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Fender predictions for 2024?

#83
MtManiac said:
Fender seems to refresh their standard/mid-range American-made line every four years:

2008-2012 - the new American Standard, with several changes over the 2007 and earlier model. Bridge, tuners, finish, end of S-1 switch

2012-2016 - American Standard with Custom Shop pickups

2017-2020 American Professional with the unpopular pickups and very popular 63 C neck profile, tall narrow frets, fluted tuner shafts.

2020-present - awkwardly named American Professional II, with the much improved and also awkwardly named VMod II pickups, Super Natural neck finish, slightly more rolled fretboard edges.

The American deluxe line followed a similar refresh timeline: Deluxe, Elite, Ultra.

Since 2024 marks the 4th year for the current model, any predictions whether it will be replaced in 2024, and if so, with what?

My predictions:

- yes it will be replaced, it will have a price increase, and many TB members will complain about how greedy they are and how the new name is “just marketing”

- the 5-bolt neck joint will remain the standard

- fluted tuner shafts will be replaced with something else

- the bridge will change, possibly Fender will start using the Ultra “badass” style bridge, or maybe the bridge on both the deluxe and standard lines will change to something new

- Dark Night finish will either be replaced with another “new black” or expanded so that you can get either rosewood or maple in the 4- and 5-string P models. Or possibly they’ll discontinue the rosewood option for Dark Night and make it maple for both.

- Miami Blue will go away

- a new red finish will be introduced, or possibly a reissue of candy cola (a “dark night candy cola” burst would be really cool, not a prediction, just wishful thinking)

- roasted maple necks will be introduced as an option

- a new pickup will be introduced, something puportedly heavily influenced by vintage pickup tones. This will fail to be satisfactory to nearly all TB Fender fans, until it’s a year or two old, and then someone will discover changing their strings made a huge difference and everyone will start buying those strings whether or not they have this pickup, but the pickup will be discontinued in 2028 to be forever lamented as “one of the best,” and then be reissued in 2030.

Whoops, maybe got a little carried away with that last one.

- the 5-string P will retain the VMod II pickup, not because people want it, but because Fender doesn’t like the idea of 5-string P basses in general so they won’t bother changing any more than they have to to just be consistent with the rest of the lineup. (q.v. the retention of the same P V pickup from 2008-2016, skipping over the CS62).

Also, since it’s 2024, there will be a 70th anniversary badging on the Strat models, and maybe a 1954 P bass reissue.

Anyone else have any predictions for Fender for 2024?
Click to expand...

What about the same title in "Amps and Cabs"? Anyone wanna do it and mention prices increases? :laugh:
 
#84
multiscale, carbon fiber, half fretless, just intonated, double neck, sliding pickup, piezo nut, headless, bodyless, neckless, see-through tuners, gimbaled antigravity stap button, compound concave radius fingerboard, edible-gold foil pickups, “brooklyn” style bridge, overwound strings, inverted quasi-hollow double offset contoured, Precision Bass available in Olympic white and Fiesta red
 
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#85
blastoff said:
multiscale, carbon fiber, half fretless, just intonated, double neck, sliding pickup, piezo nut, headless, bodyless, neckless, see-through tuners, gimbaled antigravity stap button, compound concave radius fingerboard, edible-gold foil pickups, “brooklyn” style bridge, overwound strings, inverted quasi-hollow double offset contoured, Precision Bass available in Olympic white and Fiesta red
Click to expand...

Now, you're talking :)!
 
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#86
For me, first and foremost is dealing with the aftershocks from this . . . .

Fender had almost $100 million of retail sales cancelled in 2022 as post-pandemic demand crunch hit sector and guitars “were no longer the priority” | MusicRadar

. . . . and dealing with the financial health of their biggest online and/or brick and mortar retailers. You have to remember that WE are NOT their customers by and large: Guitar Center, Sweetwater, and all the rest along with the remaining local stores have a far bigger say in the price points and features of what they can sell than any of us carping about this or that on THIS year's version of the same-old, same-old.

I will say that Fender certainly has the capability to make their own Sadowsky or Lull or Bacchus type 'Fender-Shaped-Object' undercutting that competition, and why they never have is beyond me.

They (like Gibson) are in the remarkable position of trying to balance 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' and advancing their products. I don't envy them.
 
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#88
Maybe a P bass in tobaccoburst.

sddefault.jpg
 
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#89
MtManiac said:
Fender seems to refresh their standard/mid-range American-made line every four years:

2008-2012 - the new American Standard, with several changes over the 2007 and earlier model. Bridge, tuners, finish, end of S-1 switch

2012-2016 - American Standard with Custom Shop pickups

2017-2020 American Professional with the unpopular pickups and very popular 63 C neck profile, tall narrow frets, fluted tuner shafts.

2020-present - awkwardly named American Professional II, with the much improved and also awkwardly named VMod II pickups, Super Natural neck finish, slightly more rolled fretboard edges.

The American deluxe line followed a similar refresh timeline: Deluxe, Elite, Ultra.

Since 2024 marks the 4th year for the current model, any predictions whether it will be replaced in 2024, and if so, with what?

My predictions:

- yes it will be replaced, it will have a price increase, and many TB members will complain about how greedy they are and how the new name is “just marketing”

- the 5-bolt neck joint will remain the standard

- fluted tuner shafts will be replaced with something else

- the bridge will change, possibly Fender will start using the Ultra “badass” style bridge, or maybe the bridge on both the deluxe and standard lines will change to something new

- Dark Night finish will either be replaced with another “new black” or expanded so that you can get either rosewood or maple in the 4- and 5-string P models. Or possibly they’ll discontinue the rosewood option for Dark Night and make it maple for both.

- Miami Blue will go away

- a new red finish will be introduced, or possibly a reissue of candy cola (a “dark night candy cola” burst would be really cool, not a prediction, just wishful thinking)

- roasted maple necks will be introduced as an option

- a new pickup will be introduced, something puportedly heavily influenced by vintage pickup tones. This will fail to be satisfactory to nearly all TB Fender fans, until it’s a year or two old, and then someone will discover changing their strings made a huge difference and everyone will start buying those strings whether or not they have this pickup, but the pickup will be discontinued in 2028 to be forever lamented as “one of the best,” and then be reissued in 2030.

Whoops, maybe got a little carried away with that last one.

- the 5-string P will retain the VMod II pickup, not because people want it, but because Fender doesn’t like the idea of 5-string P basses in general so they won’t bother changing any more than they have to to just be consistent with the rest of the lineup. (q.v. the retention of the same P V pickup from 2008-2016, skipping over the CS62).

Also, since it’s 2024, there will be a 70th anniversary badging on the Strat models, and maybe a 1954 P bass reissue.

Anyone else have any predictions for Fender for 2024?
Click to expand...

You put more effort into this than Fender probably does.
 
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#94
MtManiac said:
Fender seems to refresh their standard/mid-range American-made line every four years:

2008-2012 - the new American Standard, with several changes over the 2007 and earlier model. Bridge, tuners, finish, end of S-1 switch

2012-2016 - American Standard with Custom Shop pickups

2017-2020 American Professional with the unpopular pickups and very popular 63 C neck profile, tall narrow frets, fluted tuner shafts.

2020-present - awkwardly named American Professional II, with the much improved and also awkwardly named VMod II pickups, Super Natural neck finish, slightly more rolled fretboard edges.

The American deluxe line followed a similar refresh timeline: Deluxe, Elite, Ultra.

Since 2024 marks the 4th year for the current model, any predictions whether it will be replaced in 2024, and if so, with what?

My predictions:

- yes it will be replaced, it will have a price increase, and many TB members will complain about how greedy they are and how the new name is “just marketing”

- the 5-bolt neck joint will remain the standard

- fluted tuner shafts will be replaced with something else

- the bridge will change, possibly Fender will start using the Ultra “badass” style bridge, or maybe the bridge on both the deluxe and standard lines will change to something new

- Dark Night finish will either be replaced with another “new black” or expanded so that you can get either rosewood or maple in the 4- and 5-string P models. Or possibly they’ll discontinue the rosewood option for Dark Night and make it maple for both.

- Miami Blue will go away

- a new red finish will be introduced, or possibly a reissue of candy cola (a “dark night candy cola” burst would be really cool, not a prediction, just wishful thinking)

- roasted maple necks will be introduced as an option

- a new pickup will be introduced, something puportedly heavily influenced by vintage pickup tones. This will fail to be satisfactory to nearly all TB Fender fans, until it’s a year or two old, and then someone will discover changing their strings made a huge difference and everyone will start buying those strings whether or not they have this pickup, but the pickup will be discontinued in 2028 to be forever lamented as “one of the best,” and then be reissued in 2030.

Whoops, maybe got a little carried away with that last one.

- the 5-string P will retain the VMod II pickup, not because people want it, but because Fender doesn’t like the idea of 5-string P basses in general so they won’t bother changing any more than they have to to just be consistent with the rest of the lineup. (q.v. the retention of the same P V pickup from 2008-2016, skipping over the CS62).

Also, since it’s 2024, there will be a 70th anniversary badging on the Strat models, and maybe a 1954 P bass reissue.

Anyone else have any predictions for Fender for 2024?
Click to expand...

I've petitioned them for a lineless, dotless, fretless Jazz neck.
 
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