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Recent MIM Fender (Charvel, EVH) quality?

3K views 19 replies 11 participants last post by  jacksonplayer 
#1 ·
Just wondering if any of you guys have had any experience lately with any of the FMIC stuff out of Mexico. In years past I have never had complaints with their MIM stuff, but I got a brand new 2018 EVH Wolfgang a couple of weeks ago and it had tons of issues. The neck was actually loose out of the box, which caused a neck pocket crack. The paint in the trem route was horrible and the neck pickup was totally crooked. Sent it back and got another yesterday and it’s worse than the first. Has anyone had any issues with recent MIM stuff?
 
#7 ·
I've heard the early Players series were a little hit-or-miss, but never played one myself and the internet is notoriously unreliable. For the last 5-7 years, though, I've continually thought that the Mexican AND American Strats I've picked up have been pretty consistently good, though.
 
#12 ·
Already returned one and got a second. The pics are of two guitars. It shouldn't be a price point thing. These are $1000.
That's what I was just thinking. The last Stealth I played was a few years ago, and it was a nice guitar that didn't have any issues like these ones, going for I think $899 or so; at that price you shouldn't be having any of the issues that those had.

Hell, I paid like, just shy of $300 for my Ibanez Talman unseen and lucked out with that thing being clean as hell - but I expected something the worst and prayed for the best. This is just plain sloppy.
 
#14 ·
Only other thing I'd add is the neck joint crack in your first picture is INCREDIBLY common, and is almost always superficial, and just limited to the finish. I'll have to check the guitars I have at home, but I feel like most Ibanez guitars I've played have one, and I wouldn't be shocked if my '97 Strat has a crack there, too.

The trem route looks more like a design issue than a QC one - these are CNC'd, so if the route seems a little too big for the trem, that's an issue with how it was programmed and not executed. The slightly crooked neck pickup isn't really awesome looking, but won't impact how it sounds, and if you really are concerned you could fill and redrill the screw holes easily enough. Most of the issues you're pointing to are cosmetic in nature - how's the fretwork? How's the neck relief? How's it play? How resonant is the guitar? Does it sound good? For better or for worse, I think expecting a $1000 guitar to be cosmetically flawless probably isn't realistic - anything coming off a production line could potentially have minor cosmetic issues, be it $1k or triple that. It'll have a whole hell of a lot more in ten years after a decade of wear and tear. I'd say as long as a guitar sounds and plays great and the cosmetic issues are fairly minor, I wouldn't lose any sleep about it.
 
#15 ·
I don’t expect perfection. Just something cosmetically good. These flaws are easily seen. I’m not talking about a gap at the trem. The finish I had a ton of lumps in it on both guitars. As for the finish crack I know they are very common, but the reason it happened is bc the neck was actually loose. I could fix it pickup no problem, but I wasn’t willing to overlook the other stuff. The guitars do play good, the fretwork is good, but the finishes on them are not what I would expect for the price. Guys go nuts about Gibson QC and none of my Gibson’s have anything like this and most of them didn’t cost me a grand.
 
#17 ·
All EVH Stuff I have seen was incredible well made (Stripped and Wolfgangs) as are the Mexican Charvels (Im going to get another other next week).

Weird that the Neck came loose, I have the Standard (Indo made) and when I removed the Neck of it it was so tight that I almost wondered if it really needed screws, same for the Control plates. Cavities are so plain precision tight that I needed a X-Acto knife to be able to pull them off. I place a bit of tape on the Charvel Backplate so I can pull it off easily when needed to access the Trem.

Finish issues are a bit common. Colleague got a new 2018 24fret Charvel and it wasnt "perfect" around the Truss Rod Wheel and in one of the pickup cavities, but apart from that nothing more. New Mexican Player Strats felt a bit cheap to me, but didn't saw any major issues.

Maybe you were really unlucky or someone is trying to sell you returns to see if it passes.
 
#19 ·
I've posted my experience a long time ago in another thread but I got one of those chlorine burst MIM Jackson dinkys and it sucked, frankly. Crooked and corroding bridge, chipped fretboard at the nut, black paint stains on the fretboard, holes in the clear finish, and couldn't stay in tune. Was it a fluke? Yeah probably but I'm just going to stick with older jacksons/jackson-like guitars with a few exceptions. There's too many options out there to go back to something I've been burned on before.
 
#20 ·
My experience with the MIM products by FMIC is that most I've played in stores are good (especially for the price), but that it really pays to try before you buy, if possible. They are not going to be as consistent as USA or Japanese guitars.

My Nate Mendel sig P-Bass could be mistaken for a USA Fender, and my Kenny Wayne Shepherd sig Strat has great fretwork and overall build quality. I did notice that the hardware was probably screwed onto the KWS Strat before the finished cured, since the backplate was stuck when I removed it.
 
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