Fender for sale?

[Mr.Huge]

Fender for sale

[RDV]

I'll take it.

Clear Channel Broadcasting will probably snap it up & ruin it like they have radio.

B.T.W. Thanks for the tone control Mr. Huge.

Regards

RDV

[Lonestarjohnny]

Mr Hugh, I'm gonna run right down there and buy that Sucka, LOL !, I wished, But I do Love Leo and everything he stood for, I guess I'll be happy just owning one of Leo's Old Tweed Amp's,
JD

[petemoore]

With Real People names are becoming a thing of the past.
 It's sad to see, but everything is just becoming another 'commodity', even names that were synonamous with X product, X quality, X amount of coolness...like when a Name of a company meant a guy with standards.
 Everything that 'stood' for anything is being sucked into the vector of 'millenium finance'....[overstatement, but you begin to see that the era of 'private guys' running things is ending].
 There's still some small fry's that aren't seen as worth messing with {I guess]...some 'small' effect pedal producing companies come to mind.

[gtrmac]

The president of Fender denies that the company is for sale and says that the Price-Waterhouse consultation was only to assess the value of the company.

I hope that this is true. Fender seems to be doing well and making good guitars and amps these days. I would hate to see that change even though I have all the guitars and amps I will ever need.

Anyway, I am looking at getting another Gibson guitar these days. :wink:

[Bluesgeetar]

Bound to have happened sooner or later.  To many folks out there making Fender guitars better than Fender at a third of the price or more.  Then you have Fralin and others making pups better than Fender has made in 33 years.

Bolt on neck biz is super competitive.

If it wasn't for the bitch of a hell building of a set neck, Gibson would be in the same boat.

[troubledtom]

leo and i,
  were good friends for the last 10 yr's of his life, i was asked to play at his funeral in a baptist church, as i recall.
    look at the axe i'm playing.  :wink: :twisted:
      -  tom

[troubledtom]

try this.......
  http://www.troubledvariance.com/new.htm
        - tom

[RDV]

Nice Guit.

RDV

[javacody]

Actually, there is no setneck competition for Gibson because they have lots of lawyers, and for no other reason.

I find this particularly interesting, as Fender itself has purchased many failing guitar companies.

[Bluesgeetar]

Ah!  I see the error of my statement.  Let me reword my previous post.  There are many aftermarket guitar parts makers that make Fender bodies and necks and custom paints etc. much better than Fender does at 1/3 the price or more.  Then you have Fralin and others making pups better than Fender has made in 33 years.  :wink:

There I got it right that time.

Oh and you can custom order your neck sizes woods etc etc. etc.

A custom made guitar from Fender would bankrupt most folks.

www.warmoth.com

www.usacustomguitars.com    

[petemoore]

There's the Fender Legacy, no matter what happens to the company, it's workers, the modern products etc. The Fender Guitars and Amps will always hold the 'firsts status' as well as 'most copied' status.
 Thems was the days. It must have been Sooo cool to be involved in developing industry standard setting musical instruments that gained fantastic popularity that is now permanent record.
 These designs still dominate.
 Nothing lasts forever.
 Old Fender products have exemplary track records.

[sir_modulus]

hm.....If everyone pitched in $100, we just might be able to buy fender! Nah, it's probably just the solder fumes talking

[Mr.Huge]

Fender for sale?

Maybe not!

Fender Statement

[muizac]

lets face it,  fender guitars were, and still are, never anything more than a poor quality product thats mass produced at affordable prices. Tthe bolt on stanardised neck, the short neck pocket, the swimming pool size routing cavity, pickups mounted directly onto the scratchplate, the string saver to counteract the lack of pitch or neck relief, the lack of angle on the headstock, no bindings etc etc - its all designed to be cheap and cost effective

Don't get me wrong, Leo was a pioneer, the broadcaster is one of the first of its kind, but he actually revolutionised the guitar world through his manufacturing techniques- effectivly changing the design of the broadcaster to suit his manuafacturing methods - which was a stroke of genius - he could cut coners in production time and money, and churn out 10 times more guitars than the then hand made gibsons.

His amps are a differnet matter - quality through and through.

(hope this isnt contraversial)

[john1056]

Ah!  I see the error of my statement.  Let me reword my previous post.  There are many aftermarket guitar parts makers that make Fender bodies and necks and custom paints etc. much better than Fender does at 1/3 the price or more.  Then you have Fralin and others making pups better than Fender has made in 33 years.  :wink:

I don't know, I checked the prices and it looks like it could easily cost as much as a new strat to build one of these guitars.  Just the body and neck alone cost over $500 + finish + pickups + tuners ...

[john1056]

lets face it,  fender guitars were, and still are, never anything more than a poor quality product thats mass produced at affordable prices. Tthe bolt on stanardised neck, the short neck pocket, the swimming pool size routing cavity, pickups mounted directly onto the scratchplate, the string saver to counteract the lack of pitch or neck relief, the lack of angle on the headstock, no bindings etc etc - its all designed to be cheap and cost effective

I don't agree, I've played a ton of guitars and my (American) Strat is a higher quality instrument than most (all?) of them.  It also sounds better and is problem free (going on 15 years).

[muizac]

at the end of the day, whatever sounds good to you, sounds good  - end of story. . If youre happy with your sound then other peoples opinions dont mean much. Plenty of people have made careers playing fenders - jimi, srv -etc  although its interesting to note that kurt cobain is considered a brand embasador, when in fact he always said he played mustangs + jaguars becuase they were cheap and nasty (his words not mine, but i guess that added to their charm, plus they were readily available).

Personally, fenders dont do it for me, if I listen to a tym guitars mosrite re-make, a maton (any), a gillet guitar, or a pre 90's PRS - then there's no comparison whatsoever.  i guess the skill that has gone into finishing these guitars, the hand made quality etc only adds to their quality (and maybe sound).  I find that most of the guitars coming from the samik factory have a better build quality than US fenders nowadays,  (you wouldnt have thought it even 2 years ago) but their hardwear and pickups are still inferior.

btw- warmouth guitars - i've played 2 of them, one sounded very nice, although lacked personality, and the other played and sounded like crap becuase if was set up wrong. Warmouth arent that cheap then you consider everything, especially the finish (and buying a compressor for a lacquer). A cheaper option is to get a new korean guitar, buy some nice pups, a tonpro bridge, a bone nut, and some klusons

[Ben N]

The genius of Fender wasn't just finding a cost-efficient way to make guitars--it was finding a cost-efficient way to make GOOD guitars.  Which, of course, they have not always done, but I think that overall the current management has continued to put out pretty good quality stuff for the money.  It doesn't really make sense to make comparisons to Gibson or PRS, because their manufacturing techniques are so different.  But I know that for $400 I can get a passable Fender, and for $1300 I can get one that is really excellent, IMHO--great sounding, great playing, great looking.  If they can do that by bolting on a neck instead of setting it in, all the better.  I have not seen too many others, even similar bolt-ons, that do as well for the $$.  To me that is a real accomplishment, putting decent instruments in the hands of just folks, and not adding decimal points to the price just because they can, like a certain Nashville-based company which shall go nameless.  

I think it would be tragic for Fender to go public--look at what happened under CBS--so I hope that Schultz's denial of the sale rumour is true.

Ben

[Bluesgeetar]

Hey john1056!  I wanna shop where you shop!  Please tell me where I can get a actual Fender Strat with a one piece alder body with blue die color finished in urethane with a blue flower power pick guard and a custom 68 style neck with small nut width and big head with compound radius fret board jumbo frets sealed precision tuners soft V neck profile or maybe the Ibanez wizard profile (I don't know let me think about it) nice aged bone nut, and a set a Vintage style Lindy Fralin pickups.  

Now you please  let me know what number I got to call at Fender to get this baby for less than $900.  I will jump on it today!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well go ahead and throw in reversing the headstock with the dots still visible in a right hand format and reverse route the bridge and get Lindy to reverse stagger the pole pieces.  (all this is no extra charge by the way!)  I may just wanna go for that authentic Hendrix sound