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Fender Lame-o American design experience Fail
- Thread starter Kirk Bryant
- Start date
I'll probably get banned for this but I'm going to say it anyway. There are other companies out there other than Fender and it's OK to purchase, play and enjoy them. If Fender doesn't do your bidding there is someone else out there that will, I almost guarantee it. I know having the Fender name on the headstock is a huge deal to people but it seems to cause more torment for people than it's worth(from my perspective anyway).
Ever heard of the concept of tempering your expectations?
The Fender American Design Experience offers instruments designed to the customers specifications at a sub $2000 price point. There are certainly some expectations that come along with what people perceive to be a custom instrument. But in this case Fender is offering a set of options that fit within this $1.5K - $2K price structure. And given the pricing that Fender has set up for this program, relative to their current product line, I think that what Fender is offering is reasonable. Would I personally like to see more color options? Sure. But there have to be some limits so that Fender can offer a program like this and *GASP* have a business venture that is profitable.
Want more than Fender is willing to offer at this price point? Then go another route. Go with one of the countless companies that make Fender clones. Or pony up the cash for a Fender Custom Shop build. You have a choice here. Choose to go with the options that Fender offers through the American Design Experience or don't. The odds are that if you want more pickup configurations, custom colors, custom pickguards, or exotic woods YOU WILL HAVE TO PAY FOR THAT.
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Where Fender in involved, tempering my expectations is the norm
OK, I am kind of sort of joking. They have some lovely basses, but lately they seem to be trimming entire lines and narrowing what their stock options even moreso than in the past. Looking at their site, I used to get the feeling of "oh, wow, that's 95% of what I want". Now it's "hmmmm. 60% of the way there. Time to do a custom build with parts from elsewhere"
Not sure if that's more a function of them changing, or me fossilizing as I get older. It's their business, and their business model. Because it doesn't work for me, that doesn't make it bad.
Still, though, I think they might benefit more from moving the semi-custom stuff more towards the middle ground between catalog and custom shop. If a body, neck, pickups, whatever is already coming off the production line and doesn't need any modification to be slapped together it would seem fairly straightforward to make those options available.
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I've enjoyed your posts, Nobody. You will be missed.
It's almost like Nobody is saying that the sound coming out of the bass is more important than that little sticker!! Heathen!!
*collapses onto fainting couch*
There have been several threads on this in the past. I remember posting about my frustration with only being able to put certain Jazz necks on a P body, for no apparent reason, even though they were in the mix for Jazz bodied creations. Fender could have made this a "Custom Shop Lite" kind of thing, but they chose to take this very limited approach. It is what it is. As others have said, there're lots of other options out there.
I was really excited when they launched the website, all I wanted was more color options but they only offer the same boring colors, I was hoping that Fender will improve this concept when they received some feedback from the customers but it seems to be that the project is already abandoned..
Sorry but the OP did not wanted an accordion, that will be the equivalent to your example.
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What is equally lame is complaining about something without knowing how to spell it.
I had a sub-par experience there. They overstuffed my bear, they didn't have the nose I wanted, and there were only 6 outfits available. I am super pissed!
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That is a beauty. I don't know why I remember no jazz necks for P bodies, but I hadn't been there for a while, so it's entirely possible I had brain fail.
Though going back this morning, I do notice no rosewood with pearloid blocks for the P bodies, even though they are available for the J bodies. Weird.
