I'm primarily a guitar player, have been coming here for a while, there's tons of great info from some pretty hot players. I'm all for supporting U.S. manufacturing, so if the price difference isn't much of an issue, get the MIA instrument, most people never regret spending the extra dough. The MIA bodies have better cuts of wood (usually fewer pieces, less glue, often lighter), the hardware is better quality and in the electronics are usually (though not always) a step up from the MIM instruments.
That said, what level of guitar are you satisfied with? I'd been pretty gung-ho about my Custom Shop '60 Strat reissue, had convinced myself that anything less would be cheesy compared to a classic pre-CBS Fender. But in the last year, I've bought some MIM Strats and am very impressed. The tuners are of lesser quality and the tremolo block is of cheaper material and it's smaller, too. But dang, overall the experience of playing it is very satisfying. I even prefer the pickups on the MIM Jimmy Vaughn Strat to some boutique brands, I think they strike a good blend between fatness and top-end chime.
Ed Freidland has a video on youtube where he plays a number of Squier basses back to back with MIJ and CS Fender counterparts; he gets a killer groove going on all of them, the instruments don't seem to be holding back his playing.
)) while some are trash((though salvageable via set-up and upgrades)) . You can purchase an MIA without playing one in a store and be pretty sure that it will be a quality instrument.
