Fender Mod Shop - Design Your Own Guitar ?

[NeverTheMachine]

Curious about these guitars .. I haven't been able to find much info. Where are they actually made? What model do they compare to? For instance, does a custom mod shop strat compare to a MIM, or MIA body, or Deluxe, pro, elite, etc. I suppose I could reverse engineer and figure it out, but does anyone have experience with these guitars.

 

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

Curious about these guitars .. I haven't been able to find much info. Where are they actually made?

 

Corona CA. As per their Mod Shop web page:

 

Once they select and approve features like color, pickups and hardware, builders will complete the guitar or bass in 30 days at Fender’s Corona, CA, factory.

 

What model do they compare to? For instance, does a custom mod shop strat compare to a MIM, or MIA body, or Deluxe, pro, elite, etc. I suppose I could reverse engineer and figure it out, but does anyone have experience with these guitars.

 

I haven't personally purchased or played one, so I really couldn't tell you. I suspect they're similar to a standard US model in terms of quality and features.

[DeepEnd]

. . . I haven't personally purchased or played one' date=' so I really couldn't tell you. I suspect they're similar to a standard US model in terms of quality and features.[/quote']

Seems like a reasonable assumption.

[1001gear]

Would gas if they offered a remove lower horn option.

[crustoleum]

no Supersonic

[WRGKMC]

Heck there's nothing to slapping a Fender together. I can rip one down to spare parts in 15 minutes and put it back together strung up and intonated in an hour tops.

 

That custom shop is where all the leftover parts from long assembly line runs wind up. Then they build short runs from the left over parts and charge you extra for the time it takes to slap them together.

 

Its actually a brilliant manufacturing move and a novel way of getting rid of all the left over parts from assembly line runs. The most you may need to do is give it a unique paint job and make sure the neck, body and parts aren't the same combinations used in assembly line runs. You can also try out unique parts developed for Fenders like nuts and bridges to see how players react. If a demand for those mods are created they simply issue them on an assembly line version.

 

My company does similar things with business equipment. Since all of it is connected to a business network, they same money using older less expensive technology in places where the older stuff is more then sufficient. For example the hard drives used are between 20 to 40G they are the same ones used 15 years ago and are too small for laptops or desktops now, so they use them as printer drives where documents get stored temporarily before printing. They also charge the original prices for them so they don't take a loss on their initial investment.

 

Most of your large electronic companies are headquartered in the orient where tax laws are different. They cant simply write off obsolete stock without taking a huge financial hit. The companies are usually family based and the owner of one company may have a brother in another company making widgets for him. Then when a product runs its course the widget maker may have all this left over stock.

 

The product maker hires engineers whose job is, to find ways of using up all the old stock in new products so there isn't any losses. Its nothing uncommon to open up a new piece of gear and see components with old dates on them. So long as the parts can meet the expected 8~10 year lifespan it only makes sense to use them up plus the small widget makers can stay in business and don't have to retool their factory and retrain workers every couple of years.

 

The custom idea was something Fender did long ago. Back when Fenders were sold out of music shops you could go through their catalog and pick out the various options you wanted like body color or the type of speakers you wanted in your amp and have it special ordered. It usually took awhile to get it but satisfied customers who wanted something they didn't see on the racks.

 

Fender had a thing for copying the Auto manufacturers. You could order a customized car with its body paint and options added. Fender even used auto paint to paint their guitars and if a customer wanted a guitar with a color that wasn't in stock they simply took one that was already finished and painted right over it without bothering to remove the old paint.

 

When CBS bought Fender they still had the custom ordering but after moving manufacturing to places like Japan and Mexico the custom order thing became impractical and died out. The company eventually woke up and realized it was the USA brand that made them the big bucks so they started manufacturing in the US again and the custom shop followed as part of that.

 

That division also handles what little R&D they produce. To be honest, when you add up all the innovations Fender has produced in the past 30 years you can fit them into a bottle cap. I think most of their ideas have been taken from musicians because of popular demand, not because they are trying to do something new. Fender has the Henry Ford syndrome. Ford resisted changes to his Model T line well after the competition had taken away most of his market share and nearly destroyed the company due to his obstinate pride.

 

Fender has known about major flaws with their instruments like the unshielded wiring problem causing hum for a long time. They know the cavity can be painted with shielded paint and grounded for $1 a guitar while keeping the unshielded wiring and that flaw would disappear in their new guitars overnight. Do they fix it? No. Does the manufacturer demonstrate they care about their customers needs by fixing that flaw in their product? not in my book. I've worked in customer service all my life and have to listen to customers bitch about products all day long.

 

Fender is a company that still suffers from its silver face era where they experimented too soon. They are beginning to break through and catch up with new amps but they haven't expanded their high end guitars with new models at all. This is where I give Gibson some credit. They too need some new models but they have at least issues many new ideas into the old.

 

Gibson pretty much gave up on the amps however which is a shame. The lab series were fine amps and a few of the classic amps were revived but most of those were too expensive for your typical musician to afford. They looked like and sounded like old mans jazz amps from the 50's which is exactly what they were. They need to partner up with a good amp company who can make great low cost amps and regain a market share there. It's a risk but nothing ventured, nothing gained. They need a full line from 100W down like Fender has. Their name can carry it through with the advertising muscle they have too. It simply needs to be a solid product kids want to show off while producing the kinds of sounds they want.