Fenders "CBS" Era
 

What exactly was it about this takeover from CBS that caused Fender to become so poor with their instrument making?

The same thing that inevitably happens, when those who have no understanding of/experience with the unique nature of musical instrument construction/production (not just guitars) or the real needs of musicians decide they know better than those who do - can you say Norlin - and start cutting corners, making unnecessary changes, and implementing excessive cost-driven standardization...

- and on that note (pun intended), you might find this of interest (scroll down to the third entry):

https://www.martinguitar.com/about-m...mployment.html

Many of the CBS era Fender design highlights, like headstock truss rod adjustment, bullet truss rod nuts, micro tilt, and three bolt neck attachment are still to be found.

I think the bad rap comes down to a few things...

1. Slightly oversized neck pockets and neck bolt screw holes making for necks that could be easily misaligned with the strings, though also easily fixed.
2. The rebirth of the Gibson Les Paul, side by side humbucking pickups, and over wound pickups in general.
3. Thick polyurethane finishes which I found in the day to be sturdy and decent looking, but thin finishes became the trademark of good.

I played a '73 Strat in high school and it looked great with clear gloss on ash. There was nothing about the pickups that my amp turned up too loud could not fix :~). I did occasionally have to recenter the strings over the fretboard.

Along with Robin Trower, Ritchie Blackmore, John Frusciante, and David Gilmour (70's era), Jimi Hendrix played CBS Era strats, I guess they worked alright for those guys :)

New management didn't know, or care, about how to make guitars. It was about reducing costs and increasing profits. So, Fender went to a 3 bolt/screw neck joint because there's a cost savings from omitting the 4th one.

Norlin did the same with Gibson.

Mmm... The Fender three-bolt micro-tilt neck was designed by... Leo Fender himself, while he was a consultant to CBS Musical Intruments, and not to save a single screw but to allow more precise adjustment of neck angle. Leo created a decent system, CBS Musical Instruments executed it poorly.

And Norlin? According to what I've heard, Norlin had no real affect on design and line operations until the move to Nashville. The Kalamazoo line first heard rumbles of upcoming changes in late 1974 but saw no real changes until '76-ish.

Bob

If you look the neck side of the 3-bolt attach, there is a circular metal plate attached to the neck with TWO BOLTS!!! The third center bolt through the body is threaded into that plate and is not a wood screw.

A 3 bolt neck is actually an extra route in the neck and 5 bolts...

I think the real issue was oversized bolt holes through the body and a larger neck pocket. If you look carefully at Sweetwater's pictures of modern Fenders, many of them do not have the strings aligned over the fretboard end. That was the problem they were trying to solve by making it adjustable and quite mechanically strong.

Don’t get too hung up on the assumption that all CBS-era Fenders are junk. It just isn’t true. Same with the assumption that all Norlin-era Gibsons are junk. That’s Internet forum cork sniffery.

Did those two companies make some significant changes, both to production and corporate culture? Yes. Have those changes resulted in lower valuations on the vintage market? Absolutely.

But the final products of CBS-era Fender and Norlin-era Gibson can still be really good guitars. I see them as a chance to get into the great world of the vintage guitar market with both of my kidneys still inside my body.

I'll admit that there are some junker 70's CBS guitars out there, but the one's that have been lovingly played for many years, and are still around are the exception.

I found my '75 Fender Mocha strat in a trade off of CL a few years back.

I had an '11 Fender Tele I didn't bond with and posted it for sale or trade, and an older guitar player hit me up.

We did an even guitar swap. I only paid $500 for the '11 Fender Tele, so I think I got the better end of the trade .

The guitar has and amazing neck(not a baseball bat neck), weighs in a little over 7 lbs, and the stock pickups sound amazing, and it has a nice tight neck pocket.

My CBS era '75 Fender Mocha Strat

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‘79 CBS Hardtail. Somewhat heavy but this one was assembled well.

I think players forget sometimes that pre-CBS isn't any guarantee of a grail-level ax. First of all, Strats were pretty much mid-priced guitars in the line-up at that time...not high-end at all. Secondly, as anyone who has tried many of these with an eye to actually buying one, will tell you that some (maybe even a lot) of them are dogs and some have the 'mojo'.

They probably weren't anywhere near as consistent with quality as they're able to be these days. The vintage ones are way out of my price range...and who cares? My modern Strats sound and play great!

I like these two late 60’s CBS era recreations. Always thought the cut of the headstock was much more fitting for the body of the guitar.



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