The thing is, when Gibson were going bust, everyone was saying “they need to go back to what they do best, Les Paul’s/SG’s/335’s!” And were criticised for all their “innovations” (which incidentally were poop...)
Fender and Gibson do what they do, Imagine Levi’s making tracksuit bottoms or Dr Martens making tennis shoes. It just doesn’t work that way.
Fender have a staple 5/10 models and have to work with that.
They try stuff and it doesn’t always sell - there are 100’s of models which didn’t stay long.
I sold Fenders for years as my Job, and all the weird and wonderful sat on the wall while black strats and white telecasters turned over in huge numbers.
For years their best selling Telecaster was the butterscotch 52, their second biggest selling telecaster was the left handed version. After that it was a natural finish USA with a black pickguard and the Baja Tele in blackguard blonde...etc.
Its about an “Icon” thing for players.
Jaguars/Jazzmasters/Mustangs were sort of dead until Grunge - the artists bought them because they were reputable branded guitars but cheap.
Then in the early 2000’s the 72 Custom Tele/Thinline Tele/Tele Deluxe were in vogue because of all the hip indie bands using them for that same reason - before that they couldn’t raise an eyebrow let alone a big ticket price.
They have a legacy and they’re bound to it, damned if they do (by some) and damned if they don’t (by others).
More stringent quality control and they’d be away - but that adds cost, and that’s why a Deluxe USA Jazz is £1800 or so and a USA Sadowsky is about £4500.
Incidentally - I side by side compared a USA 2010 Deluxe, A USA sadowsky and an Alleva Coppolo (check spelling) and the Fender held its own, massively. I preferred it in sound to the other two and it felt as nice as the Sadowsky. It was just a bit heavier than the other 2. It was also about £1449 at the time.
They should open up 12 month contracts to us all and see if we could do a better job.
Anyhow, as someone said earlier - if you weren’t thinking of buying a Fender this year - these probably aren’t aimed at you...I’m off to play my yamaha 😂