Anyone ever ordered an actual custom guitar from the Fender Custom Shop?

Philly_Q

I know it's theoretically possible to order a personally-spec'd guitar from the Fender Custom Shop, but they make so much interesting stuff anyway that I've never really given it much thought.  Especially since I've only been looking, not buying.

So has anyone actually gone the custom route?  I'm basically just wondering how much it would cost compared with an off-the-shelf model. 

koss59

I didn't order one but do own one that I bought secondhand. I can't tell you how much it'd cost new though sorry. I will say it's the best Strat I've ever played/ heard. Mine is based on a 62 slab board with 10.5 radius but with 65 thicker neck and Abby handwired pickups. No ageing either.

Panama_Jack666

koss59 said:

I didn't order one but do own one that I bought secondhand. I can't tell you how much it'd cost new though sorry. I will say it's the best Strat I've ever played/ heard. Mine is based on a 62 slab board with 10.5 radius but with 65 thicker neck and Abby handwired pickups. No ageing either.

I can second this! Lovely full sounding strat.

Show the forum some pictures, Rich!

koss59

Can't be arsed...it's a black Strat. Pictures don't show tonez :-)

Philly_Q

Pictures of black Strats are always good, though.

MattFGBI

Lots of people spec up guitars to order. And a lot of what dealers have in stock has been made to their spec. 

Philly_Q

Ah, @MattFGBI, Mr Fender!

Good point about the dealer-spec guitars, again I was aware of them but they hadn't crossed my mind. 

Price-wise, I know the dealer models retail for about the same price as other CS guitars, so the dealer must be paying a lot less than that to allow for markup.  But presumably an individual customer would be paying more like the retail price (or maybe a lot more than that)? 

I'm hoping for Team Built prices rather than Masterbuilt.... 

MattFGBI

The price will depend on what you want but you do the order through a Custom Shop Dealer.  If you pick something that's fairly "traditional" the price will be very similar to what the dealer has on the wall.

If you start to go for extra body routes or bespoke wiring and special pickups the price will go up. 

bingefeller

@MattFGBI so the price would start at roughly £2k?  I would also be interested in going this route at some point.

MattFGBI

The RRP's are normally closer to £3k.

Philly_Q

Thanks!  It would essentially be traditional, but not something the Custom Shop currently makes as any kind of standard model so it might turn out to be more "bespoke" than it seems.

Basically I'm thinking about a Relic/Heavy Relic Strat, hardtail, with 1970s spec - ash body, maple neck, big headstock, bullet truss rod, possibly 3-bolt neck (although 4 would be absolutely fine), F-logo tuners etc, but with a fat neck and nitro finish rather than urethane or poly or whatever they call it.

bingefeller

MattFGBI said:

The RRP's are normally closer to £3k.

OK thanks. 

MattFGBI

This one for example is £3400. 

I spec'd this up for me but then decided to move house so couldn't buy it in the end! (sorry for the terrible phone camera picture)

SD '59, 2x Fat 50's
60's Oval C neck, 12" radius, 6100 frets. 
Ocean Turquoise over Olympic White. 
Locking M/H

SNAKEBITE

No, but when I come home from the pub drunk on a Friday night I ring up and order one in a fake accent for the cockwomble who lives down the road.

Trouble is they're getting wise to it now.

Philly_Q

SNAKEBITE said:

No, but when I come home from the pub drunk on a Friday night I ring up and order one in a fake accent for the cockwomble who lives down the road.

Sounds as though you're more likely to end up with a heavily reliced chicken tikka.

capo4th

Give Doug @ Coda a shout

Neil

MattFGBI said:

This one for example is £3400. 

I spec'd this up for me but then decided to move house so couldn't buy it in the end! (sorry for the terrible phone camera picture)

SD '59, 2x Fat 50's
60's Oval C neck, 12" radius, 6100 frets. 
Ocean Turquoise over Olympic White. 
Locking M/H

I bet they loved you!

MattFGBI

It's ok, it found a loving home anyway. 

1nten5e

I have a bit of experience, I have 2 masterbuilt fenders and 2 CS fenders

My 2 most recent purchases were a Jason Smith Tele Custom, which I waited 18 months for and cost 3800, and even more recently a special order team built '62 Jag, built to my spec, ie same neck dimensions as the tele etc, this was a 6month wait at a cost of 2700

if you need any more info feel free to ask

Gaz

bingefeller

MattFGBI said:

This one for example is £3400. 

I spec'd this up for me but then decided to move house so couldn't buy it in the end! (sorry for the terrible phone camera picture)

SD '59, 2x Fat 50's
60's Oval C neck, 12" radius, 6100 frets. 
Ocean Turquoise over Olympic White. 
Locking M/H

@MattFGBI,  if I was getting a Custom Shop fender then this is very, very similar to what I'd want.  It has the big frets, the flat radius and the humbucker in the bridge - perfect!  

The only thing I would have different would be a hardtail and 22 frets.  That's the thing I don't like about the CS Fenders is that most of the ones in the shops have 21 frets.  Are there any 24 fret CS Strats kicking around?  I'd like to see how that looks.  My Suhr is 24 and whilst I rarely use past the 22nd fret, having the extra frets allows for easy upper fret access.       

Philly_Q

1nten5e said:

I have a bit of experience, I have 2 masterbuilt fenders and 2 CS fenders

My 2 most recent purchases were a Jason Smith Tele Custom, which I waited 18 months for and cost 3800, and even more recently a special order team built '62 Jag, built to my spec, ie same neck dimensions as the tele etc, this was a 6 month wait at a cost of 2700

Hopefully mine would be closer to the second in terms of costs and waiting time, but that's useful information, thanks!