Fender Electric Guitars in the 1980's and 1990's
The year 1980 marked the fifteenth anniversary of CBS's takeover of Fender, and as the decade began, its managers were faced with serious difficulties.
The overall economic climate was bleak, Far Eastern imports were damaging sales, and substantial investment was needed to update tools and machinery.
The company's reputation as a manufacturer of high quality instruments was also suffering - a situation exacerbated by a sometimes exagerated reverence for "pre-CBS" Fenders among many players.
Such attitudes may not always have been fair, but it was a fact of life that while "an older Fender guitar was not necessarily better, most of the better guitars were old," as Richard R. Smith comments in his book Fender: The Sound Heard 'Round the World.
The following year, CBS made a serious effort to solve Fender's problems, hiring two senior executives from Yamaha's U.S. musical instruments division, John C. McLaren and William Schultz, to lead a new management team.
The made substantial progress, replacing wornout plant at the Fullerton factory, bringing in new models, and - in a radical and far-sighted move - launching a range of lower-priced Japanese-made Fender guitars.
These included "reissues" of classic older designs, and were initially sold only in Japan and Europe; however, they soon appeared in the U.S. as well, giving a generation of impecunious young American players it first chance to own a "real" Strat or Tele.
Despite the achievements, however, CBS eventually decided to withdrawl from the guitar industry.
In 1985, it sold Fender to a consortium headed by Bill Schultz - who, like his former colleague John McLaren (now closely involved with G & L) was highly regarded by Fender personnel.
In Fender: The Inside Story, Forrest White quotes company veteran Freddie Tavares as saying that "he thought Bill was the one who could restore the firm to its former positon as king of the hill."
Tavares' faith was justified; Fender has prospered under Schultz's leadership and the proof of its renaissance lies in the range of excellent instruments it now produces - from the fine guitars made at its new factory and Custom Shop in Corona, California, to the cheaper models manufactured in Mexico and Asia.