Fender Guitars - Leading the Pack in 2019!

Shoot, 2019 is just flat looking AMAZING for us guitar players!  Last week I wrote about how good Gibson was looking as they emerge from bankruptcy. But This week I'm going to ramble on a little about the OTHER great American Guitar company, who seemingly has the Midas touch and "gets" us players in a way that makes me wonder if they have secretly bugged the home of EVERY guitar player on the planet.  Yep, I'm talking Fender; and if you have dreampt of a guitar, chances are Fender already has it in production ... seriously, how do they do that?  Let's talk about it!

First a disclaimer:

As a guitar/music journalist, I've had the privilege of having Fender fly me to LA and give me some advance look-sees at their products before the public at large does.  Some might say that makes me biased, they would be wrong!  If a company flys me out to look at their guitars and they are crap, well ... they are still crap ... nuff said!  In the case of Fender, every time I get a glimpse at their new guitars I'm floored, they just flat NAIL it over and over.  It truly seems as though they can read the minds of players and then strive to give them what they want.  And in fact they can.  Say whaaaat?  You see, for several years now Fender has made it top priority to LISTEN to players, truly paying attention to what they want and need ... and what they don't.  Yep, back in Gibson's terrible years (say 2012-2018) while Gibson was extending the middle finger to their customers, Fender was extending the right hand and following it up with a big smile and a thank-you for sharing!

One HUGE bit of insight the folks at Fender caught on to is that the guitar player demographic has changed ... significantly.  Some companies I won't name still believe the "typical" guitar buyer is a middle-aged man (or older) who still wears his Ozzy t-shirt from high school even though it no longer covers his more gratuitous belly.  Fender, however, has done the research and they know that there are now more GIRLS buying first guitars than GUYS, and that classic rock and metal no longer rule the guitar world.  And so, when you look at what Fender is offering in 2019, it looks so very refreshing, so "with it" ... because it IS.  Like I said, 2019 is a great time to be alive and playing guitar.

I feel I could way too easily fill this blog up with photos, because literally EVERYTHING Fender is making these days is spot-on to fit a real players needs.  So I'll make just a few quick mentions!

The Player Series that replaced the MIM Standard series.  Dude, these guitars are fully gigable pro instruments, and equipped to meed any situation/players needs.

The Parallel Universe series ... totally awesome ... I want them ALL.

The new American Performer series, Pro level American made guitars a working player can afford!

And my last word ... even the Squire series guitars are some seriously cool guitars these days.  I truly believe the squires of 2019 are better guitars than the American Fender guitars produced at the end of the CBS period.  And, they are including features seldom seen and even never seen at this price, like painted to match headstocks, Alnico pickups, and nitro finishes.  A little tweaking on the setup and these guitars are perfectly stage ready for a pro.  Amazing.