A Short History of the Squier Bullet Guitar

By Dennis David

The sale of Japanese guitars was beginning to affect the bottom line at CBS Musical Instruments in 1980 and the management team consisting of John McLaren, William "Bill" Schultz, and Dan Smith, whom all worked previously at Yamaha Musical Instruments, agreed to move some of Fender's manufacturing to Korea; however, the idea was quickly abandoned because of the poor workmanship across the seas.

Dan Smith is quoted in the guitar book, "The Fender Book: A Complete History of Fender Electric Guitars", by Tony Bacon and Paul Day as saying, "We were brought into kind of turn the reputation of Fender around, and to get it so it was making money again. It was starting to lose money, and at that point in time everybody hated Fender. We thought we knew how bad it was. We took for granted that they could make Stratocasters and Telecasters the way they used to make them, but we were wrong. So many things had changed in the plant."

The new management began to approach the dire situation in two ways, first off, they would start by improving the quality control in their American plant by upgrading the factory's facilities with more modern machinery and they would start competing with the inexpensive foreign copies of their guitars from Japan by manufacturing some of their own guitars in Japan.

Gibson had already moved their production of their Epiphone line from Kalamazoo, Michigan to overseas. And Fender would start building their iconic guitars in Japan; however, unlike Gibson they would market their Japanese line to the domestic Japanese market and compete with Japanese copies.

Fender's guitar designer John Page designed an instrument that would save on production cost in America while delivering a decent guitar. Page designed and patented an alloy pickguard for the Bullet series of guitars which served as the pickguard bridge saddles and electronic shielding all in one component: speeding up and making production more efficient.

After the initial production of American made Fender Bullets from 1981 through 1983, CBS Musical Instruments needed an even more cost saving way to produce instruments and compete with the cheap overseas instruments flooding into the American market, without damaging the Fender Brand; and production was moved to U.S. factories located in Korea.

Fender began marketing their inexpensive guitars under the Squier brand, a brand they acquired in 1960 when they purchased the Squier String Company, and thus protecting the Fender brand from being associated with inexpensive products.

Fender began manufacturing their budget and student instruments in Japan under the Squier name after they closed their Fullerton, California factory and moved production to Japan where the Japanese were originally building copies of their iconic Fender guitars.

In March of 1982 Fender Japan Ltd. was formed; and in 1983 instruments were being produced by FujiGen Gakki the makers of Ibanez guitars. There were doubts back in the states on whether Japanese companies could manufacture quality guitars in Japan. Those doubts disappeared once the instruments arrived back in California.

Marketing executive for CBS Instruments, Dan Smith was quoted in "The Fender Book: A Complete History of Fender Electric Guitars", as saying, "Everybody came up to inspect them and the guys almost cried, because the Japanese product was so good - it was what we had been having a hell of a time trying to do." The quality of instruments made in Japan equaled or even succeeded the American made instruments.

Regardless of Fender's success with Fender Japan, in 1988 Fender began manufacturing "Bullet" guitars in Korea, because of their lower labor costs. There were also two versions of a Bullet basses made in Korea, a long and a short scale instrument. The Bullet was targeted at the student market; a market Fender accommodated starting back in the 1950s with the Duo-Sonic electric guitars, and in the 1960s and 1970s with the Mustang and Musicmaster electric guitars.

And today Fender Bullet guitars are still being manufactured overseas on computer aided machinery where labor costs are low and machine quality is exceptional; leading to well-made guitars with cheaper quality hardware, which keeps cost in reasonable ranges students and beginning guitar players can afford.

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A Short History of the Squier Bullet Guitar

By Dennis David

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Today's Issue		Friday 18th April 2025