With the implosion of Fender Musical Instruments looking imminent at the end of CBS’s reign, existing CEO Bull Schultz and a group of investors – including Dan Smith from the CBS-era management team – swooped in 1984 to purchase the rights to the Fender name and designs. We asked Fender Custom Shop co-founders Michael Stevens and John Page to talk us through it, but first let’s go back a few years.
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But how did the climate at a newly reformed company foster this effort, and how did the venture really come together?Ī fingerboard is prepped for gluing to a neck blank in the Custom Shop, July 2017 In the midst of saving Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC) from ruin and recapturing the strengths of this once-mighty guitar brand, Bill Schultz also decided to establish a ‘best-of-the-best’ department, where top-level luthiers would craft the finest renditions of both traditional Fender models and adventurous new designs, to suit the needs of name artists and special-order clients alike. Most guitarists, and Fender fans in particular, know the basic history of the Custom Shop, which celebrates its 30th Anniversary this year. In reality, the Fender Custom Shop was founded to do both.
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For Fender players of the past 30 years, however, the term more likely denotes an effort to recreate the best of the company’s guitars of the 50s and 60s. Often the term ‘custom guitar’ implies something special-order, made with unusual features and non-standard specs.