[iainblack]

Guitar Brand by Tony Bacon

Firstly, hats of to Amazon, ordered for 13.41 quid on Saturday and delivered on Monday morning.

Really enjoying the detail and reasons behind the creation of the brand. Could probably have done with some more pictures showing more variations in the models. Only 1 Katana photo when they had varios trems and 1 and 2 humbucker versions (remember L7?)

Anyway I bought it with fender strat companion book (10 quid) with is like the fender book Tony Bacon first did but with some new and interesting photos.

Some good stuff on Tokai:

'But there was one Japanese name in particular that exercised the team at fender. That was Tokai'

'Tokai's strats were called the Springy Sound model. The smiles that the name brought became wider when the players plugged in these guitars'

There is the 'confirmation / perpetuation ' of the lawsuit story. ' Fender tried legal action. They authorised (does a commercial company authorise a government agency?!?!?) US customs to confiscate guitars that used Fender's headstock shapes and, dramatically, to cut off the heads of the offending instruments. Billboard magazine reported one such action' and it quotes the magazine.

The Squire strategy was genius bourne out of desparation. US factory struggling so fill a gap with Japanese production. However the idea was to sell in Japan where Tokai were selling thier strat at higher prices that they were seling them for in Europe. So undercut Tokai in Japan and they would have to raise their prices in Europe to make up the difference. Hence being competetive on both markets with the edge of having the Fender logo.

When fender were looking for a partner they met Tokai and here is an interesting encounter:

Dan Smith, Fender director of marketing says ' I know the meeting with Tokai went badly. They basically told Bill Shultz that they didnt need to work with fender and, in fact, that Tokai would bury us in a couple of years. Big mistake'

Good quote at the end of the book from a Fender employee:

Squier is a brand we can mess with a little bit - and that doesn't upset the consumer. In fact they kind of expect that from the brand. Whereas with Fender, if you move a screw a millimeter to the left, you get hatemail'

Interesting stuff.

[chu71]

Right. if Fender got hatemail for every flaw on a Fender they d gone bust ...

[iainblack]

When you say flaw do you mean manufacturing fault as this guy is refering to a reproduction fault against the original designs

[chu71]

i meant flaw as in the qc and consistency of production not being what they should be in a guitarsellng for those prices ... not "flaw" as in a b stock flaw ...

[luis]

Regrding fender "flaws" I have I fiernd who bought a FST-60(similar to SS-38-40 of teh time) and he just let his American Standard out of the game.Simply, that FST is far superior fit and finish and sounding and cheaper.Great guitar for stage and recording.

Thnaks for teh search Iain, it?s a very interesting question you are showing.But I guess a very difficult question to know the tuth.
My guess is fender took legal action over Fendandes in Japan(if I recall correct),if you seach teh forums someone put a legal paper about it.

[iainblack]

hi, futher quote from Squier book:

'Billboard reported one such action: "Following an earlier warning issued by the Fender / Rodgers / Rhodes division of CBS instruments, US Customs agents recently seized two shipments of guitars illegally using the Fender headstocks and shipped to San Francisco from Japan".

It does not say who's product it was though.

Further: Fender's distributors in the UK and Germany threatened Tokai's trade outlets in those countries with similar moves. "But it was such an overwhelming situation that we couldn't fight it only with legal means" recalls Roger Balmer, Fender's new head of marketing and sales. "We had to take other steps"

and that is how Fender JV and Squier was born