Fender Custom Shop Prices

UncleBiff

Still struggling with this when looking online. Think I need to find the ‘Fender Guru’ on here to run some choice options past them. Make sure I’d be paying a fair price.

crunchman

UncleBiff said:

Still struggling with this when looking online. Think I need to find the ‘Fender Guru’ on here to run some choice options past them. Make sure I’d be paying a fair price.

You are unlikely to be paying a fair price on any Fender CS at the moment.  They are all over inflated.  If it was just wha they cost to make, plus a reasonable mark up - which is what I would regard as a fair price - they would be significantly cheaper.

If PRS can make the Silver Sky for £2.3k new, which will be similar to Fender CS in terms of quality, that should be the ballpark price for a new CS.  £3k plus is ridiculous.

Hattigol

crunchman said:

If it was just what they cost to make, plus a reasonable mark up - which is what I would regard as a fair price - they would be significantly cheaper.

Exactly how I feel about Porsche.

monquixote

crunchman said:

UncleBiff said:

Still struggling with this when looking online. Think I need to find the ‘Fender Guru’ on here to run some choice options past them. Make sure I’d be paying a fair price.

You are unlikely to be paying a fair price on any Fender CS at the moment.  They are all over inflated.  If it was just wha they cost to make, plus a reasonable mark up - which is what I would regard as a fair price - they would be significantly cheaper.

If PRS can make the Silver Sky for £2.3k new, which will be similar to Fender CS in terms of quality, that should be the ballpark price for a new CS.  £3k plus is ridiculous.

It's not about quality.

CS is made to order with individual configuration on each.

A Silver Sky can be batch built.

Compare the difference between an off the peg Suhr and a custom order. Quality is the same. Price very different.

RaymondLin

While CS is custom built, to a customer who walks in and sees guitars hanging on the wall, it doesn’t really make any difference how they were ordered. We just see a guitar available to buy on the day, that day. To me, it is not special order, it’s just a guitar for sale. Behind the scene, it is custom, but in practice, it’s just for sale.

monquixote

RaymondLin said:

While CS is custom built, to a customer who walks in and sees guitars hanging on the wall, it doesn’t really make any difference how they were ordered. We just see a guitar available to buy on the day, that day. To me, it is not special order, it’s just a guitar for sale. Behind the scene, it is custom, but in practice, it’s just for sale.

Yes but the cost of production factors in the cost of sale.

The fact that most custome shop guitars are bought pre configured is a bit daft. That's a lot of what you are paying for.

Whitecat

monquixote said:

RaymondLin said:

While CS is custom built, to a customer who walks in and sees guitars hanging on the wall, it doesn’t really make any difference how they were ordered. We just see a guitar available to buy on the day, that day. To me, it is not special order, it’s just a guitar for sale. Behind the scene, it is custom, but in practice, it’s just for sale.

Yes but the cost of production factors in the cost of sale.

The fact that most custome shop guitars are bought pre configured is a bit daft. That's a lot of what you are paying for.

It is but it’s also the only way you can guarantee a good one... would be not fun to put in an order, wait nearly a year and then get a dog. 

So if a dealer has something very close to a spec you might order anyway and it sounds/feels great it can be better to just do it that way. 

RaymondLin

Also, there are just far too many of them around.

chris78

crunchman said:

UncleBiff said:

Still struggling with this when looking online. Think I need to find the ‘Fender Guru’ on here to run some choice options past them. Make sure I’d be paying a fair price.

You are unlikely to be paying a fair price on any Fender CS at the moment.  They are all over inflated.  If it was just wha they cost to make, plus a reasonable mark up - which is what I would regard as a fair price - they would be significantly cheaper.

If PRS can make the Silver Sky for £2.3k new, which will be similar to Fender CS in terms of quality, that should be the ballpark price for a new CS.  £3k plus is ridiculous.

The Silversky is a core guitar made on their factory line. It's also poly finished, which is less labour intensive. I'm sure it's a decent Strat, and it probably is better built being PRS, but I think you're comparing apples and oranges

Whitecat

chris78 said:

crunchman said:

UncleBiff said:

Still struggling with this when looking online. Think I need to find the ‘Fender Guru’ on here to run some choice options past them. Make sure I’d be paying a fair price.

You are unlikely to be paying a fair price on any Fender CS at the moment.  They are all over inflated.  If it was just wha they cost to make, plus a reasonable mark up - which is what I would regard as a fair price - they would be significantly cheaper.

If PRS can make the Silver Sky for £2.3k new, which will be similar to Fender CS in terms of quality, that should be the ballpark price for a new CS.  £3k plus is ridiculous.

The Silversky is a core guitar made on their factory line. It's also poly finished, which is less labour intensive. I'm sure it's a decent Strat, and it probably is better built being PRS, but I think you're comparing apples and oranges

It's not even technically a Core guitar - it's in their "bolt-on" series and made on the S2 line, so some corners are cut.

RaymondLin

I am pretty confident that the built quality of the SS is on par with CS guitars. Fret ends, hardware, wiring, paint finishes, attention to quality detail, it would be on par with all CS guitars. If it sounds sterile then take the neck off, hand it to John Cruz and ask him to screw it back on for a fiver. He probably needs the money.

Viola! Impeccable build Strat with mojo.

HandwrittenHero

monquixote said:

I was looking at a CS Tele but given I'm not interested in something aged it's hard to justify the uptick from an AO given how bloody good they are.

Even if I factored in putting new pickups and getting it refretted I'd still be quids in.

As it is mine is bloody fantastic so I won't be changing anything.

There was a similar review of the CS Broadcaster I saw on TGP where someone had bought one, loved it, but ultimately returned it quickly as it was just too close to their AV52 with aftermarket pickups. Still crazy just how good the AVRI, AV and AO lines have been.

monquixote

HandwrittenHero said:

monquixote said:

I was looking at a CS Tele but given I'm not interested in something aged it's hard to justify the uptick from an AO given how bloody good they are.

Even if I factored in putting new pickups and getting it refretted I'd still be quids in.

As it is mine is bloody fantastic so I won't be changing anything.

There was a similar review of the CS Broadcaster I saw on TGP where someone had bought one, loved it, but ultimately returned it quickly as it was just too close to their AV52 with aftermarket pickups. Still crazy just how good the AVRI, AV and AO lines have been.

A lot of the reason CS guitars are more expensive is they can't just make 100 bodies all the same in a batch plus the manual labour intensive finishing and relicing.

I don't think the actual quality of the playing instrument differs that much.

It does seem there is no QC on weight on production line models so you do need to try a few.

Strat54

monquixote said:

HandwrittenHero said:

monquixote said:

I was looking at a CS Tele but given I'm not interested in something aged it's hard to justify the uptick from an AO given how bloody good they are.

Even if I factored in putting new pickups and getting it refretted I'd still be quids in.

As it is mine is bloody fantastic so I won't be changing anything.

There was a similar review of the CS Broadcaster I saw on TGP where someone had bought one, loved it, but ultimately returned it quickly as it was just too close to their AV52 with aftermarket pickups. Still crazy just how good the AVRI, AV and AO lines have been.

A lot of the reason CS guitars are more expensive is they can't just make 100 bodies all the same in a batch plus the manual labour intensive finishing and relicing.

I don't think the actual quality of the playing instrument differs that much.

It does seem there is no QC on weight on production line models so you do need to try a few.

Yes, lots of non-CS Broadcaster's scraping in just below 9lbs. Whereas the the CS guitars get lighter and lighter these days. 
Fender don't want CS guitars to be cheaper....they are in the process of creating a luxury brand. The days of a Masterbuilt costing a few hundred quid more than a regular teambuilt guitar have long gone. You are now buying into the dream...like Porsche, Rolex, JImmy Choo or an other luxury brand of that type Its not about production costs, or numbers sold.even. Lets face it none of the above are rare these days. That stage has passed. 

UncleBiff

My issue isn’t the cost. It’s the huge variation in cost for seemingly very similar guitars. I don’t buy with the view to sell, but you never know, so I wanna make sure I’m paying a realistic price for the spec and potential return.

guitars4you

UncleBiff said:

My issue isn’t the cost. It’s the huge variation in cost for seemingly very similar guitars. I don’t buy with the view to sell, but you never know, so I wanna make sure I’m paying a realistic price for the spec and potential return.

are you looking at new or used

are any of the new guitars, old stock on offer, or all 2020 stock at new prices ?

might be worth showing the links of 2/3/4 guitars you have shown interest in and see if we can add additional comment/info about such differentials - Hope that helps