Hi, I recently was told that Fender is now making all American guitars "to order" which includes the 52 tele Hotrod I ordered. Does anyone have any experience with this or just know how long it can take to get the guitar? #tappingfootwaiting

thanks,

Welcome.

The drift I've been catching of late is close to a year, regardless of what the dealer (even in good faith) tells you.

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If Fender is onley makeing American Guitars to order, Are they getting out of the manufacturing end of the Bs.? Maby all they want is the Mgt. end, and let MEX/JP/? build them all. Lots of Good Co.'s are doing just that.

It's not a "made to order" thing. Rather, US Fender briefly had a slow patch not too long ago where the suits panicked and laid off a sizable chunk of their production staff. Now although this slow patch quickly came and went, many of those laid off (which included skilled and experienced workers) didn't return when Fender commenced rehiring. The official yet unsubstantiated story for their backlog was/is trouble with their paint.

Reinforcing your point though, the profit margin would be astronomically bigger if all the MIA stuff was secretly made in Mexico and assembled here so that they can continue to claim, "MIA". Then again, there are virtually no 100% American production guitars any more any way when you consider the origins of much of their hardware.

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well with the time of 1 year for an answer, I admit, I freaked out a bit and called Fender and they told me 3 months plus and they wouldn't expect a guitar that is in production and already ordered to take a year. The guy also confirmed that some 52 tele HotRods were in production. So I may be taking the optimistic road but I am counting down the 3 months lol.

thanks

You're welcome and I truly hope you're correct.

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