Fender MIJ Traditional 60s Stratocaster

This MIJ 60s Fender Stratocaster is a pure joy to play, the neck is comfortable and the fretboard radius makes it a really fun guitar to play with. 

I am really big fan of vintage fender strats because of their sound, though this guitar is a reissue its no exception.

The sound that I look for in a single coil pickup is that “Chimey” fragile sound of a vintage Fender, so when I got my hands on this MIJ Fender I was so happy that I found a guitar that suits my taste for that “Chimey” Fragile sound. The quality of this guitar is one of the best examples of Japanese craftsmanship, the finish is stunning and the frets are smooth, the fretboard is a very dark Rosewood.

FENDER 60s STRATOCASTER VS IBANEZ AZ PREMIUM

I love comparing guitars both feel and sound, I had a Ibanez AZ Premium at the time I have this 60s Fender. They both have a 25.5 scale length, Maple neck and bolt on necks. The Ibanez have a roasted maple neck while the Fender does not , the pickup configuration on the Ibanez is a ” H H ” while the Fender is ” S S S” configuration. So while comparing these guitars together I tend to favor the fender over the Ibanez AZ,

the neck is more comfortable on the Fender even though the AZ is a modern Guitar that suits modern Guitar players the AZ’s neck feels thicker than the Fender. The pickups on the Ibanez AZ are “Hyperion” pickups which is a low output pickups vs the Fender stock pickups I really like the sound of the Fender though the Ibanez is more versatile on this comparison because of the amount of tones you can get out of it, and the AZ has this “Alter switch” that gives you more tones!

When it comes to tuning stability both is pretty okay I guess, the AZ have locking tuners the Fender does not. So generally speaking locking tuners “helps” with the tuning, but in this case it does not both guitars stay in tune pretty well but the Ibanez tends to go out of tune faster than the Fender. All in all both Guitars is great but , if your looking for that single coil vintage tone you could get the easily on the Fender, so if your more of a all around blues/jazz/rock/metal type of Guitarist I’d go for the Ibanez AZ.