Rick Beato really, really dislikes Fender...

[Craig Anderton]

Craig what's your take on the Elektron takeover by Bonner Capital.

Well, there was a grammatical error in the text shown in your post Seriously, I have no idea. The reason any company acquires another one is because the entity buying the company thinks it can make money.

The question is how do they think they'll make money from Elektron? Their list of investments includes quite a few that involve media, music, and video. They also have an infrastructure that could benefit a company like Elektron. Best case is that they bought Elektron because they felt its potential was nowhere close to being reached, and Bonner could help them meet that potential. Or maybe they want to add an educational element, like doing music education based around an inexpensive hardware component. (My Secrets of Synthesis eBook is that kind of concept. It bundles a software modular synth with an eBook about synthesis techniques that use the software.)

Many of their investments seem to provide services that fulfill a need, rather than rape and pillage the environment, build things that kill people, or engage in espionage on consumers. It's also a family-owned group. Fingers crossed that Elektron will be in good hands.

 

[BobF]

I recently sold my Fender Strat and replaced it with a PRS SE NFS. This was before Fender started their IP enforcement attempts. IMO, Fender Strats and Gibson LPs are the same in their offerings - a bazillion colors, a bazillion reissues, a bazillion artist models, etc.

I have one Gibson LP that was a 10th anniversary gift from my wife 25+ years ago. I don't need more of them.

IMO, guitars reached commodity status years ago. Fender and Gibson both have had their share of problems staying viable in the guitar space. Just like Harley-Davidson with motorcycles, their core demographic is aging out. Declining businesses pull whatever levers they have available - and not all available levers work well.

With regard to declining QC, I could make a case for QC declining across all retail offerings. In the current environment, it is much more cost-effective to replace a percentage of units than to push QC for reduced returns.

I expect my guitars to continue working if their mfrs fail. DAWs? I moved to SO after Gibson dumped SONAR. If something happens to FSP, I'll likely move to Reaper.

Such is life.

 

[Gary Shepherd]

I'm normally a fan of Rick Beato but I thought he was biased and unfair in this video - we know from the past that he has had Paul Reed Smith on his channel - and this issue mostly concerns the Silver Sky (I said this from the start that it was aimed at PRS). For Fender, the arrogance of PRS (like with the Gibson Les Paul) when they said they were "improving" a classic, was the deciding factor. How typical that Paul and his mates should paint Fender as the bad guy. For Rick to say Fender guitars were "crap" was I think pretty terrible and untrue - I have been a subscriber to Guitarist magazine for years and they have never said this. Fender will recover the reputation - Gibson did. Gibson lost but PRS were forced to change the design of the Single Cut (a horrible guitar). I am sure PRS will have to change some aspect of the Silver Sky - and Paul will do his usual job of playing the victim and acting as the man of the people. He really should stick to his own designs.

 

[Craig Anderton]

the existing stock dating from the early 1950s to the present is so vast anyone looking for one today or fifty years from now can still choose from a deep pool of candidates

Let's just say the time is not optimum for selling a guitar on reverb.com . You're right, there's a major glut.

 

[TonalDynamics]

My observation with the original thread was an immediate loss of focus.

It is one thing to have a measured, well purposed discussion/opinion about the lawsuit (agree/disagree), it's implications (good/bad) and so on. If it would have stayed in that lane - probably would have been just fine.

But that thread immediately turned into a finger pointing exercise and then inexplicably into gross speculation about Fender's marketing moves on Studio Pro, how the "guitar business" is somehow going to take down our little DAW, how Native Instruments plays in this (?) then into nationalism, private equity, Kontakt engines and so on.

Folks - if we really want longer thread life (in the Lounge or anywhere on here) - we need to work on having better discussions.

VP

Isn't 'loss of focus' kind of the whole point of lounge forums everywhere?
Again, as I asked Lukas, which rules were being broken?

 

[TonalDynamics]

How typical that Paul and his mates should paint Fender as the bad guy.

Fender IS the bad guy here, Gary. According to Timmy P. et al, not just Beato, it's the QC that's the main issue, not even this lawsuit.

I'd like to see Fender do what Paul did on the factory floor with Rick and just pull a guitar out of a box and have it be set up, intonated and fretting perfectly straight from the floor.

Just like Tim said (which Rick echoed), just stop cutting QC corners, damn it, and people would buy your guitars again instead of saving up for a PRS.

Servco-Pacific acquired controlling interest in Fender 5 years ago, and the new CEO would have, at the very least, met with their approval.
The potential net effect of this on exacerbating Fender's poor judgement recently can not be dismissed out of hand.

Hmm. I‘ll offer my 2 Pfennigs and then leave it alone.
I did not know the breadth and depth of Fender‘s erasure of everything Presonus. If I had been a long time user of Studio One, I‘d be quite pissed off. A lot of work by Craig and others just POOF?! Gone? That is really out of line and disrespectful.
On the other issue, I wish them luck trying to force Yamaha or PRS to abandon their ST model guitars. I was thinking of getting one of PRS‘s Silver Light SEs (or whatever they‘re called) Strat knockoffs, but there‘s a Martin D-18 or Yamaha FG9 in my near future.
Both Yamaha Pacificas and the PRS‘s are still for sale at Thomann.
I‘m sure that mostly makes people roll their eyes. The destruction of resources meant to help this community seems more egregious, imo. I‘m grateful for this resource, and while politics can‘t be completely removed from these situations in the musician/recordist community, it is best to not let it get out of hand.

I appreciate your candor in showing solidarity with the old forum's destruction, Olorin.

Some people on this forum seem to under the impression that 'Fender-criticism' of any sort is frowned upon, even disallowed here...
But as Lukas so helpfully just pointed out, this isn't the case.
So I don't know why they are all trying to appeal to corporate, so to speak...

Bulldozing the old forum, tastelessly renaming S1, threatening to sue their competitors using an obscure ruling (that does NOT apply in the United States)... slice it any way you like, Fender is on a roll.