So I've been stashing cash for a while and thinking about a new guitar. My wife is dead set against another major guitar purchase, and since I already have a few I guess I can understand that, but I suffer from a bad case of GAS.

I was thinking about an American Standard, but looking around again today it struck me how many different strats there are in the same price range...Hwy 1, American Special, American standard, Artist series strats, road worn strats, 50's, 60's and 70's reissues...and the question came to mind....does Fender need to make all these strats?

I hvae always been a fan of customization so I understand that everyone will likesomething a little different, but these are not that drastically different, in mind to need to produce this many different strats with a value within a couple hundred of each other.

Maybe if they wern't producing so many different models, they could focus on a few and bring thier costs down and pass those savings to the customer...like me.

Thoughts?

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CREDO ELVEM IPSUM ETAIM VIVERE

I agree. Too many esoteric models of Strats currently available. First on my chopping block would be the 'Deluxe Power Roadstar Lonehouse Mega Switching Extreme Players Professional Ultra Vintage Modern Strat', or whatever they are called these days. These things here: http://www.fender.com/products/search.p ... ies=Deluxe

I would be fine with only just a few high quality reasonably priced US (and Mexican too!) made Fender Strat, Tele, P-Bass, J-Bass etc etc. Just a little more variation than what was available in the 50's and 60's would be nice. I think it was the 70's aftermarket parts modding craze and cheaper but higher quality Japanese guitars that forced Fender to start offering dozens of different models of the same guitar with the hopes that someone out there will like one of them.

I would assume Fender's US and Mexico facilities would run more efficiently with a reduced part number count and not needing to stop the line to switch between models. But it's too late for Fender to go back to the old ways. No one would agree on what the only few Strat models should be.

At least Fender isn't like Gibson and spending a ton of money on R&D, marketing, and tooling for new guitars with features customers don't want that totally flop in the market and then their regular production guitars go sky high up in price and lower in quality!

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Obligatory gear list: Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Gretsch, Vox, Martin, and more Fender.

I do agree with you
Less models equals more attention paid to details
and a better price for the customer!

And an increasing focus on quality

I wish I was born before 1954, where there was only one stratocaster model available!

Unless I am mistaken in '54 you had to decide between a tremolo or hard tail.

I wish I had those choices now.

I agree about too many choices, it was hard for me to finally settle on an American Standard. In reality I wanted to step it up a notch to a Custom Classic or even an American Ash Deluxe.

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Support your local guitar shop.

Well, personally I -like- choices myself. As a consumer I personally don't like it when a given company said "we have product A, B and C" and if you don't like it, you can take your business somewhere else". Most people like having choices. Yea...I'm sure that some folks would be perfectly content having just 2 or 3 AM radio stations to listen to and only 3 or 4 network TV stations to watch but with the popularity of things like cable TV and satellite radio and having literally -hundreds- of stations to chose from...if the majority of people didn't like having choices, these things simply wouldn't exist. Guitars are really no different. I find the number of choices in Strats to be very appealing. No...I'll probably never own an American Strat myself or even a Highway 1, at least unless I find one that's a real steal of a price...I'll certainly never buy one new. But even with my attitude on that, it's nice to know that they are available should I ever change my mind.

I would also point out that Fender being a big company such as they are, very much caters to the laws of "supply and demand". In the simplest terms, if there wasn't a demand for that many different models, Fender wouldn't be making them (and if anything, Fender is pretty well known for discontinuing models that don't sell very well). To me one of the really great things about Fender is that they -do- make so many different models...there's something there for everyone really. Just started playing guitar? A Squier Bullet and even an Affinity is a -excellent- instrument to begin playing on. More advanced player and maybe in a working band? Top of the line Squiers and MIM Standards are -perfect- for that level of playing! Are you in a touring band that does recording and you're finally making a living at your music? Ya can't go wrong with those American Standards. Are you totally obsessive about quality? Custom Shop my friends! Again there's something there for everyone. If Fender only made 2 or 3 models and even if those models were "moderately priced" around the $700 range...they'd simply be slitting their own throats as a company! I won't speak for others but just as I don't own any Gibsons in part due to the price, I probably wouldn't have any Fender's either...I'd be buying Laguna's or some other brand that was more reasonably priced instead.

Either way though as far as the quality vs. different models available, I'm sorry but I have to completely disagree with the idea that having less choices would "improve quality". That's just completely silly in my book. If we were talking about a small company that only cranked out a few dozen guitars a year that might be true but in this day and age that's simply NOT the case with a big company such as Fender who produces thousands of guitars every year. I don't know if it's just that whole personal attitude about guitars or what but people seem to forget that Fender -is- a large company that mass produces a product. In such a case it doesn't really matter if they make a thousand guitars in 8 or 10 different models or a thousand guitars of all the same model, the quality is essentially going to be the same (and very much based on the limitations of the individual specifications). What's more is that you have to remember that each person (or group of people) in a given department in a company such as Fender tends to do the same job regardless of the model. Ok...I've never been to any of Fender's factories so I can't really say this as a fact but it seems to me that the person (or people) who do something like installing pickups for example...that's going to be the same person/people who does it on most of the models that come off those production lines. I wouldn't think they'd have one department for the "American Standards", a separate department and personnel doing the "American Deluxe's" and another department still for the "Highway 1's". From a mass manufacturing point of view that just doesn't make a lot of sense. I would suspect that the same machinery is even used...it would seem very unlikely that they would have 1 machine for cutting necks for the Deluxe's, another machine for cutting the Standards and yet another machine for cutting Highway 1's. Logic would seem to dictate that they would use -1- machine and the same person/people to run those machines...one day they get an order to cut x so many necks for American Standards, the next week they may get an order to cut x so many necks for Highway 1's, etc., etc.. Any actual variations in quality are simply "built in to the specs".

Honestly here the only way I could see something like that making any kind of a difference in "quality" is by a company such as Fender simply making and selling less instruments...and being a big company/business that is clearly -not- their goal. More over if a person does want an instrument of exceptionally high quality with extreme attention payed to all those little details that simply can't be achieved on an "assembly line", that's what the Custom Shop is for...and that's also why you pay so much more for it too!

Now I would have to add that in regards to "quality", the instruments that come from a large company such as Fender have actually improved a great deal over the years. Let's be honest here...back in the 70's and even in the 80's, things such as "quality control" didn't really exist at all. On the low end of the scale for example, I remember the kind of crappy guitar that $100 would buy you back in the 80's...they really were little more than junky toys. Today even something like a Squier Bullet is a -far- superior instrument. If anything when you consider the sheer number guitars that a company such as Fender produces, it's actually a bit amazing that they can keep they level of quality as good as they actually do.

The simple truth of the matter here is that we all want something for nothing (or as close to nothing as possible). Yea, it would be really great if we could all have $4000 custom instruments and only pay $100 for them...ain't gonna happen. Limiting people's choices however with a large company such as Fender who makes thousands and thousands of guitars isn't going to really change that quality though and if anything all it would do is hurt the company as a whole.

As always these are -just my opinions-...take them as you will.

Jim

I agree with Jim. I like the choices, there's something for everyone. I'd rather buy a Strat that's already close to what I want (jumbo frets, Texas Specials) than buy one that's not and spend a bunch of money modifying it.

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I bought a MIM Jimmie Vaughn Strat with a maple board and in Olympic White,my nephew bought an MIM Strat identical to mine in looks(with the standard Mexican pups)for 70% of what I paid and it's a really first rate guitar.If you check out the MIMs you could get a great guitar and keep the little woman happier than if you had spent $2,000 on an MIA.My nephew's was about $550 taxes in.

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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.

If you were born in 1954 (like I was), you'd be more worried about where your next meal was coming from rather than which Strat to pick.

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Bill

Well then it sounds like those times are not that far ahead from coming back.

I think that such a large choice of almost identical guitars is some sort of product overload. The difference is not tangible enough and that's why some of those models dont stick, they eventually fade away. We all have seen the many "what model is my Strat" threads. Same scenario already happened to big name stores like Walmart, CVS, etc... the consumer is faced with too many choices and gets confused.

+1

I feel the same way about most of the so-called "artist models"

When's the last time you saw a "Dick Dale Strat" on stage?

Or a "John 5" Tele?

Goofy and blasphemous IMO.

Arjay

I'm not knocking any guitar down or anyone who buys them but for me all I need is a plain ol Strat. Of course I also like playing Mustangs, LPs, etc.

I love that Fender offers such a diverse product line.

I'm a Strat and Tele guy, and I could spend the next 20 years buying nothing but those two types of guitars and never have duplicates.

Sometimes I like a V neck, sometimes a C. There are times I prefer vintage pickups and other times I like the Texas Specials.

I also like keeping a guitar set up strictly for slide, some in open tunings, some in standard, etc.

You can have 10 different Strats and have no two that feel or sound the same.

More to choose from can't be bad............... Mike

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

Well on this I first have to say that "almost identical" is a -really- subjective statement. If you ask most people, they'll usually say that no two guitars are alike to begin with...even two from the exact same model line. Second to that saying such a thing would probably be insulting to a lot of people...after all that implies that my "cheap" MIM is really quite similar to those expensive American models and my even cheaper Squiers must also be similar too! I'm sure you'd get -A LOT- of arguments on that one.

Yes it is true that "some models don't stick" but on the other hand, some -do-. Those Clapton and SRV signature series have been around for how long now? As I recall those first Clapton sig's came out in the late 80's? Either way this too is easily attributed to "big manufacturing"...look at how many various car models have come and gone...then came again over the years. Sometimes marketing research can predict what's going to be a "winner" and sometimes it can't. As far as the "what model is my Strat" threads, honestly I don't think that has much to do with having so many various models as much as simply that not all of those models are "well labeled". Again using the Clapton SS as an example, it's well marked and clearly defined as to what it is. In this case they should probably do this with more of the models...on the headstock of a Highway 1 actually put something that says "Highway 1" and mark a Standard as "Standard", etc., etc..

I also have to say that I find your comments about CVS (I'm assuming you're referring to CVS pharmacy)...wow...really out there. I can't speak for other parts of the country but here in Northern Ohio when CVS took over the old Revco chain, they stripped the stores pretty much bare. Back then Revco was much the way Walgreens are now in that they really had a little bit of everything. After the CVS take-over though, CVS "leaned out the inventories"...you'd walk in to a store and find 5 or 6 shelves with -1- brand and size of whatever...."creative merchandising" at it's finest...and it didn't work because they didn't have hardly any selection at all. Most people hated it and that's part of how chains like Rite Aid and Walgreens started to get a foot hold....they offered their customers a selection...a choice. Since then CVS has had to play catch up and adjust their inventories to be more "competitive" in regards to selection.

As far as Walmart...hmmm...compare them with all the trouble K-mart has, even since the Sears buy out and it seems that Walmart is still doing pretty darned good there! LOL!!!

Last but not least in regards to your comment "the consumer is faced with too many choices and gets confused", this is just my own opinion but at the risk of being blunt personally I think that's just rubbish. Maybe some people get confused but to me it sounds more like an excuse for people who are too lazy to think for themselves. Either way most people seem pretty capable of making choices when given a proper opportunity...otherwise those choices wouldn't exist. Come one now...seriously...Coke, Pepsi, RC, Jolt, Bubba, Shasta...is it really -that- hard for you to choose your favorite brand of cola? Wow...Mountain Dew must really confuse people! LOL!!! Chevy, Ford, Pontiac, Toyota, Kia, Honda, BMW, Audi, Porsche, Mercedes...did you really find yourself paralyzed trying to decide what car to drive? I kind of like Dodge's myself. Fenders, Gibsons, Jacksons, Kramers, Rickenbacker, Gretsch, Danelectro, Squier, Epiphone, PRS, Laguna...Strats, Teles, SGs, LPs...I'm sorry if people disagree but I honestly have to believe that having choices is a -good- thing. Personally I'm quite quite grateful we're not all forced to buy the same brand of ketchup (or even catsup!) or TV's or power tools or computers or furniture or lawn mowers or cigarettes or canned soup or toilet paper or breakfast cereal or.........what an utterly BORING world that would be to live in. Could you really even call that "living"?

I'm honestly not trying to be rude here but I'm having this horrifying mental vision of a world where you look at any street on any block and all of the houses look exactly the same and all the yards look exactly the same and all of the families look exactly the same and they all dress the same and all the men wear the exact same suits and all the women wear the exact same dresses and they all talk about the same thing and they all eat the exact same dinners at exactly the same time every day and they all watch the exact same TV shows at the exact same time...perhaps some folks would find that appealing but personally I'm not sure I could really come up with a better definition of "hell". Choices...I'm sorry but I -choose- to be different.

Jim

metropolis74, my friend actually just got a very nice white fender roahouse strat, one of the nicest MIM's i have ever played.