kangaxxter

No, they can, but they can't manufacture nitrocellulose guitars there.



First of all; they'll all have wear marks in roughly the same spots, but they won't be exactly the same. You cannot use a machine to relic a guitar without damaging it. If they had the ability to do that, then they'd be able to manufacture guitars much, much cheaper. Guitars still have to be made by hand (with power tools, of course), even the lowliest Squier is somewhat a precision instrument. They might have finishes like cars, but they cannot be constructed like them.

Secondly; your guitar ages slower than you will. To get a finish on a guitar to be like a Road Worn series instrument takes decades of rough and constant playing. It's not something that can be accomplished naturally without that time and usage commitment. There are still barely-played 1956 Strats that don't have finish wear like that. Guitar buyers want that guitars with that wear pattern; something that only happens from seriously worn nitro-finished instruments, which cost in the tens of thousands of dollars range.

Thirdly; just because your guitar is "Road Worn" when you buy it doesn't mean you won't be putting your own marks into the thing. Also using that logic, does that mean you shouldn't buy used gear because you aren't putting your own dents into it? Plus, does every mark actually have a story? I have plenty of dents and dings in my guitars that I couldn't tell you where I got them.

__________________

Guitar

Whenever I hear someone say that they play exclusively a single genre, I always assume that they're just a terrible guitarist.

|Long|

I remember watching a clip online, they would send the bodies out to a different state to get them finished.

No issue with selling, it was purely for environmental reasons.

__________________
Hydroxic acid, kills thousands of people every year. Studies have shown lakes and rivers all over North America contain high levels hydroxic acid. Currently governments have taken no action against this life threatening chemical.

Maximus_2005

A delux and a standard mia strat is quite a bit different then a roadworn and standard mim. Theresalot more upgradedmparts on a deluxe.

Ill just leave it at that.

__________________

Mephaphil

Seems to me that the Roadworn is a MiM Deluxe.

The Roadworn has Tex Mex Pickups, Nitro finish, American Hardware, superior build quality.

The deluxe has a unique finish, improved floating bridge, gold hardware, noiseless pickups, improved build, S1 switching and coil tapping.

It's got a couple more upgrades, it's got some cosmetic upgrades but in relative terms, for the price, the upgrades seem to make sense.

The RW seems to be an improvement on the MiM, the Deluxe seems to be an improvement on the MIA. And for a couple hundred more you get a better guitar, on both models.

__________________

MrFlibble

^ I believe you're confusing the MIM Deluxe and the MIA Deluxe, at least in tetms of what people see as an upgrade. You're also overestimating the Road Worn's construction.

I mean, if we're going to start picking apart and comparing every model of Fender Strat on every level they can be compared, we will be here for months. So, just as a little example, the 'Texas Special' pickups that are in the MIM Lone Star Stratocaster are not the same 'Texas Special' pickups that are in the MIA and CS guitars (most notably the SRV and Sambora models). The 'nitro' finish that is on the Road Worn (and previously, the Highway One) guitars is not the same as the nitro finishes you get on a few of the more special MIA models, Custom Shop models, Gibsons, etc.

It's just like with woods on Squiers and Epiphones. Yes, the spec sheets says 'mahogany', but you know that what you're really getting is some random local firewood glued together and covered with a veneer. The 'alder' that is in Squiers is not the same as the alder that is used in a £4,000 FCS Closet Classic.

The Road Worns can be marketed any which way, and yes, they can be good guitars (as any MIM can be), but they are, at their core, still rolling off the same production line. Fender doesn't have a 'Road Worn Factory', with tighter QC, better materials and more experienced builders lovingly hand-crafting each guitar. They're churned out in their thousands alongside every other MIM model. Standard, Classic, Classic Player, Deluxe, Road Worn; they're all the same. The only difference is that when Rodrigo comes to screw a bridge on it, on the Standards he picks up a bridge from the drawer marked 'Stratocaster Bridges - A' and when when he's putting one on a Deluxe he opens 'Stratocaster Bidges - B' instead. And once he's screwed it down, he hits the conveyor belt and that body moves on to the next guy.

Again—because people seem to choose to ignore this part—I am not saying they are bad guitars. They can be good guitars. Great guitars, even. But to pretend that there is some sort of additional magic put into one mass-produced guitar that isn't put into other mass-produced guitars is absolute nonsense. They're mass-produced. It's all the same. Take the pickups from a Road Worn guitar and shove them in a Standard and you've got the same guitar, albeit a different-looking one. Hell, buy a Standard and order some fancy boutique pickups made to your specifications and fit those yourself, the total will be less than a Road Worn or Deluxe and you'll get something more appropriate for your needs. Ultimately, the things the ''better'' MIMs offer are all things which can be easily bolted on by factory workers, hundreds a day, which you could add to a regular guitar yourself for less money (or buy really fancy stuff and end up with a better guitar for the same money).

__________________
Yes, I know everything. No, I can't play worth a damn.
A child is trafficked and sold for sex slavery every 30 seconds. Support Love146.

Mephaphil

In my eyes, if a guitar has better parts then it's an upgrade to the lesser model.

You are completely right about the construction. It's a myth to a certain degree.
But the Roadworn has better parts than the MiM Standard and while I meant the 'deluxe MiM' term loosely, it does seem like the more desirable of the two guitars because of the upgrades, easily done or not. Some people just won't want to do any DIY on their guitars.

The parts are better so objectively it's a better guitar, surely?

__________________

Controlpanel

I just got one...
It's phenomenal.

__________________