Civility and manners....

Last night I took my wife out to dinner at one of our favorite joints. Nice old place overlooking the Rogue River. Owned and operated by a wonderful couple in their late 50's who "get it". Service is on a par with excellent food. This particular restaurant is usually the haunt of 40ish and up folks, mostly becaus eit is not trendy.
Last night was a special buffet.. not what you are used to, this is top drawer. Choice of buffet or off the excellent menu.

In comes a couple in their early 20's. One guy with pants hanging below his crotch replete with hoodie. Thug swagger. The other guy is tatooed top to bottom and the requisite ball cap cocked off to the side. He did not take off his ballcap.
They were accompanied by 2 nice looking young ladies. The thugs sat down and left the ladies to take care of themselves.

The thugs then ordered beers before the ladies were seated. The ladies ordered drinks.
The thugs decided to do the buffet, the ladies ordered off the menu. The thugs then got up and went throught the buffet, twice ,while the ladies waited for their dinners. When the ladies were served the thugs went outside and smoked. Then came back and loaded up with dessert while the ladies were still eating their entrees. After dessert the thugs went back out side leaving the ladies done and sitting waiting.
They came back in , ordred beers and sat for quite a long time, inordinately long while the ladies sat. Thug 1 then takes and makes phone calls. Thug 2 starts texting.
The bill comes... who pays ???? any question about this. While 2 of the party are digging for money, two leave never to come back. The other two seemed to me..used abused and ignored.

Must be me.

Back to the subject at hand... now what was that ? : )

I had an interesting conversation today with a friend who has been a Fender player/collector for 40 years. Impressive collection, impressive player. He,like I, will rarely go into the local GC. We have other shops we frequent because of the quality of the staff and the inventory. One of these stores is 2 1/2 hrs away another 5 hrs one way.

We both like Teles and Strats and appreciate the instruments and the company history,we both like old but prefer to play new/new used machinery because of the higher degree of dependibility.

Brief recent GC story...

At the local GC I have purchased 4 new and 5 used guitars as well as Levy straps, books,
strings etc.... I usually go in looking for quality rosewood boarded Teles and Strats..
I never take anything off the wall, I always ask a staff member to do it for me.
I saw a mahogany bodied Strat that looked great. I asked the Dept manager to take it off the wall so I could see it, play it. He said" Why? You're not going to buy it."
This was 2 weeks ago. He knows me.. I bought stuff from him. He knows I have the wherewithall to buy what I want. He knows I am specific about what I want and don't waste anyone's time. My response" You're right " "I don't want it" I turned and walked off. With an obvioius annoyance, he then turned to one of the toungue studded groupies and engaged in a non business non instrument related conversation.

It must be me.

I admit my bias. But I don't see a single mature person working at this GC. That includes the new and 15th manager since I have been going there.

Why do I bother?? I wonder.

This is an authorized Fender dealer. The dealer in fact represents the manufacturer. I would not want that kind of representation. That little scene may have cost Fender a sale; and future sales. It certainly makes me question my motivation in going into that GC, any GC.

Basics.. make a good product. Price it fairly. Respect your customer.

BTW I have a standing request at this particular GC to call me anytime a rosewood boarded Tele or Strat comes in. I have never, in 11 years, gotten a call.
I have a standing request to call me anytime a pro quality Gretsch comes in ,I have never gotten a call.
I have accidentally gone in and found both.. actually bought a Gretsch Pearl Jet there last year...in spite of no call.

It must be me.

My go to guitar shop does call me... I have purchased 4 guitars from them in the past year. Now, when I need strings or accessories etc,, I go there, not GC.

The reason they have "standard" models is to make it easy to get that all-around solid guitar. Anyone unsure of what to get should be steered towards a standard (either MIM or USA based on their pocket book and/or expectation of the guitar). Those that have specialty needs/wants can go digging for a specialty model. It is simple ast that.

_________________
Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

Non certain that a wide nut offered on many models, and a wide bridge offered on many models, can't be offered in the same model. It is an historically correct combination.
Not a specialty... really quite basic.

The Am Std has a wide nut and narrow bridge string spacing with a new age flat plate unit and three mounting holes..... nothing standard about that...
if there is a a standard it's 1 5/8ths nut and vintage wide spaced bridge.

On the subject of GC, I've seen the best and worst. There are a couple of sales people who I've made friends with despite the fact I never buy anything, and I always ask for them. But there was this one guy in his late 40's/early 50's (who has no excuse to be immature) and he was a jerk to me. I wanted to play an Eric Johnson Strat and he was giving me full fledged "kid" treatment. I most likely wouldn't buy it, was a raw beginner with rich parents who spoiled me, or would damage it. So it's a mixed bag. I'd rather support smaller stores, but GC has it's place too. No where else consistently stocks as many guitars as they do, and sometimes there's one which you just have to try first.

_________________
Website: http://www.rebeccalaird.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebeccalairdmusic
Twitter: https://twitter.com/beckslaird
Instagram: http://instagram.com/beckslaird

I'm pretty sure there's no danger of Jimmie Ray Vaughan ( ) or Jeff Beck taking the replacement necks, putting them on cheap knockoff bodies and selling them as the real thing. I don't think they need the extra cash, and Fender knows that. Whereas with the general public, you run a huge risk of that happening. And for the record, since I work at a Fender Warranty center we have actually ordered replacement necks for guitars under warranty. We destroy or ship the old neck to Fender (this hasn't happened for a while so I can't remember which we ended up doing, but the neck was ruined as it was) and Fender shipped the owner a replacement neck with the same serial number. That way, there isn't an extra neck floating around.

And when you have your name on a guitar built to your specs by Fender, like Eric Johnston or Mike Knopfler ( ), I don't see how it's unfair that you could have a replacement for your guitar and other people can't. Other people don't have their own signature model guitar. There's some clout that goes with that, it's understandable. They're professionals. It's like complaining that the NASCAR driver gets free tires from company sponsoring him and you don't.

_________________
Website: http://www.rebeccalaird.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebeccalairdmusic
Twitter: https://twitter.com/beckslaird
Instagram: http://instagram.com/beckslaird

in the 60's fender used to let the customers order different neck nut widths to match the players hand requirements as well.they were pretty responsive to good players needs and took them very seriously.

SOLID!

"Take tone into your own hands". Build Your Own Clone.
"Innovate, don't emulate" Fender Musical Instrument Corporation.

Yes, but now they are a major corporation... this just WOULD NOT work. If you want a guitar made exactly how you like it, go custom shop or smaller company. Simple as that. But a major company doing so for EVRERY guitar? That's just unreasonable.

_________________
Favorite bands:

Melvins
The Jesus Lizard
Cows
Big Business
R***man
Minutemen
Flight
Minor Threat
Big Black
Shellac
Karp
Scratch Acid
Wipers
Pixies

Well you're getting lots of response here and in the Stratocaster section where you asked the question on whether you should refret or replace the neck on an AS Strat.
I'll ask you here again....who made your decisions in the past on when to replace those 5 or 6 necks on your guitars....when you seem to not be able to figure it out now.
That doesn't make sense to me...an experienced player with many years of gigging and roadies carrying your gear around,such as yourself shouldn't have to ask advice from people on an internet forum.

ya got a good point here rebel.

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

see here?......do your roadies replace the necks on your guitars when you are touring?
...or do you have a special guitar tech?
Do they tell you when the neck needs replacing or refretting?...or did you decide to come to the Fender forum to get information that your roadies or techs couldn't give you?

I'll never buy an off-the-rack guitar again.

Nor will I ever give another farthing to a big-box "guitar circus".

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

to Rebelsoul,I like to get advice from people from all different job positions within the music business that's how I prefer to learn new things. I am open minded I do not get offended when people especially customers make requests or suggestions to the betterment of my business/Product or how I can help serve them better in the product I sold them for in exchange for the hard earned money they shelled out to me in in faith of my product.regarding neck replacements many different people have made calls for me in the past as well as myself making replacement,Re-Fret or Fret Dressing issues.I came to the forum to learn from other fellow Fender guitar players and Technicians and get new ideas on how to better do things as well as make suggestions to better improve the instruments and bring them back into the golden age of how the things were built by Leo Fender in the first place.hope that answers all the questions you have posed to me. thank you

you do realize that when they were hand built they were hit and miss right? as in, one could be the best guitar on the planet and the next one to come out of the factory could be a total dog. It was far from a golden age IMO. Fender is fine where it is. I prefer more choices (which means less customizing to do to get it how i want) over a few very expensive guitars that I would need to modify to high hell to get them "right"

_________________
Favorite bands:

Melvins
The Jesus Lizard
Cows
Big Business
R***man
Minutemen
Flight
Minor Threat
Big Black
Shellac
Karp
Scratch Acid
Wipers
Pixies