RECORDING SOME STUFF

Hello people, I'm glad to announce that I will come up with something before Christmas this year. It's an amateur recording of popular Christmas songs that I cover using many different genres that are mainly guitar driven. It's gonna be an instrumental album and the title is going to be called "LAGU KRESMES". I will post more detail soon. It's gonna feature my Stratocasters and my new Ibanez AK95DVS.

Anyway, many of you might be wondering about my recording setup at home so I will explain how I do recording in my home. For the software, I use AUDACITY, it's a free recording software that you can download. It has tons of great features such as EQ, Noise Removal, Panning, Time Shift, Split Stereo, Leveller, Compressor, etc.

For the hardware, I am using a cheap but good USB Mixer called Yamaha MW10C. It's connected directly to the USB of my PC. It has 10 channels with adjustable knobs such as level, treble, mid, bass, compression, pan, gain, etc. I don't use studio monitor, but I got a free JBL standard PC speakers that I use to listen to the recorded tracks. It does its job properly so I don't use professional studio monitor.

To record my guitar tracks, I use a Radial JDX direct amplifier box that's plugged in between my Mesa Transatlantic TA-30 and my Mesa Mini Recto Cab. It's not totally transparent but I'm able to EQ the tone to get it as similar as possible to the real sound that I'm getting from the cab using the Yamaha MW mixer's EQ knobs.

The bass tracks are coming from my Ibanez BTB775 bass that's plugged into my Line 6 POD X3. The keyboard tracks are from my Yamaha PSR keyboard plugged into my POD X3 as well. The drum tracks also come from the Yamaha keyboard. I can't afford buying real drum set at this time, I have to save some money first.

That's all for now, stay tuned for some audio clips, and thanks for checking this blog out, today we hit 12000 views! Cheers and God bless :)

KEEP PLAYING YOUR GUITAR

Hello everyone, I just want to share a little bit of reflection about what's on my mind for the last few days. First of all, thank you regular readers who kept coming back to this simple blog, I hope you gained a lot from this blog although most of the contents here came from my subjective experience as a guitar player.

These few days, I kept thinking, why did I keep playing guitar until today, knowing that I don't plan to pursue  music-related career? I know some people who stop playing guitar after they start to get busier in their lives and I thought I was about to stop playing as well but apparently I don't. Here are some of the few reasons that I think caused me to still play guitar until today:

It's fun
Of course it is, so obvious. Learning how to play a guitar when you have never played one before is always a pain in the neck, but once you get past learning different shapes of chords and actually start to play a song, you'll feel like you've achieved something very significant and it's quite thrilling. Nowadays, I'm always learning new techniques from songs that I like to hear and I can still feel the thrill every time I tried something new.

We're just talking about playing guitar, but actually what's even more fun is the level of tweak-ability that you can find when you're adjusting your guitar especially on electric guitars. I play mostly electric guitars, so I always have to tweak the sound on my amp, I have to get some effect pedals going here and there to catch the vibes of some certain songs and the guitars themselves don't always sound the same everyday. Even with the guitars, you can still experiment in terms of tone by changing the pickups, strings, bridge, tuner, pots, and so on.

Tone
Every human has 5 senses and one of them is hearing. We can entertain our sight by watching movies or looking at some pictures, we can entertain our taste buds by eating good food, we can entertain our smelling by wearing perfumes, and we can entertain our touch sense by using pillow and comfortable chairs. On the same line, we entertain our hearing by listening to good music, which is basically a carefully arranged noise with some tonal qualities that had been prepared in a certain way. Listening to good tone and playing my guitar is an additional and significant way to alternatively entertain my hearing. I don't like listening to mainstream songs, so the tone that comes out from my guitar is sort of like an escape for my hearing.

It's been almost 8 years since I start playing guitar, it's kind of like my habit
I always sit down and play at least for a few moment everyday. It always feels weird when I spent a whole day without playing my guitar even for just like a couple of minutes. When you do something you like routinely for a long period of time, you start to feel like it's your nature and playing guitar routinely for a long time has that same effect on me.

Emotional investment

Obviously, after you play your guitar for so long, you will start to develop a connection between you and your guitar. My modded PGM-30 has bonded so well that playing it becomes absolutely effortless and I can easily get good tones every time I play that guitar. I started playing that PGM 7 years ago and the guitar had captured every moment of my musical journey as it has been my main guitar until today; it had seen my low moments when I'm still learning to play guitar but it also had seen some glorious gigs when I was in Seattle. It has keep me pretty sane during stressful days of work and it has been a tool for me to pour out my unexpressed emotion; it helped me to keep my perspective of the world and my sanity as well. To put it in another words, it has sort of become like my best friend.

My only advice for you my lovely readers is to keep playing no matter what. Developing this kind of relationship with your instrument will take a lot of time and sacrifice, but the end result is very rewarding. Whenever I play my guitar, I always feel trouble-free in my mind no matter how good or bad my playing is and no matter how happy or sad I am. I hope your instrument can free your mind as well.

I hope you enjoy this post, keep on playing guitar! Cheers and God Bless :)

CAE MC404 Wah

Hello everyone, I'm going to review a very cool wah pedal called CAE MC404 by MXR. As some of you might already know, this is one of those wah pedal that has tons of features that mostly are only available on boutique high end wah pedals but with friendlier price. Also, this one is built with the highest standard and could survive Armageddon without a scratch on it. Read on :)

CAE
In case you don't know, CAE or Custom Audio Electronics is a very famous rig builder that designed many high profile artists' rigs with ultra custom solutions that will maintain good tone, ease of use and durability. Besides building rigs, CAE also starts to build effects pedal as well. So far, they come with MC401 Boost, MC402 Overdrive/Boost and MC404 Wah.

Features
This wah pedal features so many stuffs!! First of all, it features two separate inductors, one called yellow and the other one called red; the red one has tons of low end deep sound while the other one focuses more on the high end treble, the two can be switched back and forth using a side switch on the right. It also has a built in MC401 Boost circuit, also with a side switch that can be easily engaged; the boost is very useful when you need to add more low end while keeping the top end loud and clear or as an extra dirt to kick the front of the amp.

However, the most important feature for me is the TRUE BYPASS. This pedal has been confirmed as a true bypass as it does not suck any of your tone at all. This is very important as I mentioned on a past post that wah pedals don't usually have the luxury of true bypass. Wah pedals like this usually comes in the boutique range but now we can have it for a more reasonable price.

Sound
Super nice!! One of the nicest sounding wah pedal that I ever heard. The yellow inductor works very well for clean funky tunes as well on some overdrive parts. The red inductor shines very well on lead playing. I don't really use the boost but it's very useful if you have some volume balance issue with the amp. The MC401 boost can really hit the front of your amp with more volume and with as little dirt as possible.

Still remember my old post about Weeping Demon Wah? This one totally kicks that wah out of the food chain haha! Although I don't use wah as much as some of my friends, this one really deserves a special place on my pedalboard.

Worth the price?
It comes for around USD $150 on the market, maybe higher than that sometimes. It's not cheap for sure, but  you get two inductors and a boost that comes around $90.00 alone, that's like three pedals in one form factor. What more can you ask? It's totally worth it!!! I wouldn't even mind paying a bit more.

From 0 to 10
11. Never been this happy with a wah pedal. I tried every wah that I found on guitar stores, this one wins the competition significantly in terms of price, reliability and tone.

CLICK HERE FOR YELLOW CLEAN AUDIO SAMPLE
CLICK HERE FOR RED LEAD GAIN AUDIO SAMPLE

I hope you enjoy the post, cheers and God bless :)

ELECTRO HARMONIX MICRO POG

Hello everyone, today I'm going to talk about Micro POG. It's a very unique pedal that can generates octave up and octave down sound and mix it the way you want. It's made by Electro Harmonix and it stands for Polyphonic Octave Generator.

Electro Harmonix
As you already know, EHX created tons of innovations that revolutionize the way guitar pedal sounds. Micro POG is one of the evidence of that. Although the basic idea that it enables you to play your guitar with added octave up and down sounds pretty dull, the reality is very far from dull because you can replicate some interesting tones that sound un-guitar-like. This pedal can make you sound like you play through a 12 string guitar and even like a Hammond organ.

This pedal features a true bypass switch, a dry knob,  an octave down knob, an octave up knob and a stereo output. The way you get the sound is by mixing the knobs until you get the desired tone that you are looking for. It's powered by a 9v adapter and that's already included in the box.

The sound
As I mentioned before, it sounds pretty un-guitar but it's quite fun actually. This is not the type of pedal that you turn on all the time all day long on any song; this is the one that requires the perfect timing to turn it on. Try to turn it on when you play harmonics with all knobs cranked, and you'll get a pretty sweet sounding harmonics. Turn it on with a Tube Screamer during a very mellow slow rhythm part with octave up and dry knobs cranked, you'll get a very cool and rich tone that'll add a certain air to the overall song.

Is it worth the price? 
Comes pretty expensive at around $200, the chip inside is pretty pricey. I don't say it's not worth it because it is worth the price, but I don't say that it truly is. Whatever type of music that you play, this pedal will not be used more than 40% of the time. For me, although it sounds good, it doesn't justify the price vs amount of time spent with this pedal. But hey, this pedal makes playing guitar more fun.

From 0 to 10
I'll give this pedal 9. If it comes cheaper, I'll give 10 for sure.

CLICK HERE FOR AUDIO CLIP

I hope you found this post useful, thanks for reading. Cheers and God Bless :)

RADIAL TONEBONE HOT BRITISH

Hello, today I want to talk about the Radial Tonebone Hot British tube overdrive pedal. While there are so many tube overdrive pedals out there in the market, apparently there are only a few that sound really good. This pedal happens to be one of them. Let's check it out.

The Spec
It contains a 12AX7 tube inside that produces most of the overdrive sound. There are so many knobs; a knob to control the output level, treble knob, bass knob, contour knob, drive and three voicing switches that controls the top end, the overall voicing and mid boost. Each of the switches had three different options, so you pretty much get wide variety of overdrive tone.

It comes with 15V adapter with more than enough power to accommodate the 12AX7 tube. It's also true bypass so if you turn it off it won't suck some power from your tone. The manual provides some helpful example settings that you can use as a starting point before you tweak the pedals.

The Sound
Extremely killer, life changer!!! This pedal can be used as your dedicated lead/crunch channel without changing your amp's channel. I used this pedal only on the clean channel of my amp and it does a wonderful job of providing high amount of gain to the amp. The knobs are extremely sensitive and they do provide so many options of tone that you can use to create whatever overdrive sound you have in your mind.

Turn the drive knob all the way down, the pedal will deliver you a hot Tube Screamer-ish kind of overdrive level, while turning it all the way up will deliver a super high gain Mesa Boogie lead distortion sound. It takes other overdrive pedals pretty well in front of it such as Tube Screamer or BB Preamp to add extra grit to your sound.

The Application
I highly recommend this pedal to those who only had single channel tube amplifier or an amp with bad sounding overdrive channel and needs to have a natural sounding amp-like overdrive that comes in a form of a pedal.

You can also use this on an overdrive amp that doesn't have an effects loop for your delay pedals. Set the amp clean, put the pedal in front of your delay pedal and you can have a natural sounding delays without the need of having FX loop.

I, however, do not recommend this pedal if you are going to use this on a solid state amp, I tried it with an Ibanez 5 Watt amp and it sounds like a total piece of garbage. Also, if you want to use it to boost a tube amp with a great overdrive channel, this might not going to impress you that much(although it can and it sounds good) because you can get a very decent overdrive pedal that sounds as good for cheaper price.

The Maintenance
Tube needs to be replaced once every few years depending on how often it's being used. Also, you have to let the tube warm up before you can switch it on, meaning that it has to be off when the power supply is connected and you have to wait for like 3 minutes or so to prolong the tube life.

Is it worth the money?
$230 is the normal price on the market, you can get it very close to $200 on some stores. I say this is worth it if it's applied the right way(see "The Application" above).

From 0 to 10
Obviously 10.

Sound Clips
Andy Timmons Tube Driver style overdrive
John Petrucci Mesa Boogie Mark style distortion
Warm Tube Screamer-ish overdrive

Hope you enjoy the post, cheers and God bless :)

MY CURRENT PEDALBOARD

Hello everyone, I want to share my current pedalboard that I use for practicing, recording and experimenting. It's actually a bit too big for me to carry during a gig, so I mainly use it only at home and I connect it with my Mesa Transatlantic TA-30 amplifier.

Signal Path
From guitar to Mesa TA-30 amp:
Boss GE-7 Equalizer, CAE MC404 Wah, EHX Micro POG, TC Polytune, EHX Doctor Q Envelope Filter, MXR Dyna Comp, EHX Worm, Ibanez AF-2 Airplane Flanger, Maxon OD9 Silvermod, Radial Tonebone Hot British, RC Booster, Morley Volume Plus.

On the FX Loop:
Boss DD-3, EHX Deluxe Memory Man.

Most of the pedals are powered by the 9V Visual Sound One Spot with the exceptions of Radial Tonebone, Deluxe Memory Man and EHX Worm.

Philosophy of my pedalboard
The general idea of this pedalboard is to be able to cover all kinds of popular effects that you usually hear on any guitar oriented music. Doctor Q can do some envelope filter funk songs, while Worm can deliver phaser,  trem and vibrato. On the other hand, OD9 can deliver some bluesy low gain overdrive tone while the Hot British can be cranked up to a very high gain John Petrucci crunch tone. The RC Booster acts as a transparent volume boost, more like a master volume rather than a gain box. MC404 wah can give you either a bright funky wah tone or a warm lead waht tone with a flick of a switch. Deluxe Memory Man will give you a rich dark analog delay tone while the DD-3 can cover more straight forward digital delay tone. AF-2 can act as either flanger or, with the right setting, an analog chorus from the '80s.

Do I need all of those 14 pedals to sound good?
This pedalboard grows from a simple idea that I talked about in a past post about signal path. Essentially, it can be reduced to four aspects with one pedal for each "tone aspect": EQ, Modulation, Overdrive and Delay. However, as we grow in terms of musical taste and tone consciousness, we usually want more choices for each aspect that I mentioned before. I've been very fortunate and blessed to have all these pedals but if the pedalboard is reduced to only 4 pedals to represent each tone aspect, I can still survive.

If you are a beginner in the world of effects, I wouldn't suggest you to get 14 pedals at once; buy just one or two pedals for each of the tone aspects I previously mentioned and then slowly upgrade in the future. Don't buy the cheapest you can get, buy the ones that sound good; buying cheap low quality pedals will give you hard time in the future, trust me.

What pedalboard to choose?
I'm using Gator GPT-Pro 16" x 30" but to be honest it's better if you can build your own simple board because you can save a lot of money unless you want to buy something more fancy like Pedaltrain or other high end pedalboards.

Thanks for reading this post, I hope you enjoy it. Cheers and God bless :)

BOSS DIGITAL DELAY DD-3

UPDATED, WITH SOUND CLIPS
Behold, one of the most popular Digital Delay Pedal you've ever come across, it's the Boss Digital Delay DD-3. It's one of the most used digital delay pedal on the world. Popular artists such as Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and many others use this pedal to get that crystal clear delay sound with no added anything. This pedal does not belong to me but I'm going to have it on my pedalboard for some time.

Digital vs Analog
As we all know, there's a significant difference between a digital delay and analog delay. Apart from the circuitry, the tone between the two delays is quite different. Analog delay is known for its lush, warm, wobbly, saturated lo-fi repeats that sometimes resemble an old tape echo delay. On the other hand, digital delay provides clean, pristine clear, hi-fi repeats that really aims for simply clearer repeats. Both have totally different feeling although they can be used on same situation. I still prefer analog delay for its wobbly-ness but this DD-3 provides an extra range that can further enhance your sonic projection.

What's so special about it?
You can read all the technical details on the website, I'm not going to include them in here. Anyway, there are many ways to use this delay pedal; it's quite flexible, unlike my analog delay pedals. Paul Gilbert used to store some lick in it and call it down using the "Hold" mode, while Eric Johnson replaces his Echoplex tape echo with this pedal just to simply get that 300-500ms repeats. Some people set the delay time very short and get that slap-back reverb-kind-of repeats; some others set the time very long and get that glorious long delay lead tone which everyone loves to hear. Very versatile indeed!!

Anything bad?
It's not true bypass if that's your main concern, but it doesn't suck too much bypass tone so if you only have one of these on your pedalboard, you should be fine. When engaged, your real tone will get darken a little bit; while this will make your guitar sound fatter, actually some people hate it because their high end got lost and they cannot get that clicky pick attack sound when this pedal is engaged. Other concern includes automatic turn on every time I power it up using my One Spot 9V pedal power. I never tried the using it with battery so I can't tell you if there's any battery concern.

Is it worth the price?
This one comes at around $110.00, quite expensive but sounds pretty good. I say it's worth it and I may even say this one is a "must-have" on your pedalboard.

From 0 to 10?
I can say 10, but remember to try it first and see if it matches your tone. A great pedal to experiment with.

CLICK HERE FOR SOUND CLIP. I hope you enjoy this post, cheers and God bless :)

MESA BOOGIE TRANSATLANTIC TA 30

Hello everyone, today I want to talk about Mesa Boogie Transatlantic TA-30. A little background, Mesa Boogie is very known for its very high quality high end guitar and bass amplifiers and cabinets. Some of its successful amplifiers are now being used by high profile artists such as John Petrucci, Mark Tremonti, Andy Timmons and many others. 

The history of Mesa Boogie starts way back from around early '70s when Randall Smith started his job as a repairing technician for guitar amplifiers. He modified amps that was available during that time by "hot-roding" the amp with an extra tube on the preamp section of the amp to achieve a high gain sound that was not easily available during that time. Since then, he started building his very own guitar and bass amps that come in different tones, output power and size.

Transatlantic TA-30

Mesa Boogie is very well known for its reputation on making high gain amp, but those people working there want to show the world that they can also make amps that can do some great stuffs on lower gain settings; this is the main purpose of TA-30. This amp does so many great clean and break up tones, but you can always crank it up to get that mid gain tone out of this amp. This amp is also on the portable side of amplifiers, means that the head version of this amp is pretty small and light enough for you to easily carry it on any gig.

Technical Detail

I have the head version, it features 4xEL84 tubes, 6x12AX7 tubes, a special output transformer, Effects Loop, Reverb circuits for both channels, independent EQ for different channels, independent Reverb and FX Loop setting on different channels, independent output power level on different channels and some push-pull knobs. The EQ settings are consisted of Bass and Treble without any option to adjust the Mid.

You have two channels:

Channel Green, you can choose between "Normal" clean tone and a British sort of like Vox AC "Top Boost". When cranked up, the Clean tone will deliver an almost break up tone but still on the clean side while the Top Boost tone will start to get saturated. This channel EQ includes a Cut knob to remove some high end sizzle; the knob can be pulled and it starts to act as a Master Volume with pre-fixed amount of "cut".

Channel Red, you can choose between "Tweed" for American Fender clean tone, "Hi 1" for British mid gain tone, and "Hi 2" for Mesa's signature mid gain tone. When cranked up, Tweed will give you an almost break up tone with just a hint of dirt. Hi 1 will deliver Marshall-like mid gain tone when cranked up with enough sustain but not very saturated. Hi 2 will sizzle when cranked up and it will sound pretty good when you do lead stuffs.

All the channels have individual tone control as well as power selection of 15, 30 and 40 Watt. The 15 and 30 Watt power level will give you class A tube tone at different volume and headroom level. The 40 Watt power level will deliver class AB "Dyna-watt" tube tone with extra juice that can enhance your playability and tone.

My opinion

It's a super great amp!!! I personally like the clean channel on Normal mode with some added treble. With the help of its built-in Reverb, you can get so many great classic clean tone that can cover many ground of music styles. I also like the Hi 2 mode on the Red Channel and I usually roll down the treble to get that fat warm tone; I add my BB Preamp in front of the already cranked amp to push it harder and make it sound like a mid/high gain amp that doesn't fuzz too much and still retain the integrity of the original tone. 

You can add any pedal in front of it or on the Effects Loop if you need to use the FX Loop. It works well with all of my overdrive pedal and it projects the delays from my delay pedal nicely. I use a Mesa Mini Recto Cab as my cabinet and it works well especially on Hi 1 mode. 

Is it worth the price?

Nothing bad to say except its sky-rocket-high price. But I say it's worth it, the overall quality of the amp is very good and it's very well built. My personal experience with this amp has been very great, it delivers what it says on the brochure and on the internet.

From 0 to 10

10. Maybe even higher than 10, this is really one of the best amp I've ever tried.

Here's some sound clips. I used my PGM30 with DiMarzio AT-1 and Cruiser Bridge. I record the sound from the amp using Radial JDX Amp DI.

DIRTY

CLEAN

I hope you enjoy this post. Cheers and God Bless :)

Stay tuned for more reviews :)

FENDER STRATOCASTER, BEGINNER GUIDE

Hello readers, sorry for the lack of update, these past months were quite hectic for me but I'm happy with my new job. Today I want to share a bit about the difference between Stratocasters that Fender makes. There are thousands of version of Fender Stratocaster that are available in the market. Although all Stratocasters share the same physical characteristics, their "inner-organs" are different and that's what I want to share in this post. The goal that I want to achieve is to make anyone who is totally unfamiliar to Fender and doesn't know anything about Stratocaster can get an idea about all those Stratocasters.

History 101
Let me share a little bit history of Stratocaster. Stratocaster guitar is basically a follow up from one of Fender's most successful guitar which is no doubt the Telecaster(also called Broadcaster, Nocaster and Esquire; depending on the pickups/headstock). First built in 1954, it was designed to appeal many guitar player from different genres with three pickups configuration(Tele only has two pickups), futuristic dual cutaway body, and of course the Tremolo/Vibrato bridge that's better than current tremolo bridges on the market. The first Stratocasters features Alder/Ash body with Maple neck and usually comes with single sheet  celluloid plastic pickguard.

On late '50s, Fender changed the pickguard from one ply plastic to three ply celluloid plastic pickguard. They also added the 3-tone sunburst color. On 1962, they added the rosewood fingerboard on top of the maple neck to make it look more clean and to make trust rod insertion easier; 1962 is one of the golden era for Stratocasters because by that time, Fender had reached its peak of build quality as well as tone and feel. By the mid-end of '60s, CBS company bought Fender and the quality of all Fender guitars started to climb down. On 1985, Fender was bought back from CBS and start producing good quality guitars again and thus the Stratocaster got its "dignity" back and is still in production until today.

Tips: mark the important years: 1954, late '50s, 1962, mid-end of '60s, 1985.

Different Type of Stratocasters Available on the Market
After a little bit of history, here's the list of Stratocasters that you can find on the market:

1. MEXICAN STRATOCASTER (MIM)

a. Standard Stratocasters - This particular Stratocaster is made in Mexico. It's the cheapest Fender Stratocaster that you can get(if you want to go cheaper, you have to get a Squier). The guitar comes at around US$500. It features low quality Ceramic pickups that doesn't sound really good to be honest. Most of the new Standard Strat comes with late '50s/early '60s visual characteristics such as three ply plastic pickguard, maple/rosewood fingerboard and vintage tremolo bridge. It features a CBS style logo on small headstock.

b. Deluxe Stratocasters -  Made in Mexico as well but they feature better pickups(noiseless or Alnico, depending on the model) and sometimes a unique switching system for extra tone out of the pickups. They are pricier compared to the Standard Stratocaster, but they can give some features that even sometimes American Standard Strats don't have.

Other than those two models, you can also get Classic Player '50s and '60s, Factory Special Run, Black Top, Road Worn and some other models. They come with $600-900 price tag. Some Artist Series are also produced in Mexico.

Buying Standard Stratocaster will allow you to upgrade the parts and still pay cheaper than American Stratocasters. Deluxe Stratocaster will give you the upgraded parts already so you don't have to upgrade. But be careful, you have to try the guitar first before you are going to buy it. Mexican Stratocaster isn't too consistent, sometimes you'll get something which sounds so amazing but the other day you might get a total piece of junk sounding guitar. Mexican Stratocaster also doesn't age and turn yellowish due to its polyester finish (this doesn't affect the tone as long as it's applied thinly to the Stratocaster which is the case with Mexican Stratocaster).

2. JAPANESE STRATOCASTER (MIJ)
This particular Stratocaster is very unique due to its extreme consistency on its build quality. MIJ Strats are offered in many different models such as '57 Reissue, '62 Reissue, Standard and Deluxe. They are now only available in Japan but you can still find some used one from late '80s and early '90s when import guitars were plentiful.

MIJ Stratocasters usually offer a very neat finishing, wiring, as well as tone. They don't come with good sounding pickups, but once you put better pickups in it, MIJ Strats will usually transform into super nice sounding guitars. They come from as low as $600 to as expensive as $1200. Buy the used one will give you cheaper price

3. AMERICAN STRATOCASTER (MIA)

a. Special - The cheapest among the MIA Strats, come with '70s style large headstock and logo, super nice alnico pickups as well as vintage style tremolo and modern shaped neck and frets. They don't come with flight case. The current pickups for MIA Special Stratocaster are Texas Special pickups, they have a bit more power compared to regular Stratocaster pickup, which is good for playing blues and getting break-up sound. The new model also has the Greasebucket Tone Circuit which will remove unwanted extra bass when you roll down the tone knob.

b. Standard - Comes with two point tremolo that is very smooth but still with vintage stamped saddles that everyone loves. They come with flight case and the current model has the Fat '50s pickups that sound very good. Most of MIA Standard Strats can sound very good during live situation and they have the best build quality in my opinion. It also features better tremolo block that improve the tone significantly as well as thinner coat for improved resonance.

c. Deluxe - Comes with modern style two point tremolo and deluxe saddles. They have the unique switching for extra tones from your pickups, as well as noiseless pickups that don't produce 60 cycle hum. They also come with locking tuner for tuning stability, compound radius(super comfortable neck), contoured heel for easier upper register access, as well as V-neck option. This is the most expensive non Custom Shop and non Artist Stratocaster you can get.

Other than the three above, you can also get American Vintage Reissue '57 and '62, Artist Series, Select Series, Vintage Hot Rod and Custom Shop American Stratocasters. They come with $1200 to $2000++ price tags

MIM/MIJ VS MIA
American Stratocasters are the priciest compared to the other two because of its exceptional built quality and features that are not available on other Stratocasters. This caused a debate that has been going for some time whether is it really worth the price or if it's just a gimmick. I honestly don't know but owning both MIM and MIA Stratocasters, I can tell that they are quite different and not necessarily better from one another.

I say American Stratocaster is worth the extra price because of the different feel of the neck as well as the overall built quality of the body and electronics. The tremolo bridge has better metal block that causes the notes to sustain longer and to resonate across the whole body. While this is good for rock, blues and pop, this is not so good when you're playing staccato based songs such as some funk songs. 

My MIM and MIJ Stratocaster come with standard bridge that has standard metal block and they are finished with polyester. It has some sustain but not as long as my MIA Strat, so they shine the most when I play funk songs. My MIM Stratocaster can produce some heavy spank when engaged at 2nd and 4th pickup position. My MIJ Stratocaster can also produce that but due to its basswood body, it tends to gravitate toward warmer bell-like tone. My MIA Stratocaster comes with humbucker and while it produce some bright tone and spank, it doesn't do staccato note easily(you have to do extra work with muting the strings) but it cuts through the mix easier and produces some great heavy overdrive tones. So they are all good for different situation.

So here's my conclusion: If you want to buy a Stratocaster, it doesn't matter if it's made in Mexico, Japan or USA, but as long as you tried the guitar first and hear how it reacts toward different playing styles. American Stratocaster will have better feel and quality but it may not have better tone if you don't try it first. Mexican Strat may feel a bit stiffer but it may produce some amazing clean tone. FIRST, decide the features that you need from the guitar and decide your budget; SECOND, try that particular model of the guitar that you want; THIRD, compare it with other guitars of same models and try to compare it with some other models on same budget level and see if the other guitar of same or different models sound better; FOURTH, make the decision to buy.

Don't get overwhelmed with so many types of Stratocasters, all that matters is that it sounds good to your ears. Cheers and God Bless :)

MIJ JAPANESE FENDER STRATOCASTER ST62-US

Hello everyone, I've been very fortunate to acquire this new guitar made in Japan. It's called Fender Stratocaster ST62-US which is basically a Reissue of Fender Stratocaster 1962. I'm very blessed to be able to acquire this guitar since it's considered a hidden jewel. MIJ Stratocasters are known for their fantastic built quality and consistency and sometimes can rival US version of the same type of guitar.

Spec
The body was made of basswood(cheap wood to be honest, but resonates very good and considered as one of the best tonewood). The color is 3 tone sunburst with white pickguard. The pickups are called US Vintage pickups according to Fender Japan. Neck is maple with very high gloss and rosewood fingerboard with small radius and vintage sized frets. It comes with vintage 6 screws tremolo and vintage style tuner. No trust rod adjustment on the headstock; the adjustment can be made from the heel of the neck on the pickguard. No skunk stripe on the back of the neck too. It's made to the spec of a '62 Stratocaster except for the body material; a true '62 Strat will have alder for the body instead of basswood.

Sound
AMAZING! It resonates acoustically stronger than most of my guitars. The tone when it's plugged into an amp is also nice. Good clean tones come instantly without too much tweak. The pickups are very weak so I adjust them closer to the string just a little bit. Overdrive tones are not as strong as my other guitars but I like to keep it that way. The basswood body adds extra mid to the overall tone while the rosewood fingerboard definitely keeps the presence and brightness from being drowned by the basswood body.

The neck and bridge pickup definitely sounds very vintage; they are called US Vintage Pickups according to Fender Japan website. Try to play some Hendrix tune with this guitar and you'll get the idea. The bridge has a bigger block compared to my MIM Stratocaster and it helps a bit with the sustain.

Any cons?
Basswood body is considered cheap by many people, but it's actually considered as a good tone wood. Pickups are a bit weak but they sound very vintage, so if you don't like weak output pickups, better upgrade the pickups with something stronger. However, the pickups are made of alnico, and they are definitely better than ceramic pickups on the MIM but maybe not as good as American Standard alnico pickups.

Made In Japan
MIJ guitars have the reputation of beating MIA guitars in terms of consistencies and built quality. MIJ are very consistent, the people who make them are doing their job neatly and carefully. US made guitars sometimes suffer from inconsistencies in terms of overall quality. For the same type of guitar, you can sometimes get a very good guitar but sometimes not.

Is this guitar for me?

If you love Stratocaster, MIJ is a must have. One guy from a forum told me that this guitar beats the Custom Shop version of '62 Reissue, so I'm quite happy to know that the quality of this MIJ guitar will hold for a long time. If you're not a Strat guy, definitely worth to check out. Stratocasters are very nice guitars and they define the American tone from a very long time. Especially with this MIJ, you'll get the best value guitar that will beat some of more expensive guitars on US market.

Price?
68000 Yen or around US$860. Quite expensive, but this will beat US Vintage Reissue and Custom Shop '62 Reissue.

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Hope you like this post. I'll post some sound clips soon.
Cheers and God Bless :)