Who Owns Fender

67plexi said:
I like my Fender guitars newest one 25 years old oldest one 69 years old. Fender amps only collect pre 1984
Click to expand...
In my case my oldest Fender " guitars" are my 1989 and 1990 Am Std Strats.
My newest Fender is around a 2010 Steve Harris " Made in Japan" P Bass.

My newest Fender products are my Squier Tele, Squier P and J Bass.
My other Fender gear are my 2 Amps, a Red Knob- The Twin and my Princeton Chorus Red Knob I am guessing these are late 80's.
 
I haven't owned a new Fender guitar in a while. Been probably somewhere around 15 years since I bought one, a Custom Shop Strat. Thing was shipped directly from Fender in Corona to my dealer in Redondo Beach and we opened it together. Out of the box there were drips in the finish and one of the fretboard dot inlays had popped. The setup was a bit wonky and the neck bolts were loose. Guys, this was a top-dollar CS guitar that got shipped a whopping 50 miles! I kept the thing with a discount for the finish and inlay issues but, that experience was for sure when I really started to sour on Fender, and as said it was the last I have owned. I have owned a couple of G&Ls since then and their stuff blows away anythhing Fender is doing these days, Custom Shop or otherwise.

(Sidebar: The Fender Custom Shop really irks me when I think about it. Fender guitars are widgets, designed to be mass produced by unskilled labor. Why does it now take a special department of the world's finest craftsment and luthiers to painstakingly recreate what a factory full of Mexican girls did in the '50s and '60s while they gossiped about what boy they liked? rant over)

I had a Princeton Reverb 3 or 4 years ago. It was OK but started to do some strange things after it had been on for a while that a tube swap didn't fix so I unloaded it. My Mark 5 had better "Fender" cleans anyway, ironically.
 
gball said:
I haven't owned a new Fender guitar in a while. Been probably somewhere around 15 years since I bought one, a Custom Shop Strat. Thing was shipped directly from Fender in Corona to my dealer in Redondo Beach and we opened it together. Out of the box there were drips in the finish and one of the fretboard dot inlays had popped. The setup was a bit wonky and the neck bolts were loose. Guys, this was a top-dollar CS guitar that got shipped a whopping 50 miles! I kept the thing with a discount for the finish and inlay issues but, that experience was for sure when I really started to sour on Fender, and as said it was the last I have owned. I have owned a couple of G&Ls since then and their stuff blows away anythhing Fender is doing these days, Custom Shop or otherwise.

(Sidebar: The Fender Custom Shop really irks me when I think about it. Fender guitars are widgets, designed to be mass produced by unskilled labor. Why does it now take a special department of the world's finest craftsment and luthiers to painstakingly recreate what a factory full of Mexican girls did in the '50s and '60s while they gossiped about what boy they liked? rant over)

I had a Princeton Reverb 3 or 4 years ago. It was OK but started to do some strange things after it had been on for a while that a tube swap didn't fix so I unloaded it. My Mark 5 had better "Fender" cleans anyway, ironically.
Click to expand...

The problems coming out of Fender CS simply are unbelievable.
 
I’m reading all these horror stories about Fender guitars. A few years ago I bought a MIM Strat. Well after warranty, I had a couple electronic issues. Used that as an excuse to do some mods and updates. I liked the guitar before… love it now. I know Fender uses cheap Chinese crap for their electronics. I also know Gibson uses the same junk parts in their $2000 Les Pauls. As in…. It’s been stated Gibson uses the same cheap pots in their upscale LP’s and SG’s that they put in their Epiphones. As for quality of build. I have zero issues. Maybe I got lucky.
 
iblive said:
As in…. It’s been stated Gibson uses the same cheap pots in their upscale LP’s and SG’s that they put in their Epiphones.
Click to expand...

No, there are Gibson-branded pots in them, which are quite different from the cheap ones in an Epiphone. No, they are not splurging - they are good quality but not fantastic, and I find that I need to replace them (at least the volume pots) somewhere between 5 and 10 years, but they are much better than the cheap metric pots in an Epi. The Gibson Custom Shop uses a different pot than Gibson USA and they are really nice.
 
gball said:
No, there are Gibson-branded pots in them, which are quite different from the cheap ones in an Epiphone. No, they are not splurging - they are good quality but not fantastic, and I find that I need to replace them (at least the volume pots) somewhere between 5 and 10 years, but they are much better than the cheap metric pots in an Epi. The Gibson Custom Shop uses a different pot than Gibson USA and they are really nice.
Click to expand...
That’s good to know since that’s not what I had read in a different forum….. by more than one person. Frankly. What you’re saying makes more sense.
 
Last edited:
gball said:
I haven't owned a new Fender guitar in a while. Been probably somewhere around 15 years since I bought one, a Custom Shop Strat. Thing was shipped directly from Fender in Corona to my dealer in Redondo Beach and we opened it together. Out of the box there were drips in the finish and one of the fretboard dot inlays had popped. The setup was a bit wonky and the neck bolts were loose. Guys, this was a top-dollar CS guitar that got shipped a whopping 50 miles! I kept the thing with a discount for the finish and inlay issues but, that experience was for sure when I really started to sour on Fender, and as said it was the last I have owned. I have owned a couple of G&Ls since then and their stuff blows away anythhing Fender is doing these days, Custom Shop or otherwise.

(Sidebar: The Fender Custom Shop really irks me when I think about it. Fender guitars are widgets, designed to be mass produced by unskilled labor. Why does it now take a special department of the world's finest craftsment and luthiers to painstakingly recreate what a factory full of Mexican girls did in the '50s and '60s while they gossiped about what boy they liked? rant over)

I had a Princeton Reverb 3 or 4 years ago. It was OK but started to do some strange things after it had been on for a while that a tube swap didn't fix so I unloaded it. My Mark 5 had better "Fender" cleans anyway, ironically.
Click to expand...
I think this sums up Robert's experiences. With the stumbles Gibson made in the last couple decades, I'd have thought that Fender might have done as much as possible to keep their house in order and ship shape in order to capitalize on the players who soured on Gibson. Now it seems that Gibson may have had a bit of a wake up call post Henry J, and kept better tabs on quality. At least Robert got a better instrument in his Gold top LP than he was getting in SG's or less expensive LP's.
 
And Fender may be shooting themselves in the foot.

As for me, I don't need a " perfect" guitar.

BUT, if I pay hundreds to thousands for an instrument, I want one that is worthy of those $$$$. And worthy to be used to perform music for fun or pay, whichever I seek to use the instrument for.

I may be too unpicky or just dumb enough not to know issues I don't know enough to look for or feel. Either that or just lucky enough to have wound up picking all decent instruments so far for myself.
 
Last edited:
chilipeppermaniac said:
I think this sums up Robert's experiences. With the stumbles Gibson made in the last couple decades, I'd have thought that Fender might have done as much as possible to keep their house in order and ship shape in order to capitalize on the players who soured on Gibson. Now it seems that Gibson may have had a bit of a wake up call post Henry J, and kept better tabs on quality. At least Robert got a better instrument in his Gold top LP than he was getting in SG's or less expensive LP's.
Click to expand...

I have one Hank J era guitar remaining, a 2016 LP Traditional, and it is without question one the the best guitars I have ever played or owned. But, it is not necessarily indicative of that time period as a whole, which is why its the only one left (although an honest debate could be had about what you got for the money with any of them). The biggest thing they were doing to shoot themselves in the foot, IMO, was changing the specs every year - that was a surefire recipe for disaster with a high-volume product that has so much hand labor involved.

I now have four Les Pauls that were built under the current ownership and each one has been flawless. They have upped their consistency game so substantially that I really have no problem buying online unseen and unplayed; they are that good. I had a LP Studio arrive last week and I cannot get over how badass the thing is (I kind of always wanted one of those studios from the '90s with gold hardware and Zzounds has an exclusive run of them). It clearly got just as much attention to detail and setup love as guitars costing 2-3 times more.
 
Gibson guitars are way over priced, and what you get for the money, nah not worth it to me. I have and can buy better quality of guitars that are more affordable and Canadian Made, not having to pay wages to the fat cat shareholders like Gibson does.

Godin guitars a private family owned and family run business, they care about your business, and it shows..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top