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Post subject: Farewell my friends
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 11:18 am
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The departure of my friend Mike, was a shock, although predictable after 18 years at the Head of the FCS.

Well, looking forward to more changes in FMIC seems not optimistic for me, my faith in that Company being drastically fading.
Really.
I'm 68 so I have followed all the way the history of this Company.
I had my first Strat® in 1962...
I don't recognize Fender now.
I, with friends, are buildind the largest ever site of famous guitars, now with already more than four hundreds, among them more than one hundred exclusive Fender Custom Shop guitars, most of them you will never see anywhere else, all of them in our own homes, but, alas, the source from the FCS is now being drying more or less as relic guitars for Wildwood or Dave have no interest for us.
It's a pity that only a few Europeans are saving those exquisite and exclusive guitars which are a benchmark of the American Heritage.
New site will be fully operational end of May
Looking forward to see and talk to you there.
Your Friend
Alain

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Last edited by alainlafrance on Tue Mar 04, 2014 2:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: Farewell my friends
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 11:41 am
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I am even older than you, Alain, but only just!
I fully understand your feelings!


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Post subject: Re: Farewell my friends
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 3:59 pm
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alainlafrance wrote:
I, with friends, are buildind the largest ever site of notorious guitars


I think the word you're looking for is "famous" (célèbre), not "notorious" (mal famé).
Although a collection of notorious guitars would be fun too, I don't think it's something you're the right person to do - you do exquisite guitars much better!

alainlafrance wrote:
New site will be fully operational end of May
Looking forward to see and talk to you there.


I will definitely visit, mon ami. But please come here too, and let us know when you have noteworthy additions!

I'm also a bit disheartened that all Fender Custom Shop seems to care about lately is relicing. Although some master builders like Yuriiy Shishkov seem to still make artful guitars that I'd be proud to own and play.

Au revoir!


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Post subject: Re: Farewell my friends
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 8:42 pm
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Alea iacta est :!: :?

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Post subject: Re: Farewell my friends
Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2014 11:14 pm
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Au revoir cher ami, tu nous manqueras beaucoup. :(

Surtout ne nous laisse pas sans nouvelles.


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Post subject: Re: Farewell my friends
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 2:53 am
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"I think the word you're looking for is "famous" (célèbre), not "notorious" (mal famé).
Although a collection of notorious guitars would be fun too, I don't think it's something you're the right person to do - you do exquisite guitars much better!"

corrected
Thanks

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Post subject: Re: Farewell my friends
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 6:58 am
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arth1 wrote:
I will definitely visit, mon ami. But please come here too, and let us know when you have noteworthy additions!
I'm also a bit disheartened that all Fender Custom Shop seems to care about lately is relicing. Although some master builders like Yuriiy Shishkov seem to still make artful guitars that I'd be proud to own and play. Au revoir!

I'll restate, for the purposes of this thread, an opinion I expressed elsewhere. Apart from the fact that FMIC likely has its own archives, it's taken a group of foreign collectors to assemble and preserve, for art's sake, that which was derived from the vision of a seminal US creator and industrialist and his early colleagues. The Guitar Motel was a beginning, well known to these Forums and yet, we haven't seen any acknowledgement from the company that they have done so. Why am I not surprised. I'm reminded of the fact that it was the British invasion which widened and disseminated general American interest in its own blues roots. Alain knows how to reach many of us, and I look forward to what he and his group have assembled.

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Post subject: Re: Farewell my friends
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 7:37 am
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Stay well, Alain!

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Post subject: Re: Farewell my friends
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 8:56 am
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While I do understand the sentiment Alain, I do not see why you should leave the forums, since we all enjoy each others company here.

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Post subject: Re: Farewell my friends
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 9:15 am
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I think it is a shame how fender has driven their go to market strategy over the last few years, really churning out far too many different models far to quickly year to year, and over producing a glut of custom shop guitars, they shame of it all is that they are all excellent instruments, but there is now such a vast quantity of inventory both new and second hand online that really the trend upwards is for consumers to collect vast quantities of instruments for bragging rights on the internet, cause there is so much good stuff available now in vast quantities, something like 30,000 results for fender on ebay alone with only about 5% being sold at any given time. there is just no way that fender can grow year on year with that kind of product already out in the channel.

it kind of clicked for me a few years ago, I remember there was a custom shop limited '67 strat that came out, it felt like it was announced, by the time I had enough money saved up to get one, they were gone and the next years model was already out, so I ended up getting a second hand one the following year for a lot less, but the flip slide is I think there is a video somewhere with the guy from wildwood and mike and there is a quote something like, hey you want a Clapton strat, we got like 30 of them or something just in our showroom, that's not a custom shop its just a premium priced production guitar.

alain has a cool collection of custom shop stuff. I hope we can see a couple of playboy strats in a single picture.


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Post subject: Re: Farewell my friends
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 12:15 pm
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KPI wrote:
I think it is a shame how fender has driven their go to market strategy over the last few years, really churning out far too many different models far to quickly year to year, and over producing a glut of custom shop guitars......

It's an interesting observation you make. Essentially...the company is in competition with itself. I willingly paid $1850 for an '89 Clapton 6 years ago which was in pristine condition. Not a fleck of rust on the hardware and plastic covering still on the trem cavity cover. I recently purchased one of the company's Clapton prototypes, built in '86 for the '87 NAMM that still has the original specs prior to the final changes. Also in pristine condition. I paid a Custom Shop price for that rare early Custom Shop guitar. The original logo is on the neck. If you shop carefully, you can find similar quality instruments on the used market for far less than the current price increase guitars. What you lack is warranty rights and the Custom Care program. For some, saving $2000 or more is worth that sacrifice.

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Post subject: Re: Farewell my friends
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 3:39 pm
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KPI wrote:
I think it is a shame how fender has driven their go to market strategy over the last few years, really churning out far too many different models far to quickly year to year, and over producing a glut of custom shop guitars,


Hundreds of models, but really only a handful that's different enough to say so. Most of them are just minor variations on a theme that really should be a-la-carte choices or sold as upgrades.

Even my car manufacturer doesn't sell the car as a different model whether I order heated seats, leather interior or sunroof. By Fender standards, that would be eight different varieties, thus eight different models. Make that thirty-two, because you got to have one model with dings and scratches and one that fought a belt sander, and for two different model years.
Then slap arbitrary and totally unrealistic MSRPs on each model - they're all going to be sold for 2/3 of MSRP or less anyhow.
They're certainly not collectible.

The only collectible fender models right now, as I see it, are those that are a bit different. Masterbuilts. Selects. A couple of artist series that are different enough to matter. The minimalist Jim Root Jazzmaster is different enough. But most of artist/signature models too are just variations of a base model, and the only real difference is a fake signature. Regular CS? No, not a single collectible model, in my opinion.


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Post subject: Re: Farewell my friends
Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:52 pm
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One of the best threads in years here.

I fully agree with the previous contri.


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Post subject: Re: Farewell my friends
Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 1:58 am
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I remember the same worries when Page left, "the CS will never be the same....etc"
Now Eldred left, he did some great stuff while running the CS. But why would the quality suffer? The CS still has the same Masterbuilders, Cruz, Fessler......

I also wonder who is buying these guitars at Wildwood, but different folks different strokes.
About these weird Relics, Mike always defended them, because people wanted them. Fender is existing to make money and feeding families. They will build whatever people want, within boundaries.
These highly customized guitars Alain is taking about are very expensive and very little interest to the majority of guitar players. Otherwise Fender would make more of them. Guitar players are very conservative, therefore it's hard for any company like Gibson, Fender, Martin etc to make radical changes to their historical instruments. I am sure the majority of Fender's business is not the high end stuff, the make most of the profit from the regular production products.

I don't give up on Fender, yet..! Let's first see what will come in the future.


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Post subject: Re: Farewell my friends
Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 2:40 am
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Hi,

As I wrote in an other topic already, we should not forget what happened already once in Fenders history when "Investors" ran the company. People with conviction, love and passion for the brand had to save it. People come and leave a company that is normal.

Nevertheless, in business, people leaving a company in good or bad terms are at least always thanked with an announcement. I haven't seen one which at least says thank you for all the hard work.

Why am I scared? I'll make it short..

Fender prepared itself for an IPO, then stopped the IPO process.
Debt for Hundreds of millions of dollars are due this year.
Instead of public investors, the company was invaded by private investors
These are measures called "restructuration ".. I call it cost cutting
All this this .. with a CEO which, and this is my humble opinion.. loves the dollars and not the brand..

Well.. I hope I am wrong.


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