40 Years Of Squier
Keith Anderson makes his livelihood bringing rare Fender Japan electrics into the UK and he’s seen thousands over the years. So what does he think the magic of MIJ is all about?
When we think of Japanese Fender and Squier electrics from the 80s onwards, we often imagine pristine-looking reissues available from the official Fender Japan ranges of a given time period. But Fenders made for the domestic Japanese market are a riot of custom finishes and features not seen in Europe and the US, while their build quality is typically exceptional. To get a sense of what’s on offer for the guitarist willing to hunt down rarities from the past 40 years of Japanese production, we caught up with Keith Anderson of Gas Station Guitars in Taunton, who turned a casual hobby of bringing Japanese-market Fenders over here into a flourishing business a few years ago. Here, he explains what to look out for and expect when buying Japanese Fender and Squier instruments. Be warned, though – he says it can get addictive…
What are the key terms we should be aware of with Japanese Fenders?
“Well, you’ve got MIJ/CIJ thing, when the guitars were made in FujiGen, which was the first factory that had the contract for Fender in Japan. Before the serial number, it would have the words Made in Japan, abbreviated to MIJ. And then when FujiGen moved on to other things and the contract went between a factory called Dyna and Tokai, they rebranded the prefix of the serial number to CIJ [Crafted in Japan]. So you do have a bit of a MIJ versus CIJ debate going on now about which were the better Fender Japan guitars. And the truth is they’re all good.
“When Fender moved from FujiGen to building guitars in the other factories, there was really no drop in quality. You do get people trying to instigate a debate… In my experience – and I’ve had thousands through my hands – FujiGen are probably a little bit more sought-after now because that factory has almost mythical status with the early Fenders and the fact that they built some really nice old Grecos and stuff prior to building guitars for Fender.”
Japanese-built Gretsches and ESPs are seen as absolute top-quality marques. Does Fender Japan still suffer from being perceived as a rung down from US
