This term 'masterbuilt' is somewhat of a nisnomer.

Loobs

Aren't all Fenders CNCd? It's not like any guitar made at the Custom Shop is actually hand built. Hand finished, perhaps?

The whole masterbuilt/teambuilt thing is a crock of stinking bullsh*t. 

Neil

I think "master assembled" would be more accurate.  

1nten5e

They're still brilliant instruments though

meltedbuzzbox

Loobs said:

Aren't all Fenders CNCd? It's not like any guitar made at the Custom Shop is actually hand built. Hand finished, perhaps?

The whole masterbuilt/teambuilt thing is a crock of stinking bullsh*t. 

I think the neck and body are CNC'd then all the contouring and neck profiling is done by hand. 

I think they also offer specific weights and all kinds of stuff so its not as generic as a US standard build etc.

They are meant to tone match woods etc.

I have no issue with a machine doing the routes. A machine doesn't make mistakes. 

It is a gimmick though

ICBM

I agree that the *concept* behind it is somewhat backwards, given that the whole point of the Fender designs is that they were intended to be mass-produced by factory workers and not luthiers - but the difference is in the assembly, including the choice of the components. That's quite a labour-intensive and skilled job, and every one I've played has been a better instrument than the standard models. I'm not convinced there is a worthwhile difference between 'Team Built' and 'Master Built' though. If anything I think a guitar built by a team of experts, each concentrating on the area they're best at, is likely to end up better than one built by one person, assuming the choice of components is the same.

koneguitarist

I still find it strange that we pay top luthiers thousands to make copies of guitars that were made by unskilled labour ?

ICBM

koneguitarist said:

I still find it strange that we pay top luthiers thousands to make copies of guitars that were made by unskilled labour ?

Not really. We pay them thousands to consistently duplicate the results that occurred randomly with the guitars built by factory workers - not unskilled, in fact there was still a fair amount of hand work, just not to luthier standards. Not all the old guitars were great by any means. Nor are all the modern production-line ones - actually not all the Custom Shop ones are *great* either, but they're at least consistently good.

ESchap

It's a certain Master Bates of Corona, California who switches on the CNC machine .... Hence ....

guitargeek62

Quite a few of the master-builders actually cut the necks and bodies themselves*. It depends on what you order though, all you're paying for is the commission of one particular builder to appropriately select the timbers to meet your specs, and then build, finish, and setup the guitar to the best of their abilities. So what if a CNC is used as part of that? It's hardly like they come off of the mill ready to play?!

Go and moan about the weather or something, this argument has been done to death.

*for anything that's remotely one-off worthy, it's not cost or time-effective to draw up a new program.

Loobs

Why post in the thread then? 

Bogwhoppit

My Chicken Sarni was masterbuilt by someone at Tesco's. No mass produced grub for me.

axisus

'Masterbuilt' just means that they can whack an even higher premium on. they realised that 'custom shop' wasn't earning them enough extra money for nothing.

Skipped

My opinion is: I have no idea.

But I will wager that the effort put into the "difference" (even if we are, in truth,  better off picking the best guitar in the shop out of 10 team built versions) is more than the effort put into "Beano" to make it different from a pre 2013 R0 Historic.

guitargeek62

Loobs said:

Why post in the thread then? 

Boredom

mellowsun

Can't believe the new price for a Masterbuilt Fender these days - 5 grand!

chrisj1602

I've only owned one custom shop Fender. It wasn't master built, but it was incredibly good.

monquixote

You could have the builder cut the tree down with an axe and drag it from the factory to the forrest rather than use a truck, but it wouldn't make any difference to the end result. 

Antique_Guitars

monquixote said:

You could have the builder cut the tree down with an axe and drag it from the factory to the forrest rather than use a truck, but it wouldn't make any difference to the end result. 

Its only masterbuilt if the builder has planted the tree that he cuts down!

monquixote

Antique_Guitars said:

monquixote said:

You could have the builder cut the tree down with an axe and drag it from the factory to the forrest rather than use a truck, but it wouldn't make any difference to the end result. 

Its only masterbuilt if the builder has planted the tree that he cuts down!

I believe he's also expected to have personally impregnated the mummy tree.

Megii

Having watched this, I have to admit I can't see what is so special - I mean I'm sure they are very nice, but still...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB9rT048ym4

Lixarto

I managed about 50 seconds of that video.

The music is fucking awful.