Design Your Own Fender

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 7:28 pm

Saw some rumours about this last year but didn't really think they would come to anything:

http://www.fender.com/american-design/

As you'd expect, only Strats and Teles (and J/P Basses) at this stage.

Just designing a Strat for kicks atm to see how flexible it is (and how much it will cost).

Edit: $1500 for a US made Strat made to my specs. Quite a few options but nothing earth shattering. Interesting idea though.

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 7:44 pm

Hmmm, so Fender have a shop that does customs?

How come we've never heard of this?

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 7:45 pm

Judging by the prices, I don't think these are Custom Shop guitars.

George · Post by **George** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 7:51 pm

A step in the right direction. I like the sunset metallic or whatever it's called, and that you can choose compound radii. If I was going to put that much money down for an American model I'd likely go down this route. There seems to be a great lack of neck profiles though but I'd like to think that would increase in time if there's enough uptake.

actually the vintage 7.25" - 12" compound with D profile sounds fucking sweeeeeet

brainfur · Post by **brainfur** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 8:15 pm

no shell pink? no rare colors at all? whats the point?

Janine · Post by **Janine** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 8:20 pm

I wish it were more in depth with the pickup options. Oh well.

Rox · Post by **Rox** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 1:06 am

If they did Jaguars I'd be all over this as long as they kept it under $2000 . Cheaper option to an AVRI or a Signature I'd think .
I've played around with the Telecasters on that link and with there were more options . Bigsby ?

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 7:40 am

I made a nice silver burst tele. Is that finish available on any stock fenders? I suspect this thing isn't available in the UK as it wasn't giving me a price. Will have another go later through a proxy.

Oh yeah, it's a great idea. If they could expand the builder with import Fender parts and get the price down (obviously that stuff would have to fit properly) it'd be incredible. Although I'm building a bitsa strat IRL at the moment and am on the fourth pickup configuration, so I'd be stuffed if I'd ordered what I initially thought would work great, but didn't.

George · Post by **George** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 9:22 am

i also wonder about the resale of these. custom jobs rarely hold their value (look at warmoth on ebay - yikes!), but they carry the fender badge, so who knows...

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 9:46 am

This is actually awesome as they have left handed options. And they have Teles with with Rosewood boards. Am liking the compound radius too.

moogmusic · Post by **moogmusic** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:56 am

Thom wrote:This is actually awesome as they have left handed options.

I haven't made a righty to compare but I bet they're charging a fat premium for it though.

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 10:58 am

Yeah, there aren't loads of different options but was surprised to see as many LH options as there were. Left handers so often get short changed with the selection on offer.

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 11:01 am

moogmusic wrote:
Thom wrote:This is actually awesome as they have left handed options.
I haven't made a righty to compare but I bet they're charging a fat premium for it though.

Just made the exact same spec'd Strat in RH and LH. Both came out as $1499.

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 12:44 pm

Where does the price show up? Do you have to register?

Concretebadger · Post by **Concretebadger** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 12:52 pm

I made a nice LH J-bass in candy apple red with some classy block inlays and pearl 'guard...running the price through the currency converter it came up at just over a grand...which is what I'd expect from a USA-made Fender normally really.

The prices show up in USD and don't ship abroad yet, so I guess it's merely academic for those of us on this side of the pond. A neat idea if they expand on the options though.

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 1:45 pm

timhulio wrote:Where does the price show up? Do you have to register?

For me it just comes up above the picture of the guitar and updates as you choose your options.

Surprising, but good to see that for once they are not applying the lefty tax.

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 1:50 pm

Thom wrote:
timhulio wrote:Where does the price show up? Do you have to register?
For me it just comes up above the picture of the guitar and updates as you choose your options.

Same here if I go to www.fender.com

If I go to www.fender.com/en-GB/ then the whole design section seems to disappear completely.

Tim, try changing the region to USA (it's at the bottom of the homepage if you scroll down).

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 4:32 pm

Cheers dudes, I'll give it a bash.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 4:06 pm

Considering the price of AVs nowadays the $1500 vintage reissue options are reassuring, if not appealing. I'm not in the market for another US RI Strat, but it's good to know they offer stuff like the US '56/'59/'65 RI necks on these, maybe more will turn up on their own secondhand.

And yeah they aren't custom shop, just using the production stock to do any mash-up you can choose from the limited options. Presumably they're properly set up after that (one would hope).

meltedbuzzbox · Post by **meltedbuzzbox** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 5:16 pm

as always with Fender USA....

Where are all the good colours?