ShortScale.org

you'll see an increase of price across the board.

It's a piss take no doubt but the mugs that buy them are the morons, not Fender they are just chasing the money

James wrote:ROLF @ Fender cutting it down to manky sunburst + only one solid colour.

I can never tell if they're just not trying, or if they're purposely taking the piss.

agreed, every other word i heard was "it comes in super boring, or boring boringer boring"

Haze wrote:

James wrote:ROLF @ Fender cutting it down to manky sunburst + only one solid colour.

I can never tell if they're just not trying, or if they're purposely taking the piss.

agreed, every other word i heard was "it comes in super boring, or boring boringer boring"

My favourite part was the bit towards the end with the strat that comes in THREE!! colour sunburst. Oh my fuck there's red in there! Somebody call the papers!

Their cranking up prices to increase Squier's market share.

I will probably never own another fender.

I don't think I'll buy a new Fender again. There's the element of supporting and encourgaing them when they get it right. But I think the years of sig strats and things like not having an easy route to buy MIJ guitars just add up to too much to support the company.

Imagine if Fender had a way you could go to a Fender dealer and order a guitar from Fender Japan. You wouldn't have to go through whichever site it is, you'd get your warranty with your local dealer and you'd have a go to point for contact. It's a very small thing that makes them money and helps small shops.

Fender is a model of how not to run a guitar company. They own lots of sexy designs and have no idea how to make money out of them. It's a bit like watching the record industry respond to the downloading sites. It was so slow and out of touch it was embarassing.

I would like someone new to buy Fender and get all of their shit in one sock.

the new prices are crazy. when i brought my strat, i paid £399. now the same guitar is nearly £500. glad i got mine when i did.

I don't get it :( Fender putting their prices up, Rickenbacker did a while ago :( I'm never going to get another good guitar :/ I'm currently saving up for a 360/12, I've decided.

i thought recessions were supposed to bring prices DOWN, not up.

Nick wrote:I will probably never own another fender.

after classic vibe tele
i'm joining the "2009, the year i get a tele" club
i'll check back in with Fender when they put out a new prouct [give it another 15 years]

When I think Gibson, I KNOW I'm getting a US made quality guitar finished in nitro...no matter if I'm buying a $350 guitar or a $5000 guitar. Specs are different, but the thought behind it is the same. If I want a cheap foreign made poly finished version I get an epi.

I don't like how Fender plasters their name on everything that should be a squier. And everything that is American fender is boring and/or overpriced. If I want a fender in a cool color I pretty much have to get a classic players or something....MIM, poly finish, ceramic pickups....Honestly, I think you should have more options the more you're willing to spend on a guitar, wouldn't you think? I feel like no matter what fender I get, at any price point just about, I'm either making a sacrifice and/or I'm paying too much for what I get.

Don't get me wrong, if I spotted a vintage mustang for like $300 BIN or on craigslist I'd still snatch it up, but honestly, if we're talking anything fender's done in the past 30 years it's all wrong. They have the right idea with squier, but the squier line should really be expanded to include everything that isn't made in america, and they should have more options for the real deal Fenders (some american made student models at student prices would make sense).

I don't think anything CIJ should automatically be a Squier... Nor should quite anything MIA be a Fender, though it basically HAS to be true because of labor costs...

(Korea though, maybe)

Gibson has it more wrong than Fender, in a few other ways... Their new motto is "Only a Custom Shop Gibson is good enough". And Epiphone is worse off than Squier (who makes better, more appealing guitars generally from my experience, without goofy headstocks to tell you that next, you have to buy one of the still overpriced and rough-edged entry level Gibson models...)

Fender at least still has a fairly bargain MIM model for the Strat and Tele, and I do applaud the quality of the MIM axes (though CIJ is too close to MIA to me to warrant either of the others' existence, really).

But I think the era of innovation and guitar going hand in hand is over. Much like a violin is a violin, or a piano a piano, a guitar sadly might soon become a guitar... Due in part to the same circumstances that have led to the stagnation of guitar music.

I thought it was "Only a Gibson is good enough", I don't remember any mention of custom shop. Either way it's better than "Are you good enough for a Gibson?"


So to sum up your argument, you believe fender is doing better than Gibson by offering real deal headstocks on their cheapest models.

Lets forgo the usual "squier vs epi" argument here in terms of quality. We both know that both companies make shitty $100 guitars, some are more playable than others. We also know that both make actual quality guitars for serious beginners or experienced guitarists on a tight budget. The only real difference is that Gibson basically puts their intermediate/advanced guitars under the Epiphone label, instead of having a ton of guitars from a bazillion different countries with the same name on them confusing the market. It's funny, people go after Gibson for not wanting to put the same headstock on the cheap models, but nobody ever says anything about companies like Rickenbacker, who just flat out don't want to make a budget line at all because it would reduce the integrity of the brand. The Epiphone Elitist series is pretty damn fine, with only really the poly finish and the headstock to tell them apart....Also a lot of the Sheraton/casinos they make I'd pit against fender Japan/Korea in terms of quality at that price point



Fenders problem is that squiers and japan/mexi fenders ARE more appealing guitars than their parent company offers. The epiphone/gibson lineup basically mirrors each other, with a significant price gap separating the two. With Fender, you have plenty of options, up until you hit the standards......where you have like 2 guitars to chose from, and 3-4 color choices.

We're really just comparing apples to oranges here, but I stand by my statement.

euan wrote:

jcyphe wrote:Fender sucks.

All except Fender Japan who will always be my favourites.

yea, they are a different company though, Kanda Shokai. I think fender USA actually has very little involvment with what fender japan chooses to make.

Nick wrote:I thought it was "Only a Gibson is good enough", I don't remember any mention of custom shop. Either way it's better than "Are you good enough for a Gibson?"


So to sum up your argument, you believe fender is doing better than Gibson by offering real deal headstocks on their cheapest models.

Motto. It was a joke. Gibson, IMO, has pushed quality aside in recent years for all but its priciest models; you can't even get an ES-213232 that isn't custom shop, and their lower priced items are rather lackluster in terms of quality for their price. I agree with you that Fender's quality/hierarchy arrangements are completely screwed. But I think that they are doing better for their products than Gibson, on the super-cheap, cheap, moderate, and ridiculous price levels, in terms of marketing, developing appealing/quality products, etc. That might have been easier to just say flat out, and I suppose if you don't believe it, then you don't.

I think Fender's biggest problem is that they have around twenty each different variations of Stratocaster and Telecaster... I'd almost rather have them randomly throw together axes from a parts bin than only have so many fixed and unyielding pickup/bridge/finish options for choosing...

Epiphone Japan is an even better deal than Fender Japan.

Seriosuly, we don't get them here in the states often but I've played a few and they're great.

I'm not gonna get into the whole Gibson vs. Fender cause it's been done to death, but I have no interest in any new Fender guitar. So to me as a company they're irrelevant.

James wrote:I don't think I'll buy a new Fender again. There's the element of supporting and encourgaing them when they get it right. But I think the years of sig strats and things like not having an easy route to buy MIJ guitars just add up to too much to support the company.

Imagine if Fender had a way you could go to a Fender dealer and order a guitar from Fender Japan. You wouldn't have to go through whichever site it is, you'd get your warranty with your local dealer and you'd have a go to point for contact. It's a very small thing that makes them money and helps small shops.

Fender is a model of how not to run a guitar company. They own lots of sexy designs and have no idea how to make money out of them. It's a bit like watching the record industry respond to the downloading sites. It was so slow and out of touch it was embarassing.

I would like someone new to buy Fender and get all of their shit in one sock.

The Classic Player line (MIM Jags & Jazzies, Baja Tele, Proggie's Strat) is brilliant and used to be well priced, everything else just winds me up. The American Standards thing is a joke.

The worst part is they don't even believe in their own modern product. When I said to my friend who worked on Busking Cancer with me (and is a Fender employee - they sponsored the event) that I bought a Mustang he said "Oh cool, a real one?" and I said, "Yeah, the MG65 in Daphne Blue", and he said...



"Oh, a Reissue"







If that's the way their own employees feel about their output compared to the old stuff, then we really are all doomed.

Nick wrote:When I think Gibson, I KNOW I'm getting a US made quality guitar finished in nitro

With poor fretwork and finishing quality - Yup. This is a complete nonsense statement, Gibson QC is notoriously hideous.

Honestly, I've never seen any examples of shoddy fretwork being common on any Gibson, aside from maybe the melody makers every once in a while. Do you even play enough Gibsons to make such bogus claims? Is it one of those things where if enough people believe it it's true? Or does every gibson get dropped and poorly refretted on its way over the pond? I got dogpiled for my opinions on Behringer's QC when I actually had several behringer products either break or arrive defective out of the box, surely this is every bit as ridiculous.

My point was that for what they are, American fenders cost too much, there's not enough available, and the japanese/mexi models aren't "real" fenders to me. Call that snobbish if you will.