re: Is this Fender Strat (MIM) a good deal for $499?

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Edit: @auggie, yeh I'm pissed I missed out on the one in Shreveport a few years back. It was a lot of fun to play and felt great in the hands.

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The Japanese just make incredible guitars.

You might check out G&L Tribute if you haven't

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I'm not an expert but from a quick google, it seems the 1968's have a pretty big following on some music message boards. I should learn more about the LP history as it seems to be a pretty interesting evolution.

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My post was cut short. I was going to go on about how I had no idea when overall Gibson sucked, got good, then sucked again.

50's AWESOME
60's Great?
70's Did they suck?
80's They had to suck, right? Everybody was playing hair metal?
90's???? No idea? Slash is touring the world with a '59 and '59 Clone. Had to give Gibson a shot in the arm.
2000's???
Now they suck? Or at least that's all I ever seem to hear or read...

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Japanese over Chinese quality (anything) any day of the week.

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I put the Japanese stuff over the Mexican too. I keep my U.S. made and Japanese guitars put away, and don't play them as much though, because I want to keep them nice. The Mexican and Chinese guitars, I beat the hell out of them every day, and they are fine for that, and aren't bad guitars. I've got a squire affininty telly that I put classic vibe pickups in and upgraded the pots, switch and output jack, that is really a good sounding and playing guitar. I also have a Chinese recording king dreadnought, that's a great guitar for everyday, but on the occasions when I do play the good stuff, the difference is just amazing. Thing is with me though, I went so long without having nice guitars, I like to keep them nice and safe, in the case.

Yeh I went down a rabbit hole there from that google search myself. I know Slash recorded Appetite for Destruction on a '59 someone gave him, or he bought or something, but I know there has been talk of trying to find the amp he used for the recording. Something about he rented it from a music rental place and someone had modded the amp and he credits some of the sound to that (don't know if he ever found the amp again, but I think he has a deal with Marshall where they try to replicate it).

As for LP's, I feel like they were good in the 70s. Didn't they plan on ending the LP line in the early 60s or something and they didn't make them for a few years in the 60s, at least a true LP as we know it. I saw something about the double cut away version in relation to that time period idk, like I said its a confusing and storied history.

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Japanese over Chinese quality (anything) any day of the week

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Not antique porcelain

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The Japanese are known for craftsmanship, care and attention. Their work really speaks for itself.

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I agree, and it goes back a long time. I have often wondered if there are any family connections between the guitar makers and the old sword makers. My wife is Filipina and she hates Japanese and Chinese, and she gets pissed when I buy anything made by either one
I have never checked out any ESP stuff, and don't really come across it often, but you and fret shack have convinced me that I need to pay more attention to those.

Gibson's acquisition by Norlin in the early 1970s is where most guitar historians bookmark the end of Gibson's grail era.

Google "Gibson history Norlin" and there's plenty to read from multiple sources, I won't eat bandwidth and waste time typing when it's found elsewhere.

Basically, attention at Gibson shifted from craftsmen making decisions regarding making consistently great guitars;

to instead corporate bean counters and marketing teams making decision regarding sales quantity over unit quality and new products taking priority over time-tested and consumer-approved designs.

It's the exact same story with Fender and their acquisition by CBS in the mid-60s.

In both cases, product consistency suffered and subsequently consumer perception suffered. AKA, we fickle guitarists didn't like 'em.

Now does that mean all 70s Fenders and Gibsons are duds? Absolutely not, but that's another lengthy discussion for another thread.

But as a guy who works on hundreds of Fender and Gibson pieces from all eras every year, and who has been in this game for many decades now ... I can tell you as an expert there is trash alongside treasure EVERY production year, sometimes in consecutive serial numbers. Fender's Fullerton era and Gibson's Kalamazoo/McCarty era produced their share of occasional lemons too, trust me.

The trick is finding the SNs, the individual instruments, that truly speak to you individually. My '72 Thinline and my '76 Les Paul stimulate every sense I possess. Call it luck or whatever, I'm a big winner.

The thing that brought the Kalamazoo thing to mind for me, was the Heritage acoustics that came from the old Gibson factory right after the employees bought it. I use to play those all the time at a local store, but I couldn't afford one. They were all fantastic. These days, I don't think Heritage even makes acoustics. That's a shame.

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My wife is Filipina and she hates Japanese and Chinese, and she gets pissed when I buy anything made by either one

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Sounds like a ton of fights. I so had an Epiphone les paul standard from like 2007 that was made in Korea, it wasn't a bad guitar at all either. The pickups weren't satisfying but the "feel" wasn't horrible.

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I have never checked out any ESP stuff, and don't really come across it often

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thats why I looooove reverb
what i want is always somewhere.

When you do come across ESP, or even high end LTD..I dont think you'll be disappointed. Workhorse guitars with grace and comfort.