Your Grandpa was a very smart man.
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Well… …that when theory meets reality…
Many times during our lives we don’t have all the options and even some could be totally outside of our reach for multiple reasons (financial, regional, availability, time, etc, etc).
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Going back on topic.
I’m not a Fender fan, but when you get to the price of boutique instruments, you’re getting several things you don’t get on lower price ranges, like:
- Warranty
- Better materials quality (woods, electronics)
- Better craftmanship (frets leveling, shielding, soldering)
- Better utility (active/passive circuits, preamps, double truss rods, etc)
And you can keep adding more and more.
There are a lot of perks of a high-end bass since there is a lot more time invested in each instrument, improving the overall quality, sound, and playability.
That being said, I didn’t hear that many praises on the Fender customs and didn’t have the chance to play any of those.
I tried 2 Fodera and 2 Lefay and 1 Dingwall so far, and it felt faaaaaar better in my hands compared to my JP Fender (the most pricey bass I have).
All in all, you can make cheap instruments sound really good, and you can severely improve the sound of most instruments by changing the pickups (with a clean-soldered and shielded circuit), doing your own setup, and upgrading the tunning machines.
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what I don’t like about Fender Custom Shop is that most people believe that the price is justified because those instruments are made by hand by an expert luthier (they say “custom” in the name !). in fact those are just CNC-machined pieces of wood screwed together, exactly like MIM or MIA or other Fenders. the woods selection is a bit higher and the finish may be a little bit better (not really better than MIA in fact), but that’s it.
In my opinion, Fender CS are really too expensive for what they are, that’s not what I would buy. still good instruments but you pay 2x-3x-4x more than a Fender MIA for maybe 0%-1% better quality, and that’s even not sure. for example, a Fender CS reissue and Fender MIA reissue are very close, more or less the same really.
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Yeah. And when it comes down to it I’m not even convinced MIA Fender is “better” than MIJ Fender for all cases.
In a lot of ways we are talking intangibles here though. It doesn’t necessarily need to be better to be worth the price difference to someone. It would for me, but I am not everyone 
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Spoken like someone that builds their own instruments and cares more about the technical aspects. 
The quality might only be marginally better (I think it’s more than you state though personally).
But there are so many more reasons to buy one than the pure technical difference.
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I agree, it depends on the models and the years. that said, current MIA are better than MIJ in my opinion, overall. but again that’s not a hard rule, more what I noted from my personnal experience. 70’s and 80’s MIJ (not only Fender) are the most interesting in my opinion.
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it’s more an experience than a though, as I have several friends who own both Fender CS reissues and Fender MIA reissues ; I played and compared those things for real. both are great instruments, with not much difference.
but yeah I totally agree, people who buy a Fender CS are probably not paying “only” for the quality. the “Custom Shop” logo is expensive 
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Yeah, quality improvement vs price improvement is definitely not a 1:1 relationship. Going from £500 - £1000 is a much greater quality difference than going from £1000 - £1500 and so on.
I find this to be more true for an electric instrument than an acoustic one though. An acoustic one you still have a similar curve, but it is flatter for longer. Meaning, the quality improvements in upgrading acoustic instruments are more noticeable at higher price points. On something like a violin, where you have the bow and the instrument and tend to play pure acoustic (no effects, etc.) this can be quite significant. But even then, there is a point when you are paying thousands more for a 1% difference that most people won’t notice.
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sure, and that’s why it’s important to seek the right range, in my opinion.
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This also doesn’t touch on the Fender Tax in general, where Fenders cost 1.5-2x other brands at similar quality levels, but that’s another story
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That’s simply brand value. Something that is not easily accumulated and has taken them decades to build up. Happens in pretty much every industry where products are not a commodity, and even then there is some element of it. Same thing with Apple for example. Don’t underestimate the value of the brand alone.
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Not underestimating it. Basically just describing it in more derisive terms
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also Fender designed what is an electric guitar and an electric bass, and this design is still actually the base of a vast majority of the current instruments (bolt maple neck on a softer wood solid body, pickup and electronics hold by a pickguard … all those things). they charge for this …
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It’s true. They absolutely were first.
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Yeah for sure. $2400 and (much) higher for a premium acoustic guitar is not that uncommon either.
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You also pay for rarity and exclusivity of components. Are these things “better”? They aren’t meant to be.
Johnny Walker Red Vs Blue. Huge price difference. Is Blue better? My ex works for Diageo. We always had both in the house as we got it all for free. Blue is rarer as less is made. More exclusive.
I hated them both equally. For me, no value drivers.
Their are components on CS products you can’t get elsewhere. Are they better or different or sometimes both? Does it matter to you? All value drivers or non-starters.
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To me, that’s probably the main point of Fender’s Custom Shop, John @John_E . .To have something a little harder to get . . . a little more collectible . . . a bit more exclusive! 
( like a 1951 Mercury with a chopped top? . . . 
)
Maybe if I live long enough I’ll get one of those CS basses!
Cheers
Joe
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$11,500 for this one. A signature bass, limited to 60 pieces. I guess the price makes sense since it’s a collectors edition?
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