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Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 9:41 am
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Maruuk wrote:
TKP: I'd guess Greg has tried the admittedly rock-bottom Squire Affinity series from China like the '51 Tele which sounds great, looks great, but has this unplayable skinny neck and the worst, sloppiest fret work in the history of the company. I literally cut my finger on a razor-sharp fret edge. Those things are dangerous.

But if you're going to be a player in the guitar game, you pretty much have to have a crude and ultra-cheap starter line, which feeds upwards into better stuff inside your brand. Margins in musical instruments are brutal, and if you don't strategize across the whole spectrum of prices, you'll be out of biz. They just need to include a box of Band-Aids with each axe.


More or less, yes. I'm not saying Fender should close it's plants in Mexico, China, Vietnam (or where ever they may be) I'm just saying that if it says "Fender" on the headstock, or on the front of the grillcloth (as in the case with their amplifiers) it should also say Made in the USA next to it. It will bring back alot of the quality that outsourcing has cost and will only strengthen the local economy. Think quality instead of quantity. Still build the Squier series in Mexico, or Korea. Build some of the other names overseas or license out to Samick to build some of them. Thats fine.
I remember the Fender Bassman amps from about 5 or 6 years ago with the spaghetti logo being waaay underpowered. They were built in Mexico. Fender could open up an amp factory in....lets say....the St Louis Missouri area. There's one empty there...they used to build Ampeg amps...than they began building them in Vietnam a year or so back and closed that factory down. Quite a few skilled workers were put out of out of their jobs.

As far as 'thinking globally, and not locally', I am. You can sell crap built in foreign factories where the tuners pop off when you try to bring the strings up to tune (seen it happen), or a neck that is so warped out of the box that it'd be impossible to ever get a decent set up on it (seen it), or the truss rods installed incorrectly or backwards (heard about it..didn't personally see the backwards t.r.) or incorrectly installed frets (see above)...just don't put the Fender name ....which should stand for top quality .... on something like that.

Now thats my real 2 cents worth.

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Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 2:11 pm
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how much joy thier products have brought to my life


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Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:12 am
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I found out about the new Vibro-Champ XD from the websites of the big online retailers like MF and ZZ. How come we don't find out about upcoming products from the Fender site . . . or did I just miss it?


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Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 3:13 pm
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How about letting poeple who buy your guitars know about the forumns.
I found out buy accident,the music store I go to didn't even know.Maybe write it on the tag or something similer. :D


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Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2007 10:35 am
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Please Please Please make the Straosonic in a 25 1/2" scale!!! I love the guitar, I just can't play it! I can only image that a 24 3/4" scale length had more of a Gibson P90 vibe to it, but it's just so wrong on a Fender!


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Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 1:31 pm
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I'd really like to see both Fender and Gibson take and occassional flyer on styling changes. I'm getting a little tired of the "vintage recreation" thing. Does every new model have to bring us back to 50's, 60's, and 70's. Can Fender launch a modern strat or tele with some fresh styling and colors. Try making a model that could define this generation. I love the classic fender style and I love my Fender American Strat. Don't misunderstand my affection for Fender, but I would like to see something different from time to time.


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Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 1:44 pm
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OK, I have a request....

Id like to see more neck options on the instruments w/o having to go to an aftermarket company. Offer up the 21 fret block inlay necks on jazz basses (p too) other than custom shop basses and w/o having to go through the entire custom shop process.
And I agree with the earlier post that it'd be nice to have something for this generation.


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Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 3:29 pm
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Here's three I came up with:

1. Send Warren Buffett a letter and suggest his company Berkshire Hathaway buy Fender from the folks who bought it out in the 1980s. Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company with tremendous financial strength. Unlike CBS in the 1970s, Berkshire Hathaway never interferes with subsidiaries or causes them to lag in quality. Berkshire Hathaway's financial stability would give Fender the ability to do anything under the sun. Berkshire Hathaway responds to letters suggesting a purchase, but doesn't go around bidding. So, Fender would need to initiate it.

2. Educate the public about how to set up a Fender guitar and how everyone should plan to be able to do it themselves. Explain clearly on the Web and anywhere else possible that if a string is rattling on a fret, it's a question of the truss rod being set a little too low, and explain how to do it and how it's not too hard to do. This can counteract the music store luthiers who want to say to Fender customers, "Oh, that's sloppy fret work at Fender but I can fix it for $100."

3. Set up every guitar carefully at the factory, and get the frets to very tight tolerances to support low action. Fender can't take too much of the bad-mouthing by music store luthiers without getting a reputation for poor set-ups and bad fretwork, and that will hurt. Fender is a leading brand in music instruments and amps, and everything that says Fender, from top to bottom of the range, should be flawless quality. As a manufacturer, you've got to beat the Japanese and the rest of the world, not just in the Cusom Shop but all the way down the line. From what I've seen, Fender's quality is good, and constant improvement will keep Fender ahead.


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Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2007 3:34 pm
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I'm curious about the previous two posts. When you say you'd like to see something for this generation, does that mean an entirely new guitar line? A changed version of the strat and tele? The Highway series is fairly new, does that count or is that just another strat?

Please elaborate, this could be interesting.

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Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:34 am
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cryingstrat wrote:
I'm curious about the previous two posts. When you say you'd like to see something for this generation, does that mean an entirely new guitar line? A changed version of the strat and tele? The Highway series is fairly new, does that count or is that just another strat?

Please elaborate, this could be interesting.


Yes, more or less. Fender doesn't have to stop producing the classic Fender lines. Devote one guitar to something new. As much as I love Fender, I'm really enjoying the looks of several other brands that have more asthetic appeal. If you put Fender sound in a contemporary look I think you have something. PRS, Parker, Ernie Ball, all rode the coattails of the Fender / Gibson designs and made and sold a boatload of guitars.


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Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:45 am
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bring out a new, good american iron Maiden signature Strat, but in a wide color variety (black, cola candy, white, blue and so on)


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Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 4:26 pm
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I've thought about this from time to time. It seems everytime Fender came out with something new, it didn't catch on for very long -- the Coronados were very different from anything Fender did before. I liked the Lead series, especially the Lead III with the extra switches for the humbuckers. Recently, there was the Cyclone that had the bridge humbucker that is so popular today. And my favorite, the Esprit -- chambered body, set neck and humbuckers -- I don't believe Fender ever gave either version of the Esprit a real chance to take off.

What are you looking for?


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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:20 am
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noley wrote:
Upgrade options! Stuff like being able to mix and match already available parts. Being able to select the paint, the pickguard, and the hardware
(chrome, black or gold ) so you don't have to track it all down as aftermarket and incur extra expense beyond the cost of the standard, catalog guitar. Any of these changes, as I have been told, will turn the order into a Custom Shop project.

(And for this great suggestion, please send me a Surf Green '57 with gold hardware.):lol:

n.


It would be considered a Custom Shop order because that is exactly what it is, not that there is anything wrong with that.


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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 10:29 am
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Bigbass26 wrote:
noley wrote:
Upgrade options! Stuff like being able to mix and match already available parts. Being able to select the paint, the pickguard, and the hardware
(chrome, black or gold ) so you don't have to track it all down as aftermarket and incur extra expense beyond the cost of the standard, catalog guitar. Any of these changes, as I have been told, will turn the order into a Custom Shop project.

(And for this great suggestion, please send me a Surf Green '57 with gold hardware.):lol:

n.


It would be considered a Custom Shop order because that is exactly what it is, not that there is anything wrong with that.


I see where Noley is going with this idea. One of the best features of Fenders is the interchangability of parts, so why not use that advantage? You don't really need the Custom Shop just to build a guitar with a different pickguard or neck, do you?
Computer makers like Dell and Apple do this sort of thing right now. You can request different hard drives, video cards, RAM - anything that's interchangable - and they build it that way for you on the assembly line. No custom fabrication required.


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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:03 pm
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J.Paul wrote:
Bigbass26 wrote:
noley wrote:
Upgrade options! Stuff like being able to mix and match already available parts. Being able to select the paint, the pickguard, and the hardware
(chrome, black or gold ) so you don't have to track it all down as aftermarket and incur extra expense beyond the cost of the standard, catalog guitar. Any of these changes, as I have been told, will turn the order into a Custom Shop project.

(And for this great suggestion, please send me a Surf Green '57 with gold hardware.):lol:

n.


It would be considered a Custom Shop order because that is exactly what it is, not that there is anything wrong with that.


I see where Noley is going with this idea. One of the best features of Fenders is the interchangability of parts, so why not use that advantage? You don't really need the Custom Shop just to build a guitar with a different pickguard or neck, do you?
Computer makers like Dell and Apple do this sort of thing right now. You can request different hard drives, video cards, RAM - anything that's interchangable - and they build it that way for you on the assembly line. No custom fabrication required.


Right...but then they'd lose out on all those big Custom Shop dollars wouldn't they?As long as people are willing to pay Custom Shop prices, there's no incentive for them to make those choices available to everyone on the cheap. Prestige sells.

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Is that a mexican poncho
Or is that a sears poncho?
Hmmm...no foolin ...." FZ


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