ShortScale.org

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.

Hmmm, so Fender have a shop that does customs?

How come we've never heard of this?

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

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

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

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

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 ?

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.

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...

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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).

Cheers dudes, I'll give it a bash.

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).

as always with Fender USA....

Where are all the good colours?