We Need to Talk About Mexican Fenders

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00:00 intro
2:40 how close is the Mexican factory?
3:26 How big is the Fender Corona plant?
3:50 the Mexican factory from the road...
5:04 the golden era of Mexicans
6:45 how thick is the poly?
7:09 would you spend £1.6k on a mexican?
8:50 conclusions

only if you wanted, you could buy me a coffee!

only if you wanted, you could buy me a coffee!

[brunoantony]

You can have a Fender made in Mexico by Mexicans or a Fender made in California by Mexicans

[EzraMF]

I live near the Ensenada factory and I run into Fender employees very often. I have spoken to some of them and they are very proud of their jobs and working for such a legendary company. I actually own the Jason Isbell and it’s my favorite guitar!

[bluesky]

I bought a Mexican made Classic 50's Nitro Strat in Candyapple Red Nitro over gold base coat with a tinted maple neck and fretboard in 2016. I shielded the body cavities, installed Seymour Duncan SSL-1s in all three positions with a 3-way switch, and replaced the white plastic pickguard with a gold anodized aluminum pickguard. The guitar is dead quiet, plays fantastic, sounds like a real 50's Strat, and looks beautiful. It's hard to choose between that and my 2014 Gibson Custom Shop R8. I will be keeping both of them until I can no longer play and I am 70 years old now so maybe I have 10 more years if I am lucky.

[DanielleEmberley]

There's a long history of guitar building in Mexico. Read about the town called Paracho.

[dbt]

I heard another YouTuber state the opinion that if Fender only made guitars in the US and Mexico, they would be in better shape from several perspectives (consistent quality being one). This makes a lot of sense to me, but good luck arguing with product managers about it 🙂

[dylanlamarre]

I lost all motivation to listen to the investigative journalism after the intro solo. It carried me me into the clouds. I'll watch the latter part of this another day.

[ReVeRbx-fewr]

Fender literally has or have had guitars made everywhere. USA, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Indonesia, China…Did I forget any? Who cares where it comes from as long as it plays good and sounds good and looks good.

[cameronlesley]

i bought my mexicn strat in 1995. still; got it still love it.

[CliveBarnesMusic]

I just bought the Mike McCready this week. I own a 60 Limited Edition Custom Shop Strat, and the McCready, honestly, holds its own alongside it. No hyperbole here. It's a cracking guitar...

The wait list was brutal long, though.

[mr.bluenotedoobop]

I’ve seen the California factory tour, those guitars are Mexican made as well 😊 Mexico has a lot manufacturing in general, they can do all sorts of work, from cheap quality to high end.

[JTB--]

Tried a new Fender Acoustasonic Player (made in Mexico) from Reverb and the Fret edges were like razor blades. Returned it immediately

[swatchcovers]

Have had my Mexican blacktop jag for over 10 years and it’s my favorite guitar still, so many memories.

[pirated]

Just got a vintera 2 Telecaster deluxe.
Can’t fault it apart from needing a PROPER set up .
Plays superb and sounds great on par with my USA Tele’s.

[karmadave]

As others have said, whether your Fender guitar was made in California or Ensenada, it was likely built by someone of Mexican decent. To me, the most important features are the QC and parts. These make the biggest differences in my humble opinion 😃

[IsaacLausell]

“I dont know if there is big sort of heritage of building guitars in Mexico…(minute 4:04)”

I would recommend reading about the Viceroyalty of New Spain of which the capital and royal court was in Mexico going back to 1521. Where there was a court there were artists, musicians and of course luthiers so I’d say the tradition of guitars being built in Mexico by far trumps Korea, Japan and most other places.

Also considered that the city of Puebla has a tradition of luthiers that built 5 course guitars, lutes and theorbos that never stopped and kept going.

For context it’s the Spanish tradition that continued in America and never stopped, it just continued evolving.

While Mexico is not known as an electric guitar meca for brands other than Fender there is a wealth of electric guitar focused luthiers. While I am not Mexican nor have never lived there I have played and guess lectured in México which has allowed me the opportunity to see what they can do and they are really good.

I know your impressions in favor of the Mexican Fenders is on point. I personally have a Mexican and an American strat in my collection and the Mexican holds its own and what ever differences there were eroded once I installed similar pickups however understanding the history of our instrument is important and Mexico certainly played a key role even on a global scale.

[hughbarton]

And remember, y'all: Leo was an engineer. He considered, correctly, as to the opportunity to expand production by adding factories as needed. And, of course, using high tech gear and skilled staff.So, he could create some of the greatest guitars..
from lumber...

[Chiller]

I bought my son a Mexican Strat in around ‘93 so it must have been a fairly early instrument from the Ensenada factory. Got him a small Peavy amp and he took lessons from a local pro. He went to Sweden 12 years ago and I inherited the Strat. It’s a fun guitar to play.

[Meynze]

My first guitar was a Fender MIM Classic Series 50’s. I still rock it nowadays, and I must say that there is nothing wrong with its build quality.
Recently, I decided to unleash it full capacities : I completely overhauled the electronics, changing pots to CTS and with a CRL USA 5 way, I grabbed hand wound pickups on reverb made by a luthier in Croatia (Q pickups) and those are excellent and very inexpensive, although if you want genuine Fender it is not hard to find Pure Vintage pickups at very good prices.
This change alone made it a completely different feeling guitar, and trust me, it’s not at all expensive to do just that, for less than 200 bucks you can get an excellent set of PUs and top-tier electronics.
As I evolved as a player, I decided to swap the maple neck with a 60s neck in roadwork lacquer finish, and I decided to repaint my guitar in Tahitian coral. The result is stunning and now I sincerely believe that a MIM strat is only held back by the components they are using. Take a MIM strat, replace the electronics, replace the hardware, and you’ve got yourself and excellent instrument.

[diecinuevemx]

I used to live near the factory many years ago as Ensenada is my hometown but now I live in Hanoi, Vietnam. I had a few friends working there during that time and around bars and venues you'll see Fender instruments everywhere. I don't know what's the situation of the factory atm but I remember they used to assemble amps there as well. If I'm correct, the Hot Rod lll series were made there. Also in the city of Tecate (in the same Estate), there's a Taylor guitars factory.

[gilbertduenas]

The building you shown isn’t the actual corona factory itself it’s offices and storage for some materials. The entire factory is that building, the big building directly behind it, and the one on the other side of the parking lot