Is it me or have prices gone up significantly again this year?
I had Peach get a quote for a special build for me. Team built, nos at £5,199. Other than a spalted maple top and Blackwood fingerboard, it was nothing out of the ordinary.
Peach are stocking team built guitars up to £4,500 with several over £4K.
Ive just been on the Coda website and they gave 3 masterbuilts coming in at around £7,500. Beautiful looking guitars, but.....
If these are the new prices, it checks me out of buying anything new from the custom shop. It wasn’t that long ago a team built was just above £2k.
Comments
Regarding the original question I would imagine that the unusual top wood and fretboard wood are the issue with yours... it is "out of the ordinary" for them to do those on team-built instruments - if you look at the Artisan lineup where you'd normally find those alternative woods they are significantly more expensive than the regular reissues.
I keep thinking that Fender CS prices are gonna hit a ceiling but it's not really showing yet...
The spalted maple top and blackwood fingerboard would add a decent 'wad' to the basic price - But I've seen more regular vintage formats now pushing 4K and some beyond
Agree about above comments in that don't blame it on Brexit - Thomann's prices are pretty much in-line with the UK - Plus don't talk about the big guys getting a better price, as with only a few exceptions it is only the big boys who stock/sell C/Shop these days
It will push up the price of used CS models and already it is hard to find any under 2K with good examples already £2500 in the private ads - There will continue to be a strong market for used examples with new stock at 4K plus
Around 1962 a Strat in the UK was £140 - Today, via an inflation calculator, that puts it at 3K ish - Up to about 2 years ago, that was the price of a new Custom Shop 62 replica - Which is effectively the same guitar - Certainly the same grade
For a few years I've often passed comment that you can still buy a 62 Strat today for less than it was in 1962 - ie a CS model - And certainly for less than an original vintage model that now will fetch in excess of 15-25K - Most of the time the CS model has been less than £140 converted on an inflation calculator - In the last 2 years it has gone beyond that
However I have an invoice for a new masterbuilt Tele from 1995 that was only £2300 and now the same guitar would be £7k.
So masterbuilts have spiralled out of control and now these supposedly masterbuilders do much less work to the guitars than the original team in the 90's did. You pay £7300 for one and its still painted by the same one guy who paints ALL the Custom Shop guitars at Fender. The body and neck are still cut by the same CNC machine, you're just paying for some assembly and a supposedly bespoke spec.Not sure who is buying these guitars now.....but they seem to sell pretty well.
The trouble Fender will have though is that £7-8k takes it into players grade vintage territory. I’ve not got a great record with vintage guitars, but if I drop £7-8k on a masterbuilt and then move it on, I’ll get maybe £4K and that’s if I’m lucky. If I drop £7-8k on a player grade vintage, I get £7-8k back, maybe more if the market appreciates.
The vintage market is on the up right now, I'm good friends with some of the major players in that field, collectors too and the only way is UP right now. I've seen the good stuff appreciate $10k+ over the last year. Things have gone crazy and there's an insatiable demand. Even the player grade vintage are appreciating rapidly too. Not so long ago a refin blackguard Tele was £9k....now its £15k. The only problem is the vintage trade is not always as it seems. I could point you towards one original custom colour Strat on Reverb right now that is a refin despite its COA from a now defunct UK dealer. Not the seller's fault, but the dealers.....Say no more....can't name them here obviously. Food for thought.
Been uploading old tracks I recorded ages ago and hopefully some new noodles here.
In terms off the current Fender ( and the other big two ) marketing strategies, it is clear that once the envelope has been pushed and eagerly accepted, the next step is is to increase the offer and watch it being accepted. It is, in the end, the corporate dream to have a single product that can be incrementally resold to a customer base chasing the impossible dream.
The price of the new stuff is getting silly. I assume Fender’s judgement is selling fewer - at higher margins - is good business. They’re probably right.
You can get a very decent 5 year old car for £7k
Team built .....gotta laugh........"factory built "......."department built " ......." technician built " ............MEH !