The American Design Experience is Fender’s online electric guitar and bass designer, featuring four of their most popular models: The Stratocaster, Telecaster, Precision Bass and Jazz Bass.
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Your personalized designs can be saved as an image for sharing or you can have it hand-built in Fender’s Corona, California facility, where your personalized instrument will be delivered to you within 90 days.
Since 2011, Fender has been offering a hands-on version of the “American Design Experience” at the Fender Visitor Center in Corona, located adjacent to Fender’s factory. Visitors hand-select instrument bodies and necks, and personally design their own unique instrument, before having it built and delivered to them within a matter of months.
Now, Fender is expanding the program to allow people throughout the United States to design their guitars, via the online software guitar configurator on its website.
To help you in designing your dream Fender branded instrument, the brand has put artists’ personal designs on their website for inspiration. You can view personalized designs by Neon Trees’ Branden Campbell, The Cult’s Billy Duffy, thenewno2’s Dhani Harrison, Joe Robinson, and Taylor Swift’s Amos Heller.
Amos Heller was quoted saying, “This is an opportunity to create something that is at once iconic and uniquely yours. The (American Design Experience) allows me to express myself not only with my playing, but with the design of the instrument itself.” Branden Campbell adds, “I’ve always loved the vintage hot rod vibe that Fender brings with their guitars. I’ve often had to buy two different basses to piece together all the features I wanted. Now, I have the option to get what I want the first time.”
This new online version bring multiple options – including body and neck woods and designs, color finishes, pickup and electronics configurations, and more – resulting in over a million potential design outcomes. I played around with the Strat to give you an example of the many possible design combinations, unfortunately they don’t have gold/gold burst body finish, but all the prominent Strat colors were available. Here is what I came up with:
Justin Norvell, vice president of Marketing for Fender, says: “We live in an era of personalization, and few things make a greater statement about people than the music they listen to – your music and how it represents your individual identity. Fender’s entire existence embodies that very concept, because its instruments have always been modular in construction, which has always made them ideal for individual personalization. And the online American Design Experience is the next level of that whole concept – built to an individual player’s specs straight from the factory floor.”
Fender American Design Experience instruments come with a certificate of authenticity, a dedicated serial number, an official Fender product manual and an upgraded hardshell case. It also comes bundled with collectible items that include American Design Experience booklet, strap, polishing cloth, instrument cable and adjustment wrenches.
As mentioned earlier, you can save your designs for future use, you can also share your build to your social media network. You can try building your guitar or bass now at the new Fender American Design Experience.
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