Fender Custom Shop
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Fender Custom Shop is a division of Fender Musical Instruments, and housed within their headquarters complex in Corona, Riverside County, California. The Fender Custom Shop primarily exists to compete with smaller companies and independent luthiers that, in turn, build products reminiscent of those which were designed and built by Fender in their 'golden era' of circa 1950-65. Indeed, much of the output from the Fender Custom Shop is replicated vintage models, and in the case of the Fender Relic series, legitimatized forgeries of would-be vintage examples, complete with scratches, chips, wear, burn marks, and general signs of abuse. In addition, the Fender Custom Shop produces special-order guitars for customers ordering through their Custom Shop dealer network, creates limited edition 'art' guitars, builds limited edition amplifiers, and does some research & design for the parent company.
[edit] History
For nearly 20 years, Fender was owned and operated by the CBS corporation. Many players felt that the interests of CBS were at odds with the marketplace, profits declined, and in 1984 CBS sold the rights to the Fender name and designs to a group of ex-employees who launched Fender Musical Instruments. The Custom Shop was begun in 1987, under the supervision of then-CEO Bill Schultz. The initial staff comprised only two 'master builders', John Page and Michael Stevens. The primary intent of the Fender Custom Shop was to create instruments in the tradition of Leo Fender and his staff at the original Fender facilities in Fullerton, CA, accommodating famous endorsers and other discerning players who wanted the accuracy, detail, and quality- as well as customization and personal touches- that were widely perceived as omitted under the tutelage of CBS, and considered lacking on the revamped Fender's mass-produced instruments. In 1991, the Fender Custom Amp Shop was created and housed in Scottsdale, Arizona, Fender's headquarters at the time. Seven years later, the entirety of Fender's US manufacturing and R & D operations, along with custom shop divisions, was moved to its present location in Corona. Currently, the Fender Custom Shop employs over 50 craftsmen and produces both custom one-off projects, and limited CNC-tooled production runs.
[edit] Notable Products
The Fender Custom Shop has produced a huge range of instruments, often limited in number, which reflect it's original mission as a conduit between the needs of specific players and the Fender corporation and their established designs and innovations as a whole.
First and foremost, the Custom Shop creates one-off products, not explicitly intended for the public, designed to meet the needs of specific artists. Examples include the tweed Twin Reverb remakes crafted by hand by John Suhr for Eric Clapton, and later delivered to Mark Knopfler and B.B. King, the Jag-Stang model designed with help from Kurt Cobain and later manufactured by Fender of Japan, and the Danny Gatton Telecaster, a very early Custom Shop effort that eventually mutated into a limited production item.
Closely related, and in some cases a direct result of collaborations with and for specific players, are the artist models that are specifically available to the public. Some of these models are designed to be near-exact replicas of a noted player's trademark instrument, including patterns of wear, modifications, stickers, and abuse- such as in the case of the Jeff Beck Tribute Esquire, the Jaco Pastorius ersatz fretless Jazz Bass, and the replica model of Stevie Ray Vaughan's heavily weathered trademark Stratocaster. These models are meticulously crafted by hand, under the supervision of one luthier as opposed to part of an assembly line. Fender makes this distinction by tagging these models 'Master-built.' The instruments are designed to closely replicate the original examples, and are very limited in number and often extremely expensive. Far more common under the Custom Shop banner are production models commissioned by players and made available to the general public, albeit in more limited quantity than Fender's standard lines. Examples of guitars designed by specific players and manufactured by the Custom Shop include signature guitars for Eric Clapton, Albert Collins, Merle Haggard, and curiously, John5, best known as a guitarist in Marilyn Manson's band.
Some models, such as the aforementioned Jag-Stang and Venus model, designed with Courtney Love, are designed by the Custom Shop but manufactured by Fender's import facilities, and in the case of the Venus model, Fender's low budget offshoot Squier. For futher confusion, several models are available from both the Custom Shop, and made in the USA, and from Fender Musical Instruments' overseas facilities, often in much less limited quantity, and for much less cost.
An offshoot of Fender's forays into replicating the look of heavily worn instruments was the introduction of the Fender Relic series in the late 1990s. Not tied to a specific artist, the models aspire to perfectly replicate vintage instruments, both in terms of the parts, design, and finishes used, and in the varying degrees of wear that would usually be found on a 40-50 year old instrument. Fender tarnishes metal parts, purposely marks and scratches paintjobs, yellows and cracks plastic parts, and burns marks in the headstock where, historically, a cigarette-smoking player might store a lit cigarette. The move was controversial among players who failed to see the logic in paying a premium for a deliberately damaged instrument. Fender offers grades of wear on the relic series, from light to very heavy 'wear', and has since introduced a line of 'NOS', new old stock, instruments that employ the period-correct parts, designs and finishes but do not feature faux abuse, weathering, or aging.
Recently, the Fender Custom Shop has devoted much time and resources to creating limited 'Art' guitars and basses. These instruments are generally geared more toward the guitar collector than player, and are often created to tie in with other industries as collector items, such as guitars created as a tribute to, and under the design influence of Ford's Mustang automobile. Many of the Art guitars created by the custom shop vastly expand upon the historical decorative innovations of Fender, who originally pioneered the use of custom colors on their instruments. Many of the these instruments are based on traditional Fender designs but do not strive for accuracy to specific models.
The Fender Custom Amp Shop, a subset of the Custom Shop, has produced several limited-run amplifiers during it's existence. Examples include the Tone-Master, Prosonic, Tweed Reissue Twin Reverb, and Two-Tone models.
