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Fender is struggling


Synthaholic

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It's about creds. They debuted a few classic guitar designs. If I walk onstage with a Fender Telecaster in my hands, anyone who cares knows I play the real thing. It's part of the presentation. I've been thinking about getting a strat or tele lately and (though I buy used, not new) I'd gladly pay three-to-five-times as much for a USA Fender over an Asian brand. I'd be more ambivalent about buying a North American boutique brand like G&L or Godin or any of the myriad others--I believe in supporting small business at home. But they still don't say Fender on the headstock, even if they're actually better guitars.

 

On the other hand, I wouldn't touch Fender acoustics with a barge pole.

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I think the accordion analogy is an apt one.

 

The popular life and death of musical instruments is always tied to the popularity of styles of music. I don't think this is the death knell for the electric guitar as an instrument, but I can think of at least three factors working against Fender:

 

1. Rock (and electric guitar based music in general) just isn't as hugely popular as it used to be. Let's face it. Most kids these days listen to over-produced techno pop and hip hop, both of which have moved stylistically in the direction of electronica over the last 12 years.

 

2. Fewer kids are picking up the electric guitar as a serious instrument. It takes discipline. There just aren't as many teenagers dreaming about playing like Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, and Jeff Beck. This generation doesn't even HAVE guitar gods anymore.

 

3. Fender now has to share the market with a LOT more guitar makers than they did 25-50 years ago. People are looking past the Fender mystique and realize that a lot of other guitar makers can put out really nice guitars that sound as good as a strat or even better for less money.

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2.
Fewer kids are picking up the electric guitar as a serious instrument.
It takes discipline. There just aren't as many teenagers dreaming about playing like Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, and Jeff Beck. This generation doesn't even HAVE guitar gods anymore.

 

 

I think it was a comedian who made the observation that if kids spent as much time learning guitar as they do playing Guitar Hero, they might actually become guitar heroes.

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That was a very interesting article and also some interesting commentary here by everyone.

 

As an adult, I have always gone for value and function over name, but when I was a kid, at least where I lived and with those I knew, it was all about Gibson and Fender, depending on the bands you liked and your personal image of what you imagined yourself playing. Rickenbacker was on the table for bass players thanks to Chris Squire and Geddy Lee, but for six-stringers in my area it was all about those two brands. I suppose this speaks to the (real) guitar hero / idol. In my case it was Alex Lifeson and Steve Howe so Gibson was it. I saved for an entire summer to buy a new 1982 ES335 and still own it. My first guitar, however, was a 1972 Fender Telecaster Delux that my mom and dad bought for me to go along with a family classical guitar that I was using for lessons. It was a {censored}ty guitar, but after some small upgrades and inexpensive fixes (e.g. a new nut to replace the factor one that had non-uniform string separation) it turned out to be functional. I took real jazz and theory-oriented lessons and was very, very serious about it. I have to agree that thirty years ago, there were many more kids, at least in my area, who were serious about learning to play guitar like a professional - you know wanting to become a real gigging or studio musician. The conservatory where my son studies piano has about 20 piano teachers and two guitar teachers. A coworker's son studies classical guitar there, but he told me that music has not caught fire in him the way it did for us when we were kids. I suppose "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink".

 

Having owned guitars covering a spectrum of prices and builders and also having had a few fail in various ways due to workmanship and materials issues, I think there is definitely something to say about choosing a builder and an instrument model (some models by the same builder are designed better or worse - independent of cost). However there is definitely a steep mark-up associated with buying a new Fender or Gibson relative to what I would say is the true value of the instrument. I am not sure if it is still true, but 10 years ago a used G&L Standard was in my opinion the best value in an electric guitar. You could pick up a "low milage" used Legacy, ASAT, or s500 in a transparent finish on swamp ash for about $650 to $700, or about 50% to 60% of the new price. The hardware and build quality is top notch - extremely solid. If you were careful, it was also possible to pick up a used Fender American Delux Strat or Tele in a similar price range. I actually owned a Strat and a s500 at the same time. They sounded and played very similarly, but I ended up keeping the s500 and selling the Strat. I still own the s500 and also an ASAT Delux; two guitars that I bought used (at different times) for the same combo price as a new American Delux Strat.

 

What could Fender do to recover? I am not so sure but I have lots of wacky ideas like quality control and a lower price for an American-made guitar and accept a small margin for a while - go in for the long haul at a lower rate of return. Perhaps stop flooding the market with cheap guitars and work at creating a demand for quality American-made instruments using methods similar to Nintendo for creating a demand for game consoles. Perhaps create an "American Guitar Here" show like "American Idol". Concentrate on demographics like people my age (late 40's to early 50's) who might be established, have a mid-life crisis, and want to get into guitar playing. Make it cool with the X-ers, boomers, and retirees to buy and play guitars in groups, take lessons in retirement or as empty-nesters, etc. I could go on and on.

 

Wow I just took a look at my ramblings and realized they are long ramblings - quite an editorial - probably a "TL/DR" for most. I suppose that is what you get for a Monday morning coffee time read here at HC :D

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They need to shrink their product line. Not every moron who ever got a record contract needs his own signature model. Go back to the basic models made from the classic woods and finishes. Those are the only ones that are worth a damn anyway.

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i linked up with an old friend and collaborator of mine over the weekend. we used to jam out on like the early forms of daws and pluggo. anyways, we were just talking about how the new guitar is a laptop and headphones. maybe its a sign of the times ?

 

i'm curious if anyone here is familiar with the whole emo-indy-hipster thing. i totally blame them for killing anything that was awesome about rock and roll and yes, as everyone gets older they say stuff like that but really at least my generation in the 90s increased guitar sales.

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