup) Blackstar Artisan combo, though I have an old AC30 still kicking around. I generally have amp with the gain up and the bass rolled a long way down (sounds dumb 'till you try it!) and use the volume on the guitar to go from rhythm to lead. The middle pickup,I could die with, and be happy, I get that awesome strat tone-tone-tone by the ton, a rich phasey ballsey thick sound of strat heaven. I intend to get a 5 way switch fitted someday, but the sound I get at the moment is stunningly good . The body is light in weight, but oddly the sustain is bionic. You can feel the B string resonate the body at the cable socket when you pick it!

I have had my tech set this up. The neck has very little truss rod pressure applied to get the relief right, possibly as the neck is such good quality and thicker than most of my other guitars. The bridge has a lot of mass which helps. The pickups, despite being very ordinary in spec are very very good. The action is just the way I like, the frets are hard wearing and not overly fat, so the tone and intonation are spot on. The Bass bridge adjusters do stick out a tad if you rest your palm on the bridge. The light weight is great for a long gig. My tech did offer to put a Fender logo on, so it would match my other strat, (I think he was embarrassed by the cheesy logo) but I think it would be insulting the effort originally put in by the guys who made this, so Profile it is. (It is a cheesy logo BTW)

The body has received a few knocks, but being 25 years old the finish has stood the test of time. The strap buttons are still original and firm. Can I rely on it? Yea, no problem, much more than a Mexico strat where the frets seem to melt into ruts. No noisy pots either. The tuners are no-name sealed, but have a nice smooth action and tune up and down well. They use a combination of nylon and steel washer between the button and body apparently. No issues

I think this went west a long time ago.

I have been playing pretty constantly for 23 years now. It took a long time to grow into a strat, and a fair few strats until I found this one by fluke more than anything. I just cannot find another strat which has the "Strat Ledgend" tone that this guitar has, not for less than 8 times the price anyhow. I am desperate to find another, if you have one. It's the only guitar that I can hear in my head if that makes sense. For some reason, in the early '80 the MIJ strats (Tokai, Greco & Profile) seem to absolutely hit the vintage strat tone and build which Fender, at the time, and for a long time after, couldn't.

Late 1970's 21 fret Maple Neck (no skunk stripe) and Alder body, finished in a fairly standard tobacco sunburst, stratocaster body shape with 3 single coil pickups and a standard stratocaster style tremelo unit fitted to it. The pickups were just cheapies that someone had jammed in and the whole guitar had been badly spraypainted black, including the knobs, pick guard and pickup "covers" which were ill fitting plastic caps off another pickup set. I bought it because of the solid maple neck, which had an inserted truss rod but no skunk stripe and for the Gotoh tunners, which were in really good condition. Then I decided to have a go at striping the paint off the origininal finish and got the shock off my life.

The sound of the guitar sans **** paintjob is as good as the L series strat I was playing at the time. It is just a classic bright rich strat sound. At first noisy as hell with the crap pickups but I dropped in a set of 58 Selenium Cobolt Hotrod fender pickups (noiseless) and it is now absolutely perfect. I use this guitar in a blues jam band and also in a black metal band that I play in, plus home recordings of punk covers of any and everything imaginable, plus use it as my teaching guitar. I have not touched my 74 Strat or my Gibson 335 since finishing the wiring on this guitar about 4 months ago.

Finish and action were awful. I chocked the neck up by about 4 mm to fix the action, have refretted the guitar mostly because I wanted to try doing it myself, but there was nothing actually wrong with the neck etc beforehand except that it was set too low with not enough bridge adjustment to bring the action down low enough. I play with a fairly high action, but still it was too high Pickup adjustment doesn't really apply in my case as I put new ones in. With a little work, it came up great but as purchased, it was in very poor condition. I'll rate it 4 (as purchased) but please note that with work it is now a 10.

Bearing in mind that I completely rebuilt this guitar myself, I would not hesitate to that this guitar is essentially bullet proof. But I would never go to a gig without a backup no matter how good my guitar was. This guitar will now last me probably until I die (I am 33 now) The button straps were fine when I got it but have been replaced with straplocks. I have played this guitar at 3 gigs a week, plus every day for 3 hours, plus 6 hrs a week of lessons with never a problem except broken strings (I play 10 - 52s)

Don't know a thing about them but I get the feeling that this guitar was made from Squire factory seconds or at least stolen/borrowed/quietly aquired parts?

I have owned 4 Strats (74 Standard, Anniversary, The Strat, American Standard), several Japanese Squires, 2 Les Pauls, A LP Junior, A Gibson 335, 2 Ibanez 1970s Les Paul Copies, a Kurt Cobain Jagstang (Beautiful Guitar, sounded like ****) several Ibanez shredder type guitars and at present own a 2008 Gibson 335 and my Black 74 Stratocaster and of course my profile. The Profile is the best guitar I have ever owned, played and the only guitar that I will NEVER EVER EVER sell. I only keep the 74 so I can say I have one, and the 335 is probably not going to stick around much longer cause I am going looking for more pawn shop profiles and 70's Ibanez

21 Frets, Solid body had an expert identify the timber as Swamp Ash. Came with a 3 way switch but I changed it for a Ernie Ball 5 way. X3 single coil pick ups which i changed for Custom 54's. Some noise but only what can be expected. Neck is maple with beautifull rosewood freetboard. Finish is traditional Fernder Tabaco Sunburst. I feel like the bridge is only carsed steel instead of solid steel. This gives a slight twangy sound. (Not many pick it up) A Fernder steel bridge taks care of that as well as a really good set up. I agree with all the reviews. This guitar is a keeper for sure.

Love the sound with a quality valve amp. Real vintage tones. I use a 9000 series poweramp with Line6 preamp gear. JCM 800 is my favourate.
I dont go for the distortion at all but if you overdrive this guitar it really cuts through. In some cases these can be better than Strats.
When I got this guitar off ebay it sounded like a sick cat but with a major set up it sang. I got it for $300. What a bargan.

This is an amazing guitar for what its cost me. If I could of have any influence in its making i would of used a better quality bridge and jack input.

Have been using it everyweekend for 3 years now and not a problem at all. Its always in tune and if it gets cold its not out by much. This guitar would have to be 30yrs old. and its still kicking. Plenty of life in it. Proberly needs a fret shave.

This guitar with the right set up is as good as most badly set up strats. Give the string plenty of height to resinate and it will improve tone.

This guitar has a great clean sound. I use it mostly to play funk, ska and rock. It stays in tune despite the wammy bar and sounds great plugged into any amp. there are 4 pick-ups, 5 settings and full tone adjustment.

I have never had any problems with this guitar.

This guitar was given to me for free, by someone who is now a family Doctor in the U.S. He bought it second hand when he was about 16, and hes close to 35 now. Ive only had it for about a year. All the parts of the guitar are still orignal despite its age.

I play Metal Grunge Rock, ie Foos Nirvana Rage. Also love blues too
It sounds crystal clean with a full tone. With the overdrive on it kicks ass too. Its no real metal guitar but it will do the grindy chords when needed.

If i played more blues or funk live this guitar would be perfect. It has tone and taste for that sound. Not like the new cheap stuff now days.

Mine is great but it has been set up.

Ok so I dropped mine and the neck split in two. But thats my fault for throwing it at my amp.
But its has been fixed twice now and has always played great since.
It didnt loose any character or tone.
I can depend on it.

Im gonna give it a 7 cos the neck did snap even tho it was my fault.
I have done worse to other guitars and they didnt break.

N/A

Ive been playing 14 years and this was my first guitar. In many respects its still my best. I use it with all sorts of amps Vox Ac30, Mesa 50/50 + marshall combos and orange combos. It always sounds like a great strat. If I had to get a replacement I would look for another.

I would compare this guitar in value and sound to a Tokai.

It does the job of a strat just without the cost.

I have never seen another for sale tho.

Built in late 70s I believe. Mine is in Seafoam Green. These are quality Japanese guitars. 21 Frets, 3 Single Coils with 3 ways selector. I'm thinking of switching to 5 way selector soon. Maple neck with Rosewood fingerboard. Neck is superb. Hardwares look and made slightly different from real Strat (cheaper material I suppose).
Comes with a brown vintage gig bag.

The guitar sings like a good strat does. No need for pick up upgrade. They are more than good enough. Selector is a bit scratchy. A good clean will fix it. This guitar is a very very vintage sounding but a bit like one trick pony due to 3 ways selector. I'm really happy with the sound. Close your eyes I bet you won't be able to tell the diferrence from the real thing.

I bought it off a seller on Ebay. The set up wasn't great. The guys said it'd been kept for years. There's only one dead spot on the B string which was easily fixed. The neck pocket could've been fitted better but hey this is a good as it gets. The finish is not as thick as real Fender but that's why the body resonates I believe.

This guitar will withstand the live playing. I'm not sure if hardware will last but if they fall apart I'll just replace it with a Gotoh stuff. I've been using it on stage on and off for about 4 months now.

What is Customer Support??

I've been playing and collecting guitars for years. I've recently become hooked buying gears off Ebay. It takes a lot of guessing and trying your luck. I've got a Peach this time with this Jap Profile. It plays as good as real thing without spending 3k+ for genuiene vintage Strat. Try to find yours on Ebay.

Japanese made. Not sure what year it was made possibly late '70s or early '80s. Mine is Dark sunburst very similar to '60s Strat. I got it recently as a second hand in almost mint condition. I liked it more than a brand new Mexican fender which I played head to head with this strat. I chose this profile over the Mexican for its playability, weight, neck and fretboard. It really gives you a vintage feel with a fraction of price compare to a real deal USA Fender. 3 Single Coils with 3 way selector. The wood seems to be Alder with Maple neck. A very good looking guitar consider its age. Hardwares are ok. Tuners do the job very well indeed.

Nice Strat sound. I've got a 2003 US Fender and this Profile guitar sounds as good as or gives more vintage vibe than my Fender. I was very surpised for the pickups capability. A little bit noisy I guess I need to re-shield the pots. The only dislike is the lack of the modern sound which is not the case anyway.

The guitar tech I bought it from set this baby up pretty well. No further adjustment required. Currently strung with .10 - .46. Action is good and nothing to worry about. No finish flaws which I'm so pleased. There's a slight irreguarity in the wood (neck) but it looks natural.

This guitar will last a long time with proper care (and that applies to all guitars I think). Guitar's weight is a bit on a light side but feels very solid when strapped on. I've been gigging with it for about 2 months and no probs so far. I mainly use it for unconventional tuning songs.

I'm sure they were out of business a long long time ago.

If you can find one in a good condition. I'd recommend you give it a go. These guitars' craftmanship are on par with USA guitars and defenitely way better than Mexican craps. For the price I paid I think I got a good deal.

21 frets 3 way switch pay 80 pounds for it second hand with amp

suit my music just dandy
rich rocking sound (compare with my mate fender copy 83, i think)

bit of buzzing

with stand a thrashing
no need for a back up

??? know idea

if stolen i would shearch the globe for it
compared to my mate fender copy it rocks



nice axe

This Profile was made around 1980 or late seventies in Japan, it has 21 frets, 3 single coil pickups, I put a 5 way switch in as it only had a three way. The finish was in a sunburst light colour fading into black with a rosewood fret board. I agree with Trents view the best Fender strat copy getting around. I own a USA 84 Fender Strat and to be honest the profile's sound and finish quility is up there, almost no diference.

I like that strat sound and find this Profile strat copy up there with the real thing. I play through a JCM800 100w Marshall head 300watt Marshall quad, also through a Music Man 65 watt RP combo when playing smaller gigs, and as I said, that fat strat sound. Little bit of buzzing through the first pickup, but thats singles coils for ya. The only dislike is not enough reconition for this great sounding AXE

Its hard to tell what type of hardware was used for the bridge, but looks like a standard Fender bridge to me. Machine heads have no name on them but does not lose tune at all. Hardware is a bit oxidized overall but the guitar is at least 20 years old. The action is perfect on the neck with no fret buzz

I have played this guitar on stage for 15 years no problems. The finish is a bit thin in places, but the guitar has had a lot of use. The strap buttons I have replaced with bigger ones because the strap can come off easy.

As Trent said in his review,I live in Sydney Australia and have seen this guitar for $800 plus, it sell for the same price as a Jap strat or Mexican, so dont be fooled, go and and find one, as it is the best second guitar around if you like that fender feel.