rct Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 Been back a week, great trip out west, time to review the tour. The factory tour itself was outstanding. It was excellent and awesome to see them doing it, however chaotic it actually is. Got to see some Leo stuff, pushed some buttons on a Leo stamping machine, held the original and still being used Strat jack plate stamp that Leo himself commisioned way back then. All in all, very cool, very interesting even for The Mrs, very fun thing to do seeing all that stuff. Handled some great guitars too, that was fun. I can see why it took so long to get my Jazz made, the place is basically nuts. They got no idea, it seems, what todays run will be. Many many many tens of dozens of people in there, all seemingly flailing at unfinished wood. Tables full of unfinished stracaster bodies, shoved aside because today we are making Ps. An entire stack of Yngwie necks that we had great fun with, I even mentioned this being more Ingvay necks than they would sell in two years and he actually laughed and agreed with me. All the tele necks shoved aside so they could work on these. Just an example of the wierdness. Very very chaotic. All props and respect to the painters. Never much of a sunburst fan of any kind, but have new respect for them. They still paint bursts by hand, and I was very surprised by that. They intend to go all robots, for painting, but that is "...quite a few years away...". 400 guitars a day in Cali, 600 a day in Mexico. I don't know about you, but man that is one whole helluva lotta guitars to have to sell to keep that thing going. The Visitor Center was overall a dissappointment. The history, the films of George and all, the pictures of Leo and Forest, all that stuff was just fun and great. I have books full of all that, it was nice to see even more. There are basically almost every guitar they make hanging around in the visitor center and in the amp room. They all have a list price on them. If you want one, it is MSRP + 9% tax minus 20%. Yes, do the math yerself, pretty laughable. Even Mrs looked at them funny, said I can get that EJ tomorrow for at least three hunnert less. I agreed, silly stupid prices. While I understand they aren't a retail store, they shouldn't sell them at all if they are just going to insult you with the price. 6 old dudes plus me and The Mrs, all hanging around in the amp room. They coulda sold 7 guitars that morning before lunch, instead, they sold exactly NONE. The American Design Dream, or whatever it is called, was also pretty sad. I had a body and a neck picked out, would have loved to talk to someone, but there wasn't anyone working and I was told that possibly after 2pm someone would be there. I'm sorry, I forgot, I'm the one buying something, of course I should adhere to your schedule. The two that were on the table were nowhere near put together. One was a strat, the date on the sheet was October of 2012. It had a base of $1599, and then $300 for the pickups, and then a bunch of other charges. I stopped reading. The tele across from it didn't yet have the pickups in it or the neck screwed on, had a sheet reading September of 2012, also a base of $1799. I stopped reading. They've always been a professionals guitar, one that the average bar player used and the average arena player used in front of 10 or 20 thousand. I've been using them since the early 70's and I'll never stop, have hardly had time in life that there wasn't a Fender in the house. But I won't give them stupid money for anything. I can buy any guitar I want, but not while the seller is laughing at me out the other side of his mouth. It's a shame, they could prolly unload a couple dozen Yankee guitars a day to tour takers if they'd lay off the customme shoppe crap. Seems to me that people that make the pilgrimmage are pretty serious, it isn't someplace you just take the kids on a Saturday. They could be killin it, but I don't think they want to. Make the trip if you can, see the factory, smell the wood. It was kewl! rct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 The tour sounds cool enough for sure, but you gotta wonder what they're thinking ($$)... Maybe they just don't want to sell anything, and discouraging the transaction, and of course, if you're dumb enough, they'll gladly take your money. A few years was in Orlando, and we spent a night in Downtown Disney. There was a music store in there, just what you saw regarding prices. it was madness, - everything was well beyond what the going prices at the time were anywhere else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heymisterk Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 Great post. Was it hard to schedule the tour? I will be in SoCal next month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rct Posted March 11, 2013 Author Share Posted March 11, 2013 Great post. Was it hard to schedule the tour? I will be in SoCal next month. Not at all, just walked in around 9.15, signed up for the 10am tour. They don't give the tour certain days of the week, and that can change, check the web page for the current schedule. rct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BTD Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Gibson does something similar at the factory in Memphis. Except that they sale at msrp. We were told that it was because they won't undercut their retailers/distributors. It is really more for show or for those that have to buy a guitar right then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis G Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Not at all, just walked in around 9.15, signed up for the 10am tour. They don't give the tour certain days of the week, and that can change, check the web page for the current schedule. rct Took the tour when the Visitor Center opened about a year and a half ago. Well worth the time spent. Somewhat "organized chaos" but very interesting, especially if you're into the "how do they make that" part. Don't confuse the location with the Fender Museum in "downtown" Corona. Check your addresses (and don't ask how I know this lol) And by all means call ahead. At one point they were limiting the number of people per tour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
69tele Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 very cool, It's nice that Fender have opened up the factory now to visitors. I did the tour almost 10 years ago now for an article for my site linked below http://www.gear-review.co.uk/reviews/fender_factory/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.