Are Basswood MIJ Fender Strats any Good???

ishmun

ishmun

New member
hi guys,

im thinking of buying, what the seller tells me is, a 1982/83 Fender Strat with the serial number starting with "JV+5digits".

But he also tells me that he believes the wood is basswood and not alder - but he is not 100% sure

would u guys have any advice on whether it is basswood - and how does such a guitar sound? is it comparable to an alder strat

and above all is it worth the purchase? would any thing need to be replaced

and how does a 1982 MIJ basswood strat sound?

any info on these guitars would be great

thanks

Ishan
 
Re: Are Basswood MIJ Fender Strats any Good???

not sure how it compares to alder, but basswood is a very good tonewood. my friend has a guitar made of this and it sounds very nice. i also read on some website somewhere that these people did a bunch of tests with different tonewoods and concluded that basswood is the best. not sure if that is true or not but i think it is. basswood dents easily though.
but if hes not sure then theres the possibility that it is something else, like poplar or agathis. not sure though
 
Re: Are Basswood MIJ Fender Strats any Good???

I had the opportunity to play an MIJ Ritchie Blackmore Strat made out of basswood years ago. It doesn't carry the Roland pickup thingy on the bridge and I thought that it didn't have the sparkle associated commonly with Strats. At first I thought that it was the Lace Sensors that were the culprits so I egged my neightbor to whom I sold (regrettably) my Tokai with alder body to temporarily swap pick-ups. She put a set of SD SSl-2's there and I was surprised that the Blackmore model didn't still give the sparkling yet full sound that the Tokai could give (tone was better with Blackmore Strat + SSl-2's than Blackmore Strat + Lace Sensors though). The Lace Sensors on the Tokai however had a better tone, both overdriven and clean" compared to when it was installed in the Blackmore Strat.

I'm not saying that Basswood is crap, it's just that even with Ibanez, Alder Jems seemed to sound better than Basswood Jems, for me at least. If you have the opprtunity to try it hands on, do so. If it sounds good, go for it. Basswood or Alder, made in Japan guitars of any brand are one of the most consistent, well made guitars ever.
 
Re: Are Basswood MIJ Fender Strats any Good???

They are very well made guitars. They rivial american made Fenders in my book. I dont mind basswood at all. I belive my Peavey Wolfgang was Basswood and I didnt have any complaints.
 
Re: Are Basswood MIJ Fender Strats any Good???

I prefer alder for a strat, but basswood is a perfectly good tonewood, with better low end response than alder. Some people have a low opinion of basswood, but premium builders Tom Anderson, John Suhr, Don Grosh and Ernie Ball Musicman offer basswood guitars.

By the way, Nepalnt may be referring to Allan Holdsworth's experiments with Grover Jackson. After building several different bodies for Allan, the two agreed that basswood was the best wood.
 
Re: Are Basswood MIJ Fender Strats any Good???

Basswood is interesting. The basswood guitars I've played have been very 'empty' sounding, they have bass and brightness but very scooped mids. I played one ibanez though that was basswood but weird sounding... the bottom end was VERY warm and had a lot of lower mids to it.
 
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