What's left for Fender to do?

[smjenkins]

I'm still hoping for a Bilinda-Stang... I doubt it will happen, but it would be nice. Seems more fitting for Squier, though. What ever happened to the Pawn Shop series? It seems like they were trying new things with that.

I would buy a Bilinda-Stang. Without second thought.

Seconded!

Thousandth!

*insofar as the future in general is fine - the electric guitar might die out when we're all fighting for the last ration of soylent and potable water

CIJ poly finishes will be the only remnant to survive mankind.

This made me chuckle. At the end of days, the safest place will be behind a CIJ poly body

[sirspens]

Jay Edgar Turser to the rescue:

I've actually owned a couple of these. And given them away to young upstarts. They are surprisingly good guitars.

I'd still but a Bilinda-stang.

[Danley]

My first electric was a plywood HSS Jay Turser ~2001 . It played quite nice for what it was, but the humbucker sounded so poor it put me off humbuckers for years. Considering I started gravitating toward Fenders as a result, you could say it did me a favor.

[simonhpieman]

I feel like there's a lot of talk in this thread calling for a "Fender Firebird X".

I felt like that was pretty hypocritical given how maligned that thing is but the more I read about it the more I think I'd actually play one if it didn't look so bad.

Stick all that stuff on, say, a vintage looking Jaguar (let's face it, it's the only Fender with enough space for all the knobs!) and I'd probably be all over it.

Side note - a Firebird X sold for £1300 recently. Tempted to give it a go just for the giggles at that price!

[loveinathens]

I feel like there's a lot of talk in this thread calling for a "Fender Firebird X".

I felt like that was pretty hypocritical given how maligned that thing is but the more I read about it the more I think I'd actually play one if it didn't look so bad.

Stick all that stuff on, say, a vintage looking Jaguar (let's face it, it's the only Fender with enough space for all the knobs!) and I'd probably be all over it.

Side note - a Firebird X sold for £1300 recently. Tempted to give it a go just for the giggles at that price!

The Fender Firebird X is literally just the full-spec BiLT Relevator and that guitar is fine.

[SY6655321]

An Electric XII? An Electric XII style six string?

[Ceylon]

Call it quits, sell all real estate and intellectual property and pocket the money.

I think Fender has done it all by now. The question is rather, what should Fender keep doing and/or do again. In a way it'd be great if new stuff stopped coming. That might force people to get creative, personal and appreciative with the millions of electric guitars there already is. You could pick up stuff for cheap and mod it to what you want instead of waiting to see if next year's NAMM is gonna bring you the one Tele variant you always imagined.

But maybe I'm just saying that because technically I have every guitar I'll ever need, but I'm gonna keep buying things as long as things keep coming up for sale anyway. Just knowing there's an end to it might be nice.

[zenarcade]

Legit Marauder but with a non-horrible tremolo and proprietary new pickups

I agree. That would be so cool! Also a proper Electric XII would be awesome

[Larry Mal]

I feel like there's a lot of talk in this thread calling for a "Fender Firebird X".

I felt like that was pretty hypocritical given how maligned that thing is but the more I read about it the more I think I'd actually play one if it didn't look so bad.

Stick all that stuff on, say, a vintage looking Jaguar (let's face it, it's the only Fender with enough space for all the knobs!) and I'd probably be all over it.

Side note - a Firebird X sold for £1300 recently. Tempted to give it a go just for the giggles at that price!

The Firebird X was a bunch of pretty cool ideas wrapped up in the worst package possible. I have no idea how someone could take something as inherently beautiful as the electric guitar, and then simultaneously forget everything known about what makes good design, and then come up with that.

I mean, imagine that styling on anything, and you've got a loser... your blender, your car, you name it. Good design emphasizes what are more or less universally attractive features in things, and the Firebird X managed to emphasize all the unattractive ones on a lame and bad idea in the first place. It was like the fucking intern was allowed to design it or something and they ran with it.

Anyway, I would still buy one, they'll go up in value like Gibson's failures do. Try and find a cheap Corvus and you'll know what I'm talking about.

[marqueemoon]

I’d like to see future iterations of the Meteora.

[sirspens]

I’d like to see future iterations of the Meteora.

Yeah. With some innovative pickup technology.

[marqueemoon]

I’d like to see future iterations of the Meteora.

Yeah. With some innovative pickup technology.

Exactly.

[SY6655321]

A Jazzmaster Jr.

24" scale neck. Single Jazzmaster bridge pup. Volume, concentric Tone pot (Stock/50k). 3-way switch: Volume, Volume + Tone, Volume + 50k Tone (Rhythm Circuit).

[Haustnótt]

The Fender Mu-uar: Jag-Stang in reverse.

[rank]

I really liked their Parallel Universe idea but I wished I loved the guitars more. The idea of cross pollination. Taking established guitars & swapping ideas amongst them. For example, the Tele Deluxe with the Jazzmaster trem. I'd like to see Fender further extrapolate that idea with some of their perceived misses over the years. Things like the Maverick & the Bass V were mostly considered poor designs but could be "fixed" & rolled out in that Parallel Universe line. I would say their would be a market, perhaps not a huge one, but a solid one. I thought their new PJ Mustang bass was an example of that ethos. The Toronado or the XII would be good contenders as well. Sure, they will get criticism if they don't have a vintage correct counterpart on the market, the Starcaster comes to mind, but that didn't hamper sales for it. I'd buy a Starcaster with a Jazzmaster trem in a second!

I think this forum could serve as a huge inspiration to Fender for ideas. I remember seeing a build of a Bass VI body that was built into a Jazzmaster that was great, there have been several XII builds, there are a ton of Mustang's with Jazzmaster trems builds & Rhoney had that beautiful Starcaster with a Jazzmaster trem on it. If Fender will build that Strat/Jaguar hybrid they would clearly be open to other designs.

They seem to take the safest route first, which I get, but it may harm them from the start. Case in point, the new Meteora. In & of itself, it is not a bad idea but it features the same old tried & true Telecaster bridge & pickup configuration. I have to think this was a major turn off for some people that might have actually had an interest in trying the guitar out & if people don't show interest immediately these days, the idea will be scrapped. They could use their website to have people build their own specs. Add a hum bucker or a Mustang trem or a Jaguar plate or three Strat pickups...any number of options. I'm sure there are finical aspects that I am not taking into account but I can't imagine it would be that hard to tweak those options. In this age of social media, they're missing a great opportunity to throw a few deigns out & have the public vote on which one to build or have people preorder them to ensure interest. I think there is a world of untapped ideas they could explore.