[Spridgets] Comment on Japan

[Kirk Hargreaves]

Even when Japan was producing junky stuff they were also making the Nikon
camera.

Today, Japanese guitars have gained a lot of respect.  Many feel that the
best guitars are being made, and have been made since the early 1980's, in
Japan.

It used to be if you owned a guitar made in Japan it was kind of frowned
upon. .  but now there is a new level of respect for the level of quality
and "vibe" that the Japanese are putting into their electric guitars.

Fender turned to Japan to keep themselves moving forward during the
transition when the employees bought the Fender back form CBS (early
1980's).  They only bought the right to the name, not the machines or the
tooling.  So they had a period where they had to start basically from
scratch.

One of the Fender execs while on a trip to a Japanese guitar factory was
said to have choked up after seeing, feeling and playing a Fender
Stratocaster type guitar that was made in the Nippo Gense (sp) factory.  The
thought of the executives was, "If we could only bring this kind of quality
and vibe to our guitars that we are going to build in the States."  So the
deal was struck to have Fenders made in this Japanese factory while Fender
was re-tooling and setting up their factory in Corona California.

Kirk