Fender custom shop

[risingson]

I bought my CS 63 Precision last year. 
 

Was horrified when I unboxed it because the set up was abysmal, it had had no love in the shop. Once I had it properly set up to my preference and strung with TI flats I’ve not really looked back, it’s a great instrument, very well made. 
 

Some bits of it are insane. The sanding down on the neck feels great but it doesn’t look natural. To get to the truss rod, it’s the old Fender style where you have to unscrew the entire neck. I’d have thought Fender might have considered binning that off at the expense of some of the vintage vibe they’re trying to achieve. But other than that I love it. 
 

Do I think it’s £2000 better than the American Vintage series or whatever. Yes and no. I owned a 2014 AVRI Precision which I liked but didn’t love, it lacked character to my ears, and so I do think it’s better in that respect. But my other P-Bass which I recently sold was an old battered Squier, one of the cheap ones from the 90s. That had a phenomenal sound / tone, and that cost me £50 second hand. That makes my CS over 60 times more expensive, which kind of puts things into perspective. 

I’m a semi-professional musician now, once a fully professional one but no longer - career and all that, and so I’m not at a stage in my 30s where I can afford a bass which I’ve wanted for a long time without having to eat only Pot Noodles for the next 12 months to afford. I get the reluctance around CS from some people who’d prefer to buy something that isn’t artificially aged and that would be perfect for them. But for me I’m very happy to own such a nice instrument. 

 

[kwmlondon]

On 12/06/2021 at 09:41, Geek99 said:

Yes, okay… 99% perfect. but if you CS order a passive custom shop instrument and then immediately add a pre amp, something is wrong 

But …but … is it just me misunderstanding but why would someone buy a custom shop instrument, not like it and think they were going to make it ‘better’ by adding a preamp? If they swapped out the pickups I’d understand- it’s not about perfection it’s about making all the parts do what you want. But putting a preamp in is changing the whole nature of the bass. It makes me thing the buyer has no idea what they want. 

[Geek99]

5 hours ago, risingson said:

I bought my CS 63 Precision last year. 
 

Was horrified when I unboxed it because the set up was abysmal, it had had no love in the shop. Once I had it properly set up to my preference and strung with TI flats I’ve not really looked back, it’s a great instrument, very well made. 
 

Some bits of it are insane. The sanding down on the neck feels great but it doesn’t look natural. To get to the truss rod, it’s the old Fender style where you have to unscrew the entire neck. I’d have thought Fender might have considered binning that off at the expense of some of the vintage vibe they’re trying to achieve. But other than that I love it. 
 

 

Why not use a chisel under the plate and make an access trench for the rare occasions when you need to adjust? 
would all be hidden by the plate 

[Geek99]

10 minutes ago, kwmlondon said:

But …but … is it just me misunderstanding but why would someone buy a custom shop instrument, not like it and think they were going to make it ‘better’ by adding a preamp? If they swapped out the pickups I’d understand- it’s not about perfection it’s about making all the parts do what you want. But putting a preamp in is changing the whole nature of the bass. It makes me thing the buyer has no idea what they want. 

I do kind of agree, actually. If you need to change it that fundamentally it wasn’t the right starting point 

[risingson]

10 hours ago, Geek99 said:

Why not use a chisel under the plate and make an access trench for the rare occasions when you need to adjust? 
would all be hidden by the plate 

I’m not that sentimental about basses anymore. If it does come to sell then I’d sooner not modify it. 

[jonnybass]

10 hours ago, kwmlondon said:

But …but … is it just me misunderstanding but why would someone buy a custom shop instrument, not like it and think they were going to make it ‘better’ by adding a preamp? If they swapped out the pickups I’d understand- it’s not about perfection it’s about making all the parts do what you want. But putting a preamp in is changing the whole nature of the bass. It makes me thing the buyer has no idea what they want. 

To me the Custom shop is about getting a bass you want, not just vintage reproductions.

 

I got a Fender Custom shop Custom classic Jazz bass second hand.  Played beautifully, looks amazing, doesnt weigh too much.  Was equipped with Fender N3 noiseless pickups and a fender 3 band pre amp.  After 18-24 months of playing it I could not get a sound out of it I really liked.  To me it sounded ok, but not amazing.  I didnt sell it as it played so well. Fitted Nordstrand pickups and a custom East pre-amp and its became an incredible sounding bass (IMO) gigged and recorded it sounds exactly how I want it to.  

 

D-tuner now fitted, luminlay side dots fitted and its now a bass I'll keep til I cant play bass anymore. Versatile, comfortable sounds and looks great, again in my opinion.  Perfect jazz bass for me.  It took a big leap to mod the bass though...but so glad I have done it now.

 

Jonny

[kwmlondon]

42 minutes ago, jonnybass said:

To me the Custom shop is about getting a bass you want, not just vintage reproductions.

 

I got a Fender Custom shop Custom classic Jazz bass second hand.  Played beautifully, looks amazing, doesnt weigh too much.  Was equipped with Fender N3 noiseless pickups and a fender 3 band pre amp.  After 18-24 months of playing it I could not get a sound out of it I really liked.  To me it sounded ok, but not amazing.  I didnt sell it as it played so well. Fitted Nordstrand pickups and a custom East pre-amp and its became an incredible sounding bass (IMO) gigged and recorded it sounds exactly how I want it to.  

 

D-tuner now fitted, luminlay side dots fitted and its now a bass I'll keep til I cant play bass anymore. Versatile, comfortable sounds and looks great, again in my opinion.  Perfect jazz bass for me.  It took a big leap to mod the bass though...but so glad I have done it now.

 

Jonny

I 100% agree and I can imagine speccing out a bass and then finding aspects of it you want to tweak - the way components work together can be impossible to predict so swapping out pickups or preamp is part of a process. I just think adding an active circuit isn't something you do to fix a bass you don't like - it's changing the nature of the instrument. Sure, if you have a bass that plays great and you want an active bass instead then fine, but the fact the person spent all that money on a CS then changed the pickups and decided and active circuit then sold it says that they didn't really want a CS vintage bass. I don't disapprove or anything, I'm just confused.

 

[jonnybass]

I'd agree, I had to think long and hard and I came to the conclusion that after a set up and with the right strings I hadnt had a four string that played as well for me as the jazz bass.  So the mods were done.  If it was just an ok bass to play I would have sold it as was and kept looking. 

 

Jonny

[gjones]

Fender custom shop basses and guitars, are for accountants, or lawyers to hang on their walls.

[tegs07]

19 minutes ago, gjones said:

Fender custom shop basses and guitars, are for accountants, or lawyers to hang on their walls.

Or people who want and can afford a CS bass.  For much of my life a used Mexican Fender would have been a big purchase requiring a lot of thought. Now it’s something I don’t have to consider in the same way. For others a CS bass would be a similar experience. 

[peteb]

27 minutes ago, gjones said:

Fender custom shop basses and guitars, are for accountants, or lawyers to hang on their walls.

 

But they're really not.

 

The last time I came across one was owned by a 20 something pro musician, who is classically trained and plays in orchestras, but also does lots of freelance electric bass gigs and plays the blues circuit with a couple of his friends (all pros, ex music school ). He wanted a simple bass that is 100% reliable and would always be suitable for the gigs he does. So, he paid quite a lot for a bog standard CS P bass, which he seems to use pretty much exclusively. 

 

I've played it - it's a really nice P bass, does exactly what you would expect it to do, well built, plays nicely and looks cool in an understated way. He is really happy with it and uses it just about every bass gig he does. 

 

Edited February 24 by peteb

[Lw.]

Ah, the age old high-cost-Fenders-aren't-worth-it debate! 

 

It's the same theory of diminishing returns as most other hobby-commodities; is a £4k bass 10x better than a £400 bass? Probably not. Is there something about it that will bring the buyer happiness? Hopefully yes! That's all there is to it. One of the great things about Fender (that they are ironically also derided for) is that they make their product to a wide variety of price points - set your limit and go buy your bass, it doesn't matter if other people choose to spend a different amount. 

 

For what it's worth - I have a CS precision. I had a decent bonus one year from work & decided I wanted to buy myself a precision as I didn't have one & GAS had made it's requirements known. I had a price limit in mind but for the sake of the search I decided to go out and try every P available between Reading & London regardless of price, new/used/vintage Squier/Fender/Custom Shop/Other brands that made a P shape bass, I played a lot of basses. There is no rule as to spending x will get you y performance, they all are what they are at the price that they are, some decent cheapos and some rubbish 10k+ basses - such is the life of a bass player. As it happens, the best bass I'd tried was a Custom Shop - it looked beautiful, played wonderfully & sounded awesome. It was c£5.5k I think, it was out of my self-agreed price range so for a best of cost/benefit bass I decided to go and buy a new Mexican Road Worn (they were actually pretty good basses and were less than a grand), when I was in the shop I saw the glimmer of a different bass that hadn't been there when I was trying out the Road Worns a couple of weeks earlier - a 2nd hand CS, it didn't play quite as nice as the £5.5k one but was easily the 2nd best bass I'd tried so I bought it at twice the price of a road worn but way less than the new CS. 

 

I've played that bass on a huge number of gigs, from decent size stages to the grottiest of back-street boozers. Not once has a non-bass playing punter commented on the sound, a single time a nice lady said she liked the colour. Most of the time the bass we're playing make zero difference to the listeners - so just pick the bass you like & is mostly likely for make you play more, so long as you can afford it price is meaningless. 

[Lw.]

17 hours ago, risingson said:

To get to the truss rod, it’s the old Fender style where you have to unscrew the entire neck. I’d have thought Fender might have considered binning that off at the expense of some of the vintage vibe they’re trying to achieve. But other than that I love it. 

 

 

FYI - you don't have to pop the necks off, someone showed me this a while ago after I complained about chipping a bit of paint off the neck-pocket off mine when doing the set-up (the pocket is incredibly tight). There's a special tool for it, I think it's called a telecaster tool? It's like a half-width flathead screwdriver on a 90 degree angle that you use a bit like a wrench - the slots on the truss rod look like they're for a philips head but that's not why they're in the + shape, it's so that you have regular access with this specific tool. I can't find it now to take a pic but I think StewMac sell them. 

[jonnybass]

52 minutes ago, gjones said:

Fender custom shop basses and guitars, are for accountants, or lawyers to hang on their walls.

The accountants and lawyers I know own 0 fender custom shop basses and guitars, However 100% of the owners of Fender Custom Shop guitars and basses that I know (including me) are musicians.  Maybe perception doesn't match reality here?

 

Jonny

[Reggaebass]

I’m neither an accountant or lawyer but I am a big fender fan, I know there’s lots here that aren’t, if you can afford it then CS fenders are pretty much the best you can get if you can find the right one for you , I’d have another tomorrow if one caught my eye but I’d be a bit more selective now rather than just jumping in and buying them , there’s nothing wrong with wanting the best you can buy, whether it’s worth the price doesn’t matter to me if it’s something you want and it makes you happy every time you pick it up 

[risingson]

1 hour ago, gjones said:

Fender custom shop basses and guitars, are for accountants, or lawyers to hang on their walls.

I’m neither of those things, so where do I fit? 

[HeadlessBassist]

On 11/06/2021 at 08:24, uk_lefty said:

Long story below, but my point is, what do you get for the extra money on a custom shop Fender? Seeing them at £4,400 up to over £10,000 now. I played one last night and have to say it was.... Alright. 

Last night I had the opportunity to play a lefty fender custom shop jazz. Journeyman relic, lollipop tuners, rosewood board with white binding... It was OK. I recently saw the Andertons video on the new Fender custom shop basses they have at over £4k each and thought they looked good and had good reviews. Luckily my friend paid about half that when he ordered his some years ago. I'm going to get my MIJ 75 Jazz reissue out later today to compare properly, but I just didn't see where the money went with this particular bass. The relic work was a lot more authentic than most I've seen, the neck felt lovely, but it just sounded OK. It seems the extra cash went in to relicing, matching headstock, a non standard colour, but I couldn't hear where any extra cash had gone. The bridge pup didn't honk like other jazzes I've played and the tone control had less range than others too. If I had been wearing socks I'm confident they would not have been blown off. I gave the bass a good tickle as everyone else was setting up, played the first two songs through a familiar amp, then put it down and got out my Stingray. The Stingray is a very different beast entirely but the feel and sound of quality was just a cut above the custom shop jazz I felt. 

From how this had been described to me I was expecting to going home, selling everything and getting a custom shop jazz on order. That will not be happening. I'd rather have a brand new US Jazz and Precision and enough change for a second hand car. 

 

You've got the right idea there. Having played quite a few CS basses, I've never seen the extra value in Fender Custom Shop products. Yes, we all know that you're best trying any given standard production Fender in person, as QC can be a lottery, but find a good one that you love the feel and sound of, and it'll be a diamond. A lot of it is down to the terrible Fender standard strings, and the wildly different setups (or lack thereof!) from the factory.

 

I played a few CS Jazzes a couple of years ago, and none played as well, or sounded as full, sonorous, or rich as my American Original Jazz.

 

My usual Jazz Bass guide is how it initially feels in your hands, light-ish weight, nitro cellulose finish is a must (nitro finish basses always seem to naturally sing better), and get some 40-95 Elixirs on asap. (Just my personal preference.)

 

So no, I don't think the CS models are worth the extra coin. I'd much rather have something that sounds fantastic to my ears that makes me want to actually play it.  

 

 

[HeadlessBassist]

On 11/06/2021 at 08:24, uk_lefty said:

Long story below, but my point is, what do you get for the extra money on a custom shop Fender? Seeing them at £4,400 up to over £10,000 now. I played one last night and have to say it was.... Alright. 

Last night I had the opportunity to play a lefty fender custom shop jazz. Journeyman relic, lollipop tuners, rosewood board with white binding... It was OK. I recently saw the Andertons video on the new Fender custom shop basses they have at over £4k each and thought they looked good and had good reviews. Luckily my friend paid about half that when he ordered his some years ago. I'm going to get my MIJ 75 Jazz reissue out later today to compare properly, but I just didn't see where the money went with this particular bass. The relic work was a lot more authentic than most I've seen, the neck felt lovely, but it just sounded OK. It seems the extra cash went in to relicing, matching headstock, a non standard colour, but I couldn't hear where any extra cash had gone. The bridge pup didn't honk like other jazzes I've played and the tone control had less range than others too. If I had been wearing socks I'm confident they would not have been blown off. I gave the bass a good tickle as everyone else was setting up, played the first two songs through a familiar amp, then put it down and got out my Stingray. The Stingray is a very different beast entirely but the feel and sound of quality was just a cut above the custom shop jazz I felt. 

From how this had been described to me I was expecting to going home, selling everything and getting a custom shop jazz on order. That will not be happening. I'd rather have a brand new US Jazz and Precision and enough change for a second hand car. 

 

You've got the right idea there. Having played quite a few CS basses, I've never seen the extra value in Fender Custom Shop products. Yes, we all know that you're best trying any given standard production Fender in person, as QC can be a lottery, but find a good one that you love the feel and sound of, and it'll be a diamond. A lot of it is down to the terrible Fender standard strings, and the wildly different setups (or lack thereof!) from the factory.

 

I played a few CS Jazzes a couple of years ago, and none played as well, or sounded as full, sonorous, or rich as my American Original Jazz.

 

My usual Jazz Bass guide is how it initially feels in your hands, light-ish weight, nitro cellulose finish is a must (nitro finish basses always seem to naturally sing better), and get some 40-95 Elixirs on asap. (Just my personal preference.)

 

So no, I don't think the CS models are worth the extra coin. I'd much rather have something that sounds fantastic to my ears that makes me want to actually play it.  

 

 

[Geek99]

2 hours ago, Lw. said:

 

FYI - you don't have to pop the necks off, someone showed me this a while ago after I complained about chipping a bit of paint off the neck-pocket off mine when doing the set-up (the pocket is incredibly tight). There's a special tool for it, I think it's called a telecaster tool? It's like a half-width flathead screwdriver on a 90 degree angle that you use a bit like a wrench - the slots on the truss rod look like they're for a philips head but that's not why they're in the + shape, it's so that you have regular access with this specific tool. I can't find it now to take a pic but I think StewMac sell them. 

Yes agree but you still need the recess to accommodate it

[kwmlondon]

5 hours ago, gjones said:

Fender custom shop basses and guitars, are for accountants, or lawyers to hang on their walls.

If you'd said pristine vintage basses and guitars, I'd be with you. If you're earning a salary in the hundreds of thousands why settle for a copy, just buy the real thing. To my mind, the CS instruments are way to have a guitar or bass that is 99% of the way to being a vintage, collectable and the kind of thing a pro would rather take on tour than a 60 year old, probably irreplacable instrument. 

[joel406]

Yeah... I guess CS is nice and all. But I have never seen the point. A MIA Fender will always get you there. Even if you do change pickups. Speaking from experience, adding a preamp to an instrument is counterproductive. I own 4 active basses and 9 passive. A QuadCortex will always get you the sound you want. And you can set it up for every bass you have. Just step on the button.

[jonnybass]

Different things altogether for me. I think an onboard preamp means you can go to a gig with a bass a lead and a stand.  Add in an outboard preamp especially a quad cortex or a Helix or even an HX stomp and you need another bag, possibly an extension cable.  I use an HX stomp xl, but i cant see how I could boost the bass halfway through a song during a live gig as easily as I can using my onboard pre amp.  Fine if the boost is preprogrammed but not if its just because of the venue/sound/my mood.   

 

Jonny

[kwmlondon]

26 minutes ago, joel406 said:

Yeah... I guess CS is nice and all. But I have never seen the point. A MIA Fender will always get you there. Even if you do change pickups. Speaking from experience, adding a preamp to an instrument is counterproductive. I own 4 active basses and 9 passive. A QuadCortex will always get you the sound you want. And you can set it up for every bass you have. Just step on the button.

I've never played a CS bass. I get your point about USA basses - one of the nicest basses I owned as a FMT USA Pro Jazz that looked, sounded and played incredibly. Except the awful dead spots. Honestly, if the bass has been garbage I'd not have cared but it was sublime except for the C 3rd fret on the 3rd string being way quieter than all the others! Anyway. 

 

Nice things are nice and if you can afford even nicer enjoy it.

 

Never tried a quad cortex - I find a tone control a bit confusing when I'm playing a gig, god knows how I'd cope with a QC. AND when practising I know I'd just go down a knob-twidding rabbit hole instead of playing the bass. I'm a weak, stupid man.

[Stub Mandrel]

On 12/06/2021 at 09:25, skej21 said:

I think the big thing that people miss with these kind of topics (and you can substitute Fender Custom Shop for any other high-value instrument) is that sometimes, some processes and finishing points are just more expensive or require expensive expertise. For example, having a person making the parts instead of a machine. Simple econimics, it costs more. Choosing quartersawn wood for the neck means you have to pick a cut of wood that is statistically more difficult to get from a batch, and it costs more. Does it deliver that same % increase in the quality of what you hear? Definitely not. A nitrocellulose finish is much more difficult to get right and requires expertise, more costs etc etc

So without going too much in to every part, skill and process that makes the CS basses far more expensive (and different in terms of specification) than say, a MIM Fender, Sire etc, it’s just an economic thing and I think that’s why a lot of people wonder what THEY get out of spending the extra cash. I suppose it’s a bit like fine dining. If you don’t really buy in to the subtleties of what the CS offers (more expensive period-specific clay dot inlays would be a great example!) then you’re right, it probably doesn’t seem worth the extra spend

 

The AVII series are, spec wise, off-the-shelf custom shop models. You just lose the 'bespoke' elements or relicing. But it shows top grade nitro lacquer, clay dots, period correct reverse tuners with huge backplates, slab fingerboards and other details can be delivered for about half the CS cost.

[Reggaebass]

19 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

The AVII series are, spec wise, off-the-shelf custom shop models. You just lose the 'bespoke' elements or relicing. But it shows top grade nitro lacquer, clay dots, period correct reverse tuners with huge backplates, slab fingerboards and other details can be delivered for about half the CS cost.

True stubs, similar to the AVRI, I’ve got a 62 jazz and a 62 precision, they are outstanding instruments