I'm on the fence about the PM issue, to be honest. I do see it contributing to folks' ability to get to truly know each other and develop true real-world friendships (much as personalized avatars would as well) -- on the other hand, it does also tend to encourage catty gossip and offline flame wars and whatnot. I've seen it go both ways on other forums that I've participated in.

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Director at Fender. Guitarist & guitar collector. All views/opinions expressed here are my own and not Fender’s.

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Can I offer a suggestion then?

I have thought about this for a while- how about conducting a market research survey and getting some feedback from us regarding what products or combinations seem to be in demand? Not that I'm moaning- but it seems that products sometimes get very mixed reactions from us when launched. Has fender done this?

The company I work for do this all the time. before we go to launch with a product, we ask the punters what they want, what they dont want and also what they expect from us. You might be surprised by the response and could help with launching succsesful products to market

Instead of withdrawing products, perhaps they just needed to be made better? for example- Am. Deluxe FMT HSS. Putting a pickguard on may indeed breathe life back into that guitar to get sales moving again. for me, it was a case of "One of these things just doesnt belong..." A high-end strat with no pickguard was just strange and immediately it would be either you liked it, or you hated it.

Or- "Do you prefer Noiseless pickups, CS Fat 50's or CS Texas Specials in an American Deluxe?"
This made me wonder why CS pickups have been offered on mim guitars yet not Am Deluxe models.. N3 pickups could serve the MIM Deluxe line better IMO.

A very good suggestion

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Absolutely and let's be honest, one of the primary advantages of a forum like this for ourselves is that it lets us gather together fine folks like yourself who are both knowledgeable about and enthused about the products we make.

Even in the absence of formal surveys such as what you're suggesting (which I absolutely would like to start doing) I can tell you that I already personally derive tremendous value here. As an example, our recently-deployed Blacktop™ series coverage had a minor specs error when it was first launched and it was pointed out by someone here and fixed immediately!

_________________
Director at Fender. Guitarist & guitar collector. All views/opinions expressed here are my own and not Fender’s.

Follow me on Instagram:
@brad_on_guitar

And on Facebook:
facebook.com/bradonguitar

Well Brad I think I speak for most of us here on this.

The chance to be market research specimens for Fender would be a great.



You can sign me up for Fender E'questionaires anytime.

I get em from all sorts of other nonsense. It would make a nice change to fill one in, on something I care about.

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No no and no

Thank Brad for responding.

Let us set aside the issue of the PM's for now, what is your pinion of FSR page on the Fender site?

I can not see a down side, it would keep it out of the normal pages, easier to edit, remove and change being in it's one page and would let us know that they exist, seeing a picture of a FSR Guitar is the first step in wanting to buy one, right?
Many small "Mom and Pop" stores can't afford to order a FSR unless the know there is a customer that will buy it.

I will give you and example.
The store I bought 2010 FSR Strat from only ordered one pre store, Portland music has 5 stores, so there not a really small operation, but still, they now wish they had ordered more, as they all sold out quickly. (The one I bought was only on the wall for 22 minutes).
The other one sold out in just a few days.

Had there been a site were there customer could see it before it was released it could have got them to order more units, more units sold is a good thing, yes?

I'm just Sayin'......

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Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.

brad

give us a chance on the PMs bro. theres times when folks (like myself) will have a question for a member directly, but dont want the confusion of other feedback. i do see that it can go both ways but its like any thing else ya know. theres always a chance of a back fire no matter what on anything
we do.
give it a second thought and i wont broing up letting us have our own pics for avitars

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."