Rumormongering. Fender going to change the CV Squiers to Fender and raise prices?
- Thread starter Mark Wein
- Start date
What if its eating into the sales of the cheaper fenders like the mexi-strats?
Denverdave
Resident Ragamuffin
They had the same deal with the Korean Squiers (Pro Tone series) about 20 years ago. They were better guitars than the import lines that said 'Fender'. They just eliminated the line.
Lerxst
spaghetti and blankets
If that was the case, I don't think the move of raising the price and changing the name would really make sense unless they want to move fewer guitars. If that was happening, I would suspect they would just raise the price on the CV.
I don't know about that. Sounds like internet geek speak. Why would fender alter a working formula that is moving guitars, presumably at a profit, to bump the margins and then face a backlash from guitar players everywhere? Better to sell ten pieces at a 5 cent profit versus one at a 10 cent profit. Every person I've heard talking about these says that they are great guitars for the money, and they are amazed they are squires. Label them standards, and some of that appeal fades, as it would with raising the prices. I guess in short, why fuck it up?
true, although possibly they think folks want the instruments so much that they'll pay it? Or that in their bigger accounting picture the combination of stopping the losses of the lower line Fenders is worth it? It's all conjecture at this point and probably false but its fun to think about.
From what I understand thats why Gibson stopped production of the "The Paul" guitars after three years and the brought them back as lesser instruments...
Help!I'maRock!
Mediocringly Derivative
would anybody actually care if the MIM Standard line went away and was replaced by the CV line? i'm not so sure.
I never really cared that much about where a guitar was made, but more about how it played. I can't lump myself in with the zOMG 99 DOLLArz STraT CLOneS crowd, as most of those guitars actually suck. I wouldn't be a fan of just renaming them and increasing prices, but if fender raised the price point and put better stuff into them (like high end pickups, better fretwork, better hardware), then I would be interested.
My take on the MIMs have been hit of miss. My blackout tele is good, but not great. In contrast, my fender limited edition vintage player start is EPIC. The regular standards I have played never really struck me as that great.
My take on the MIMs have been hit of miss. My blackout tele is good, but not great. In contrast, my fender limited edition vintage player start is EPIC. The regular standards I have played never really struck me as that great.
as far as I can tell they have way too many models of their instruments at every possible price point. You could lose a few and no one would notice.
I'm pretty much the same way. I've bought guitars made in China and Korea this year but they aren't replacing my higher quality instruments that just happen to be made in the US.
BlackCat
American Greaser
Fender employees in the Mexican factory?
Help!I'maRock!
Mediocringly Derivative
they'll still have jobs working on all of the other, ever expanding, MIM lines. just not the standard.
Oh, and as for the Henry J. pic, I'm glad Fender has their shit together relative to Gibson. They seem to have been improving every year, rather than waffling like Gibson, who seems to ignore what people want and produce what the CEO wants. You would think a company would have people monitoring the web to see what players want, rather than trying to tell them what they want. Ten minutes on any guitar board would inform them of a lot of their product line issues. Rocker joints, multi piece backs, crappy book matches, QC issues, etc. Very few people want robots or MIDI crap, but they all want coil taps/splits that can make a stratum sound, good sounding pickups, and great necks/frets. They could probably make the faithful much happier with not much more money, even if they will never satisfy the haters. I love my Gibson guitars, but the corporate decisions of that company stupefy me.
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Lerxst
spaghetti and blankets
I honestly believe many people put various countries of origin into a pecking order (irrespective of the quality of a given instrument) and some people would rather buy a MIM than a MIC.
Help!I'maRock!
Mediocringly Derivative
perceptions change over time, and with quality. remember when MIMs were referred to as "tacocasters"? they got better.
yeah, I've seen this many times. I never quite got it, and attributed it to people who have a vision of places like Indonesia, China, Korea, and Malaysia as people living in a grass hut making guitars with a machete. Reality is very different, as anyone who has traveled in asia can tell you. Fender and other companies build there as they have better access to wood (legally and price wise), fewer restrictions on manufacturing, and a lower wage work force. It is just cheaper to make guitars there, and it ads to the profit margin, or allows you to hit a lower price point. The companies in these countries build to a set dollar target, so they add automation or less QC, or cheaper parts to hit the target...along with cheaper labor and massive scale of production savings. It is ridiculous to think, like many people do, that the people in these places can't build a guitar on par with any custom shop in the world, if they were allowed to spec a guitar for over a grand. I often wonder if these people who shit on Indonesian guitars have ever seen the skyline of Jakarta, or any of the massive cities in the countries they think are full of grass huts. The whole thing has a tinge of racial overtones that I don't want to get into, but it is just silly.