Hi, can anyone tell me if the FSR Am. Std. Strats are made in the US? Musicians Friend has one in surf green, http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/fender-fsr-american-standard-stratocaster-left-handed-electric-guitar-with-maple-fingerboard and I want to know if these are Mexican or American.

If I were to change p/u's to say the Vintage Noiseless would that void the warranty? the regular single coils are just too noisy for me. I would probably go with the Vintage Noiseless or the Samarium Cobalt.

Robert

The clue's in the name...

So let me understand this....
You want to spend $1000.00 on an FSR, then another $200 to $300 on pups, and you are concerned about warranty...

If you want an FSR, then it is an FSR set up to be an FSR...If you mod it it is no longer an FSR thus is a moot point if you end up selling it ( at a substantial loss ) which from your intentions seem likely.

I just don't understand the reasoning behind getting a Strat set up to be not for everyone and wanting to change it to something like everyone else's.....

I'm not being crass but you would do better getting a ROTM Strat in the color you want and then switch pups......I just fail to see why anyone wants a special strat only to change it.

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

You could buy a Classic 50 for half the money, it is made in Mexico though.
Great guitars and surf green. I don´t know if they are available as left handed guitars.

Cheers,
Robin

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http://www.youtube.com/robinstrower
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Robert, I had the same question and asked Fender Customer Support, below is the reply I got.

It's a Guitar Center and Musicians Friend exclusive, made in the USA. It's not the same guitar as yours, but does provide some good info on FSRs.

Mike

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Thank you for contacting Consumer Relations.

This is an FSR (factory special run) guitar exclusive to Guitar Center. The confusion comes from the fact that Fender does not have a big supply of names to use for different guitar series. This used to be known as the “American Special” guitar, but then we released the American Special series and changed the name. Now it is the “American Select” guitar and is close, but not the same, as our new “Fender Select” Series of guitars.
I hope this helps.


Model Name: FSR American Select Stratocaster® HSS (Mahogany), (GC Formerly used American Special as the series designation.)
Model Number: 017-0040-838
Series: American Select Series
Body: Select Mahogany
Neck: Maple, Modern “C” Shape,
(Satin Polyurethane Finish)
Fingerboard: Rosewood, 9.5” Radius (241 mm)
No. of Frets: 22 Medium Jumbo Frets
Scale Length: 25.5” (648 mm)
Width @ Nut: 1.6875” (43 mm)
Hardware: Chrome
Machine Heads: Fender®/Schaller® Deluxe Staggered Cast/Sealed Locking Tuning Machines
Bridge: Fender Deluxe 2-Point Synchronized Tremolo Tremolo with Pop in Arm
Pickguard: 3-Ply Black
Pickups: 2 Tex-MexTM Single-Coil Strat® Pickups (Neck and Middle),
1 Fender DH-1 Humbucking Pickup (Bridge)
Pickup Switching: 5-Position Blade and 2-Position Push/Push S-1:
S-1 Switch Up:
Position 1. Full Bridge Humbucking Pickup with Coils in Series (Lead Tone Control)
Position 2. Middle Pickup and Inside Coil of Bridge Humbucking Pickup in Parallel (Lead Tone Control)
Position 3. Middle Pickup (Lead Tone Control)
Position 4. Neck and Middle Pickup in Parallel (Lead and Rhythm Tone Controls)
Position 5. Neck Pickup (Rhythm Tone Control

S-1 Switch Down:
Position 1. Full Bridge Humbucking Pickup with Coils in Series (Lead Tone Control)
Position 2. Full Bridge Humbucking Pickup with Coils in Series, in Parallel with Neck Pickup (Lead and Rhythm Tone Controls)
Position 3. Full Bridge Humbucking Pickup with Coils in Series, in Parallel with Neck and Middle Pickups that are Paired in Series (Lead and Rhythm Tone Controls)
Position 4. Inside Coil of Bridge Pickup Paired in Series with Neck Pickup, in Parallel with Middle Pickup (Lead and Rhythm Tone Controls)
Position 5. Middle Pickup in Series with Neck Pickup (Rhythm Tone Control)
Controls: Master Volume (with S-1 Switch),
Tone 1. (Neck Pickup),
Tone 2. (Middle/Bridge Pickups and Neck/Middle/Bridge Pickup Combinations)
Colors: (838) Crimson Transparent, Polyurethane Finish
Strings: Fender Super BulletsTM 3250L, (.009 to .042), Nickel Plated Steel, p/n 073-3250-003
Unique Features: S-1 Switching,
Black Painted Headstock,
LSR Roller Nut,
Highly Detailed Fret Work,
Black Plastic Parts
Source: U.S.
Accessories: Molded Case,
Cable,
Strap,
Straplocks,
Meguiar’s Mist and Wipe Kit
U.S. MSRP: $1,427.99 to $1,999.99
INTRODUCED: 7/2004
DISCONTINUED:
DISCONTINUED COLORS:
COMMENTS: Special run for GC. Originally introduced as an Anniversary model with SCN pickups. It was also released by GC under the name, “American Special Series”. When we introduced the American Special Series instruments,...the name of these were changed from American Special to American Select. When the price point of the American Deluxe guitars went up, GC wanted to keep this guitar in their lineup at the same price point. This was achieved by replacing the pickguard assembly with an American Series loaded with Tex-Mex pickups. The guitar caught on well and was kept on as a proprietary FSR for them and Musician’s Friend.
Uses Case P/N 0059583000
WRENCH SIZES: Truss Rod Wrench p/n 0018622000 (3/32” Hex)
Saddle Height Adjustment Wrench p/n 0018531000 (.050 Hex)
Specs: Product Prices, Features, Specifications and Availability Are Subject To Change Without Notice

best regards,

Consumer Relations Department
Fender Musical Instruments Corp.
17600 N. Perimeter Dr. Suite 100 Scottsdale, AZ 85255

Thank you for the replies.

About "made in the USA". A product only has to have a certain amount of the work done in the US to legally say USA made on it. It could be "assembled" in the US from foreign made bodies, necks, pups, and etc. What I wanted to know was if the guitar was built from the start in the US. I want to try to spend my money, what little I have , on USA made goods. I have played the MIM guitars and they are good, but I want an US made guitar.

I am really not that concerned about warranty issues as there is not much to go wrong with a guitar. However, in the chance that something might come up, I wanted to know if changing pups would void the warranty. I want to put hum-canceling pups in it because I don't want to deal with the noise. I have used the "Vintage Noiseless" and the EMG active and passive series. They all sound good and are very quiet but I want to use passive pups because fuzz's do not like to see a low Z signal. I am intrigued by the design of the Holy Grail series so I might give those a try instead.

I have played lefty for 45 years now and or course I am limited in the choices available to me. I was looking online and came across the MF listing. Southpaw has one in Surf Green also but I cannot tell from their listing if it is the same as the FSR guitar. I have no intention of buying a guitar, upgrading the parts and then trying to sell it for a profit. I used to have two beautiful strats, one was called the American Strat and was only made in the mid-eighties for a few years. I bought it 1984, the year I got married. The other was a mid-nineties American Strat which I also loved. Due to financial circumstances I was forced to sell them both along with most of my gear. If I can get this guitar I will never sell it.

Mike, thank you for posting that reply from Fender. It was helpful.

Robert

Hi Robert: stumbled on this thread and notice parts of your question have not yet been answered. So...

In short, yes, switching out the pickups will void the warranty. Most of the time that probably doesn't matter, but if you have issues of some sort then you probably aren't going to get a repair or a replacement cost free under warranty (though sometimes shops choose to be helpful over these things). Obviously, that's your call.

Regarding "made in USA": not every part of a US Strat is made in America. For instance, some of the metal hardware parts are made in Germany, Japan, China and perhaps elsewhere. That has especially applied to machine heads for several decades: they are often but not always made in other countries.

However, most guitar manufacturers are essentially woodworking companies, and on their American guitars Fender make all the wooden parts from start to finish in their Corona plant. Arguably, the neck, body, finish and setup of a guitar are the bulk of its construction so I think it is fair to describe Fender's guitars as being made in the country named on them. To the best of my knowledge the pickups used on US Fenders are made in the American factory too, if that seems important to you.

Does that help any?

Cheers - C

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Since you live in the US, warranty law is your friend. Modifying a product voids warranty coverage in regards to the modified parts and any failures related to those parts or the installation of those parts, but doesn't void the warranty for the remaining stock parts that aren't directly related to the modified parts.

In the '50s and '60s lots of companies refused to pay for blatant manufacturing defects by regularly voiding warranties when customers did minor things that had absolutely no bearing on causing the manufacturing defect. They'd go so far as to claim they hadn't received the customer's warranty card and void the warranty for that. A bunch of consumer rights laws were enacted in the '70s. That's why you don't have to mail in registration cards any more -- your proof of purchase is all you need to make a warranty claim.

If you upgrade the audio system in your brand new car and it draws so much more power that the car's wiring harness melts, the warranty doesn't cover fixing the wiring harness. But if the engine blows up later for a totally unrelated reason, the engine is still covered.

Same for guitars. If you fry a pot by overheating it while installing new pickups, Fender doesn't have to fix it. If you take the stock pickups out, then someday put them back in and discover they stopped working while they were sitting in storage, Fender doesn't have to fix them.

Trying to fix a warranty problem yourself before taking it to a Fender Authorized Service Center voids the warranty for that particular problem, not for other problems unrelated to things you did. Same for having an unauthorized pro work on it -- they don't have to fix the problem he worked on, but other problems unrelated to his work would still be covered.

If you replace the pickups and one of the tuners strips a gear during its warranty period, it's still covered because that's totally unrelated to the replaced pickups. If the neck turns into a pretzel because they hadn't dried the wood enough, it's still covered.

There can be gray areas. If you do some common mod to the circuit of an amp, they can use the label on the back of the amp that says "no user servicable parts inside" to potentially justify denying warranty coverage for any electrical problems. (But if the Tolex peels because they used a bad batch of glue, that sort of problem would still be covered.)

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And of course, if they don't know you changed the pickups they won't have any reason to deny any warranty claim. If you do neat soldering work and save the stock pickups you can simply reinstall them before you take the guitar into a service Center for warranty work. (That's not unethical if you didn't cause the warranty problem while changing the pickups.)

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If you read Fender's warranties, there are lots of disclaimers and exceptions that allow them to deny warranty service for lots of reasons. But Fender is a stand-up company, and their reputation for customer satisfaction is important to them. They often bend over backwards to fix customer's problems. Even if they could deny coverage for unrelated problems after you replace the pickups, they won't. They'll fix any real manufacturing defect.

Fender's Authorized Service Centers are independant contractors. Fender pays them flat rate fixed rates for various repair jobs, and some jobs are more profitable than others. So depending on the problem it's possible that a shop might look at your guitar and grasp for a reason to deny warranty coverage. If that happens and you're sure that any mods you've done didn't cause the problem that you think deserves a warranty repair, contact Fender directly, explain the issues calmly and ask them nicely to help.

Just read these posts by Fender's Rob Schwarz -- absolutely outstanding customer service, and if you have a legit warranty problem Rob will get it fixed.
http://www.fender.com/community/forums/search.php?keywords=&terms=all&author=rob+schwarz*&sc=1&sf=all&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

Hi strayedstrater: that's a very good post. And as it happens we've seen Rob Schwarz carry out some excellent acts of customer service right here on the Forum, so +1 to that too.

Though we've also seen people posting about all the ways shops get ouy of doing repairs under warranty, so...

Cheers - C

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No, their warranty system isn't perfect. I've been searching all my life for one true perfect thing in this world and haven't found it yet. My dog comes close.

If a particular repair has a low time/money reimbursement rate, or a shopowner is having trouble paying his rent, some shops will fall prey to the temptation of turning a warranty repair into a higher profit non-warranty repair. Sad but true. Some doctors cheat Medicaid, some auto mechanics charge for fixing things that aren't broken, some landscapers bill for fertilizing your roses and really just pee'd on your bushes. Some people suck, most don't.

But there are also guitar owners who have unreasonable expectations of what a warranty should cover. I've seen internet blather from people who noticed tiny spots of "ugly wood grain" after owning a guitar for a couple of months and thought it deserved a warranty replacement body (long after the store's return/exchange policy expired).

And there are times when it's legimately uncertain whether the warranty should cover the issue. I gather the S-1 switches are more reliable nowadays, but they used to be sort of fragile. If one falls apart after you pull off and replace the knob, or it malfunctions after you unsolder and resolder it for a mod, it's really hard to say whether it was defective or if you broke it.

Haha - yes indeed! There was a long thread here two or three years ago where someone had a Fender, long out of warranty, which got badly broken in a car crash. They were convinced Fender ought to do something about it and argued angrily for many pages about how unkind the Company was for not replacing their guitar for them.

Some folks...

Cheers - C

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+1 strayedstrater (and an aw shucks and a thanks for the kind words)

If theres a soapbox hangin around I'll try to stop myself from getting on it...., but my take on most of what comes up around here is "what is the right thing to do on this one?"
Policies and guidelines are important, but overblown protectionism or using a policy to hide behind and not do your job is not on my list of how to handle things. strayedstrater you put it all very well. If you change out your pickups and your neck goes south and warps.....Well we would owe you a new neck. If you change out your pickups and screw it up.....thats gonna probably be on you.
anyway...good stuff strayedstrater, very succinctly stated.
PS aw shucks to you too Ceri ;O)

Thanks!!
best,
rob

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