Fernandes: The Pathways to a Left-Handed Guitar
Updated: 8 hours ago
Next to my own brand, my favourite guitar brand is Fernandes. I have spent over 3 years writing the five-part Floyd Rose Tremolos for Lefties series. (Every time I think I have finished, something else comes up.) That was how I first came to appreciate Fernandes guitars. Fernandes was probably the most accommodating Japanese brand for left-handed guitars until the 2000s, after which the company lost its way.
For the last 18 months, I have been building a collection of left‑handed vintage Fernandes guitars. I have been importing them directly from Japan. I’ve brought in some amazing instruments, and I’ve also missed many more opportunities (I only have so much money). Fernandes guitars have roughly tripled in price since the company’s bankruptcy filing in 2024.
The Japanese‑made guitars from the 1980s through the 1990s are incredible instruments. They are much better than anything Fender Japan put out in lefty form. These Fernandes will go into my showroom alongside my stock Gaskells and new 2026 Custom Shop models. The showroom is due to open by the end of this month. I encourage locals to come and play some guitars!
Throughout this journey, I discovered some fascinating aspects of Japanese guitars, the system for ordering one, and the perspective of the Japanese music industry. Fernandes had a notably intriguing system for customers during the 1980s and 1990s.
Fernandes Repair Service
Fernandes Repair Service (FRS) was a division within Fernandes that managed guitar modifications for customers. Fernandes catalogs included a disclaimer outlining FRS’s services, printed alongside the Colour Chart table, which also served as a complete model-lineup list. Customers were encouraged to contact FRS directly, with telephone numbers provided for both Tokyo and Osaka.
The name “Fernandes Repair Service” is inherently misleading because of the word “repair” in its title. While FRS did serve as the point of contact for warranty repairs, it was neither a conventional repair shop nor a custom shop in the modern manufacturing sense. Its role was to receive customer and dealer requests for specifications outside the standard catalog, assess feasibility, quote the work where necessary, and arrange production. The documented scope included refinishing, parts changes, pickup and electronics modifications, and hardware changes. Initially, these services were available only to customers who already owned a Fernandes guitar. From 1985 the scope expanded to include specification changes for guitars that had not yet been built. The updated disclaimer in the 1985 catalogs stated:
購入前の場合基本的には、一本単位の特注になりますので見積料金確認の上、ご注文してください。
"For changes requested before purchase, the instrument will generally be treated as an individual custom order. Please confirm the quotation before placing your order."
In every catalog, the disclaimer always finished with:
特注ギター、改造、カラー特注などについてのご相談は——。 [phone numbers] のリペアサービスへ
"For enquiries regarding custom guitars, modifications*, custom colours, etc., contact the Fernandes Repair Service on... [phone numbers]"
*Note. The Japanese word 改造 implies modifications or alterations to existing guitars.
This pathway also existed for left-handed guitars.
FRS and the Factories
Fernandes was a marketing and sales company and did not have its own factories. From the beginning of guitar production in 1972, Kawai was Fernandes’ main factory. This was an obvious choice, considering one of the co-founders of the company came from Kawai. Fernandes used multiple factories over the years to supplement Kawai production, including Tokai during the 1970s, Matsumoku during the mid 1980s, Headway for some "Musician’s Limited Series." From the end of the 1980s, lower-end production shifted to Korea and Taiwan and by the 1990s Dyna had replaced Kawai as Fernandes’ primary Japanese manufacturing partner.
In 1988, Fernandes brought in a specialist Japanese luthier to build high-end instruments for its expanding roster of prominent and high-profile artists. This initiative evolved into Fernandes’ premium custom‑guitar service, eventually established as a distinct sub‑brand known as “P Project.” These instruments typically cost five to seven times the price of a standard catalog model. Several artist models that later appeared in Fernandes catalogs originated as P‑Project builds.
FRS and Music Shops
Japanese music retailers provided another route into Fernandes' production system. Shops could arrange their own special or exclusive production runs with changes or modifications, such as non-catalog colours or alternative hardware. These instruments were commonly referred to as "store exclusives" or "shop orders." On some examples, they can be identified by an “F” prefix in the serial number or, in some cases, by an “F” marking in the neck pocket.
Customers therefore had three established pathways to obtain a Fernandes guitar:
• purchase a standard catalog model from a music store;
• order a customized version of a catalog model through FRS; or
• purchase a shop-commissioned "store exclusive."
The evolution of the custom order system and left-handed guitars
Left-handed guitarists did not have the same options as right-handed guitarists. Before 1983, left-handed guitars were only obtainable by custom order, placed through a store or directly through FRS. There were no production models, although the ordering disclaimer in the catalogs did say that left-handed guitars were “produced,” just not “regularly.” The disclaimer listed only the models that could not be ordered left-handed.
A major change occurred in 1983, when Fernandes introduced for the first time periodic lot runs (batch processing) of select models from the lineup. Additional pathways were also established. A new dedicated LH column was added to the model list table in the catalog with symbols used to differentiate new categories for ordering left-handed guitars. The categories were:
Batch-produced models: left-handed versions manufactured as stock items for select catalog models.
Special-order models: available as one-off custom builds. This pathway was phased out by 1986.
Unavailable models: instruments explicitly marked as not available left-handed.
Factory-approval models: custom requests evaluated on a case-by-case basis depending on tooling and production capacity. This option also disappeared officially after 1986.
After 1986, Fernandes pivoted to a set list of models from the lineup that were produced in irregular batches. Models varied by year as the lineup changed. The approved models consisted mainly of basic core models such as the FR-55 and FR-65. Left-handed guitars were always 20% more expensive than their right-handed equivalents, and the wait time was a minimum of three to four months if a guitar was out of stock. The list continued in catalogs until 2004.
2000 Custom Order System
In 2000, Fernandes introduced a formal Custom Order System through which customers could order new guitars to specifications outside the normal catalog. It appeared in the 2000 Japanese Fernandes-Burny catalog.
This was a significant change from the older FRS arrangement. The 2000 system introduced a formal ordering procedure, involving an order sheet and quotation process. Customers selected from defined options for body and headstock shape, materials, parts, paint and setup. The description indicated an approximate production period of four to six months. Orders and communications were handled through music retailers, which acted as intermediaries between customers and Fernandes. The instructions stated:
オーダー・シートは最寄りの楽器店で受け取ることができます。
“The order sheet can be obtained from your nearest musical instrument store.”
It also stated:
（楽器店を通しての御連絡となります）
“Communication will be conducted through the musical instrument store.”
And:
楽器店を通しての発注となります。
“The order will be placed through the musical instrument store.”
The system was therefore not simply another name for FRS. It formalized the custom-order process and moved the customer-facing ordering route to the music shop. The system also defined the scope of what could be ordered. It applied to catalog models other than the Musician models and specified which changes were, and were not, permitted.
Earlier FRS system: Customer → FRS / Fernandes → Factory
2000 Custom Order System: Customer → Music Shop → Fernandes → Factory
There is, however, an obvious complication. The long-running catalog disclaimer describing the pre-purchase custom orders and post-purchase modifications facilitated by FRS continued to be printed alongside the Custom Order System. Additionally, Fernandes had established P-Project as its custom/high-end guitar builder in 1988, with P-Project developing into and continuing as an associated brand through the 1990s and 2000s.
From 2000, three pathways appeared to exist for buying a custom guitar:
FRS,
P-Project,
Custom Order System.
As the five-part Floyd Rose Tremolos for Lefties series evolved I thought I had got to the bottom of the Fernandes rabbit hole many times over but never did. I couldn’t reconcile these three pathways from the information gathered. It would have been nice (and still would be) to talk to someone who worked at Fernandes and especially at FRS for clarity. Without that, it took a lot of thinking to work this out. I have concluded that they should not be treated as three competing “custom shops.” As far as I can tell, they occupied different positions in Fernandes’s customer service structure.
• FRS was the older direct, customer-facing service and custom-order operation.
• P-Project was the specialist high-end/custom builder.
• The Custom Order System was the revised dealer-mediated custom-order process.
Yet, FRS still appears in the post-2000 catalogs. The new order sheet did not say that FRS had been abolished. The usual FRS disclaimer at the back of catalogs that had been in place since the 1980s was retained, meaning that on paper the pre-purchase pathway through FRS still existed. At face value, this might seem to conflict.
Volume 1 and Volume 2 of the 2000 catalogs do not establish whether the new Custom Order System replaced FRS internally or simply changed the way customers accessed the existing process. It's not explained in the 2001, 2002, 2003 or 2004 catalogs either. There are three possible reasons why both pathways sat side-by-side during the 2000-2004 period:
1) Retiring FRS would have meant eliminating repairs and post-purchase modifications, functions completely outside the scope of a new-build custom order system. Maybe Fernandes retained the catalog disclaimer simply out of administrative continuity?
2) Perhaps there was an element of "smoke and mirrors" to the Custom Order System? Maybe FRS was still the point of receipt for the customer orders coming in through the retail stores? If so, then nothing had really changed. FRS still managed custom orders, except now by proxy. Therefore, both the pre- and post-purchase statements still applied. Perhaps the Custom Order System was really just a marketing device? The fact that it disappeared after 2004 may hint at that.
3) Maybe it was as simple as: customers go through the Custom Order System. Shops go through FRS for their shop orders?
Ultimately, the catalogs reveal more about how customers accessed Fernandes’ custom-order services than about how those services were organized internally. Without testimony from someone who worked at Fernandes or FRS, it remains unclear whether the 2000 Custom Order System replaced, formalized, or simply ran alongside the existing FRS process. Whatever the internal arrangement, the dedicated Custom Order System disappeared from subsequent catalogs after 2004, as did the published list of left-handed models available through periodic production runs.
The disappearance of the formal Custom Order System from the catalogs does not mean that custom or special production itself ended. Later evidence indicates that Fernandes continued to produce left-handed instruments, but apparently only store-requested models, limited export runs at the behest of Fernandes’ overseas distributors, and “spot runs,” although how they were initiated during that period and for what markets cannot be determined from the catalogs. Surviving examples of various Fernandes and Burny left-handed instruments are well documented on Reverb, Mercari, Worthpoint, Yahoo Japan Auctions, and other marketplace platforms with build dates from 2000 through to the 2020s.
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