In 2008 I purchased an American Standard Strat and registered it with Fender using the serial number I found on the neck. I am planning to replace that neck with a new Fender American Special 70's type neck. This, of course, has a different serial number. How does this affect my warranty should I need to make a claim? Or is it a non-issue?

_________________
September 18th, 1970
There were none better before him.
There have been none better since.

Hi FarRider: a modification of that sort invalidates your warranty. Actually, I believe any end-user mod negates the warranty.

But who cares? The guitar is there to be played, and if this is what you need to do to make it work better for you: do it.

Cheers - C

_________________

Does this apply if a certified Fender repair shop does the work?

_________________
September 18th, 1970
There were none better before him.
There have been none better since.

It would probably only be OK if the original neck were damaged, Fender OK'd the repair and provided a replacement neck direct to the repair shop. In your case, it sounds like you just don't like the original neck and you bought a new one (E-Bay?) to replace it. In that case, Fender would consider it a mod and the warranty would be invalidated as Ceri said. Doesn't matter who did the mod.

I wonder. Does the Magnason/Moss act (sp?) apply to guitars and amps like it does to cars? If you not familiar, the M/M act was passed in response to complaints by independent repair shops and do-it-your-selfers who were using non-factory parts to repair or modify their cars. The act says, in simple language, that a manufacturer cannot deny warranty coverage simply for the use of non-factory parts, or for example, the transmission, if you replaced the AM radio with a megawatt stereo system. If they do try and deny the warranty, they have to do so in writing with a detailed explanation of why they are denying it.

I the case of a guitar, if you replaced the neck and the pickups failed, M/M would prevent them from denying a warranty claim on the pickups unless it was done in writing telling you why.

Like I said this is only speculation as I do not know if M/M applies in this case.

_________________
Bill

To the best of my knowledge (and you could always double check with Customer Services, via their page on this website) if a repair is carried out by a Fender Authorised Service Center within the terms of the warranty then the guitar remains under warranty. But I strongly suspect that if a user-specified modification was done then the warranty would be voided, no matter who did the work.

I'd also echo what bluesky636 said, above. If you replace the pickups (say) and then the trussrod breaks I think it very likely that Fender would replace the neck under warranty without getting into a silly argument about whether the guitar was in "as new" condition or not. In fact, in that situation in real life I'm sure the state of other parts of the instrument wouldn't even come into the discussion.

However, a swapped in neck clearly is not an original part covered by the original warranty. Even if it were a Fender-built part. And most especially if you were not the original purchaser of the neck but bought it second-hand: Fender warranties specifically only apply to the owner who bought the guitar new from a shop.

To make the comparison with the car stereo in bluesky's example: a car company has to honor their warranty on the engine (say) regardless if some other part of the car has been changed (the radio). But their warranty obviously does not cover a part (the radio) that did not come with the car.

For further clarification we could always read Fender's warranty terms. Erm - can anyone find them online?

Cheers - C

_________________

Right here on this website:

http://support.fender.com/warranty/FEND ... 1_revC.pdf

_________________
Bill

Thanks everyone. Considering that most people at some point do some type of modifications to their guitars, I'm guessing a lot of warranty work is denied, if I'm reading that right.

_________________
September 18th, 1970
There were none better before him.
There have been none better since.

Ha! There ya go: thank you, Bluesky.

Well, as legal documents go that one isn't even hard to understand. Item 5. under Limitations and Exclusions specifically says that "damage to an instrument resulting from customization or modification" is not covered by the warranty. If you swapped out the neck and then it became faulty that problem would obviously be there only because the original neck had been removed, and so would not be covered.

Whether the warranty could still be applied to remaining original parts of the guitar I couldn't say (though I'd be doubtful): Consumer Relations would have to answer that.

Cheers - C

_________________

I guess so too. Though we've also heard many stories here of Fender being particularly helpful to people with problems, sometimes well beyond their legal obligations.

So I'd further guess that it always pays to be very polite and friendly to folks in the company's service department.

Good luck, FarRider - C

_________________

I mod all of my guitars. To be honest, except in cases like a broken truss rod or some other major mechanical failure, I'd rather do my own repairs than send it in to a factory repair center. I can do most major repairs except for fret work and refinishing as good as and probably better than a repair center. I already can easily say that my rewiring/pickup replacement/soldering is better than the factory's.

_________________
Bill

Ya catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

_________________
Bill

Cheers - C

_________________

Hmmmmmmm......what's left for me to say?

Ah ha!!!! Let me go back to the first part of the OP....


just a reminder--registrations notwithstanding..your original sales receipt is your key here.

Other than that Bluesky and Ceri pretty much got it all down. Hardware and pickups and such I believe are a year warranty anyway, so a 2008 would make that a moot point.

It WOULD get a bit tricky if you swapped one Fender neck for another Fender neck....not to mention hard to verify/prove/track.

But here's the good news: we really do try to take each case on its own merits and we really do try to do the right thing.
The key really is this, I think. If its a manufacturing defect...or caused by a manufacturing defect....and still under warranty....I would lean towards covering it in whatever way we can.

Good answers guys!

Cheers,
rob

_________________
______________
rob Schwarz
Director,Fender Customer Service
Proudly serving Fender Customers
for over 30 years

Wow. The word straight from the mountain (or was it the Burning Bush?). Thanks Rob. Just to clear up what was happening, I have always loved the large 70's headstock since my first Strat in 1978. I found one with a maple fingerboard that would look gorgeous on my all black Strat and wondered how to update my registration.

_________________
September 18th, 1970
There were none better before him.
There have been none better since.

Now that we've got all that stuff sorted out (thanks, Rob! )...

Andy claims I have a talent for hijacking threads. Well.

So happens, I have actually visited The Mountain, and also stood in front of what was claimed to be THE Burning Bush. I kid you not. Saint Catherine's Monastery stands at the foot of Mount Sinai of Ten Commandments fame, in the Sinai desert in Egypt to the west of the Red Sea. Here it is:



Inside they have The Burning Bush. Not an example of the same shrub, not a supposed descendant of the one in the bible, but what they calmly inform you is the actual self-same Bush, growing there for 3000 years, right before you in full colour. Gosh.

The day I was there standing right beside The Bush That Cannot Be Consumed By Fire was the largest red fire extinguisher I have ever seen in my life. True. It was taller than I am. I asked one of the monks why they needed a fire extinguisher when The Bush cannot be destroyed by flame? He absolutely could not understand my confusion and gave every appearance of never having thought about it before.

Fascinating.

The view from the top of the mountain was quite nice too.

...FarRider, if you swap out that neck do feel free to show us pictures, why not?

Good luck - C

_________________