There’s certainly a lot to see and do in Tokyo, and among all of its culture and cuisine are its many flagship stores. These large and stylish shopping facilities that serve as the focal point for a brand in any city or country could be considered landmarks in themselves.
And joining their ranks is the legendary guitar maker Fender, which is setting up its first-ever flagship store in Japan this summer. Although from time to time the company has set up stores around the world in the past, none will be quite like this one. For starters, as a flagship store, it looks like it’s going to be huge.
Fender will actually be moving into The Ice Cubes building once occupied by H&M in the ultra-stylish Harajuku area of Tokyo. This store is planned to occupy the basement and first three floors for a total of just over 1,000 square meters of floor space offering an unprecedented array of Fender instruments, equipment, accessories, and other merchandise.
▼ The Ice Cubes in 2022
According to the company, Fender Flagship Tokyo will carry the entire catalog of Fender and Squier electric guitars, acoustic guitars, basses, amps, and pedals. There will also be an area where people can place orders for custom-made instruments from the Fender Custom Shop.
Instruments in the Artist Signature series such as the J Mascis Telecaster and Geddy Lee Jazz Bass will also be sold there, as well as a range of lifestyle accessories, and considering this is a flagship store it wouldn’t be surprising for this to be the first place to find the latest Fender creations.
And on top of all that, they also hinted that they’ll be offering a variety of services tailored to all kinds of players from beginners to experts and from collectors to those who have never even picked up a guitar. More information about those services will probably come to light as the opening draws closer.
A concrete opening date hasn’t been set yet.
Source, images: Press Release ©Fender
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- https://soranews24.com/2023/03/02/fender-to-open-first-ever-flagship-store-in-harajuku-this-summer/
20 Comments
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bass4funk
I’m definitely going!!!
JeffLee
Surprising but great news, says this owner of a made in Japan 1962 Fender Strat reissue. Probably would be better in Kanda rather than Harajuku, but you can't have everything.
Three goals
Great news! Love Fender guitars!
vanstar
As long as prices are good ..
CKAI
badass!!!
garypen
FYI, it's spelled S-Q-U-I-E-R.
Moderator: Thanks for pointing that out.
AngryGrandma
Rock and roll.
MilesTeg
As it sounds spacious, it'll be nice to be able to walk around without worrying about bumping into or knocking down instruments inside your typical cramped store. Made in Japan Fenders can be just as good or even better than made in the USA Fenders. Their quality is underrated as are most made in Japan guitars.
TrevorPeace
I wonder if they found my '63 fretless Precision.
bass4funk
I own 5 Fenders, but my favorite is my 1972 JB just can't beat the sound, plus my Rotosound funk strings and the sound never disappoints.
TokyoLiving
OK NO thanks..
TokyoLiving
Wow, you can perform to Trumpyclown a serenade at Mar-a-Lago.. Lol..
JeffLee
That's certainly true for the body, neck, fretboard and frets. However, the MIJ's usually have inferior electrics, bridges and tuners, which is intentional, given Fender's marketing.
Still, no one is stopping an owner from swapping out the parts. I did that with the original Chinese pickups, replacing them with the "TexMex" series.
Open-minded
I agree. The Tokyo price ranges is going to make or break this store. If the store does not sell a lot of affordable inventory to get people coming back for more and pay that expensive rent, then it will just be a touristy store where the locals mostly come to visit and visitors pay crazy high prices while traveling abroad. The exchange already sucks for Japanese consumers!
Both would be better!
Sven Asai
Well, it’s surely only a very special niche and will attract only a few people as paying customers, but anyway, selling the last available basses and amps is a good idea. Those little bluetooth plastic toy speakers everywhere just are an audio torture and must disappear. lol
MilesTeg
Well....you get what you pay for and they need to cut corners somewhere to bring the price down a little. There is a drop-off but I don't think it's huge. Even cheaper tuners generally keep the guitar in tune...generally. Same for bridges. Where I think a huge difference is is in the pickups. Nothing affects the tone more than the pickups so upgrading can have a huge impact. Luckily there are a lot of great manufacturers and they're affordable. I'm sure you noticed a big difference with the TexMex's.
Shivaji
Japan still has a significant presence in the instrument industry.
Open-minded
I am not sure how long the store will last.
bass4funk
Yup!
It depends, that is not always necessarily the case, but I will agree with you on the electronics, but I usually swap them out for a better system.
https://www.betablockerpickups.com/
These guys make some of the sweetest pickups that just can't be beaten for the price range, if you take the time and look there are quality instruments in Japan, I owned one strat and a Tele MIM, and they were ok, but compared to my US 1977 made, not even close.