Fender has expanded its MIJ offering to territories outside of Japan by decking out some of its core electric guitar and bass guitar models in an all Satin Black finish, with red accents on the three-ply pickguard and logo to complete the look.
They call it the MIJ Noir Series, and it comprises a Telecaster, Stratocaster, Jazzmaster and Jazz Bass. The new limited edition models come hot on the heels of MIJ Hybrid II Strats in some super-smart and hitherto hard to come by colour finishes, and they all share a number of features in common.
Bodies are fashioned from alder and finished in a satin urethane finish. Necks are maple, bolted on, shaped into a Modern C profile and topped with 9.5” radius rosewood fingerboards.
The electrics have a 25.5” scale length and 22 narrow tall frets. The Jazz Bass has 21 and a scale length of 34”. Nuts are synthetic bone and the hardware is black nickel.
The pickups are all custom voiced for the Noir models, which is a similar story to the other models in the Hybrid II family. The Strat has a trio of single-coils, a five-way selector switch, one volume and two tone pots. The Tele has two single-coils, a three-way switch, volume and tone.
The Jazzmaster has the familiar pairing of over-sized single-coils at neck and bridge positions, but it has a scaled-down switching configuration, with a three-way pickup selector mounted on the shoulder where the Rhythm Circuit controls would be on an old-school model, plus volume and tone controls to dial in a sound.
Finally, the Jazz Bass is passive and has its typical dual single-coil setup, with individual volume pots and a master tone.
Hardware is as you would expect. The Strat has a 2-point synchronised tremolo with vintage-style stamped steel saddles. The Telecaster has an ashtray-style bridge with three slanted brass saddles. The Jazzmaster has a six-saddle floating tremolo tailpiece, while the Jazz Bass has a vintage-style four-saddle bridge. You will find vintage-style locking tuners on all of the guitars.
These are officially limited edition, with the Fender site accepting orders with fresh stock expected to arrive on 3 July. As with the MIJ Hybrid Series Stratocasters, we’re not sure how many. Best bet is to grab one as soon as you can.
These models all ship with a gig bag, and are priced £1,299, which all things considered is not a bad price at all for a Japanese-made instrument. For more details and pics, head over to Fender.
