Local store has a killer Indonesian Squire jazz bass they can't seem to sell. Waiting until they are desperate to get rid of it. I don't NEED another a bass, unless it's a sunburst P with a tort guard.
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Fender Japan is gone :(
- Thread starter GazzBass
- Start date
Man, that really bites. We're planning to go to Japan for our honeymoon next year and I was going to bring back a new MIJ Fender as a souvenir. 
I picked up a lefty MIM J off GC's used page for fairly cheap ($399, not sure whether that's really a deal or not?). Quite impressed with the quality and condition of it, much better than I really expected, virtually new, other than a small ding and scrape on the bottom side edge. Put together quite well. Now restrung righty, of course!
Have yet to drill the hole for the new strap button, almost seems a shame to, given the near perfect condition it's in. Better than I expected, honestly.
My reading is that the Japanese company licensed the Fender name and designs and then farmed the work out to Fujigen and others. If the workers work on basses under different names (as even Fujigen, Matsumoko and others have done over the years) then there might not be much impact on the workers, just a slight difference in style. If the Japanese company was feeling the pinch that is not good, and maybe stopping licensing the Fender brand is cost saving on their part, and that would be more worrying for those employed.
Alternatively they might just feel that licensing the brand isn't offering them enough value compared to making their own products if that is largely serving a domestic market. Yamaha has made a number of classic designs over the year and done well with their own brand, as has Tokai, and other Japanese brands (Korg, Roland, Zoom) do well in their own right in other parts of the music business.
Fender recently did an IPO and some refinancing, like 2013, and part of that involved Fender Japan. They were indicating they were going to use that money to buy out the partnership. I haven't seen any final documents on it, yet. Going Deep Google is time consuming.
Why would anyone outside of the bean counters want to stop basses like this being made?
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WOW.
With all due respect, you've just crossed the line from being conveniently shortsighted to being subtly racist...
What exactly do you think is going on in China right now?
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I agree. However, what I, personally, will miss are the cool and/or beautiful designs and options that FMIC (stateside) can't or won't make. Just by doing a side-by-side comparison the Fender Japan offerings and the current runs by the stateside, you'll see a tremendous difference in mind-set. Certainly, all are recognizably "FENDER", but the esthetic grooves run off into different territories.
I wish I could chalk my response up to "SARCASM". Unfortunately, it falls under "VERIFIABLE FACT". So, here goes…
"Yeah, man! Don't buy that Japanese car (that was built and assembled by American hands here in The States)! Instead, buy that American car (that was built by Mexican hands after the U.S. assembly plants were shut down to increase the profits by the top company officers)!!
EDIT/ADDENDUM: Make that, "…that was built by Mexican hands after the U.S. assembly plants were shut down to increase the profits by the top company officers…with massive pay raises and bonuses for them…gleefully glad-handing themselves while putting thousands of American blue collar employees out of work". That's a bit more accurate, no?
Point being, a rat is still a rat, no matter how many Red, White & Blue Brooks Brothers suits they wrap themselves up in.
/rant
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I have had several USA Fenders in the past, all from the 70s (when I was young and could splurge on basses) but--strictly my opinion--my '14 MIM Jazz fretless is the best one I've owned yet. 8.5 lbs. and nary a flaw anywhere. As for the China thing, I teach Global Economics for a living, but won't get started here...
So glad I picked up a used P/J Aerodyne from a TB'r here recently. It's blue with matching head stock, cream binding, such a nice bass. Its too bad Fender continues to make these poor decisions...
There's nothing wrong with speaking from the heart. I, for one, hold sincerity in the highest esteem. But there's a difference between "speaking from the heart" and "knee-jerk dogma".
But, back to the thread as it was initially intended…
Are you kidding?! Gimme more! MORE, I SAY!!
In terms of company ownership things can get very complex. A company which sounds like it was once from a particular country might now be multiple companies with totally different ownerships in different countries just sharing a name. And then there are multiple brand names that are the same company.
So glad I picked up a used P/J Aerodyne from a TB'r here recently. It's blue with matching head stock, cream binding, such a nice bass. Its too bad Fender continues to make these poor decisions...
It's not impossible that with (what might be) FMIC buying back the name in Japan that it might have bought the rights to manufacture the designs such as the Aerodyne elsewhere in the world.
Are you toasting marshmallows in the glow of burning books, by any chance?
