Why did Fender make the FS-52?

Ron Victoria · From: New Jersey, USA

Fender has been around over 50 years with a good track record. Although I never played one, from what I've read here it got low marks. Why would they produce a low quality instrument? Surely they aware of all the master players out there. Why not get some input from these players? I see these all the time on Ebay. Sellers are lucky they get a bid.

Ron

Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

I wish I knew the answer to that. I know that we had a representative of Fender present on the forum and asking questions prior to the introduction of the FS-52. All they needed was feedback from this forum to see what they could have done.

If Fender had chosen to reissue the Champ lap steel models rather than "improve" on the original Princeton/Deluxe design, they would have had a much better product (in my opinion).

The biggest problems I've had with the FS-52 are the pickup and the mirrored fretboard. The pickup can be corrected with an after market upgrade, but the mirrored fretboard is a much bigger problem. Basically as you play, you see where you are with the painted fret, but the reflection off the fretboard also shows you where you AREN'T. This makes it harder to play properly. I can imagine how it would be on stage with lights coming from various directions.

On the other hand, they come with a very nice case.

Here are some previous discussions (including some from the now closed No Peddlers section):
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=110690
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/007328.html
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/007812.html
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/008825.html
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Eric Stumpf · From: Newbury, NH 03255

Don't kid yourself; Fender makes lots of low-quality stuff these days and I've owned most of it at various times.

G Strout · From: Carabelle, Florida

True, Fender has become a leader in low quality "crap." Their R & D dept. seems to be on the cutting edge of who can make the cheapest guitar in some 3rd world cesspool with 20 cent an hour labor. Sad what has happened to a once great US company.
The FS 52 is fairly unremarkable. Like Brad said the fretboard and pup are the major downfalls. I tried one and found that the Rondo SX has more going for it. It too, has a nice case. Very Happy

at half the cost of the Fender.

J. Wilson · From: Manitoba, Canada

What p*sses me off is that there are clowns on ebay trying to sell these things for escalated prices. I hope prospective buyers are doing their homework and coming to the inevitable conclusion that these things are not 'worth' more than $250 USD.
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Keith Cordell · From: San Diego

Peavey smoked them on the lap steel front with the Powerslide, and it retails at $200. The Fender just sucks, plain and simple; I'd rather play one of the $79 Artisans.

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

A lot of great old manufacturers are now outsourcing production and selling Cheaper guitars. Even MARTIN now offers a $600 acoustic guitar, made in Mexico, not in Nazareth, PA. I never thought I'd see the Martin logo on a "made in Mexico" guitar. It's all about market share. The companies are looking for a share of the Huge low to mid level guitar market. Fender and Martin want a piece of that. I can't say that I blame them, but it's sad to see a great, historical company selling a low quality product.

As far as the FS-52, yes, it's a piece of junk. The suits at Fender today have No interest in recreating or improving on the original lap steels. The market for lap steels is very small, and they're not going to waste time and money (in their opinion) building a high quality steel guitar. They would rather sell thousands of Asian made Squiers to beginners for $300, and Mexican Tele/Strats for about $600. That's their current business model. It has nothing to do quality, and everything to do with profits. Thankfully there are some small manufacturers today making excellent quality lap steels.
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Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

I think they got it wrong, but they could pretty easily make some changes even to the existing product and make it quite usable. Unfortunately it's been discontinued. I would think it would be unlikely that Fender would try again given the negative reception they've received so far.

Gibson? Your turn...
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Keith Cordell · From: San Diego

The easy answer to the question, "why did Fender make the FS52" is trying to cash in on the steel guitar market. Fender is very quick to cash in on anything these days, they have lost a lot of respect that they could have had in the market by trying to profiteer on the level they have. Economy goes south and players can't afford much? RAISE PRICES. A 15k SRV reissue... laughable. And not a particularly good guitar. It seems that when they make a decent product these days it is in spite of their best efforts to **** it up.

Mike D · From: Phx, Az

Ummm, a big part of this is simply that 'we' (most of the present company excepted) currently don't want to spend much on guitars. Fender is a company that has to make a profit and they have a lot of people to pay every week (ie cash flow), and there isn't much of a market for lap steels. There are tons of nice vintage instruments out there. Tons of nice custom stuff ( Mr. Green

) and some decent cheapos. Why should they care about the very little amounts of money they will make competing with Peavey and Artisan when they can sell all the profitable guitars they can make?

BTW, where are the Peavey and Artisans made?

G Strout · From: Carabelle, Florida

Mitch Druckman · From: Arizona, USA

The Fender Custom Shop is where the great Fender guitars are being made. They're still designed and built in the USA.

I'm surprised they haven't made a custom shop Stringmaster.

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

Yes, the Fender Custom Shop is making great guitars, quality materials: prices are $3000 to $4000 and up.

Keith Cordell · From: San Diego

Well, the sad reality is that we created this mess ourselves. But disregarding the political issue, there are some really decent instruments being made overseas and I can't afford anything like what US made instruments cost these days; I'd have to give up playing. 2k for a steel? Not in this lifetime. I choked when I saw what the MSA lap guitars were selling for. Some of us have the dough, I sure don't.
That being said, the FS-52 is more expensive and FAR less attractive than a lot of other lap steels that don't have nearly the market access that Fender has. They need to revisit their strategy.

Jamie O'Connell · From: Medford, Massachusetts, USA

The sad thing about the custom shop is that they say it takes us $3000 to make a guitar that sold for $152 in 1958. It breaks my heart.

Having said that, I bought one of the FS52's a little cheaper on eBay and was totally dissapointed with the quality. Recently though, I bought a 1948 Princeton. I couldn't believe how close the detailing was to the modern one, EXCEPT for the electronics! The Princeton has a strings through pickup, with magnets on the each side of the cover, and it sounds fantastic. Amazing design! If they're selling this new one at USA made prices ($450), but it's actually Chinese crap with microscopic sized screws and hardware, why did they also skimp on the electronics so badly? It's like they wanted it to fail. Sad, really.

--Jamie

Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

In the "For What It's Worth" department, I tried out a Made In Mexico Martin recently and was pleasantly surprised at the quality and tone. The action was perfect, as was the intonation. It had your typical big Martin tone.

Keith Cordell · From: San Diego

I am not one of the naysayers concerning Mexico or other countries making instruments for these guys, some of the foreign made instruments are pretty good; The Peavey Powerslide is, in my opinion, revolutionary. And made in China! I don't have a problem with Martin makng guitars for a lower cost point overseas, the folks that only want US made instruments will still be able to fork over the $$ and the rest of us have a shot at a guitar with their design at a price that won't break us. I just don't get why Fender would farm out a guitar that is so BAD.

Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

Politics aside, the new guitars being made in Indonesia, China, Vietnam, etc. are for the most part extremely good instruments, even compared with some of the Harmony/Valco/Kay instruments that were made in Chicago. Remember when "Made in Japan" meant cheap, flimsy and hard to tune?

Major instrument manufacturers have invested in computerized equipment that results in a higher quality, more standardized product. A student starting out now can purchase a decent beginner's instrument that will sound good, play well, and last them a while.

The Fender FS-52 under discussion here was a poor design, regardless of where it was made. Making it in Corona instead of China would not have mattered. Even so, it's a lot better than the 1960s Harmony lap steel I used to own.
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Tom Pettingill · From: California, USA (deceased)

It really is a shame that Fender missed the boat with the FS-52. It had the potential to be a winner at a good price point.

There are some good instruments being made offshore these days. Most every manufacturer has an import model now. I think some have made the mistake of lumping them under their primary brand which I think can have the potential of watering down the main brand.

I've looked into having one of my designs done overseas and there are a great many factorys more than willing to deliver, even in small quantities. At this point in time I've decided against it, but may revisit it down the road. If I do they will have some other branding, my name is reserved for best.
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Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

To answer the original question, Fender made the FS-52 because they determined there was a market for a Fender lap steel and thought they could make some money selling such a guitar. Whether or not that market was served by their product could be debated for days.

It would be interesting to see if the people in charge of the FS-52 project considered it to be successful or not. There certainly are a lot of these lap steels out there.
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Mike D · From: Phx, Az

The sad thing about the custom shop is that they say it takes us $3000 to make a guitar that sold for $152 in 1958. It breaks my heart.

$152 in 1958 is about $1,200 today, and you don't have to spend anywhere near that to get a pretty damn nice Strat today.
Also keep in mind the $152 was for a guitar off the line, not a custom.

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

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