£250 upgrading vs. £2500 buying a Custom Shop

p90fool

Whenever I try someone's cheap guitar which they feel uninspired by and never pick up, it's almost always because the nut slots are too high. 

I'm not saying that's necessarily the problem here, but it's amazing how common that is, and no amount of fiddling with the bridge will overcome it.

Worth investigating anyway. 

designerseye88

Buy the £2500 guitar if you have the money. You might spend money and get your current Mexican strat playing well but it's never going to be a custom shop guitar and that £250 you pay to upgrade will likely never be recouped. If you buy a well priced custom shop guitar you would likely get your money back if you had to sell. Main thing is try lots, Im not really a Fender guy but their seems to be so many specs and variables. Also that GAS will never go, Will only get worse! Enjoy the hunt! 

TTBZ

I'd probably go the upgrade route if it were me. I feel like a good MIM Fender is already a decent body/neck to work from, so long as you generally like it and the hardware is alright. If the weight is bothering you maybe just stick some car wheel weights in the cavity, get a heavier trem block or something. A good fret dress and pro setup will make all the difference too.

I don't think the CS will feel much better tbh if you're not a strat guy anyway - all Fender price ranges basically feel sort of the same to me (allowing for different neck profiles and rolled fingerboard edges) once you get to/above MIM level. Then again maybe someone more used to high end guitars would feel different, I just can't feel the value in an expensive Fender!

Schnozz

G&L

fretfinder

TTBZ said: I don't think the CS will feel much better tbh if you're not a strat guy anyway - all Fender price ranges basically feel sort of the same to me (allowing for different neck profiles and rolled fingerboard edges) once you get to/above MIM level. Then again maybe someone more used to high end guitars would feel different, I just can't feel the value in an expensive Fender!

I’m the opposite, I think the Custom Shop guitars are generally head and shoulders above the lower priced models and I can feel the difference. Sure, it’s not 100% across every single guitar and there will be a few outstanding Mexican and Japanese Fenders out there, and a few Custom Shop guitars that aren’t outstanding. But I’ve never played a bad CS guitar and the 15 or so that I’ve owned have all been at least very good and the few that I’ve kept are exceptional imho. But it’s a very personal thing and I guess there’s some confirmation bias involved in people’s views of their guitars, me included. So it’s a good thing that there is such a wide range at different price points, so everyone can have their favourites and enjoy their guitars!

xscaramanga

My first Strat was an American Series (what they called the American Standard around 2004-2008) that I thought was pretty good. I changed the pickups to Bare Knuckles and felt confident it would give a custom shop a run for its money.

Then I moved in with a housemate who actually had a CS Strat, and I played them she by side. It was not close. It wasn't even remotely close. 

It took me a couple more years to decide to sell that Strat, but that was the beginning.

The final straw was that a student showed up with a Squier Classic Vibe Strat he'd bought in a car boot sale. It was also better than my American Series.

So yeah, a good guitar is a good guitar at any price, and a bad one can't be rescued with upgrades. 

Blaendulais

Basher said:

I'm thick as two short planks but given that option B (CS Strat) is an order of magnitude more expensive than option A (upgrade), I'd try option A first.

I'd also try some other Strats before committing to the full CS outlay. I've played a couple of Mexican 70s reissues that were authentically hefty and it sounds like the feel and weight is part of the deal for you.

Personally, I was glad to offload my heavy Strat Plus for a 7lb partscaster that, to me at least, feels much more alive and fun to play. 

You seem pretty smart to me fella!

Strat54

The answer is no one can tell you the answer to your question.

TTBZ

fretfinder said:

I’m the opposite, I think the Custom Shop guitars are generally head and shoulders above the lower priced models and I can feel the difference. Sure, it’s not 100% across every single guitar and there will be a few outstanding Mexican and Japanese Fenders out there, and a few Custom Shop guitars that aren’t outstanding. But I’ve never played a bad CS guitar and the 15 or so that I’ve owned have all been at least very good and the few that I’ve kept are exceptional imho. But it’s a very personal thing and I guess there’s some confirmation bias involved in people’s views of their guitars, me included. So it’s a good thing that there is such a wide range at different price points, so everyone can have their favourites and enjoy their guitars!

Fair enough, maybe the CS I've played (only a couple of strats to be fair) just weren't great examples - didn't feel like something I'd want to drop all that cash on over something cheaper. Not like a PRS core or Gibson custom shop which really was one of those "wow"  moments compared to a normal/S2 version. I'm not really a Fender guy though so that may skew my opinion a bit!

scovell001

Custom shop all day long. I’ve been in the market for a strat for about 3-4 years, tried loads of regular ones, none of them good enough. Went with a ‘58  cs journeyman relic - haven’t looked back since getting it, everyone who plays it goes woah ! 

Lestratcaster

MikeS said:

I had a Mexican Tele I felt the same with. Decided to send it to Jonathan at Feline, who completely transformed its playability.

An affordable way to find out if it really is for you or not.

I did the same last year with my Squier strat. It was my first guitar and one I'll keep for life. There's a thread about it somewhere on here that's probably fallen down the list as its old.

Jon turned it from being pretty much a toy into something that I can call a "proper Strat". We replaced pretty much everything apart from the wood. The biggest contributing factors to the improvements were the Earvana nut (as the cheap plastic stock ones aren't cut very well and rob the guitar of sustain), the steel trem block which added more shimmer and fullness and the tuners for increased reliability. New pickups and electronics went in as part of the upgrade too.

One of my guitar students spunked £1400 on a Fender American strat and we A/B'd it and I honestly think my guitar outplays his one. And the best thing of all is it took less than half the money he spent on his strat to upgrade mine.

I'm sure a custom shop will sound very nice but in my case it was more of a sentimental value thing as if I had bought a Fender this one would have sat on a stand gathering dust. And I can't deny my student's Fender American is very nice to play, but its only as good as the player's hands. My guitar had good timbers and a base to start with.

P.S get the custom haha

BlueStrat

if you know exactly what you want and have the cash, go custom shop.

But if you're not sure, for not much outlay why not first invest in the strat you have with a top quality set up and perhaps new pickups?

If you are sure, then go for it

Gerz6558

A mexican strat plus some careful mods will absolutely give you a decent strat experience.  How old is your strat? The older standards have the ceramic pickups, so that would be a pretty big transformation alone if you got some pure vintage 50's or 60's pickups.

Seziertisch

If you can afford it, get the custom, it will at least be aesthetically nicer than an upgrade Mexican Strat.

Otherwise, just upgrade the guitar you already have and just play it. The instrument plays a very much secondary role to the player, once it is to a certain standard it is the law of diminishing returns.

 A few years back I got to do a session with some guitars of guitar god provenance, played to some extent by said guitar god though not his main instruments and sold by him when he was doing a bit of a clear out. It still sounded like me and the tracks they were used on don’t somehow stand out from others where I played my own non-guitar-god guitars.

LPManic

I am OP.

Thanks for all the thoughts and opinions. Really I think I need to go out and try a few Strats. And I will do. I think that is the right answer. 

Been playing my Strat more as I’ve intentionally put my R8 in its case to try and distract me from it. I can feel the pull already though haha!

ToneControl

I think CS are overpriced, would have an Anderson or Suhr in preference. Well, not "would", but "did" and "have"

I nearly bought a CS once, until I realised it was a fake
That's the biggest issue for me: how can you tell a used one is not fake?

I'd buy a warmoth neck and top notch pickups, etc. and add to a Mex Fender, and get a top-notch pro setup

If you want to sell it later, then either sell it to me, or take the upgrades off and sell them separately, and return it to original spec, I suspect you'd get more cash

There was a guy on ebay a few years ago in the US, who appeared to buy 10-20 strats a month, and sell them as parts, sometimes the parts are worth more than the whole 

melod

Isn’t it more like 3500 these days? Really I have lost track with fenders CS prices. I think a nice suhr is better built . Each to his own though.

If you play and like it, it’s worth it.

MIM can also be great. I always thought though that their frets wear out a bit too quickly and that’s is quite annoying.