Hi all

I live in China, originally from L.A. A music store in this large city has some nice looking strats. They sell for ~850 RMB, which is not a lot in $. The guy in the store said that these are Fender guitars built in a factory in Shanghai. They have more expensive ones made in other places.

According to the seller, Fender established a factory in China.
Anybody know if this is true? Does Fender have a factory in China? The guitar is nice looking and sounds good enough for my purpose. They have colors red, black, tobacco sunburst [my favorite] and clear finish.

At this point, I'm not concerned about getting an "authentic" Fender, just wondering if the things are counterfeit or not. If it sounds good and the price is right, I'll probably buy it. After all, a tobacco sunburst strat for just over $100. What's not to like?

Unless they are Squier labeled guitars, they are not part of the Fender line. I'm pretty sure those are the only guitars you'll find Fender ever made in China.

You will find Fender labeled guitars made in Japan, Korea, Mexico and the US, if you look around.
I'm sure their counterfeit. The guy needs reporting.

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Indeed.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

"Strat-Like Objects" (aka SLO) were also once made in India......







These were built for a short time between 1986 and 1987 as the then-new FMIC tried various off-shore facilities in an attempt to offer a budget-priced entry-level instrument. This Indian experiment failed due to extremely spotty QA/QC issues and the few guitars made were sold primarily in Europe and Asia. Hedging its bets, Fender cryptically used the "SUNN" label on them (Fender had purchased the Sunn franchise in 1985) to distinguish from the superior Squier line. The only color apparently offered on these Indian interlopers was red -- sort of a cross between Torino and Fiesta.

Back to your regularly-scheduled programming......



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

Hi Hansen: did the guy in the store do that fingers-making-quote-marks thing when he said "Fenders" made in Shanghai?

Fender definitely had Squier Strats made in China back in the '90s and maybe they still do. To the best of my knowledge they don't own their own facility there, unlike some other makers such as Yamaha. They just sub-contract to local factories.

'Course, the joke is going to be on all of us if it turns out that Fender have started making F-branded guitars in China. That will be a very new development if it is true - but I strongly doubt it.

Show us some good quality photos, or lead us to that shop's website if they have one. We'll soon let you know if the guitars are kosher or not. The price you mentioned says... NOT.

Cheers - C

lol!! I think there are some ""Fender"" factories over there- then again, you can buy anything counterfiet over there and it will be of quality too...

However, I wouldnt touch any product from India with a 10ft barge pole.

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These were not counterfeits though -- they were fully sanctioned by FMIC. If I could find one for a reasonable price ($100 or less) I'd like to have it merely for its historical significance in the post-CBS Fender saga.

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

TATA vans are pretty good motors mate. I remember them Mustangs, they were a decent starter guitar at the time. Gotta remember it was pre Yamaha Pacifica days back then. The standard of starter guitars was through the floor. You had Squier and Aria, that was about it if you wanted to have a guitar you could play enough to learn something on. Them Mustangs were a welcome addition at the time £95 a go if I remember right. Yamaha really led the quality change on starter guitars with that Pacifica though. I remember nobody believing it was actually a real wood body for the price.

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TATA I would say are a good van- a lot of farmers use the trucks because they are a cheap ute.. the sort you could buy for $12K and write it off the tax books. You wouldn't get more than 4-5 years use on a NZ farm though but they are good for a cheap worker

We have a new brand called "Great Wall Motors" basically, it's similar to "Japanese quality for chinese prices". They just dont have an established name

But yeah- Mustangs I remember- and the days of Japanese squiers. I had an electric that was made of ply-wood and it weighed a ton. You really got what you paid for aye.. The prices were all a bit all over the place till mexico made squires, then chinese and the $@! Squires dissapeared and the foto flames came in etc...

You never saw many mustangs or sunns here, free trade deals with China mean the stores had cheap strats made of balsa from china- Hondo, Vester, Legend etc..

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Fender those make the new Fender Starcaster in China:

http://www.amazon.com/Fender-Starcaster ... B001943W92

IMO if it is one of these you are better off buying a better Squier. I had one and the Squiers are better guitars in my experience

Hi Guys,
Thanks for your replies. I found this link while doing some more looking around:

http://www.diytrade.com/china/4/product ... uitar.html

This guitar is quite a bit like the one I'm thinking about buying; however, no dark wood fingerboard on mine. The one I saw is a Squire [sorry for not mentioning that]. It also has a sticker saying something about California. Notice that the guitars at the site above sell for $75.00 with a minimum order of 6. Now I got a wholesale price, I can do some haggling.

Being familiar with quality issues in products made for Chinese consumers, there is a good chance the ax is dull in terms of electronics, etc.

Anyway, I've taken my chances with Chinese women [gotta love 'em] so why not with a guitar?

Well are you planning to buy six of em at $75 each? Thats what the advert is for. Also that looks well dodgy to me. Never seen Squier pickup covers have any writing on them before. Also the lack of headstock decal in the top photo makes me very suspicious. Ontop of that the guitar is coming in from China. A friend of mine has a fake Chinese les paul, it's a very hit and miss guitar. When he bought it he was told that plenty of them are being seized by UK customs and excize.
I see no reason that your import of counterfeit goods laws would be any different. You could end up paying $450 for six guitars that you never see.

I'd avoid it like the plague.

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Hey Nikininja,

I been living in China for several years. The chance of me finding a real Strat here is miniscule, unless it happens to be stolen from another expat like myself.

I only need to buy one at a cost of ~$120. So far it seems that China has companies counterfeiting Strats [and probably most everything else], since I have found little evidence that Fender has set up a legitimate manufacturing plant in China. If there was a legitimate Fender plant here, I would expect that some of the guitars are hitting the streets from out the back door before they are shipped abroad.

The Chinese are capable of making good stuff. My leather coat and Palm pilot were both made in China as was my DVD player [Panasonic].
I was hoping someone might have some hard evidence that Fender has a legitimate plant in China. Haven't seen any yet. Did I miss anything?

If the guitar is half as hot as the women here, it'll OK

sounds like its a starcaster fender makes them.

sounds like its a starcaster fender makes them.