£8500 for a telecaster? REALLY?

GoldenEraGuitars

@bigsby my understanding is that MB fenders are still all CNC’d the same as the other bodies and necks. The MB involved with a build can select the blanks used but essentially the body and neck are both machined up to a certain point. All the smaller parts come from large bins of “relic” parts used on CS stuff too. Plastics are the same. 

Every MB has their own style of how they’re presenting their guitars and it’s up to the consumer who they want to have work on their order. 

As it’s already been said, they’re just providing another level of price point within their brand (fender do their marketing very well). 

To quote myself again, live and let live. MB is still a very niche area within fender as a whole.

PLOP

I’d love to try out a range of guitars from £500 up to £5000, I really don’t know what differences I’d see. My tele RRP’d for ~£500 and I can’t actually fault any of it at all. I haven’t changed anything on it, but the only thing I would change is the height screws on the bridge are a bit tall for what I need and scratch my hand, and the output jack crackles a bit when you wiggle the cable too much. Neither of those are big jobs, and they’re not even essential jobs either, which is why I haven’t done them. The crackling doesn’t affect anything when playing because I tuck the cable up through the bottom strap pin to hold it still anyway. 

Now a tele for £5k, how much different can it really be? If it doesn’t have modern body contours then I’m flat out not interested. There’s no excuse for a guitar to feel like a paving slab these days. 

boogieman

digtheditch said:

Why but a Tele for £8.5K when you can get a Strat for £10K. 

Fender Masterbuilt 60’s Stratocaster in Relic Lake Placid Blue by Levi Perry - Andertons Music Co.

Jesus wept, that’s ridiculous for what it is. Especially when you consider it’s probably costing Fender a few hundred dollars at most for the parts, most of which are off the shelf items for them. The body and neck are probably nice quality woods, but even so, that’s a hideous mark up. So the rest of the cost must be for the paint job and relic work you say? Look at some of the fantastic level of work that some of our guys on here do, and for a fraction of the cost, and you soon realise that’s ^ a complete piss take. 

joeW

Yet another price thread and I can't stop opening them despite finding them a total waste of life - I'm addicted.

Modmins - could we make a separate section for price discussions so they can be removed from recent discussions for those us trying to go cold turkey.  I may start a therapy group too ...

And yes £8,500 for a tele seems insane 

GoldenEraGuitars

joeW said:

I may start a therapy group too ...

 

The Fretboard IS a therapy group. But it’s all mixed up.

You’d really need separate sub sections for the know-it-alls, another one for the passive aggressive folk and another for the antagonists to really stand a chance of seeing it all clearly

Although the first group I mentioned would be rather full… rather quickly

Bigsby

GoldenEraGuitars said:

@bigsby my understanding is that MB fenders are still all CNC’d the same as the other bodies and necks. The MB involved with a build can select the blanks used but essentially the body and neck are both machined up to a certain point. All the smaller parts come from large bins of “relic” parts used on CS stuff too. Plastics are the same. 

Every MB has their own style of how they’re presenting their guitars and it’s up to the consumer who they want to have work on their order. 

As it’s already been said, they’re just providing another level of price point within their brand (fender do their marketing very well). 

To quote myself again, live and let live. MB is still a very niche area within fender as a whole.

Sure, I agree with everything you're saying, it's just a world apart from what you said before. A cliche like "they just screw the stuff together, it's mass made same as the other stuff" doesn't really help the discussion. Screwed together doesn't mean mass produced any more than glued together means hand made. 

Fender certainly are good at marketing  - and always were, way back in the 50s and 60s they were way ahead of Gibson. But they're also very good at managing their business in general; from the location of their factories to their dealer networks, it's not just marketing.

GoldenEraGuitars

@bigsby I didn’t say that before, Darren did. I answered you though

Bigsby

GoldenEraGuitars said:

@bigsby I didn’t say that before, Darren did. I answered you though

 I'm easily confused! 

Perhaps Darren has an answer of his own.

OilCityPickups

stonevibe said:

A fool and his money... nanny

The Reece-Mogg version :-)

Blueingreen

I’d imagine the market for this is mainly among people for whom £8K isn’t a lot of money.  The “you may as well fly first class, if you don’t your kids will” crowd. They’re not mad, and they don’t necessarily have more money than sense, they just don’t see the merit in saving a few grand by settling for something they don’t like as much, given that they’ll snuff it with a few million in the bank either way.

Strat54

GoldenEraGuitars said:

@bigsby my understanding is that MB fenders are still all CNC’d the same as the other bodies and necks. The MB involved with a build can select the blanks used but essentially the body and neck are both machined up to a certain point. All the smaller parts come from large bins of “relic” parts used on CS stuff too. Plastics are the same. 

Every MB has their own style of how they’re presenting their guitars and it’s up to the consumer who they want to have work on their order. 

As it’s already been said, they’re just providing another level of price point within their brand (fender do their marketing very well). 

To quote myself again, live and let live. MB is still a very niche area within fender as a whole.

You would like to think though that if you bought a masterbuilt guitar with a guys signature decal on the headstock that he might just have had some build time with said guitar. Funnily enough there's one for sale on ebayUk now.
I have the original 1990 US Custom Shop dealer pricelists for custom builds with page after page of options, the Masterbuilt option added only $400 to the final build price.

Revolutions

My experience of batch ordered CS guitars vs AVRI is little to no difference. I have a 1 of 1 CS guitar that feels & plays no better than a mass produced model - I’m sure that’s the point: you’re paying to choose wood types, neck measurements & finish.

JezWynd

SlopeSoarer said:

Fender obviously realise that there are people daft enough to pay it!

Fender are very canny in their pricing structure. Each rise to the next pricing level (in my limited experience) does result in a noticeable increase in quality; be it better timber, better finish, superior hardware etc. These differences leave the purchaser with the feeling that they've moved up a level and that they've been able to buy a guitar that more exactly fits their requirements in terms of neck shape, radius, fret style, ;pickups etc

I've wondered why Fender don't offer different neck shapes lower down their pricing structure - if you want a truly fat neck telecaster, you need to spend at least 1.5k - but I suppose that when people appear happy to pay the extra, why should they bother doing it any other way.

PAL

Don't moan just don't buy !

nacnudnai

£8,500 for a Telcaster/amp/car/watch/bicycle/necklace/Faberge egg/tub of Lurpak/vintage Champagne/operation in a private hospital/new kitchen/insert other good or commodity here? REALLY?

rockmonster

Loving this!

GoldenEraGuitars

Strat54 said:

GoldenEraGuitars said:

@bigsby my understanding is that MB fenders are still all CNC’d the same as the other bodies and necks. The MB involved with a build can select the blanks used but essentially the body and neck are both machined up to a certain point. All the smaller parts come from large bins of “relic” parts used on CS stuff too. Plastics are the same. 

Every MB has their own style of how they’re presenting their guitars and it’s up to the consumer who they want to have work on their order. 

As it’s already been said, they’re just providing another level of price point within their brand (fender do their marketing very well). 

To quote myself again, live and let live. MB is still a very niche area within fender as a whole.

You would like to think though that if you bought a masterbuilt guitar with a guys signature decal on the headstock that he might just have had some build time with said guitar. Funnily enough there's one for sale on ebayUk now.
I have the original 1990 US Custom Shop dealer pricelists for custom builds with page after page of options, the Masterbuilt option added only $400 to the final build price.

Of course, but that’s not how it works. Fender aren’t a small niche builder. They’re a mass manufacturer from their Far Eastern ranges up to MB. 

Obviously they’re doing something right, these MBs always seem to sell. So I’m assuming the market for this price point is buoyant.

Philly_Q

nacnudnai said:

£8,500 for a Telcaster/amp/car/watch/bicycle/necklace/Faberge egg/tub of Lurpak/vintage Champagne/operation in a private hospital/new kitchen/insert other good or commodity here? REALLY?

Some of those things might actually be really cheap at £8,500.  But I'd expect at least two tubs of Lurpak for that kind of money.

Blaendulais

GoldenEraGuitars said:

chris78 said:

Way way less stupid than vintage prices. 

CBS tele for 15k? https://www.atbguitars.com/1968-fender-telecaster-candy-apple-red-ohsc
Or how about approaching 50k? 

https://www.atbguitars.com/1953-fender-black-guard-telecaster-ohsc

I bet the masterbuilt plays better too…..

I know which one I’d rather buy though. 

Walk out of ATB with a 1968 tele and it’ll still be worth £15k, more so a year down the line.

Nah I reckon you'd get 10k if youre lucky ATB are the master price inflators.

Paul_C

An £8.5K Tele is meant for someone who can afford to spend that much on a guitar and not care, knowing that they are better than everyone else because of that.

It's got sod all to do with the actual value of the object.