70s Fernandes strat 57RI - any good?

[tomfarnan]

I've heard that early Fernandes stuff is really great but can't find any info online. There's one on Australian ebay at present. Is it worth pursuing at about US$550?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...ht_9792wt_1368

[Woody Relic]

Perhaps this article from a UK guitar magazine would help:

http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...rrent=mag1.jpg

Here is the same guy's website:

http://www.japanguitars.co.uk/

Same guy, some history of Burny Les Pauls:

http://www.japanguitars.co.uk/Page%201%20history.html

This article concerns Burny Les Pauls, but may have some useful information for you:

http://www.japanguitars.co.uk/burny%20info.html

Personally, I have a later-model Fernandes LE-1, their Strat copy of the time, and I think it equals any Japan Strat. But mine is from a later time than the one you are considering.

Hope this is of some help, mate!

[tomfarnan]

Originally Posted by Woody Relic

Perhaps this article from a UK guitar magazine would help:

http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...rrent=mag1.jpg

Here is the same guy's website:

http://www.japanguitars.co.uk/

Same guy, some history of Burny Les Pauls:

http://www.japanguitars.co.uk/Page%201%20history.html

This article concerns Burny Les Pauls, but may have some useful information for you:

http://www.japanguitars.co.uk/burny%20info.html

Personally, I have a later-model Fernandes LE-1, their Strat copy of the time, and I think it equals any Japan Strat. But mine is from a later time than the one you are considering.

Hope this is of some help, mate!

Plenty - thanks mate :)

[BB]

Great guitars. After my guitar was stolen before a gig in 1981, a buddy loaned me his Fernandes strat copy ( similar to the one posted ) until the insurance money came through and I could get another guitar. At that time, I played semi hollows. A beautiful Ibanez AS-200 was stolen. After playing and falling in love with the Fernandes strat, I found a Tokai copy of a 54. That was my main guitar for over 20 years. The older Fernandes and Tokai stuff is as good as it gets in my opinion.

[Octave Doctor]

I've played a few Fernandes guitars, they were all at least nice, some were exceptional, especially compared to '70's and early '80's Fenders. I used to have a Suntech Strat copy that looked very similar to the eBay guitar, but could never find much info.

[JayFreddy]

I can't comment on that specific model, but when I lived in Japan in the 90's, Fernandez had several different tiers of quality all branded under the Fernandez name.

The low end stuff was comparable to entry level Squiers, while the high end Fernandez stuff was priced comparably to MIJ Fender. The pricing and quality seemed comparable to Fender across the beginning to mid-line stuff, but for higher priced stuff, Fender Japan was still a better value, in my experience.

Unless you have specific knowledge about a Fernandez guitar and can positively confirm that it is one of the highest quality ones, I think $550 is too high... I'm probably spoiled with good guitar prices living in the US, but these days I doubt I'd pay more than $450 for one of the really nice Fernandez Strat or Tele copies.

I expect they're worth more in Oz than they are in Texas, but $550 is still too steep, IMHO.

EDIT: I bet that particular guitar is worth about $450-500 AUD, then factor in the price of the US Standard pickups. At $699 AUD, I think the seller's asking too much.

[sneakyjapan]

those old ones are getting collectable in Japan nowadays, price looks ballpark for one in such nice condition. Body looks like Sen to me...I have a few Grecos from the late`70s to early `80s made of that wood, the grain is real nice on it...lots of makers used Sen. Be nice to see a photo from under the pickguard, thats an early one, might help to figure out what p`up it has. That logo shows in my my books dated 1976...it`s on a FST-70I but in white and it has the 3 bolt neck. Theres also another pic from the same year with a different logo, on a 4 bolt...`76/`77 more logo changes are shown too. But the logo on the one pictured is shown as their earliest so mid/late `70s seems to be the time frame. Everybody appears to be after the `80s MIJs now but by the late `70s they were building some great stuff ...early `70s can be a bit more iffy...but the late `70s stuff can be very nice. I`ve got a few Fernendes but made later and the ones I bought really impressed me and they made some very good guitars in the `90s too. In my opinion, Fernandes made some real nice models and they still have not reached the prices old Grecos, Fender Japans or Tokais have yet so get em while you can `cause once the feeding frenzy starts prices will jump up.

[rangercaster]

Fender Japan was started because Fender was losing sales to copiers of their designs ...

At this time in Japan, the electric guitar was making its great debut, and Fender guitars were highly sought-after. Finding it
very difficult to acquire a real USA-made Fender, and finding it extremely expensive, a team of businessmen, guitar
enthusiasts and Japanese luthiers banded together and started the FujigenGakki guitar factory “lawsuit” division, where
they had brought in a handful of choice original 1950’s and 1960’s Fenders and dismantled them. Pickups were unwound
and studied electronically, wood core samples were taken and exact dimensions of the woods were recorded. Artists were
paid to replicate the logo designs and hardware designs. And then, finally, the Japanese started to manufacture their own
Fender replicas under the names of such companies as Greco, Fernandes, ESP, Joo Dee, Westminster, Heerby,
El Maya, and even Yamaha) so that they could enjoy what America was enjoying, but under their own terms and at their
own cost. And most importantly, these guitars were easily available from local music shops.

This went on for a number of years until it had become so popular that Fender was made aware of the situation and decided
to really take a look at what was going on in Japan. After deliberately getting their hands on a few good copies, they were
astonished (and probably really angry) about how accurate some of the copies were. Enraged at this deliberate copyright
infringement, Fender threatened a lawsuit against many of these companies in the early 1980’s, forcing them to “cease and
desist” production. Many ceased (like El Maya, Heerby, and Joo Dee), but many desisted and kept making these same
guitars with minor changes to the logos and headstock designs. And there were others who just ceased, and then just
picked up and started making them again under a different name.

All this interest in Fender’s classics and the Japanese’s successful efforts at re-introducing the famous Strat and Tele
designs from the 1950’s and 1960’s gave Fender USA a bright idea… making reissues of their OWN classics! What a
great idea! It’s a wonder nobody else thought… well, er, uh…

So, Fender (under the direction of Dan Smith at the Fullerton Plant) started to really get things going prior to 1982 so that
they could release their “vintage” line of reissue guitars, which are still being made today. Since the Japanese were already
so successful, they hired a Fender Japan team (largely made up of Greco’s designers and luthiers) to try to do what they
did best, but by changing the logo to “Fender” and putting Fender USA pickups in them. After a trial period, the USA team
decided to pay the Japanese team a visit and see how things were going. Upon completion of their trip, Dan lamented:
“Everybody came up to inspect them and the guys almost cried, because the Japanese product was so good - it was what
we had been having a hell of a time trying to do."

[chezdeluxe]

I have owned 2 Fernandes strats,1 F---s tele,1 F---s Les Paul. All well made with a top flight build quality which made them a pleasure to play.All fender copies needed the orig inal ceramic pickups in the bridge position being replaced.I chose SDs which improved them greatly but I had to remove the bar magnets for the other pickups and turn them over to reverse the polarity to put them in phase with the Duncans.My major issue with these guitars this many years down the track would be fret wear and associated extra costs

[sneakyjapan]

as much as I love my MIJ guitars, there was a lot of crap made too. At one point there were literally dozends of brand names though I doubt there were that many factories, more than likely a few plants were building all the guitars, just putting whatever name on the headstock. people in the business of selling guitars, especially the ones in Japan dealing on e-bay, would like us all to think everything that was MIJ at the time is fabulous...it ain`t, I`ve left more than a few on shop floors, took home the ones I liked. The Dan Smith thing has been posted over and over, and the Japanese are still building fantastic guitars to this day, most of which don`t get sold overseas and unknown but we are certainly spoiled for great MIJs here now.