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i'm checking the fender site for MIJ 50s type strats and can't find anything. the current classic range is all MIM. you can't even buy an original configuration jaguar anymore short of the american vintage model

That's how it's been in the US for some time. We have some MIJ Mustangs here but not much else available on a wide scale. Perhaps distribution in the UK is changing?

probably been like that here for a long time too and i'm just behind on things

this is fucked up. i mean, i accept we can't get the ridic colourful configurations that japan has, but not even a meat and potatoes classic range?

p-lease....

I've never even seen a 50s RI that was made in Japan... I was surprised to see one on the Fender Japan site .. They make a Limited Run 57RI.
At least I think it is .. I personally couldn't tell you the difference between the 50s and 60s . I just like the 70s one for their gaudy headstock .
http://www.fenderjapan.co.jp/str57_nls.html

the fender vintage reissue range of yore was all mij, where we got our reasonably priced jags, mussies and jazzies from. and of which, the '57 strat was a thing. thom has a 62 strat or something.

http://planetbotch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/ ... issue.html

i played one back in the day and it was one of the nicest sounding strats i've ever played, helped also by a wonderfully modded silverface twin

Rox wrote:I personally couldn't tell you the difference between the 50s and 60s .

50s = maple
60s = rosewood

if fender is emulating a certain decade's style

George wrote:the fender vintage reissue range of yore was all mij, where we got our reasonably priced jags, mussies and jazzies from.

Only the offsets, Georgeous - while you could get MIJ 50s/60s strats and teles, there's always been MIM ones too.

i'm just saying mij 50s strats were a thing. it was actually a really good range of (fairly accurate) reissues for strats, teles, basses, you name it. and now look...

Aye, it's a shame. Fender Japan are still making them, it's just far harder to do grey imports than it used to be. They're still there on eBay though.

George wrote:

Rox wrote:I personally couldn't tell you the difference between the 50s and 60s .

50s = maple
60s = rosewood

if fender is emulating a certain decade's style

single ply 8 hole pickguard vs 3 ply 11 hole.

v neck vs c neck.

As always, there's Ishibashi U-box.

George wrote:i'm just saying mij 50s strats were a thing. it was actually a really good range of (fairly accurate) reissues for strats, teles, basses, you name it. and now look...

Consider yourself lucky you could get them as late as you did, that was a UK/Europe dealer thing. I don't know if you figured I was WAY more mental than I really am, but I'm sure I've been ranting about this for like 15 years, as the MIM Classic '50s/'60s/'70s line replaced the CIJ '57/'62/'72 internationally on an official basis in the late '90s to yield higher profits as they ceased importing Japanese stuff to the US (I even have a guitar magazine from the UK around that time that mentions this while reviewing the MIM Classics).
A lot of lines have followed but apart from select Japanese models such as years of the '65 Stang and a limited run of MIJ non-matching-stock LPB and CAR Jags/Jazzmasters as well as a Jag-Stang reissue in the early '00s, this has never been reversed... and NO other Jaguar/Jazzmaster cheaper than the AV has been a proper vintage reissue model since... the Squier is the closest thing and it's got that Breakfast Club-era neck.

The thing that always pissed me off about this is it wasn't a case of "aw now I don't have the option to buy that guitar should I have ever wanted to" as it sometimes is when stuff like this happens, this was actually when I was buying Japanese Fenders and probably the reason I never had a Mustang.