Jazzmaster Now Available on Fender Mod Shop

[audiopablo]

Thanks, Larsongs. I appreciate it. And thanks for the discussion. It's all the social life I have these days

One day, they will play jaguars. And then they'll play jazzmasters. Or they'll play some new instrument with their thoughts and facial gestures in the year 2035.

[tammyw]

Maybe if nobody orders one, then they'll drop it altogether - one less thing to complain about.

When they first started the program with Strats and Teles (was it called American design experience?) there were many more options, but apparently that didn't work out well for them.

[Embenny]

I've done several special Factory ordered Cars over the years. You know how much more they cost? Nothing. Same Price. The Parts they use are Priced in the Order Book. They don't cost any more because it's a Special Order.

They're a bit more complex than building Guitars. I got the same Deals, Financing & Incentives.

You buy it, you own it. Comes with a Warranty & they fix it. When it comes time to Sell or Trade it's up to you. No different for a Guitar.

The Auto Manufacturers have the same situation with regard to Profit, Shareholders etc. Actually more.

If they can do it so could Fender, Gibson etc.

There's a big difference here, though. Fender has a Custom Shop whose sales they don't want to cannibalize. Sure, one of the selling points of the CS is that they have "master builders" and an extra degree of fit/finish finesse, but the primary reason the CS exists is to sell people guitars that are truly whatever they can dream up - stuff that isn't available in production models.

If you offer too many options on the mod shop (e.g. Radius and fret size, adding or subtracting the rhythm circuit, nitro vs poly in any colour in the rainbow), you start chipping away at the market of people who are willing to pay top dollar for an American-made Fender with their dream specs. Yes, the mod shop has up-charges, but not to the degree of the CS, so it would be unwise to offer "too" many options in the mod shop, from a business perspective. Where that line should be drawn is tricky - you can pull in more sales at the lower price point of the mod shop, but the margin per customer is higher on the CS models.

They're probably going to slowly expand the mod shop and watch their CS sales data closely, cutting back if they start seeing a ding in CS sales.

[tammyw]

The Custom Shop is totally different, I don't see the Mod Shop ever growing beyond being a mashup of current production line parts. They'll definitely sell more with the lower price point and shorter wait time, and if they can sell two Mod shop guitars and lose one CS order they're probably still getting a better overall profit because they're keeping the whole retail margin on the Mod shop sales for a tiny bit of extra work, versus the CS with a higher labor cost and the dealer getting the retail margin.

Anyway, they've added the AV65 D&B neck to the Mod shop options.

Anyone take the plunge yet?

[N0_Camping4U]

The Custom Shop is already a huge rip. Want a Bass VI with flame maple? That calls for a master craftsman... +1,000.

I think having a middle ground is a fine alternative, as the Custom Shop gets ridiculous fast.

I just bought a Danocaster bass but I would have loved to get a real-deal Fender. But my option is Custom Shop or piss off.

They can't have all of the same options as the Custom Shop, I get that. But i'd like to at least be able to order a guitar, with my color preference, in nitro, with a matching headstock. I think that alone would be enough for most people.

Everything else Fender already sells, bridges, pickups, tuners, etc. The colors are the hard thing to get. Most of the items people want Fender already has, hell probably in the same building.

Don't go on about overhead, shareholders, etc. That's like saying 'oh the shareholders wouldn't want Fender to expand their market and make amps/mandolins/banjos/acoustics/etc'

It boils down to what someone had already said: minimal amount of effort.

[Singlebladepickup]

"The colors are the hard thing to get."

-Satin black
-Skyburst Metallic
-Amber
-Aged Cherry Burst

C'mon. They're putting out a bunch of new colors and a few favorites, but where are:

-Sherwood Green
-Charcoal Frost Metallic
-Shell Pink
-Seafoam Green
-Burgundy Mist Metallic
etc. etc. ?

Not saying they have to offer everything they've ever made, but if they have a bunch of new colors that aren't even on any of the production models, how much harder is it to do some of the more common ones people love?

[leokula]

"The colors are the hard thing to get."

-Satin black
-Skyburst Metallic
-Amber
-Aged Cherry Burst

C'mon. They're putting out a bunch of new colors and a few favorites, but where are:

-Sherwood Green
-Charcoal Frost Metallic
-Shell Pink
-Seafoam Green
-Burgundy Mist Metallic
etc. etc. ?

Not saying they have to offer everything they've ever made, but if they have a bunch of new colors that aren't even on any of the production models, how much harder is it to do some of the more common ones people love?

While we love shell pink and BMM, the mass market says otherwise. How many people got their Squier CV 60's BMM with special discount because of its color?

I still stand by the fact that if it was profitable, they would be offering it. Those are clearly not very popular colors outside of offsetguitars world, but that's just my 2 cents.

[Singlebladepickup]

Then why did they just release that Mustang in Pink? They've done BMM recently on Squier JBass, Jarman musguar, and Jag 50th Anniversary, in addition to the strat you mentioned. They obviously thought it would sell a bit. Plus, they just did a run of AV65 thinskin whatever JM's in CFM and their American Special JM in Sherwood.

[tammyw]

I would have imagined they were offering colors in line with their near term production schedule, but I don't know.

They seem to have fixed the problem with the American professional bridge saddles/radius. I noticed in the early ones, the slots in both E saddles were less deep than the others, and it was pointed out elsewhere that the radius was wrong. But with this new one the E saddles are definitely grooved deeper and it measures up to a proper 9.5" radius. It still has the wide spacing, but it's aligned good with the neck.



So, anyone else place an order yet?

[Marc]

No matching headstock?

So close, yet so far

I feel like they realize that putting vintage radius, matched headstock guitars in the mod shop would all but destroy the market for AV65's.

For whatever reason Fender have done their best to do this anyway - right in a huge resurgence of interest in offsets where they have sold truckloads of Squiers (a good thing) they have possibly sold a fraction of the reissues they could have done by only doing white and sunburst. People would jump on the availability of more colour options such as the Aztec Gold and Firemist Silver which I was lucky enough to finally find. But where are the custom colours, where are the '63 models with a green guard and why no 58 or 59 with ash body and gold guard? Just cannot understand why they didn't increase the options to different years and finishes given how popular they are now.

[chemattstry]

I went on Fender's chat and I ask about the lack of options that you guys mentioned as well as orientation. The guy says that the mod shop used their American Professional line as base models and that there are no plans to change that. Then he went into the typical Fender spiel about how they don't have the machines and resources to build anything left-handed or to cut pickguards and reroute existing body cavities or customize necks, etc. I said "Yeah, you had them in Japan and decided to close down that operation" and ended the conversation. Typical.

Preach it, my left handed compadre!

[bacca51]

Woah you can order one with a Vintage 65' neck! And in Aztec Gold!


Honestly, this is super enticing now. The only steps between me and what is essentially a custom AV 65' is a rhythm circuit.

[BoringPostcards]

I LOVE that finish.
I played a Strat in that finish a while ago. Wanted to buy it just for the finish. Not a Strat person in the slightest.

[mld530]

They are offering Shell Pink now on the JM.

[RIORIO]

They are offering Shell Pink now on the JM.

NEED MATCHING HEADSTOCK