My Fender experience

jellyroll

I'm not an experienced guitarist.....more of a perpetual beginner .....but here is my Fender experience.....

I've always had a negative view of Fender. From afar, they just seem to cynically fill every price point with a range that is baffling to new guitarists. I didn't like the xenophobic smell attached to the tiering of Mexico vs Far East vs US made. Closer up, the more affordable instruments I tried seemed to have shoddy workmanship and overall lacked a quality feel. Made me think that it was done deliberately to plant the thought that to get a quality instrument you need to get a US made model. To me, a mid priced (not bottom end) item shouldn't have significantly poorer QC than a high end item, just perhaps fewer features or different components.

To add to my perception, my experience of owning a Blues Junior was very negative - I hated it for its shrill treble and hair trigger volume control.

So, Fender were just a company I had decided weren't for me. Until....

whilst my main guitar was a PRS DGT which I was more than happy with, I had quite a high value unused guitar kicking around (which I'd bought in a moment of insanity) and so I decided to trade it in against an instrument which might not replace my DGT as my No. 1 but would at least see some use. 

Bottom line - I got a CS Fender Strat recently which is GREAT and is now my No.1 guitar. It's not perfect but it is a really good instrument and it's made me rethink my view of Fender as a company. I'm still not sure what that revised view is exactly, but I do appreciate that they do make (at least 1) great instrument. 

monquixote

I deduce from this thread that you are not John mayer!

jellyroll

monquixote said:

I deduce from this thread that you are not John mayer!

)

mike_l

monquixote said:

I deduce from this thread that you are not John mayer!

More like John  Mayer's polar opposite.

BTW my Fender is not American made but is awesomesauce. A lot of the "You gotta buy American to get a good guitar", is from Americans who don't know any better. 

lustycourtier

mike_l said:

monquixote said:

I deduce from this thread that you are not John mayer!

More like John  Mayer's polar opposite.

BTW my Fender is not American made but is awesomesauce. A lot of the "You gotta buy American to get a good guitar", is from Americans who don't know any better. 

My No1 is a MIJ Gretsch. Now that confuses americans!

richardhomer

Most CS Fenders I have played have been great - most Relics are as good as all but the very best vintage examples.

It seems that Fender is going through a lot of change at present. My personal opinion is that it's perfectly valid to try to cover a wide range of price-points; it's good business acumen. I also think a lot of their cheaper guitars are very good too.

Then again, I'm old enough to remember Auditions (Woolworth's own-brand), Zentas, Hondos and various other horrors.... If you took a close look at some of those, I think you'd feel lower-end Fenders are pretty good.

GuyBoden

richardhomer said:

Most CS Fenders I have played have been great - most Relics are as good as all but the very best vintage examples.

It seems that Fender is going through a lot of change at present. My personal opinion is that it's perfectly valid to try to cover a wide range of price-points; it's good business acumen. I also think a lot of their cheaper guitars are very good too.

Then again, I'm old enough to remember Auditions (Woolworth's own-brand), Zentas, Hondos and various other horrors.... If you took a close look at some of those, I think you'd feel lower-end Fenders are pretty good.

I had a Woolworth's Kay guitar in the 1970's, terrible, terrible guitar, but I knew no better.

richardhomer

GuyBoden;379960" said:

I had a Woolworth's Kay guitar in the 1970's, terrible, terrible guitar, but I knew no better.

Quite! Frets finished with bastard files, actions so high you could play slide under the strings, plastic buttoned machines that didn't hold their tuning....

Complete rubbish.

And you try telling that to the kids of today - and they won't believe you!

GavRichList

I' think the disconnect between the original pre CBS company and that of today is a shame. Always surprises me that they don't seem to have any archived guitars etc, and basically have to source and buy vintage guitars to copy for reissues... And said reissues are never as accurate as I'd like... But I do love a fender. Every guitar ive ever loved has been fender. Some Mexican, some Japanese, some new U.S., some vintage. When they're right, they're better than anything in my opinion. Wouldn't swap my jag for ten Gibsons / Rics / PRS etc etc

Richardj

What I still like about current Fender production is that pretty much every guitar comes out of the factory well finished and ready to play. I really don't think that the frankly bewildering array of instruments available is healthy.  Too much choice etc.

Something that Gibson still falls well behind at is decent QC and that surprises and disappoints me.

I have however, personally, seen beyond the 'name' on the headstock.  I find that my Blade Texas Pro is at least the equal of a US Strat with better playability and versatility.  My Indonesian made G&L ASAT Classic is again superbly finished and feels and sounds excellent. I chose both of them over similar Fender guitars.

If all I wanted was for people to see me playing a Fender that is what I would have bought.  I had the choice and went with what I preferred playing.

This isn't anti Fender, they are still my first choice for a big name manufacturer, It just bothers me less these days having to have the big name.

Danny1969

GuyBoden said:

richardhomer said:

Most CS Fenders I have played have been great - most Relics are as good as all but the very best vintage examples.

It seems that Fender is going through a lot of change at present. My personal opinion is that it's perfectly valid to try to cover a wide range of price-points; it's good business acumen. I also think a lot of their cheaper guitars are very good too.

Then again, I'm old enough to remember Auditions (Woolworth's own-brand), Zentas, Hondos and various other horrors.... If you took a close look at some of those, I think you'd feel lower-end Fenders are pretty good.

I had a Woolworth's Kay guitar in the 1970's, terrible, terrible guitar, but I knew no better.

Yeah people forget us guys learning on Kays and Satellites and other shit basically had actions that rose to 1" by the time you got to the 7th fret and all the sustain of a piece of wet cardboard being flicked with a rubber band  

A far east Squire is a superb guitar in comparison

My Strats Japanese, an 84 Tokia and I prefer it to most of the USA strats I've played in terms of tone. 

Neil

The Fenders from USA, Mexico and China are all built to different price points so you can't really expect them to all be on a par. 

JDE

I think the Mexican Classic series, and some of the Mexican Deluxe guitars are the best solid bodies I've played under £800. Personally, I would prefer a good Classic 50s/60s Tele than a US Std.

I do think their line needs a prune - I'm sure the Pawnshop range and a few of the FSR lines are created to remove excess stock of certain parts, but if you've based your entire business practice on modular builds, then this isn't uncommon in any other industry, so I think it's justifiable, certainly. So what if I think the Jazzmaster body with Tele pickups (or whatever) is minging? I just won't buy one! You can't please everyone all the time, but whether my budget is 200, or 500, or 1000, or 3000 quid, I'm pretty sure I could get a decent Fender. Plus, if you have the time and skill, you can always get something pretty close and mod to your taste anyway. I'd much rather a Fender than a Gibson - if I wanted a Gibson derived shape, I'd look to Japan before Nashville, these days.

koss59

My favourite guitars are the custom shop Fenders and Gibsons that I currently own. However recently I've bought a Epiphone elitist casino which is made just as good and some would argue sounds better than my historic 335.

I also just got another jap tele and it was better than the master builds I tried on the same day

Alnico

Danny1969 said:

Yeah people forget us guys learning on Kays and Satellites and other shit basically had actions that rose to 1" by the time you got to the 7th fret and all the sustain of a piece of wet cardboard being flicked with a rubber band  

Thank you for making me genuinely smile. That's brilliant.

jellyroll

JDE said:

You can't please everyone all the time, but whether my budget is 200, or 500, or 1000, or 3000 quid, I'm pretty sure I could get a decent Fender. 

This wasn't my experience. I'm very happy with my CS strat.....but at the lower end of the market I found Fender to be quite poor compared to some other brands...PRS SE, Yamaha, etc. 

meltedbuzzbox

jellyroll said:

JDE said:

You can't please everyone all the time, but whether my budget is 200, or 500, or 1000, or 3000 quid, I'm pretty sure I could get a decent Fender. 

This wasn't my experience. I'm very happy with my CS strat.....but at the lower end of the market I found Fender to be quite poor compared to some other brands...PRS SE, Yamaha, etc. 

I am sure every brand has issues at price points. I personally haven't played a bad newly built fender or squier. Other than the fretwork I cant see what would be an outright issue really on a sub £500. 

Not to mention if you had £500 and you wanted a fender you would most likely go second hand and US. 

GuyBoden

Alnico said:

Danny1969 said:

Yeah people forget us guys learning on Kays and Satellites and other shit basically had actions that rose to 1" by the time you got to the 7th fret and all the sustain of a piece of wet cardboard being flicked with a rubber band  

Thank you for making me genuinely smile. That's brilliant.

And true

RaymondLin

So you still dislike Fender, just like expensive fender?

jellyroll

RaymondLin said:

So you still dislike Fender, just like expensive fender?

I've had good experiences with their high end stuff and bad experiences with their low end stuff. So, yes, pretty much. 

JDE

I think a lot of that depends on where you're trying them. If you take, say, a Squier Classic Vibe or MIM Std, a large shop probably takes 5 or 6 of them for every SE they stock. A local shop has about 15 MIM Std Strats/Teles in stock all the time, and they probably have 5 Epi LP Stds, a couple of Epi SG's maybe 3 Dots. I don't think that is particularly unusual for Fender dealers - I do think the big F tends to lean on it's dealers to carry more than they'd probably like to. I also think Fender and Squier enjoy a relatively brisk turnover, so the dogs in the shop tend to stick about longer - if I'm looking to buy and I try 5 Teles, I'm gonna buy the best one and leave the other 4.

Fwiw, I think the PRS SE's tend to be very well setup, at least the ones I've tried have been, but then they're not made in anywhere near the same quantities as the MIM Std range. Not saying it's acceptable - price and quality should always be roughly in line, but that's the difference between mass production and high production, IMO.