Is Fender destroying the Charvel brand?

[Grandturk]

Quality guitars are one thing. It's another thing to drop $100 or more on a fret level and crown on a budget guitar. Frankly when I was a kid in the $400 guitar range I didn't have any clue as to what fretwork was and meant for the guitar. I think my first Strat came with frets leveled flat and that was it

[KBDkaTana]

I believe it has more to do with the countries economy and the value of the guitar. My £400 Jap built dinky is complete junk. It's becoming so expensive to build guitars in japan that only the high value models have any hope of competing with the USA factories. On the other had, my Chinese build Charvel is amazing for the money. I can't fault it one bit.

[xenophobe]

Um... Everyone likes their guitars set up their own way... and there is no right way. Some people prefer a nice vintage bow with generous relief. I like my necks a bit flatter with a bit of relief... some people like the action super low.

I've never received a guitar, new or used, that I didn't need to set up to my liking. A guitar doesn't need to be set up to my liking for me to determine if I like a guitar or not.

One guitar I bought desperately needed to be Plek'd and that cost almost $200, but it was worth it.

I dunno what my point is. lol

[pianoguyy]

Your point was:
When I walk into a guitar center and they all have severe relief and high action (I can stick my pink under the E string and not touch anything) that I should buy the guitar anyhow because it has been well maintained, just maintained to a standard that I disagree with.

[Jackson8090s]

This thread anyway Grover was the driving force and visionary, Wayne gets credit for the hotrodding and that's how I remember things. It's kind of like a parts installer calling himself a mechanic. LOL @ Pianoguyy being Richie Kotzen , I mean it could be possible... I always thought Kotzen was an amazing guitarist, I just wouldn't take my wife with me to a meet & greet or a clinic

[xenophobe]

Your point was:
When I walk into a guitar center and they all have severe relief and high action (I can stick my pink under the E string and not touch anything) that I should buy the guitar anyhow because it has been well maintained, just maintained to a standard that I disagree with.

Well, I didn't mean that, but yeah, that's pretty much the truth. Or at least my anecdotal truth.

I can usually tell if a neck has issues even if it's disguised with a horrible setup. In fact, that's most likely why I ended up purchasing at least one of my favorite guitars. A horrible setup can also disguise a really wonderful instrument and my white Fender strat had all sorts of setup issues... trem posts set wrong leading to spring claw being set wrong leading to only using two springs, leading to pickups set up wrong. It wasn't even really playable when I purchased it which is probably why I was able to find it and import it. If it had the setup I gave it, I'm sure it wouldn't have lasted at any shop for very long. And yeah, it wasn't just a quick and easy setup, it took a while to get everything just right.