Post
by daysleeperjeff » Fri Feb 02, 2024 8:16 am
You’re not going to find too many small batch guitar makers offering basically custom shop quality guitars for under $1,500. If you do they are using cheap parts or cheaping out somewhere.
The mastery hardware alone comes to around $500. Good pickups $300-400. Good neck $300+ plus cost for OEM custom headstock shape set up on a CNC, body made of quality wood at least $200, quality paint job $300-$500. Then there’s wiring, other hardware, a case, assembly, setup and they have to make a profit…unless it’s all for charity.
Fender and bigger establishments assembly line this stuff and use their own, often pretty crappy hardware parts and wiring. The quality control is hit or miss…mostly miss these days and you end up swapping parts anyway.
It’s why more people are buying from guys like Shelby. You are paying a guy to give more attention to detail and customize a guitar for you. Sure, you can do it yourself. You can also repair your own car as well…many don’t want to do that. Step outside the hobbyist builder world on this site. Most people just want to buy a quality guitar that is ace straight out of the box. You pay a higher price for that.
I’m developing my own line of Jazzmasters basically out of frustration of how crappy assembly line stuff has been. I’m not able to ever get all the options I want from Fender, so I’m making my own series. It’s a very expensive endeavor to build a guitar with the best parts out there and do some cool custom things on top of it. Maybe people will buy them maybe they won’t. I don’t really care. I’m doing it for me first anyway. If people want to buy them it’s just a bonus.
If you are not willing to pay over $1,500 for a guitar and you’re good with Squiers and Fenders then you are not the market small builders are banking on anyway. They can’t compete with the big guys on price. What they can do is offer better quality, better parts, customer service and unique customization.
OR you can go to the Fender Custom shop but in that case 3k for a guitar is going to sound like a steal compared to what Fender will charge for that and you’ll still probably want to swap the trem and bridge lol!