Two special guitar birthdays

[Pete C]

My 1983 Squier SQ Stratocaster will be 40 years old at the end of this month. The neck pocket is stamped 10/27 and the pencil date on the end of the neck is 10/28/83 so the guitar must have been completed around the end of October 1983.

My Epiphone Elite Les Paul Standard Plus has a 2002 serial number which places it within the first 200 Elite solid bodies (Various Les Paul models and SGs). Now I know the first Elites went into production in late 2002 so it must be 21 years old now or very soon.

Both have something in common....they were built by Fujigen Gakki in Japan for Fender Japan and Gibson.

[Farrell Jackson]

Happy birthday to your classic guitars Pete. They still look brand new!

Farrell

[ODH]

Wow, combined fortieth and twenty first. That'll be a hell of of a party.

Great looking guitars

[Zoltan]

I've revisited this post several times now...MIJ!

Please, don't feed the gas.
- The bank account

[kenny mac]

Lovely looking guitars.

[cuthbert]

Very nice, Pete! Those MIJ guitars have only appreciated in value since then. Which one gets more playing time with you?

In 1983 I was still banging away on an El Cheapo classical guitar my parents bought me back in 1978 and my prize was a '78 Fender Musicmaster bass that I picked up in 1981 (I still have that bass, but I gave a friend the classical some time in the late Eighties).

[Pete C]

Very nice, Pete! Those MIJ guitars have only appreciated in value since then. Which one gets more playing time with you?

The Strat has been played most over the years as it was my only electric from when I bought it in early 1984 until around 1997 when I bought an Epiphone SG as a back-up for playing live, but it was still my main gigging guitar till I bought the Les Paul in 2003. There's some serious wear on some of the frets and I've been told the wear is too low now for a fret level and it could do with a re-fret. Both are in semi-retirement at the moment and only tend to get played if I need a Strat or Les Paul for a recording. I have 5 other electrics which I also use for rehearsals/gigs and for recording.

 

[Zoltan]

How is the neck on that MIJ Strat? D-shape, somewhat thin? For example compared to that Vintera Jaguar that you have. Those have quite substantial yet not really a baseball bat kinda necks. Fills the hand nicely.

Those vintage frets, or similar are kinda worrisome on all of these older guitars. One of the main reasons i'm really nitpicky about buying any of these. The price would really need to be right and it often isn't And it's sometimes hard to know if the frets have already been leveled as a new guitar always feels playable for a while (even with frets that are annoyingly small).

My early 90's era MIM Strat (my first guitar) is a goner because of vintage styled frets. I got it leveled by a pro, but i never felt it was as good as it was before, and the new fret job would cost like crazy... If i could go back in time i would skip the leveling and live with the dents instead.

There's loads of these MIJ/CIJ guitars that are tempting, but many have had that "final" fret leveling done. I was very close to getting a CIJ Jaguar, but then i got offered an upgraded Vintera with P-90's and JUMBO frets and i jumped on that...

[Pete C]

How is the neck on that MIJ Strat? D-shape, somewhat thin? For example compared to that Vintera Jaguar that you have. Those have quite substantial yet not really a baseball bat kinda necks. Fills the hand nicely.

I'd describe it as a C shaped neck, it's a bit thicker than the neck on my 2013 American Standard Telecaster (modern C shape) but not as thick as the Vintera's neck which Fender describe as mid-60's C shape. I've always found it a very comfortable neck to play, easily as nice as the Tele and the Jag. Both the Strat and Jag have vintage-style frets but I don't find the type of frets a problem compared to the ones I have with jumbo frets. I do prefer a more curved radius like the 7.25 inch on the Strat and Jag and 9.5 inch on the Tele over the flatter radius of my Les Paul. Love to see a photo of your Jag !

[Mike_S]

Two lovely guitars, I am a bit jealous of the white strat, it's a beaut.