Layoffs from Fender & GC – Who is Next?



Baxter and Jonathan talk send some postitive vibes out to the folks that were let go over at Fender and GC , and also about the accordion effect in the guitar industry with supply and demand. Will there be more layoffs? Baxter thinks maybe so and no one is safe.

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46 thoughts on “Layoffs from Fender & GC – Who is Next?”

  1. I wonder how much their made in mexico had to do with it. Their emails sure have increased dramatically. I do know that I don't want the made in mexico, I have one made in mexico Martin, and it is a POS, I may donate it to charity. I am left handed so I have to have them made for me. Luckily my fenders say Made in the USA, but it is hard sometimes to get them to even make you one.

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  2. If these companies are axing their highly skilled/higher paid" Luthiers(leaders) along side the "pandemic hires"…. poor instrument quality in the near future seems likely/unavoidable.

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  3. What is your source? This doesn’t make sense. I’ve had a guitar on order for 2 years… if they produced too many and had too many workers, why is there no fender US guitars available anywhere I check?!

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  4. Nowaday…nobody buys guitars (GenZ) and all those who are interested in guitars, already have theirs…(Boomers and X's) Guitar manufacturing is doomed…but portable phones are the futur…if you know what i mean…

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  5. there's hope that because of the Fender price fixing, they will be put out of Business. the prices will go through the roof, so you can keep all your book purchases. F Fender
    "Fender makes the best firewood"
    – J Hendrix –

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  6. I worked at GC for 13 1/2 years from 2004-2018, so I saw the company as it was, then the company that Bain Capital turned it into and then the corporate AF company that Ares Management has reduced it to. Yeah cramming GC studios into the smaller stores was a great idea but it killed a major part of the store's vibe. So it was becoming very hard to continue to stay there. I hope anybody that was let go is able to find another gig ASAP.

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  7. I find it interesting that the premium guitars above $1500 can't be built fast enuff. Epiphone seems to be selling tons of guitars for around $1000. I just don't think your getting that good of a product anymore from Fender in that medium price range. If they can ramp up production in Indonesia and keep the prices fair(not fixed)they'll recover. Too many good guitars being built there already, and if they give up thier spot in production, someone else will gladly take it and burry them. I could care less where they're made, as long as they're built with some TLC.

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  8. I have bought stuff from GC since they first showed up. I was in a CA store just today, and they STILL use the same dilapidated register system, there's a single person in their little square thing where you pay, there's 7 people just trying to buy their stuff and leave and every transaction seems to take at least 20, even more minutes. And it's not the easiest place to find someone when you need some help. I buy most stuff online. It's virtually no hassle.

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  9. I bought a Meteora last week through GC online. Came right in the factory box. Too many quality control issues to bother keeping it. Incredibly sad that a $1,000+ guitar looked like it was slapped together, dropped on the floor, and then rubbed against some grease and tossed in a box. What a bummer!

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  10. Dylan briefly discussed Fender guitars coming from overseas. This might be silly, but I'm wondering how many overseas manufactured Fender guitars are sitting out in the coastal waters of the Port of Los Angeles that have been waiting for many months to be unloaded, and still can't get unloaded? I can't help but think there's millions of dollars in guitars out there just sitting on boats.

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  11. Fender hires Mexican workers who cross the border and work in their American factory. Everyone knows this…then the same workers work part time in Mexico. Not a trade secret…but Jesus dude, do something with the hair. Gawd!

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  12. Blame DEMOCRATS for this. They paralyzed the economy during COVID by fearmongering to prevent re-opening the economy and then paid people twice their normal income to sit on the couch – so people spent that easy money creating bubbles in multiple industries – including the instrument market. Now the economy is slowing down because of demand destruction from high inflation from more unnecessary Democrat money printing and supply chain insanity. Now they're passing the "Inflation Reduction Act" that won't to ANYTHING to reduce inflation and spends an additional 700 BILLION dollars. Elections have consequences. If you voted Democrat in 2020 this is YOUR FAULT. Don't make the same mistake in 2022.

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  13. If anyone truly cared for the workers laid off they'd never purchase another item from these companies/corporations ever again. But companies like Fender know just how stupid their customer base is and will continue to exploit them and their workers.

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  14. I worked at GC Pro for 9 months…they laid me off on March 31st, 2020 as soon as Covid started. GC sux. Sorry to all the laid off employees.

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  15. So, when I use to work in construction, and we got a large contract and needed extra bodies to complete the job on time, we would hire day-laborers for as long as we needed them, to complete the job within reasonable timing. Most industries are the same, including the guitar building industry. The difference "to me", is the skill level that is needed to produce an "American made guitar" !
    Are people hired by the month (like day labor) with very "little skill", just because they need the bodies to complete the orders ? If this is the case, no wonder our QC sucks, and the over sea's manufactures are kicking our asses. Something needs to change !!

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  16. someone warned you all what would happen. 😢😢 This isn't ALL about supply and demand, greed, and poor management. It's more about supply chain issues, consumer recession fears/reality, gas prices, inflation, war in Ukraine, etc…..general cluster worldwide.

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  17. Let's not forget the demand/sales is slow in the USA due to inflation. People have no discretionary money to spend on guitars. Keeping a roof and food on the table and gas in the car is costing us more, leaving nothing to play with.

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