RogersPast
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1982 - Anaheim Residence
Copyright (c) 2008, John Cermenaro
Last edited by RogersPast, 3/8/2008, 5:44 pm
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3/7/2008, 6:36 pm
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JohnC 1984
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1982 - Anaheim Residence
This is another photo taken at 554 Di ckel Street. It was right before a party we were having. Note the coffee table.
This room was where the "Fender Custom Shop as a business" plan was hatched. John Page described it in a column he was writing for Modern Guitars Magazine [ http://www.modernguitars.com/page/archives/000242.html ]
Basically, me and John and a few other guys who worked in R&D were sitting around my living room venting our frustration with F/R/R management. Our model shop (where all of us built our prototypes; guitars, amps, keyboards, and drums) had evolved into a part time custom shop for endorsing artists in an under-the-radar kind of way. We started in with the "ya know what they ought to do..." kind of talk that employees at every company engage in. Thinking Fender would never do it internally, our conversations at Dic kel Street turned into a business proposal to establish a custom shop for them as an outside contractor. Fender rejected the idea. A couple of years later, they thought it was a GOOD idea and put John Page in charge of it. Geniuses.
Back to that bass drum coffee table. We had that for a few years until one day, at the peak of frustration with what F/R/R was doing with Rogers, I snapped. I got home from work and walked into my living room and what do I see? A drum. I think said something along the lines of, "Get that thing out of my house!" I needed a break. Which goes to show, some managers can actually ruin a dream job if they are persistent enough. Under those circumstances, you don't want your day job to also be your hobby.
- John Cermenaro
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3/8/2008, 6:28 pm
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tommykat1
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Re: 1982 - Anaheim Residence
JohnC, I read the John Page link you included in your post. Fascinationg stuff. He refers to Bill Schultz still being at Fender in 1987. Somehow, I thought that he was gone after the Rogers debacle. Any comments on Mr. Schultz's past, present and future?
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3/8/2008, 9:48 pm
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JohnC 1984
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1982 - Anaheim Residence
Bill Shultz passed away last year.
He finally retired from Fender a few years before that.
Rogers was not on his radar screen, but Fender was.
He and his team successfully steered Fender from a $10M company to a conglomerate that today is doing half a billion dollars/year.
Too bad he wasn't interested in drums.
- JohnC
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3/9/2008, 11:59 am
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