Fender Factory Tour...

[JimN]

I was lucky enough to be able to visit the Fender factory in Corona (and the Visitor Center [sic]) last Monday. Entry to the center and the tour are... wait for it... free of charge! At least, they are until 31st December.

The Shadows are not featured much at Corona, but one of their hit records does get a name-check in the main room of the visitor centre (high up on the walls), along with several hundred other hit titles recorded with Fender guitars (as far as anyone knows).

Have a guess which track it is...?

It was great to be able to see every aspect of guitar production at Corona, from the input billets of timber right through to highly-polished works of art ready for delivery to the distribution wing of the company. The only bit we didn't see first hand was spraying - this because California law is very stringent on the H&S aspects of paint and lacquer spraying.

I did get to ask a couple of questions. One was whether Fender still have the ability to accurately reproduce any guitar model they've ever made (apparently they do, and they still do the Bass VI and the Electric XII, but only as - expensive - one-offs at the Custom Shop). I also asked about Fiesta Red for Europe. Our guide confirmed that Europe does ask for a disproportionate number of FR guitars. I wonder why that might be?

Incidentally, the next day, I was at Jim Elyea's "History For Hire" workshop. Some of the guitars sold in the UK in the sixties, it seems to me, were (the comparatively rare) Coral Pink, which looks in isolation like a slightly pinker version of FR and easily confused for it, but easily distinguished when seen side-to-side with FR (which, at HFH, they are, in immaculate examples).

At Corona, I even saw the workstation of the famed Abigail Ybarra, though not, sadly, the lady herself, who was on a day off. I'll post some pics and a better description at a later date.

JN

PS: My name, and The Secrets, are mentioned at the Fender Visitor Center...

[Didier]

Thanks for this report Jim, looking forward for pics.

Didier

[Geoff Alderton LH]

Hi Jim.
Apache?
You are a lucky man Jim and thanks for the posting.I am also looking forward to the pictures.
Regards Geoff.

[RayL]

Jim,

Very interesting. Did the Fender people say anything about supplies of wood, in view of the problems that Gibson are having?

The Secrets are not forgotten - just let me get my 'to-do' list down to manageable proportions!

Ray

[bor64]

Jim thanks for your report about that wonderful place/land of Fender .
Look at my face of envies naaahh just kidding
Well about that red for the EU..."that red" would be long discontinued if it wasn't for us following Hank....

[JimN]

Hi Jim.
Apache?

Perhaps surprisingly, no.

Apache was a hit for a completely different guitarist in the USA and its mntion could conceivably be seen as a promo for Gibson guitars...

JN

[Hank2k]

Hi Jim.
Apache?

Perhaps surprisingly, no.

Apache was a hit for a completely different guitarist in the USA and its mntion could conceivably be seen as a promo for Gibson guitars...

JN

its not something like the rise and fall of flingel bunt by any chance?

[RUSSET]

'Incidentally, the next day, I was at Jim Elyea's "History For Hire" workshop. Some of the guitars sold in the UK in the sixties, it seems to me, were (the comparatively rare) Coral Pink, which looks in isolation like a slightly pinker version of FR and easily confused for it, but easily distinguished when seen side-to-side with FR (which, at HFH, they are, in immaculate examples).

JN'

I always had an inkling that the 'Pink' we saw in our stores in the '60s was not quite the one we now get as 'Fiesta Red'. The only colour that really came close was the shade that was issued three or for years ago, on a limited run, called 'Pearlised Coral'. Of course, the sixties ones weren't pearlised, but the shade of Pink was virtually the same. I guess that Hank's first Strat may well have been the original Fiesta Red, & then the matching set that came afterwards could well have been Coral Pink & sourced by JMI from stock imported to the UK.

Tony.

[JimN]

'Some of the guitars sold in the UK in the sixties, it seems to me, were (the comparatively rare) Coral Pink, which looks in isolation like a slightly pinker version of FR and easily confused for it, but easily distinguished when seen side-to-side with FR (which, at HFH, they are, in immaculate examples).
JN'

I always had an inkling that the 'Pink' we saw in our stores in the '60s was not quite the one we now get as 'Fiesta Red'. The only colour that really came close was the shade that was issued three or for years ago, on a limited run, called 'Pearlised Coral'. Of course, the sixties ones weren't pearlised, but the shade of Pink was virtually the same. I guess that Hank's first Strat may well have been the original Fiesta Red, & then the matching set that came afterwards could well have been Coral Pink & sourced by JMI from stock imported to the UK.
Tony.

Tony: I have pictures, taken with the same camera in the same place on the same day in the same light, less than a minute apart, which I believe shows the difference very well. Still have to sort out the (hundreds of) photos I took (all stored on my netbook computer).

Hank2K: No, not The Rise And Fall Of Flingel Bunt.

JN