MIK Fender Telecaster

SlopeSoarer

Just seen this on Gumtree near me but Fender serial search doesn't show much info. Any thoughts advice welcomed.

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guitars4you

V was the factory - can't recall which
N was for the nineties - similar to USA system (ie E eighties N nineties)
3 is the year - so 1993

I'm not knocked out by the price - have you asked if they will split and sell the guitar only and what price - Assuming you don't need/want the amp

thermionic

If you look carefully at the headstock photo you can see the S of "Squier Series". A lot of people scrape/sand these off but the seller here has just cropped all the photos! These were made for a short time in the early 90s in both Korea and Mexico, not to be confused with the early Japanese Fender reissues which also came with a small "Squier Series" decal. The Mexican ones at least had basically MIM Standard bodies and necks with cheaper Squier hardware and electrics (I had a Jazz Bass one of these). I'd guess the Korean version used local bodies and necks rather than Mexican ones, but the hardware and electrics would probably be of similar quality. So basically, a Korean Squier.

Funkfingers

Depending on year, those MIK guitars can be found with Fender or Squier branding. The bridge is a toploader. The pickups and electronics are a bit cheap. The neck is on the shallow side. All perfectly reasonable, provided that the price is right.

SlopeSoarer

Thanks for the info it makes more sense to me now and i've learned something:-) 

merciful-evans

thermionic said:

If you look carefully at the headstock photo you can see the S of "Squier Series". A lot of people scrape/sand these off but the seller here has just cropped all the photos! These were made for a short time in the early 90s in both Korea and Mexico, not to be confused with the early Japanese Fender reissues which also came with a small "Squier Series" decal. The Mexican ones at least had basically MIM Standard bodies and necks with cheaper Squier hardware and electrics (I had a Jazz Bass one of these). I'd guess the Korean version used local bodies and necks rather than Mexican ones, but the hardware and electrics would probably be of similar quality. So basically, a Korean Squier.

Well spotted.

It's a bad omen that someone would deliberately misrepresent the item offered. That's reason enough to pass.

That said I am an admirer of MIK builds. My luthier says he has never seen a bad one. This one looks like you would need to do some hardwear upgrades.

timmypix

merciful-evans said:

Well spotted.

It's a bad omen that someone would deliberately misrepresent the item offered. That's reason enough to pass.

I would always prefer to assume ignorance rather than malice - not everyone is an expert! Someone has a guitar that says "Fender" on the headstock, so they assume that's what it is. 

I'm sure there are situations where someone is deliberately misrepresenting, but I'd say it's just as likely that they just might not know.

BeardyAndy

The amp on its own is worth £50 on a good day so he's after £270 for the Tele and you can buy a new Classic Vibe or a used MIM Tele for not much more, I'd avoid!

Funkfingers

BeardyAndy said:

The amp on its own is worth £50 on a good day so he's after £270 for the Tele

IMO, the vendor has overvalued both items. Use this to haggle an advantageous price for the guitar on its own. The closer to £200 you can get, the better. 

guitars4you

timmypix said:

merciful-evans said:

Well spotted.

It's a bad omen that someone would deliberately misrepresent the item offered. That's reason enough to pass.

I would always prefer to assume ignorance rather than malice - not everyone is an expert! Someone has a guitar that says "Fender" on the headstock, so they assume that's what it is. 

I'm sure there are situations where someone is deliberately misrepresenting, but I'd say it's just as likely that they just might not know.

think you are right - Amazed how many times I get a call
'do you buy used guitars'
'Yes what is it you are selling'
'It is a GIbson Les Paul'
Amazed how many turn out to be an Epiphone

Funkfingers said:

BeardyAndy said:

The amp on its own is worth £50 on a good day so he's after £270 for the Tele

IMO, the vendor has overvalued both items. Use this to haggle an advantageous price for the guitar on its own. The closer to £200 you can get, the better. 

Agree on both the above @Funkfingers and @BeardyAndy ;

thermionic

 It’s not a “Fender Squire” but a Fender with the Squier logo cropped out of 4 photos. I call foul play!

Funkfingers

Gumtree photograph number 4 of 9 clearly shows the (unmolested) headstock decal.

The guitar is what it purports to be. It is of a quality that you would expect from a Korean-made Squier Standard Telecaster. It was daft of Fender to ever put their own name on it ... but they did ... then, thought better of it a year later.

Fender Japan did the same thing with their System 1 Stratocaster in the mid-to-late Eighties. I had a red one with a Squier decal under the clear coat. A local trader had a metallic blue one with a Fender decal under the clear coat.

Octafish

merciful-evans said:

thermionic said:

If you look carefully at the headstock photo you can see the S of "Squier Series". A lot of people scrape/sand these off but the seller here has just cropped all the photos! These were made for a short time in the early 90s in both Korea and Mexico, not to be confused with the early Japanese Fender reissues which also came with a small "Squier Series" decal. The Mexican ones at least had basically MIM Standard bodies and necks with cheaper Squier hardware and electrics (I had a Jazz Bass one of these). I'd guess the Korean version used local bodies and necks rather than Mexican ones, but the hardware and electrics would probably be of similar quality. So basically, a Korean Squier.

Well spotted.

It's a bad omen that someone would deliberately misrepresent the item offered. That's reason enough to pass.

That said I am an admirer of MIK builds. My luthier says he has never seen a bad one. This one looks like you would need to do some hardwear upgrades.

I can only assume he/she hasn't seen many MIK Squiers then. Late 80s S serial MIK Squiers will blocky plywood bodies and microphonic pickups and mid 90's MIK Squiers with particle board bodies are just two that spring to mind.