...AND THEY JUST KEEP A COMING...

[lennon211]

Fender, we get it. You can make guitars. However, can you make it original ,beautiful, playable, and without costing an arm and a leg?

Fender does, every single day of the week. Teles, Strats, Jazzmasters, Jaguars, Jazz Basses, Precision Basses, and about two hundred other odd models. But the ones I've quoted are the originals and classics. But they have not had an original blockbuster for nearly a half-century. I often find myself wishing for a design-driven business plan, but, like most companies in the last third of the 20th century, they let the marketing guys rule the roost. The result is a lack of respect for the musician as performer, creative thinker and doer who needs tools with function and style. This has been replaced by lowest-common-denominator scrambling for the deep pocket non-musician who wants "limited edition" bragging rights at any cost, regardless of lack of intrinsic value for money spent.

In 1977, when I watched the press kits for "Revenge of the Jedi" (yeah, I know they changed the title later...) flood into our design department at Playskool, as licensing began to get a foothold in what had previously been the milieu of creativity and original ideas, I began to see the writing on the wall--licenses would someday supplant unique concepts in business.

Little did I know how ridiculous it would become. Imagine if all that time and energy went into creating truly original products, instead of this woefully overpriced ****.

Star Wars was in '77...Return (nee Revenge) of the Jedi was '83 (yes, I have a fiancee...she's bought me a Ric). Now back to your original programming...

Oh, and I agree that it would be great to see a return to the utility of Leo's factory when the focus was on what the musicians needed and it was tested by the musicians like Dick Dale. The high priced signature editions are not something that I'm greatly in favor of, despite owning a few that were gifts. I'll take standard editions anyday to get close to my heroes.

Also, I was a marketing major for a long time and all you have to do is spend time doing pitches on what will sell based on a cost/demand basis, using readily available parts for construction, instead of developing anything new where startup costs are involved. I suspect that this will be the case for a while yet as the economy is not encouraging much risk in building new product and it's safer to stick to a holding pattern.

[jingle_jangle]

Star Wars was in '77...Return (nee Revenge) of the Jedi was '83 (yes, I have a fiancee...she's bought me a Ric). Now back to your original programming...

...Yep. And the promotional material for Star Wars went out sometime in late '74, as the second script draft was completed...I sure wish I'd kept that press kit!...do you see where I'm going? I was wrong on Jedi--it was The Empire Strikes Back, and it was '78, just before I left Playskool for greener pastures--and developed "Wrist Racers", which went on to become a Top Ten Toy worldwide in late '81, spoiling me for the good life...

[weemac]

Somewhere I've seen the original mock-ups for the first starwars figures. Most of them were made from "Micronauts" (or possibly even "Microman" figures (which came out a few years earlier)
The proto chewbacca even had an articulated head!
So what does this have to do with Shreader Relic guitars?
Eden.

[lennon211]

Star Wars was in '77...Return (nee Revenge) of the Jedi was '83 (yes, I have a fiancee...she's bought me a Ric). Now back to your original programming...

...Yep. And the promotional material for Star Wars went out sometime in late '74, as the second script draft was completed...I sure wish I'd kept that press kit!...do you see where I'm going? I was wrong on Jedi--it was The Empire Strikes Back, and it was '78, just before I left Playskool for greener pastures--and developed "Wrist Racers", which went on to become a Top Ten Toy worldwide in late '81, spoiling me for the good life...

I certainly do...back to the marketing determining what is going to be produced as opposed to the genuine need among the public.

[jingle_jangle]

Venturing further off topic...

With regard to toys, the public only determines what the companies make, in some weird alternate universe; nor would this scenario work uncued in any real world situation.

Companies typically used to design and prototype imaginative new concepts and show them to buyers and store owners at Toy Fair in New York in early February every year. The buyers and store owners usually had their ears to the ground and a pretty good idea of what their customers would stand still for, but most would still need to be sold on something radical. But neat stuff would be shown in prototype form, and if enough orders were taken, the neat idea would see production; engineering and pricing was usually worked out beforehand.

Then along came licensing, and cool new concepts began to be replaced by old stuff with new licenses appended onto it, saving inventor's royalties, but adding a licensing fee which could range from 1% of "A" price (wholesale sell-in) to a stiff 15%...The only licensor who charged 15% in the "old" days was Determined Productions, for "Peanuts" stuff--and they got it, because sales were guaranteed with Snoopy tacked onto anything. Soon, licenses overshadowed creativity, as Americans became more and more celebrity-stricken.

Last phase: the "big box" retailers (read: Wal-Mart) decided that they had enough market share to ask for their own preview of a company's lineup, in advance of Toy Fair. It came down to Wal-Mart deciding of a toy woud make it to market, because, without their buy-in, quantities were too low to make a profit, as they'd driven out all of the smaller retailers. Finally, a decade ago, Wal-Mart started telling the manufacturers, not only which products would be produced, but also at what prices.

And the manufacturers were forced to kowtow to Wal-Mart, because they were such a huge force in the marketplace.

Good-bye to imagination and toys to help kids grow and learn. Hello to all manner of tripe and junk. (for the most part...)

[cjj]

And it's not just toys. Wal-Mart does this with many of the products they sell. It's a real shame, the Wal-mart" mentality seems to be running rampant throughout just about every industry these days. Cater to the least common denominator, maximize every penny of profit, etc., etc. I'm glad at least, that RIC doesn't play that game.

[jingle_jangle]

Thanks for bringing that back home, CJJ...

It's true, the lines are long at Bentonville, AR, of everyday people with products to sell the buyers at Wal-Mart. The best of the best get selected, and huge initial orders are placed by Wal-Mart, with the financing and logistics of the product placement often left in the hands of inexperienced, first-time vendors. All vendors can count on getting every single penny of their own profit being up for grabs, as Wal-Mart hammers them on prices and margins. Few can last, and the number of small suppliers that Wal-Mart has driven into bankruptcy, is long.

That's one strike.

As the Wal-Mart documentary, "The High Cost of Low Price" brings out in sharp relief, the arrival of a Wal-Mart in a community can bring local tensions to a fever pitch. On one hand, folks who are jobless and without prospect, stand a chance of finding employment. On the other hand, local merchants might as well give up and retire, as they simply cannot compete with Wal-Mart's pricing and business hours. One by one, they are ground into dust. Wal-Mart has no conscience when it comes to local small businesses and the families who depend upon them for their living. Furthermore, Wal-Mart is at the forefront of union busting, usually through some form of intimidation. This is patently against the law, but officials generally look the other way. Money talks...

http://www.walmartmovie.com

That's strike two.

The strategy of Wal-Mart in keeping most of their employees on "part time" status, so as not to have to carry the burden of providing hospitalization and other benefits, is well-documented. The low wages Wal-Mart pays, and the way Wal-Mart's supervisors often play fast and loose with local and national regulations, are also matters of public record. It's a fact, folks--the medical expenses of Wal-Mart employees are paid for by you and me, as those who cannot afford to foot the bill for their own hospital (usually ER) treatment, are considered "IMS" (Indigent Medical Services, i.e., charity cases) and subsidized by federal and state taxes.

That's three strikes, and the reason I have never set foot in a Wal-Mart, nor will I ever do so.

Rant over. Back to the relic stuff...I suspect this thread has seen better days, anyway.

[simer4001]

Hi Daryl, I own a host of non-Ric gear, a lot of it Fender, so there's no knee-jerk Fenderphobic motive behind my comments. I just think the whole celebrity-musician tribute edition is way out of hand....no matter who is building them.

This is exactly right. Which is why Rickenbacker stopped building limited edition guitars.

[4003]

I saw this the other day and thought of you, Paul.

HOW BIG IS WAL-MART?

1 . At Wal-Mart, Americans spend $36,000,000 every hour of every day.

2 . This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!

3. Wal-Mart will sell more From January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) Than Target sells all year.

4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target + Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined.

5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people and is the largest private employer AND a large percentage can't speak English

6. Wal-Mart is the largest company In the history of the World.

7. Wal-Mart now sells more food Than Kroger & Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only 15 years.

8. During this same period, 31 Supermarket chains sought bankruptcy
(including Winn-Dixie).

9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.

10. Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores In the USA of which 1,906 are SuperCenters; This is 1,000 more than it had 5 years ago.

11. This year, 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at a Wal-Mart store.
(Earth's population is approximately 6.5 billion.)

12. 90% of all Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart

13. Let Wal-Mart bail out Wall Street

[jps]

+1 on #13!

[jingle_jangle]

With regard to #12, I found out tonight that my own closest WalMart is 12.5 miles from my house.

Not far enough...

More statistics: 10% of all of China's consumer goods manufacturing output in 2006 went to Wal-Mart. Approximately 1/3 of WalMart's sales of Chinese goods goes directly to the Peoples' Republic of China. Of course, the net profits go to the owners and stockholders. They will report over a quarter trillion dollars in earnings for fiscal 2008.

Wal-Mart employs more than two million "associates", and whether or not I ever set foot in one of these palaces of commerce, I contribute to their bottom line, as my taxes and yours are helping to provide health care and other benefits that Wal-Mart does not to their hard-working and hard-pressed staff.

[simer4001]

I love Wal Mart. 2 mintues away.

[jps]

Isn't that were we can buy Wal basses? If so, I am so there!

[kiramdear]

I don't believe I've ever lived within fifteen miles of one. Good instincts, I guess. They scare me

[johnallg]

Wal-Mart - good for oil changes and Cabot cheeses.