Fender up to their tricks again?

[leschirons]

Just seen the ad for their new range of Squiers. A 40 year anniversary tribute range to their entry level instruments that in their words, were introduced after calls to "make Fender designed products available at affordable prices"

 

They're £500

I've contacted Fender to suggest they call it the "Irony" series😉

Edited October 13, 2022 by leschirons

[NancyJohnson]

With all the big makers, it's all so much about the RE; reinvention, reinterpretation, reissuement, rerendering, rebranding and renaming.  If Fender were a car manufacturer, they'd be making eight ton vehicles based on 50s specs that returned ten miles a gallon, but they'd be called stuff like The Starliner Deluxe Tribute.

 

 

[fretmeister]

It's offending me less than the £15,000 Phil Lynott precision.

 

But it's still taking the fosters.

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

1 hour ago, leschirons said:

Just seen the ad for their new range of Squires. Squiers.

Fixed.

[Cato]

I'm not sure how much the first Squires cost, but according to the B of E inflation calculator £200 in 1980 is the equivalent of £765 today.

 

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator

 

So shocking as it initially sounds £500 for a new Squier today may actually be a real terms price decrease.

 

 

Edited October 13, 2022 by Cato

[MacDaddy]

Are Bono and The Edge still on the Fender board?

If so they must have had some input into this?

[MacDaddy]

2 minutes ago, Cato said:

I'm not sure how much the first Squires cost, but according to the B of E inflation calculator £200 in 1980 is the equivalent of £765 today.

 

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator

 

So shocking as it initially sounds £500 for a new Squier today may actually be a real terms price decrease.

 

 

 

But the Squiers in 1980 were Japanese made (with a Fender logo) and by all accounts just as good or better than the USA Fenders.

[asingardenof]

1 hour ago, Cato said:

I'm not sure how much the first Squires cost, but according to the B of E inflation calculator £200 in 1980 is the equivalent of £765 today.

 

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator

 

So shocking as it initially sounds £500 for a new Squier today may actually be a real terms price decrease.

 

 

I bought my Korean Squier by Fender P-bass in 1998 for £230 (well, it was £180 after a part-exchange of my first bass, a Hohner Rockwood Pro), which according to that website is £398 in today's money. The non-Affinity and non-anniversary Squier P-basses listed on Fender's website are all around £400, so it would seem that they have been keeping up with inflation.

Edited October 13, 2022 by asingardenof

[yorks5stringer]

1 hour ago, MacDaddy said:

Are Bono and The Edge still on the Fender board?

If so they must have had some input into this?

Apparently the Edge is about to leave....

[NancyJohnson]

15 minutes ago, yorks5stringer said:

Apparently the Edge is about to leave....

 

Just an aside (and despite the Fender connection) I'm amazed that Gibson haven't jumped on him for a signature line of Explorers, rather than hurling $$ at Simmons and Brown for their wretched line of Thunderbirds.  U2 were way better when he played Explorers.

[MrCrane]

3 hours ago, leschirons said:

I've contacted Fender to suggest they call it the "Irony" series

Does that mean that they're good for metal?

[Lozz196]

34 minutes ago, asingardenof said:

I bought my Korean Squier by Fender P-bass in 1998 for £230 (well, it was £180 after a part-exchange of my first bass, a Hohner Rockwood Pro), which according to that website is £398 in today's money. The non-Affinity and non-anniversary Squier P-basses listed on Fender's website are all around £400, so it would seem that they have been keeping up with inflation.

Good instruments, the Korean Squiers

[leschirons]

2 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Fixed.

Predictive text. I never make that mistake😱 so thank you.

[leschirons]

1 hour ago, MacDaddy said:

 

But the Squiers in 1980 were Japanese made (with a Fender logo) and by all accounts just as good or better than the USA Fenders.

And, they all cost £162.

[asingardenof]

27 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

Good instruments, the Korean Squiers

Mine was love at first sight, and I still love it 24 years later. It has one quirk in that the fretboard profile is elliptical, almost as if it's been squashed, with the outer radius at 9½" and the central radius at 16". 

[Cato]

42 minutes ago, leschirons said:

And, they all cost £162.

Which works out at £514.93 in 2022.

 

Scary, isn't it?

[Happy Jack]

1 hour ago, yorks5stringer said:

Apparently the Edge is about to leave....

 

I'd hate to think that Fender were about to lose their Edge ...

 

[lemmywinks]

Inflation isn't always a good barometer as some things get much cheaper due to production methods, certainly beginner guitars are in this group. Comparing them to similarly specced competitors is pretty reliable and the street price of £450 is a lot of money for what is essentially an offshore bolt on plank with no expensive components.

[itu]

Shouldn't these be named Fendre, or Squire series?

[Nicko]

I think the bigger issue is how have Fender, who were started on the basis of producing instruments in a cheap and innovative way, managed to promote themselves as a high end maker while having innovated almost nothing since the 50s.  They maintain a premium price by continually moving the lowest end product to a cheaper location, and rebranding the previous base model at a higher price.

 

I am not anti Fender, but we should be honest about what they are actually producing.  Fender is the Ford of musical instruments - and we shouldn't think about paying Ferrari money for them

[SumOne]

I don't think £500 RRP is that bad seeing as they sell for less than RRP. They are already discounted to £395 at GAK (and can be bought with £11 per month repayments), and I expect ex-demo/B stock could be got for less than £350, or second hand for £250. That's reasonably affordable for a musical instrument that can be sold on again without much loss and I guess Fender don't want to quite be the cheapest on the market but it's still cheaper than things like an average drum kit, brass instrument, or a decent synth (or a Playstation 5 or new Smartphone or electric scooter, all of which somehow seem to be affordable for most teenagers).

 

 

 

 

Edited October 13, 2022 by SumOne

[lemmywinks]

Are these still just Indonesian Corts btw?

[3below]

58 minutes ago, Nicko said:

I think the bigger issue is how have Fender, who were started on the basis of producing instruments in a cheap and innovative way, managed to promote themselves as a high end maker while having innovated almost nothing since the 50s.  They maintain a premium price by continually moving the lowest end product to a cheaper location, and rebranding the previous base model at a higher price.

 

I am not anti Fender, but we should be honest about what they are actually producing.  Fender is the Ford of musical instruments - and we shouldn't think about paying Ferrari money for them

^ this.

[jonno1981]

Have you played one? I have and they’re monster. The pound is crashing so stick another 5-10% on the price over the next 6 months minimum. 

[leschirons]

I think that one day, I may try and count how many different versions of the Strat there actually are, and have been since it was first created. I imagine it'll be around the 50 mark at least not counting different colours.  So I guess, you can reinvent the wheel, over and over again.