I have collected high end Master Built Fender for years and for the money these Road Worn guitars are an incredible value. True, they are not aged to look as good as a custom shop guitar but they are not supposed to either. Compare apples to apples and things blow away the Highway 1's, Epiphone, or anything else in their class. Some people have a stigma about Mexican Fender and while there were some inconsistancy problems years ago they are making a high quaility guitar now. The bodies are cut, painted, and assembled in Mexico but the necks are still made in the USA and shipped to Mexico for finishing and assembly. The pickups are made in Mexico and the hardware is Fender/Ping brand that it is imported probably from China however the Fender Gotoh hardware that is on all the USA and custom shop guitars is imported also and made in Japan. I have played dozens of these Road Worn guitars and each one is as different as a dozen Fender USA guitars. Some Road Worns are incredible killer guitars that are even better than their USA counter parts, some are good, and some are just ok. Just a luck of the draw how they all come together. I would reccomend buying a road worn in the store that way you can play many of them and pick out the killer one. If you mail order it you dont have anything to compare it to so you wont know the difference. There seems to be less of a variance in the Tele's than the Strats for what ever reason and all Bass' I have played were great. Also do a search for Fender Mexico and take the virtual plant tour and you will be amazed at what you see adn read. Believe it or not I have a Road Worn that I would put up any day against my team built 62 Custom Shop Strat for tone and playability.

First off, I read many of the reviews from people who say they played them at a store and it went out of tune, action was bad, frets were sharp, etc. Its obvious that these people have never hear of getting a setup. Any guitar, American, custom shop, etc, can have sharp frets and these other problems in a store w/varying temp, humidity that cause the wood to swell and shrink. Most of these problems are dealt with a proper setup which is required on ANY new purchase, most stores dont do this properly before they display them. That being said, I agree that I wouldnt spend this kind of money for a MIM, and I find the whole relic thing to be ridiculous, spending hundreds more for a pre-beat guitar is dumb. That being said, I played one of these at my luthiers shop AFTER HE DID A SETUP for a customer, and I liked the playability. I have a love/hate thing with 7 1/4" radius fretboards. They are MUCH better for chording than 9 1/2" or 12", and worlds better than what you get on Ibanez and other shred guitars. The problem comes with bends, they fret out too qickly, and make any bend deeper than 1 step very difficult. I have one, and I have to bend and use the trem if I want to do anything deeper than a step. With the 6105 fretwire, you can bend much better. The one I played had the frets below the 9th slighly flattened during the fret dressing (which gets rid of the scratching feel other reviewers spoke of) which made 2 1/2 step bends flawlessly. The wear on the neck also added to the comfort. Plus, dont be told otherwise, Nitro paint makes a huge difference in resonance and overall tone. The typical polyester finish on MIM's like the standards and classic is like dipping the wood in a coating of plastic, actually it is plastic and is like putting a blanket on tone. You'd problably be better to go w/a burst finish. Most MIM's, at least the classic series with sunburst finish have 3 piece bodies, as opposed to the 7- 12 piece ive seen on solid color finishes that were stripped, this is another tone killer. All in all, I think one of these, used, with a Callaham trem put in, and a pickup change ( im not a fan of TexMex, or any overwound singlecoil, better to increase output @amp or pedal board SRV didnt use hot pickups, he used underwound), a decent setup and fret dressing, and you'll have a nice sounding/playing strat.

In this guitar's case, I gave a fairly average review, but I give MIMs a rating of 4 for trying. This guitar may feel like a 50s strat...when unplugged. The Tex Mex don't offer a 50s sound and the 5-pos switch really kills a dynamic. On a true vintage pre-'77 strat, there's a a 3-pos switch, and between positions, is a fender sound like in the intro of Blues Power (studio) or heard on every SRV album. But I have plans: I own a true vintage strat. there are little things gone bad with it (frets, body, tuners). I plan to buy the 50s model, and transferring my Vintage electronics to the RW strat for near genuine feel & sound.

I own a dozen Strats. All eras - all makes and models. Some are worth a pretty penny I'm told. I saw this and thought - "Well this is pretty grim". I was wrong. This is NOT the Mexican Strat you have not been buying all these years. Made there, yes, but my goodness, something went right with this. It stays in tune. The neck pocket is so tight Hendrix couldn't loosen it (well maybe). The bite of the TexMex pickups is wonderful (Most of my others have the Hot/Vintage Noisless - I don't even care about the 60hz hum anymore). All I know is, a Strat is supposed to cry - to scream - to get dirty or be lovely. This one did it for me from the word go. I got another as a backup the same day, and now these are all I play, and I can play anything, trust me. Put 10's on her, plug into a Deluxe Reverb, throw away your pick and get ready. After nearly 35 years, you just know when you play the right guitar. They could have made this thing in Lower Slobovia, and I would not have cared. Neither should you. I guess in any mass produced guitar, there will be some lemons and clunkers, and maybe I got lucky. All I know is she smokes some of my other so-called vintage or relic'd or custom shop models.

When I first looked at it, I wasn't impressed. I've played about 6 or 7 of these 50's Road Worn strats. I've played it against other custom shop strats, I must say this is a great guitar for MIM. The 6105 frets and the V neck make it the most comfortable strat I've played yet! The pickups sound great, nice strat tone. My only complaint is the high E gets a little too close to the edge from the 12th fret to 21st fret on almost every one of these guitars I've played.