300 Fender Employees Get Laid Off

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by KT88, Aug 5, 2022.

  1. Oddiofyl

    Oddiofyl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    Absolutely, but my experience has been mixed. Vault2i has been great , OPPO Blu-ray has been great.

    Brand new NAD M51 died after 3 weeks. Sure they replaced it and the second one worked great.

    Do you know what a stereo receiver under $1000 oats to build? Around $250. They get to that number but looking at the build of materials and spec the cheapest caps , resistors, and everything else until they whittle it down to a price that is consumer friendly and that everyone who touches it can make money on …..
     
    kt66brooklyn likes this.
  2. I just got the new Harrison Rocky Strat made in Mexico. I also own a 93 American Strat They also made a custom shop version of Rocky several years ago that costs over 20k. I was somewhat surprised how well the Mexican is made
     
  3. captwillard

    captwillard Forum Resident

    Location:
    Nashville
    The Fender Mexicans that I have played have been nice. I think they have so many models, one really has to look at all the features and specs and go out any try some. I don’t know if fender Mexico uses rosewood anymore, but Fender has so many different necks, it’s best to find what is most comfortable. Fret board radius is an important factor too.
     
    riknbkr330 and kt66brooklyn like this.
  4. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
  5. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    I just want to say one thing in light of a collection of people you never met, facing the downsizing of doing something you appreciate them for.

    The last project I left behind, was almost immediately consoled by a good friend, who was also one hell of a motivator. And I never forgot what he said to me that day:
    "I can't wait to see what you do next."

    Cheer for people who take this to heart. For these are the ones, who will someday make Fender wish they had those people back. :pleased:

    There was no Don Ellis without Maynard Ferguson. And there was no Maynard Ferguson without Stan Kenton (and there was no Stan Kenton without Bennie Goodman, but that's stretching the metaphor).
     
    Last edited: Aug 5, 2022
    McLover and Helom like this.
  6. Oddiofyl

    Oddiofyl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    It’s a double edge sword. We want good stuff , and we want it cheap…. I will be the first to admit there are many good foreign products at entry level but paying $7k for an integrated amp made in China is crazy to me. Especially at that price point.
     
    SonicCzar and sushimaster like this.
  7. sushimaster

    sushimaster Forum Resident

    This is exactly why I came full stop on considering purchasing a Technics 1200-G/SL-100R.
     
    McLover likes this.
  8. Oddiofyl

    Oddiofyl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    Vote with your wallet…. I will pay for quality. I have been fortunate to have gear from Mc Intosh, Quicksilver , CJ , McCormack, Zesto.

    It is / was all very good for its price point . All made in USA all super reliable and gave me thousands of hours of music.
     
    Pythonman and Tone? like this.
  9. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    that sucks...
     
    Tone? likes this.
  10. Turnaround

    Turnaround Senior Member

    Location:
    -
    Fender is a privately owned company, so we don't have much visibility into their finances, or what's going on internally.

    In the OP's video, the guy tries to explain that the layoffs were because of Fender's obligations to its lenders. He's not an accountant, so you have to give him a break. I think this is what he was trying to say, and what may be happening --

    Fender has taken on more debt that it can handle, buying too much inventory that it now cannot sell off easily or quickly to repay its debt. (He didn't mention this, but Fender also took out a lot of debt to buy another company last year.) Banks expect to be repaid, and require that a company have enough cash flow to pay interest or installment payments as they become due.

    Fender wasn't investment grade, I can see in some news reported when they took out debt last year, which means they were a high credit risk and borrowed from loan sharks. You can sometimes work out difficult situations with your lender. But given Fender's credit profile, where the economy is headed, where the guitar market is headed ... lenders don't care about your brand or future: they want to be repaid.

    There was probably something dire going on internally at Fender where this wasn't ownership trying to squeeze out more profit, but having to deal with a bank holding its foot on the company's neck. We really don't know what the consequences would have been if they company couldn't pay its lenders. One could also play armchair quarterback over how ownership or management got the company to this place today.
     
  11. Helom

    Helom Forum member

    Location:
    U.S.
    I was mostly referring to companies/corporations at large and their proclivity for sudden workforce reductions.
     
    Tone? likes this.
  12. carbonti

    carbonti Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York County
    None of us are privy to what the situation is occurring inside Fender nor the numbers associated as precursor to why they did what they did. Which tends to engender emotional responses. So rather than make villains on which to blame (e.g. China manufacturing whom will build to any level of quality that is spec’d for and paid for by the company that hires them) do only what you yourself can control and by that I mean to be more mindful of what and how you consume. If the primary driver is the lowest price, that has consequences over time but to me is a destructive race-to-the-bottom. I will pay more if I think there are benefits beyond the illusion of getting stuff cheap. You gotta give to get. Buy American. There I said it.
     
    Joel S and Ontheone like this.
  13. hesson11

    hesson11 Forum Resident

    I would venture to guess that the decline in electric-guitar sales, mentioned above, is due in part to the decline of guitar-centric popular music, compared to recent decades.
     
    searing75, kt66brooklyn and SonicCzar like this.
  14. A Grain of Sand

    A Grain of Sand Forum Resident

    Location:
    Riverside, CA
    Bars, movie houses, stadiums and what have you are open now so people have less money to buy instruments and less time to practice music.
     
  15. td19

    td19 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Zealand
    Does the younger generation even play guitars, or any musical instrument, much these days?
     
    Brother_Rael likes this.
  16. Spin Doctor

    Spin Doctor Forum Resident

    Yeah, some do. But not nearly in the numbers that there was before the internet. You have to put in a huge number of hours to get good at playing an instrument, and you don't get good if you're distracted. These days there is an almost infinite number of distractions, and the kids that I do know aren't all that interested in music.
     
  17. Spin Doctor

    Spin Doctor Forum Resident

    My first bass was a 97 Mexican fender jazz that I bought used maybe 10 years ago for $125 and the guy even threw in an amp. Once I changed the pickups, it played and sounded as good as any American made fender jazz I've ever played.
     
  18. Oelewapper

    Oelewapper Plays vinyl instead of installing it on the floor.

    Exactly, my speakers are a good example:
    In my system I run Chinese made Wharfedale EVO 4.4 speakers - the build quality is good, are nicely solid and the sound is great.
    At my gaming PC I run Chinese made Logitech Z906 speakers - those are total garbage, built quality is very plasticky and flimsy and they sound like a Bose surround set.
     
    jonwoody likes this.
  19. DyersEve726

    DyersEve726 Schmo Diggy

    Location:
    Michigan, USA
    My nephews (17, 23) are both gigging musicians. It runs in the family though. They're in a band with three others the same age. We have a local program called Major Chords for Minors that gets kids into playing music and it's been wildly successful.
     
  20. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    Right, then some crap rogue country decides to shut it down, or what have you, we are left holding the empty bag. Self sufficiency is a good thing these days.
     
    jonwoody, Glmoneydawg, KT88 and 2 others like this.
  21. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    I like your thinking.
     
    Tullman likes this.
  22. Wayne Nielson

    Wayne Nielson Forum Resident

    Location:
    My House
    My friend has an electronics store in our modest sized town. He carries the Fender line. They make him buy a large number of guitars (minimum order) in order to sell. I'm sure many smaller retailers are saying screw this and are switching brands (Yamaha, others). Fender now faces the reality of this bad corporate policy. Too bad the employees suffer from management stupidity.
     
    jonwoody, Fender Relic and Shawn like this.
  23. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    Nah, it's always the dang Fender players who get laid...
     
    jonwoody and dsdu like this.
  24. mkane

    mkane Strictly Analog

    Location:
    Auburn CA
    This is what happens when people want cheap.
     
    KT88 and MarkO like this.
  25. Brother_Rael

    Brother_Rael Senior Member

    Then that's surely an issue for the parent company bearing the name to ensure quality assurance is worthy of the name, no? It's not as if overseas facilities don't have the capability, which they plainly do. As ever, if the QA isn't up t0 it, and the parent firm isn't pushing that, then duff product will follow. On their own heads be it.
     

Share This Page

molar-endocrine