well i just asked my father his opinion on the matter and he said ("as far as I'm concerned, No fender made after 1965 is a REAL fender" and I am not going to try to convince the old man otherwise

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Hogwash.
This reminds me of that goof some time back who said a Strat wasn't really a Strat unless it was SSS. He argued that his MIM SSS was a real Strat and my AD HSS was not. I call bull. If it says Fender on the headstock then it's a Fender. Some are better than others but that's a different issue.

It can say Cruze on the outside and still be a Chevy. It doesn't have to say Corvette.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Neither Fender or Gibson are made in their original factories. Both have moved. Orville Gibson (who never even saw an electric guitar) and Leo Fender are both long dead. So production isn't being seen over by the main men.

How far do you want to go with this train of thought. It's bloody ridiculous. If you think that American made (or any single nation) means 'the best', you need to get out a bit more.

Who makes better TV's than Sony? Or worse than Hitatchi?
Builds better cars than Rolls? Or worse than Rover?

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No no and no

good point.
but if some Rolls Royce models were built in the Kia plant would you consider that a real Rolls?

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Lancia to both of those.

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Rated "M" for meaty.

""as far as I'm concerned, No fender made after 1965 is a REAL fender" and I am not going to try to convince the old man otherwise"

I can understand that attitude. It hasn't been Leo Fender's company for a long time. A corporation bought it from him, and then another corporation bought it from that corporation.

But given that, any product the corporation puts the Fender logo on is just as much a Fender as any other product they put the Fender logo on. So I voted "false" -- to me it's a Fender if it says Fender on it.

During WWII the Boeing-designed B-17 Flying Fortress was built by several other airplane companies including Douglas, Lockheed, and Vega.

Did that fact make the aircraft any less of a Flying Fortress......?

The Germans didn't seem to think so.



Arjay

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"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

excellent point

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no matter what year I guess if they are all fender parts its a fender, its just assembled in your factory

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It will be a MIM Strat assembled by you. I can disassemble my AD Strat and replace one part with a genuine Fender part and reassemble it and it will still be an AD Strat as long as I used the same part number as was originally used. If I use a different part number then I would consider that to be a modification.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

If you buy a Toyota on this side of the pond there's a good chance that it was made in the U.S. or Canada,the same goes for Volvo and several other makes.The Chev Tracker and GMC Sunrunner were rebadged Suzuki Vitiras yet most people regard them as being true examples of their respective brands.By the same token to think that a Fender made to Fender's exacting specs in an offshore facility isn't a real Fender is ludicrous.

Rhetorical Question: If Fender sourced all its materials including the wood offshore and made the finished product in the U.S. would it still be a Fender dispite having all foreign components?

Fender sources a lot of its materials from outside the U.S. at what point then does it stop being a true Fender?The maple comes from Canada as well I imagine some of the alder,poplar,and ash.The rosewood comes largely from Asia so there you have a considerable content of the guitar foreign sourced.

If Fender can source a fair amount of its materials outside the U.S.,build it in the U.S. and call it Fender then it stands to reason that a Fender made offshore from components sourced in the U.S. can be a Fender too.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I think, that any guitar designated as a Fender, being built in a FMIC facility, by workers under the employment of FMIC, is a "real" Fender.
On the subject of putting together a guitar from a 'grab-bag' of parts, even from the same year and model, I'd consider that to be nothing more than a parts-caster. But does that take from the functionality of the instrument? Absolutely not.
As long as the guitar plays well and inspires the owner, origin shouldn't matter.

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https://www.facebook.com/TheDevilandMe.Music

In my opinion, the logo on the headstock has no significance. The important thing is How its built. If its well built out of good materials and equipment, its probably a fine instrument. If it's poorly built its probably a piece of junk. I own a Mim Strat and an American as well. There both wonderful guitars. One is a Standard and one is an HSS. Both wonderful but different in there own way.
----Danny,

that's what I was trying to say. if its not built by those directly employed by the manufacturer that carries the brand name, then its a contracted replica.
like for instance the factory in mexico, if fender own's that factory and employs the workers directly then its a real fender. if fender just issues a contract to a factory that builds several brands its a contracted replica. but in the end I guess its not real important.

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Many of the MIK Squier Pro-Tone instruments were built in the Samick plant in Seoul -- right along side other guitars badged as Cort, Turser, Peavey, and others. Do you imply that these Korean-made Squiers should not be considered as legitimate Fender products?

Arjay

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"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