# MIJ "E" series Fender Strat questions



## ccuwan (Jul 9, 2008)

I own an 85 Fender MIJ Strat which I had listed in Kijiji for a couple of weeks. When I first purchased this guitar, I swapped out the Japanese pickups for some US made pickups that I purchased on Ebay from Reliablefender, also known as the STRATosphere. When I posted the ad I said that I would include the Japanese pickups in the sale. I have had as much interest in buying the Japanese pickups as I have the guitar itself. One buyer has offered me $50 for just the bridge pickup. 

Am I missing something here. The $50 offer came from a guy who said that a previous owner of his Strat had swapped out the bridge pickup for an American one and “it sucked by comparison”.

Truth be known, the subtleties of different pickups pass me by so my decision to replace the pickup was more based on the advice of others than my own experience. 

The purpose of this post is to find out if others are similarly impressed with Japanese pickups of that era or is there more to this than simply their performance capabilities. Could it be that the collectability of these guitars in on the rise and others are trying to get theirs back to original spec. 

Btw, I am offered $800 for it which I have yet to accept……any thoughts?


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

interesting- ive still got the stock pups from my 84 sq series- maybe i can get something for them?
my guess is because these guitars often got upgraded pickups, the originals are lost- folks trying to return an old guitar to original, now that the value is increasing-


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

I'm a bit surprised that someone offered you $800. Not to take anything away from your guitar, but that seems a bit high for an E-series. Does your guitar have the Fender System 1 bridge? If so, I'd probably RUN, not walk to that person who offered you that much. Those E-Series with the System 1 trem usually go for the $450-500 range _if_ you can find a buyer. The standard vintage tremolo might go a bit higher, but still not $800.

I'm guessing your potential buyer has just "discovered" that MIJ Strats are supposed to be amazing and wants to get his hands on one.

As for the pickups, I don't have any direct experience with them, but I've heard from others that the pickups in those guitars are supposed to be pretty good. I don't know why someone would pay a premium for them, unless they are restoring a guitar to all-original.


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## StevieMac (Mar 4, 2006)

ccuwan said:


> Btw, I am offered $800 for it which I have yet to accept……any thoughts?


Even without having seen the guitar firsthand, I'd say that is a generous offer for that vintage of MIJ. I wouldn't wait around too long before accepting if I were you....


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## sneakypete (Feb 2, 2006)

I`ve had a couple of E series FJ strats, sold both because I have other models that are better, they made different levels of E serials...just like every other serial number they ever made...I`m on the prowl for a -115 E serial strat, but they just don`t show up very often and when they do they are expensive. Don`t know what model you have, you`d have to look for markings in the neck pocket to check, but most I see are the low ends and they don`t appear to be rare in Japan. personally I`d take the $800.00 before the guy reads this thread, and if in the future you feel you just gotta have another, they are around on line in Japan and you can use a service to buy one for you and ship it. But honestly I haven`t missed mine but thats because I own far better FJ guitars. Not sure how the E`s got the status they attained but don`t believe everything you read on the web eh, the ones I had were extremely average.


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## ccuwan (Jul 9, 2008)

Thanks for all the feedback. The buyer pulled so I'm guessing he came to the conclusion that there are better buys out there for that kind of money. Sneaky, what is your experience with Telecasters of the same vintage, or maybe the question is better asked, what vintage of Japanese teles do you most respect and why.

Fact is I have had the guitar on Kijiji and Craig's list in the hope I can trade it for a Japanese tele. Seems when you want to trade you get a plethora of cash offers. The $800 offer was unsolicited but attractive.

My personal opinion of the guitar is the woodworking is superb. The neck is fast and comfortable. I'm not liking the Type 1 bridge much as I find my forearm on it too often causing the guitar to go out of tune. The guy wanting to buy the pickup has the same model and suggested that with five springs in the system it was very stable. The electronics I guess are subjective. I swapped out the Japanese pickups for American but as I said earlier I've had people trying to buy just the Japanese pickups from me. 

Bottom line, I think the guitar may be picked up for less than $800 today but it would not surprise me at all to see it's value run past $800 in the near future. The build is excellent and the other stuff can be changed.


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## sneakypete (Feb 2, 2006)

there were quite a few builders making very nice teles in the 80s...Greco higher ends, Tokais, Fender Japan...my 52-95 JVs are right up there with the best, Fernandes made some real nice ones too. Not to say there wasn`t a lot of crap too so one has to be careful. By the mid `80s Fender Japan had expanded their line up and not all were high end models but they were still building good guitars, just added more lower end stuff, and there are other serials in the `80s too...not just the E`s so thats one reason why I don`t understand how all the E`s have become such holy grails, yes, they did build some top end E serials but not all. So for me it`s not when a Fender Japan was build so much as where it fits in the pecking order, even today they are building some very high end models and then there are all the shop orders out there, little wonder it`s so hard pegging down the company, there are just so many models. It`s a never ending learning experience for me, I am often surprised over here.


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## ccuwan (Jul 9, 2008)

Sounds like its a bit of a crap shoot until you can put your hands on the guitar.....thanks for the feedback


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## ccuwan (Jul 9, 2008)

*sold the strat*

I sold the Strat for $750 and flipped the cash into a mint Japanese JD tele with Custom Shop pups for $650.....I'm happy with the exchange


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

ccuwan said:


> I sold the Strat for $750 and flipped the cash into a mint Japanese JD tele with Custom Shop pups for $650.....I'm happy with the exchange


PT Barnum said it best...you got a great deal on your guitar there!

Just to clarify, you picked up a J*V* Tele for $650? Looks like Oshawa is the place to buy and sell gear. Everyone overpays for other's stuff and underprices their own!


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## sneakypete (Feb 2, 2006)

read about those JD teles but have never seen one in Japan, wonder if they were made for export since I bet nobody has any idea who he is. Good for you, as I said, I had some E serials and sold em...there are better MIJs out there and better E serials as well. Somewhere along the way people overseas started to believe every E serial is something special, they ain`t.


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## ccuwan (Jul 9, 2008)

hollowbody said:


> PT Barnum said it best...you got a great deal on your guitar there!
> 
> Just to clarify, you picked up a J*V* Tele for $650? Looks like Oshawa is the place to buy and sell gear. Everyone overpays for other's stuff and underprices their own!


Hey HB....Fact is it is a JD (Jerry Donahue) tele.......soft V neck, vintage frets, strat neck pickup, standard tele bridge, bound body and specialized 5 way switching. Now maybe it is also a JV but I think the JV stuff came before the E series and mine was built in the 90s. Very very sweet guitar though and I couldn't be happier. 

After buying it from a seller in the Boston area it arrived with an excellent hard case and a pair of Custom Shop pickups installed which were both unexpected......bonus!!! 

In defence of the Oshawa brain trust the buyer was from Toronto.....go figure


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

ccuwan said:


> Hey HB....Fact is it is a JD (Jerry Donahue) tele.......soft V neck, vintage frets, strat neck pickup, standard tele bridge, bound body and specialized 5 way switching. Now maybe it is also a JV but I think the JV stuff came before the E series and mine was built in the 90s. Very very sweet guitar though and I couldn't be happier.
> 
> After buying it from a seller in the Boston area it arrived with an excellent hard case and a pair of Custom Shop pickups installed which were both unexpected......bonus!!!
> 
> In defence of the Oshawa brain trust the buyer was from Toronto.....go figure


Ahh, makes sense. I wasn't thinking straight. Yeah, those are sweet axes!

As for Toronto, there's a lot of C0 in the air. It makes some of us do silly things


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## ccuwan (Jul 9, 2008)

Thanks HB
I'm about to swap out the 5 way system and set it up with a 3 way and all the right stuff like cts pots, PIO cap Oak Grigsby switch etc. Bought a full exchange kit from Jon Moore. Also bought an extra plate and knobs so I can swap the 5 way back in if I choose with very little effort. Figure it might help somewhere down the road should I choose to sell as well but right now that's the last thing on my mind. This is the nicest playing guitar I think I've owned.....or maybe I'm just overzealous like when you have a new lover.....oh well it's great right now!!!


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