6 new Strats? Seriously?

[Gravity Jim]

To celebrate the 60th year of the World's Greatest Electric Guitar, Fender is telling me (and all of you, I'm sure) via e-mail that they're releasing SIX new Strats, one commemorating each decade.

What configurations can possibly be left to produce at this point? How can there possibly even BE six "new" Strats?

Meanwhile, Gibson finally produced one perfect SG Standard for 2013, and then failed to offer the guitar in Heritage Cherry for 2014. Which is, like, insane.

Sometimes I seriously wonder what the hell happened to these guitar companies.

[phantomman]

Sometimes I seriously wonder what the hell happened to these guitar companies.

The explanation is likely a simple one......none of the bozo's driving the corporate buses are guitarists or have the slightest clue as to what the potential clientele for such instruments might actually buy.

Omitting cherry red as an optional finish for a commemorative SG is just as blasphemous as offering a maple-necked '69 Strat re-issue in every conceivable color except Olympic White.

IOW.....WTF WERE YOU THINKING, GIBSON???

[ch willie]

Gibson is releasing a shite load of mid-priced Les Pauls that nobody is going to want.

When corporate dicks run guitar production, it's all about sucking the most profit out of the least amount of labor and materials. The bottom line is much more important than we are.

[ES345]

Hey there in the business of sellin.

I pretty much stopped buying a few years ago, my last strat is a good one, an EJ, so i've been done since then and the foreseeable future.

If i can't do it on the EJ, i can't do it. lol

[Gravity Jim]

Well, I haven't purchased a new Fender product since I screwed up and bought (apparently in some kind of stupor brought on by a minor and brief overdose of money) a Blues Junior, like, 15 years ago. I've been playing the same Warmoth Strat for almost that long.

I did buy a new 2013 SG, and it's a beaut. But I just can't believe that Gibson got the guitar right (shape, color, pickups, neck carve, headstock, the whole nine) for exactly one year and then changed the line. I suspect they made my guitar an instant collectible, but I don't care about that... I just can't fathom why they wouldn't offer an SG in Cherry. I mean....

If I had gone into MI marketing with a guitar company, at this point I would either be effortlessly crushing my competition or (much more likely) frustrated beyond imagination at the things they made me do.

[Don]

I thew that e-mail away. I gotta get my name removed from their mailing list!

[Gravity Jim]

I thew that e-mail away. I gotta get my name removed from their mailing list!

Sometimes I wonder if we couldn't revitalize this forum with a change of focus and a corresponding name change. We all love Fender's designs, but none of us seem especially crazy about their products. We're really a group of guitar players with an emphasis on sounding good using good amplifiers and effects, not a clutch of FMIC fans.

[Doc W]

Hey there in the business of sellin.

I pretty much stopped buying a few years ago, my last strat is a good one, an EJ, so i've been done since then and the foreseeable future.

If i can't do it on the EJ, i can't do it. lol

You are a wise man. IMHO, the EJ Strat is the best buy possible from Fender. It plays like a vintage Strat and sounds fabulous. I realize it is not for everyone, particularly with the 12 inch radius, but seriously, for what you get, they could charge CS prices. It is a really well-made guitar.

A few weeks ago, I was with a friend who wants to buy his first Strat. We tried a bunch, including a pretty expensive CS Strat and a stock EJ. I like doing blindfold tests so I closed my eyes and did not peek while he handed me both Strats several times. I deliberately avoided the obvious differences (angle of the whammy bar, relic'd paint, etc.). Honestly, there was not a lot of difference between the two and I could not rate one over the other. They both felt great and sounded great. Oh, sorry, there was one big difference: the EJ was 2K (Canadian) and the CS was 4k. Maybe I should have included a Road Worn in the blindfold test, just for the helluvit.

However, you are also the reason why Fender keeps making zillions of models. You are a satisfied customer and that is a bad thing. They need you to be perpetually desirous of new guitars. They need you to have serious GAS!

[ch willie]

Don't get me wrong. I think Fender is putting out great quality guitars, and I love mine. But something as simple as offering a Mexican or AmStd Tele with a rosewood neck for lefties--just not done. There's no good reason that they can't slap a rosewood fb on the necks they're making with the maple fb. I like the products that I can get, and I understand that they cannot produce for a limited market. Still, the rosewood fb wouldn't require extra costs and it wouldn't require any significant change in production.

[Gravity Jim]

Credit Where It's Due: a Facebook post by Gibson shows that the list of SG finishes is now six colors, not four, and both Heritage Cherry and Walnut (not my fave but I know a lot of guys have a strong attachment to it) are included.

[phantomman]

Credit Where It's Due: a Facebook post by Gibson shows that the list of SG finishes is now six colors, not four, and both Heritage Cherry and Walnut (not my fave but I know a lot of guys have a strong attachment to it) are included.

They must have an infiltrator planted on this forum.

[DanD]

The explanation is likely a simple one......none of the bozo's driving the corporate buses are guitarists or have the slightest clue as to what the potential clientele for such instruments might actually buy.

...

+1

Gibson seem to take the "throw it at the wall and see if sticks" approach.

They also keep undercutting their own sales by offering lower and lower end 'Gibson' guitars. At some price point they should be Epiphones...

Kaman and Fender watered down Hamer doing the same thing. The imports and lower end gits shoulda' never had 'Hamer' on the
headstock.

Fender went out and did their best to buy up the competition and systematically run those companies into the ground. Hamer and Tacoma being two examples.

Sad part about it is if these companies go under guitar prices will go up.

[phantomman]

Fender went out and did their best to buy up the competition and systematically run those companies into the ground. Hamer and Tacoma being two examples.

Let's not forget Sunn and SWR.