This may sound ironic, but i have a beef with fender...

harrisonmerwin

Hey all,

most of you know my fascination with fender, stratocasters in particular, and my new love for the hot rod series amps. But i was just on thier website and i was thinking... In the last 10 years, fender has been very non-inovative, heres why:

- It seems in the last ten years, there hasn't been alot of change in the lineup, other than MASS producing and promotion of Squier Intstruments, and hand made re-issue tweed amps running above $3000, which are nearly impossibel to get your hands on. Also, it seems liek in the past 5 years, fender has only had specialty guitars such as 50th Tele, 50th Strat, 60th Aniversary...Hopefully next year will be just a regular production guitar year so i can possibly walk into a store, and find an American deluxe without gold hardware or a diamond in it.

- Second, re-issues. Fender has been re-issuing ALOT. I'm fine with the amps, but it seems like every year from 1970 back has a reissue (exaggeration) but it's not to far from the truth. Sometiems i will see the guitar i want in colour, and neck, go up and look at the price tag, and see a jacked price for a re-issue...cmon guys, you cant do better than that. It just seems like they are just cycling through what they allready know. The only "real" new improvement is the S-1 switching (which i adore) but i expected a little more out of them. With decreasing american made product, and more re-issues and "shotty" specialties being made in mexico, i really don't know where this exquisit company is gonna end up at the end of the decade.

I geuss for me i'll have to dig around, maybe find some good deals, but i just dont know what else is gonna happen to the greta line of fender. Does anyone else have any commercial comments about Fender Company

Harrison

surferdude

Guitar companies have it tough. They use 3rd party electronics and how much can you do with fancy paint jobs. And except for dedicated guitarists no one cares what their electronics are. I have a few nice guitars and I have no idea what pick ups they have or even tuners. I bought them because of how they sounded. I think to the average guitarist it is too much work figuring out what electronics are going to give you what sound when it's so easy to just take another guitar off the shelf, plug it in and give it a go.
I think you see the big names working to protect their brand and doing any innovative work under different brand names. One of Fender's selling pointis yuo know what it's gonna sound like when you pick it up. I'm not sure they want to change that.

samquigley

As opposed to all the new things Gibson are doing? Or Rickenbacker? Fender often launch variations on their models but they never last long because it's already been done by Schecter or Charvel or Jackson or whoever and that's not what people want from Fender. They want what their heroes play. And why do their heroes play them? Because their heroes played them. Otherwise, we'd all be playing an Ibanez. That Cyber-Twin amp they launched a few years back was one of the most impressive things I've ever seen, but would I choose it over a '65 Twin reissue? Not a chance, because with all of its presets, none of them sound as good as the amps they're based on and I'd rather have one good sound than a thousand average ones. If it ain't broke, reissue it.

Pacomc79

Fender stopped being truely innovative and amazing when it's namesake was forced to sell due to health problems in 1967 to CBS.

What they are doing lately, and I applaud it is stepping up thier quality. They don't need to be extremely innovative, as the original designs are so amazing. The things they are doing are small but effective, a tone pot change here, tuning changes there, a new bridge, adding mass to the tremolo bar, thinning nitro finishes to aid resonance.....

They also have stepped up quality in many of thier amps. The new groove tubes are very good tubes indeed, and they are using Ted Weber and others speakers to name a few inseveral of the expensive amps, but trust me that kind of thing trickles down. The first example is the brilliant (but not quite as good as boutique) new Bassman LTD. The pine cab is tremendous and resonant and the tones that come out of it are as they should be.

The Lurker

their new amps-- NOT the cyber ones-- are pretty good, though IMO bloody overpriced.

I have a similar gripe-- heaps of special models-- but I think it's as much the case of stores trying to stock things that will sell for more money. Some of it gets a bit ridiculous with the artist sig models and so on-- the Pino Palladino one is basically a $3,000 P-bass modelled on a pre-CBS Pbass. For that, why shouldn't I just.... BUY... a pre-cbs Pbass?

On the other hand, you can walk into pretty much any music store in New England and find a P-bass or a strat....

Pearl Jam and toast

They reissued the Fender Blender, that was a great move.

Exactly the same except they gave it DC power and true bypass.

I'd never have been able to get one of the originals.. if i found one it would go for over 350 dollars easy..

the reissue is 150.

awesome.

moster78

The Lurker wrote:

the Pino Palladino one is basically a $3,000 P-bass modelled on a pre-CBS Pbass. For that, why shouldn't I just.... BUY... a pre-cbs Pbass?

Yeah, thats a little crazy. Plus you're paying for the aging on the thing.

vampwizzard

I went to a store down in bristol tennessee, and all they had were the roland ready mex strats and the mexican deluxes. Its really starting to get to me how crappy they are getting as well.

Ive been thinking of just buying a body on warmoth and an older american neck, then completing the rest of the guitar.

The thing is that guitar companies are getting hit hard by are these mid price consumers. The problem is that nearly 3/4 of the guitarists out in the nation are either beginners or experiened enough to know they want a really freakin good guitar. The midline takes a hit at that. I mean, why would someone buy a buddy guy body for about 50 bucks more on ebay than a mexican body? They are both made in the same plant!

In my opinion, these companies need to either up the quality of materials in foreign plants or bring the work back home.

harrisonmerwin

yeah what chokes me is say the ' 57 twin reverb issue. it is over 3 grand, im sure i could find a twin reverb out there for maybe a little more...and its allready got the classic sound, same with the guitars and what not. Teh players played regular guitars in there neck and colour choice, yet fender makes sig series at a higher cost, even though 90% of the artists just have regular fenders. Like the eric clapton stuff, when they started releases his series over 10 years ago, i garuntee he was playing a self-modified american done up by his own tech's. blackof course...yet they release american clapton series, black, and jack the price...i just dont get these guys....i dont mind the 57 reissue, but thats about it, i cant wait for 10 years when the "1983 re-issue, platinum series" comes out

Harrison

Pearl Jam and toast

my granddad gave me a mexican strat for my birthday and it sounds pretty damn good...

it's older though.. he got it from a yardsale too so god knows how old.. it's in good condition though.

hard to tell,.. but it does sound good.

the frets have some age on them... maybe 5 years old at least.. i'm no expert..

Pacomc79

harrisonmerwin wrote:

yeah what chokes me is say the ' 57 twin reverb issue. it is over 3 grand, im sure i could find a twin reverb out there for maybe a little more...and its allready got the classic sound, same with the guitars and what not. Teh players played regular guitars in there neck and colour choice, yet fender makes sig series at a higher cost, even though 90% of the artists just have regular fenders. Like the eric clapton stuff, when they started releases his series over 10 years ago, i garuntee he was playing a self-modified american done up by his own tech's. blackof course...yet they release american clapton series, black, and jack the price...i just dont get these guys....i dont mind the 57 reissue, but thats about it, i cant wait for 10 years when the "1983 re-issue, platinum series" comes out

Harrison

yuck "bowling ball" strats and antigua finish. gross.

You can get a 57 Twin for about 2200-2400 but for the price perhaps even cheaper Victoria and Clark can build you one that's as good or better.
It's a great amp, but yeah it ain't that great. Then again, I somewhat kick myself for not investing in an original 1965 fender strat for 5K when I had the chance thinking it was insane. now they are between 10 and 20K. at the time the original 54 they had on the wall (and it was absolute crap as a player) $17,500. No thanks.

I ended up spending about a grand on a 1962 RI, but it's still going to get pickups and tuners and electronics changed.

Next time I might just get a warmoth or USACG body a 10" radius neck with a nice rosewood slab, and then do everything else like I like it.

I guess fenders for the most part are like hot rods. Everyone likes different stuff. Because they are part guitars everyone changes the parts.

The Lurker

actually, interesting bit of history. The strat Clapton used back in the 70s and so on till 1985-- 'Blackie'-- was a hybrid. He bought a store's (Sho-Bud, in Nashville) entire stock of Strats for $100 each, and mixed and matched the parts from three guitars until he got something he liked. This was during the time when Fender's quality control was, shall we say, widely variable.

moster78

The Lurker wrote:

actually, interesting bit of history. The strat Clapton used back in the 70s and so on till 1985-- 'Blackie'-- was a hybrid. He bought a store's (Sho-Bud, in Nashville) entire stock of Strats for $100 each, and mixed and matched the parts from three guitars until he got something he liked. This was during the time when Fender's quality control was, shall we say, widely variable.

I heard that story too. He bought six of them, for a hundred each, took three and assembled "Blackie" and gave the other ones to Pete Townshend, Steve Winwood and George Harrison. And they were Strats from the late 50's, like 56 or 57 from what I read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackie