That is SO true! The amount of times I've read of folk waffling on about 'rare' or pre Custom Shop basses and one off Ltd Ed basses but back in the late 80's and 90's you told the dealer what you wanted and they made it. If you wanted a SSI bass with SD JJ pups (as per SSII), you asked; if you wanted a Dolphin with yin/yan inlays, you asked. They wouldn't retool a whole production line to do something but putting in different pups, preamps or inlays was just normal. Saying that, most folk bought whatever off the shelf bass was in the shop/store (normally at a discount).