Andy Mooney confirms Fender will make more signature models for female guitarists

Fender CEO Andy Mooney has confirmed plans to introduce more signature models for female guitarists next year.

Speaking to GuitarWorld at the launch of Fender Songs, Mooney made reference to Fender’s research into new guitar buyers:

“45% of the guitars we sell every year go to first-time players, and half of those first-time players were women. That was a shocker.

“But part of why I think we didn’t realize it and didn’t have visibility to it was: a) women were opting more often to buy an acoustic guitar than an electric guitar for the first guitar, and b) they were more likely to buy online than in a traditional store. And I think we’d all agree that guitar stores can be intimidating venues for any beginner player. And even more so, I think, for women because of lack of female sales associates.”

He went on to talk about how Fender took this on board, saying the insights “fundamentally changed” how it underwent artist relations: “we’ll introduce more signature guitars for female artists next year than we’ve done in our entire 70-year history in a very broad range of genres and personalities. So we’re pretty excited.”

Fender does not currently produce any signature models for female artists, but we’ll most likely hear about the introduction of a few next winter NAMM. The move will reflect the ever-diversifying world of guitar music, both with more female artists gaining recognition and more women picking up guitars overall.

Read our in-depth interview with Andy Mooney about Fender Songs and how it could change the way we learn guitar here.