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Anyone know where Fender gets their wood from?

M

manic_mailman

Nov 3, 2008
8
0
bay area, ca
#1
I'm doing a project about commodity chains for my developmental studies class, and chose Fender guitars as my product. I've been researching online a bit, and came across the whole Corona/Ensenada stuff . . . I've got everything pretty much down, except for the source of Fender's woods. Do they buy directly from the source? Or do they outsource to lumber companies (in which case, I will need to dig a little deeper to find out where the lumber companies get their wood from)? Of course, I could make the (somewhat heinously false) assumptions that they would get Rosewood from India, Koa from Hawaii, Mahogany from Honduras, Ash from Central/Northeaster USA, etc. but this wouldn't work too well in academia.

I plan to call consumer relations at Fender tomorrow, but am just wondering if anyone here knows anything about this. It's a very fun project, and it's been really neat and all to find out how my future MIA jazz :D is made/from.
 
#3
A company like Fender is a large scale purchaser of lumber. They probably buy it in contract lots from brokers. They are probably very demanding with their specs in terms of the quality, dimension, and moisture content of the wood they buy.

For the guitar building and manufacturing field, wood can be bought either as a pre-converted specialty product, such as 1/4 inch thick fingerboard blanks, or in rough log or plank form. You'd have to ask Fender how they purchase. My guess is that they carefully research the potential supply source for every wood component on a guitar or bass so they can find the best intersection of price, quality, availability, and suitability.

So the specific point of origin for any piece of wood on a Fender instrument could vary from order to order or contract to contract. If you use general country of origin data like New Guinea for Paldao (used in the Victor Bailey acoustic basses), that is safe to state because it won't change.

Instead of Fender, it might be more interesting to research Martin Guitars. They buy and saw logs and planks all the time, it's a smaller scale operation, you can tour the plant and see them sawing the spruce and mahogany. I'll bet you can get a lot closer to the information you want quicker at Martin than Fender. Plus then you wouldn't have to go to the trouble to find out who makes the stock bent tuna can Fender bass bridges. The only reason to want to know where those bridges are made is so we can send up a couple of unmanned Predators to take out the facility.

Or maybe try Taylor Guitars, since Mr. Taylor himself is so passionate about wood and its dwindling sources around the planet. If you went to Taylor, you'd get the latest eco-enviro thinking on timber sustainability and usability along with the sources of supply info. They've been addressing the "life after the rosewood's all gone" issue for a while now.

Also, check in with Luthier Mercantile (LMI). They supply guitar woods to lots of instrument builders. Necks, fingerboards, tops backs and sides for acoustics, etc.
 
#5
When I was more in the FMIC loop, they were using at least five grades of alder blanks for MIM & MIA Stratocasters, for example.

They bought from many sellers and even changed wood species and internal grading according to market conditions. It was a rather complex process.
 
#11
i work at a big music store in VA Beach, and our bass department manager just got back from the west coast where he was invited to go on a tour of both the Fender American and Mexican plants. I will ask him tomorrow at work if he knows. He was just at the plants last week
 
#13
OK, I got the scoop today. 90% of the wood used comes from the American Pacific Northwest, however, in recent development, Fender has been looking at using cheaper quality woods outside of the US. One of the main reasons being, is that North American Maple is quickly being killed off and is becoming much more expensive.
 
#17
Holy War said:
OK, I got the scoop today. 90% of the wood used comes from the American Pacific Northwest, however, in recent development, Fender has been looking at using cheaper quality woods outside of the US. One of the main reasons being, is that North American Maple is quickly being killed off and is becoming much more expensive.
Click to expand...

Ahhh! It turns out that I had to choose a product in which manufacturing/production took place in a "developing country," or essentially, a country with HDI < .849, and on the list of G-77 . . . and Mexico does not qualify :( . . . I do appreciate the information and effort however, and it is surely nice to know!

Update: I decided to switch to doing Squier guitars, because I was able to come across many articles concerning Samick Musical Co., whom Fender outsources to in manufacturing the Squier Stratotcaster models. It turns out that Samick has a major factory located in Bogor, Indonesia--and coincidentally, Agathis, Spruce, Pine, etc. are all indigenous there (these are many of the woods that are used in lower level Squiers, especially Agathis)!

Also, the Indonesian has a most-favored nation status with the United States, so there are very few duty fees and/or tariffs when exporting to the United States . . . and it also turns out that the United States actually exports a fair amount of Eastern Hard Rock maple, Birdseye Maple, Ash, etc. to Indonesia, which further contributes to the open trade with Indonesia.

So, would be in the best interest for Fender to contract a company with big operations in Indonesia like Samick (there are also many other factors, including the stable value of the Indonesian dollar vs. the rising Chinese, Japanese, and Korean dollors, as well as low turnover rates with Indonesian workers, etc.) . . . it's some very interesting stuff . . .
 

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