Things to Consider When Buying a Fender Custom Shop Guitar
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- Опубліковано 27 чер 2021
- Hey y'all! In this video I'll give my thoughts and recommendations for when you're considering purchasing a Fender Custom Shop guitar. I focus on the neck, pickups, electronics, and even give you some of my Strat tips. I also introduce you to two of my FCS Strats: my Ltd Ed 62/63 Strat and "The Desert Cruiser," my 1965 Time Machine Strat.
Great video with helpful info. About to buy a Custom Shop and since it’s such an investment have been researching like mad. That after playing a Sea Foam 62/63 at a local shop and it felt and sounded great. Leaning towards grabbing it today. Your video may have finally convinced me. Thank you!
Really great, unique tips for strat! Thank you! And by the way you have massive sound sir!
Great video Mike! And great call on the neck carve... actually exactly why I wanted that 65! I couldn't get on with the super common early 60's oval C profile most seem to have.
The Tone on that Sparkle Strat is freakin AMAZING, that is an ABSOLUTE PLAYER. WOW.
Hey Mike great video I am now a regular viewer of your channel. I appreciate your insight and wisdom and thanks for sharing all your gear and thoughts on that gear. You're an awesome dude bro All the best
Thanks! Is there anything specific you'd like to see? I'm looking forward to sharing more of my gear and thoughts on guitars and amps. Stay tuned!
@@eldoradoguitars6456 nothing specific. I didn't realize these were your first 2 videos. I think what you're doing is great. Keep sharing your insight and wisdom. Share the mistakes you made so we might avoid them. Keep connecting and make one video a week. You'll have an audience in no time. Maybe a video on your love for Marshall amps and how it all started. Looking forward to the stories. All the best tone brother
Great review dude, with respect exceptional! The amount of people and professional shop videos who mention everything except the most important in my opinion, fret size! Even when you see guitars listed for sale, no mention of it. I’ve lost count of how many messages I’ve sent to dealers and sellers asking for fret size. And some don’t even know!! I love the vintage frets, can’t get on with jumbo’s or 6105.
Very enjoyable and educational. Thank You
Thank you for the in depth info
My dream guitar - perfect colors w/ a flatter gt11 or 12 inch radius. One day......👍🏻 great review & playing
Great Video! I decided get my 64 Custom shop Stratocaster from G.C instead Sweet water even exact the same model but the pick up. I refer Fat 60 to Texas special . Your guitars are awesome. Thanks
from the look at your room I think we'd be good friends. We have much of the same gear. I just bought my first Fender Custom Shop today from Sweetwater. Can't wait to get my hands on it.
Don't buy blind! You absolutely must try any guitar in person. The only Fender Custom Shop I ever tried was a Strat and I found it to be awful. I know there are ones I would like but the one I had a clubby neck with tiny frets, maybe you may like that but I don't and who's to say how a guitar in a photograph will feel in your hands. I also didn't like the pickups as much as my Ron Ellis set, really expensive but the best I've ever had.
The alternative to " moving the neck" to get more clearance for the high E is to replace your bridge with a slightly more NARROW bridge. I believe there are at least three different widths. Check it out.
That's what I did to my Vintera Road Worn (poor man's custom shop). I put a Callaham vintage bridge with the narrow spacing. Works great.
And holy cow is that sparkle burst strat cool! We need to get together so I can see that sucker in person
That sparkle strat!! I remember playing that one at guitar center Scottsdale years ago and loving it. I didn’t have the money for it then and I always wondered what happened to it. If you ever want to get rid of it, let me know!
This is very informative,, give us some amp reviews on your amps, that would be much appreciated sir..!
Fact on the neck shape! I owned 5 custom shops from the 60s then made the mistake of playing a 50s with a huge offset V and was in love! It fit my huge hands like a glove. I sold and/or traded in the 60s and not have 3 from the 50s and one odd ball 69 with a big reverse headstock with a Floyd.
Nice video, lots of good stuff in there. Although I thought the “wear” on the back of the neck isnt to look worn but sanded down rather than actually worn down as many players sand there neck down for to the bare wood. Anyway, that 62/63 strat sounds unbelievable. Great choice.
Thanks! You could be right about the back of the neck. That would make sense. Like I said in the video, I *do* like it. I'm just saying that it's not "natural wear" at all.
I agree. I don't think that's necessarily supposed to approximate the wear pattern so much as purposeful sanding. Most of my friends and I dislike a lot of finish on the neck. So sticky.
The Sanko 6105 frets are the best I’ve ever used. 2014 Strat 60th anniversary golden oldies fender cs
Hey there what an amazing video super well explained. I'm currently looking into buying a custom shop strat, but besides all the tips here how would you pick a store. I'm located in the Netherlands, there are some good ones but they have only limited amount of Custom shop guitars. I really enjoy the vintage strat sound mostly warm and dark tones.
Thanks
Here some examples
max.guitars/nl/reg21-29-60-strat-hrl-rw-olw-r115423 / max.guitars/nl/cs-reg21-37-60-strat-hrl-rw-lpb-art-19892 / max.guitars/nl/cs-1960-stratocaster-3ts-nos
Yeah man I bought my used 60th anniversary fender custom shop heavy relic dirty white blonde. I hate the Relicing but the guitar is the best I’ve ever played. the neck is absolutely perfect for me. And once again the Sanko 6105 frets are awesome I’ve been playing the hell out of his guitar and I do not see any wear on the Frets. Perfect height and perfect width Great video I agree with your assessments
My Squier bullet is better with ss frets.
I'd be curious if you've played any LSLs + your thoughts on those...
Thanks!
I have a Nash S63, that looks exactly the same as your Olympic white, with very light relicing, and seems to be very close to the specs that you prefer as well. It has Lollar Blonde pickups, with a Special S in the bridge which is a bit hotter. Not sure if it is the pickups or the guitar itself, but it has nice and "round" highs, not shrill at all. I opted for a Nash because it is basically a Masterbuilt strat, but you sacrifice the level of customization Fender offers, you have to buy off the shelf. S63 happens to be what I was happy with spec wise so it comes down to finding the one that has the aesthetic you're going for. I was reluctant to get a team built Fender custom shop because I couldn't try them beforehand, and there's a bigger variation in what you get because there's more people involved. All Nash guitars I have ever tried, about a dozen of them, were consistently great playing and feeling, a testament to one guy setting them up. For my third strat (second being a Suhr), I am looking at three tone sunburst K-Line Springfield, also a one guy operation.
Nash guitars aren’t close to Masterbuilt at all. Nash is basically a partscaster and that’s it. They don’t make their own necks or bodies. They source it from places as you would yourself building a guitar like warmoth or all parts then assemble them and apply whatever relic they see fit. That’s why I won’t buy one. Custom shop team build has attention to detail and makes sure the guitar is the best it can be and they build it from scratch and often times hand wound electronics while nash never does that. Masterbuilt is a completely different beast! Super super customized instruments and the attention to detail is ridiculous. I have a John Cruz MB and it is basically flawless. Not to knock your Nash. People have their preferences and if it works for you that’s all that matters. I personally don’t think I’ll Ever buy one ever since I found out it was just an assembly company with custom relics.
Good video.
You pretty good on hi lights maybe the guitar pick on your attack. And response. To its tone. That’s a feel sure ya agree thanks for video
great tips. I have tried a bunch of different neck sizes. I liked the 60's oval-c neck the best in a stratocaster.
Your chin bounces with each down stroke at 15:00
I no longer hear those frequencies but remember those days. I thought all amps and guitars just got better one day.
I think the Desert Cruiser looks great, is it Nitro paint?, with checking? I have a Luxxtone Chopper S that is super cool, and almost everyone that picks it up loves it. I really like it too. I originally didn't want a lot of aging but Jerry sent pics during the build, and I was like hmmm yeah lets do a bit more aging...it kind of grows on ya
Thanks! Yes, it is nitrocellulose lacquer with aging, checking, and wear from the Fender Custom Shop. I don't mind the color but I wish it were aged less. It's just a bit too over the top for me. Real vintage guitars don't actually look like this. You'd have to play this guitar every day, for 10 hours a day, in a sweaty club, while leaving it outside in the rain for 50 years to develop this kind of extreme wear. It just doesn't seem genuine to me. But I love the guitar! Best Strat I've ever played.
@@eldoradoguitars6456 Nice playing and you have some great amps to enjoy there!!
Great playing, great guitars great amps! What is that song that your playing in the opening?
No song, I was just jamming on a little Pearl Jam "Yellow Ledbetter" inspired riff.
Nice guitar.Sounds like my Squier bullet.
Thank you for the honest opinion. There’s not many of you. I’m consider buying an amp but I can’t decide which one. Can you tell vh2 or evh 5150-lll? Do you know anything about the evh?
So the EVH 5150 and the VH2 are pretty different sounding amps to me.
Honestly, I have yet to meet a 5150 that I really like. The lower gain channel is pretty good but the higher gain channel has so much unusable gain, it's kind of a somewhat useless or one-trick channel. (That's sort of how I felt about the VH4 CH4, too.) Also, I feel like the EVH just has a certain unmusical quality. If you're a Periphery fan or want to do Djent stuff, then it's "the sound," but I have yet to find anything else an EVH really does better than other amps out there. However, they are pretty affordable and you do get a lot of bang for your buck.
The VH2 will be much more straightforward than the 5150 and will be much more usable across the full gain sweep on both channels. Although a lot of people think of this as the "Adam Jones Amp" the VH2 is capable of a lot of great hard rock tones including 80's hair metal, 90's grunge, all the way to more modern stuff. It also responds very well to EQs in the loop if you really want to start tinkering with the overall tone of the amp. It's really just a stellar piece of professional-quality gear.
If I were you, it'd be a no-brainer to get the VH2.
Can you please do a video with the vintage jubilee, ox box, and strat? Maybe some rhcp or some clean?
Hey Brett - I had to move recently so everything had to be broken down, packed, moved, and then re-set up. I just got everything up and running tonight so some gear videos are on the horizon!
3:55 For real! It's so hard unless you can get your hands on the necks and see how they fill up your hand. It's so hard to know for sure that a neck shape is really going to fit your playing style.
cool drink!
I really wanted a custom shop fender and tried 3 different ones with 60s style necks and just didn't like the feel. The necks felt massive. I've recently tried a couple of mid 2000 standards and they play so much nicer. That's 2k saved 🙂
Hey man, I totally hear that! I was a teenager in the mid-to-late '90s and the necks those days were far thinner than the vintage models. So by comparison, even the '60s inspired necks feel like baseball bats. I've actually just got an American Ultra HSS Strat recently that has a thin, modern neck profile and I have to admit, I love it! I've been playing it more than my Custom Shops.
My first ever guitar was an 80 Japanese Strat copy. I absolutely loved it. Loaned it to someone and never got it back!
I had decided to push the boat out and blow a wad of cash on a good Strat. Looks like I'm gonna get just what I want for a fraction of what I would have paid.
Really informative video by the way
@@manaledo Thanks man! Would love a sub if you don't mind, I'm trying to get to 1000 followers so I can do livestreams.
Have you tried the latest American Vintage Reissue strata? If so how close are they to a custom shop Strat? Just that I’m buying a Strat soon and would like to know if the custom shop one is worth the extra over the American Vintage Reissue
I ordered three of the American Vintage II Tele Deluxes and had to return them all. They all played terribly, had major fret out issues, and just sounded like dead guitars. I cannot recommend that series right now at all. I would go Custom Shop all the way.
@@eldoradoguitars6456 nice one. That’s good enough for me
What are the pickups in the Desert Cruisers? I love the color and relicing.
Thanks! They're Handwound '65 Strat Relic pickups. The Floor Traveler says, "HW 65 STRAT REL" if that helps. No idea who wound them; I've never taken the pickguard off the guitar.
The color is "Super Faded/Aged 3TS Sparkle." I love the color but hate the super heavy relic. I've thought about getting it refinished in black or something but I'm afraid it will change the sound.
Just curious but do you have all those amps running into the Ox Box through something? I'm using 3 ox box's for 3 amps but have more amps I'd love to just centralize all into one ox box to make it all easier to manage
At the time of this video, yes, everything was running into the Ox Box. Now I have everything going into the Fryette Power Station for in the room and Ox for recording.
Hi, what’s the John Mayer riff you play at 20:17 called?
Who did you think I was
Same kinds of pickups on both axes or has the Desert Cruiser got a different type?
Different. The Desert Cruiser has hand wound '65 strat pickups and the white strat has hand wound 62/63 strat pickups
@@eldoradoguitars6456 thanks so much!
Have you noticed they’re just a little buzzy?
Thanks men 😍🥰😍
1st thing to consider, is how many awesome guitars you could own, for the amount of money you are dropping on the Fender Custom Shop guitar. Just my opinion.
Agree completely! The American Standard and American Professional guitars are amazing guitars for the money and will get you 90% of the way to the Custom Shop level for 25% of the price.
Hi dorado. Have you measure all the pickups exactly?
Yes
@@eldoradoguitars6456 how much is the output in every single one?
65 Desert Cruiser FCS Pickups
Bridge 6.22
Middle 5.85
Neck 5.97
FCS 62/63 LTD Strat (60/63 Pickups)
Bridge 6.00
Mid 5.85
Neck 6.84
It's all about the neck..I've said that about fenders for years..
Well my rule would be to remember that maybe one out of ten are great.
Understand that the guitar can sound very different with different strings. (try Curt Mangan if you want great strings....perfect tone and way better the Daddario...imo).
Fret size. Thin frets are old school but not as great as say medium jumbo if you do a lot of bending.
I prefer 9.5 radius but some are 7.25. That makes a difference.
Nick feel is just how it fits in your hand sitting and standing.
Heavy relic to me is not great. I prefer satin finish but only have on a masterbuilt. Don't buy everyone's opinion. Remember....like assholes.
Pickups. Hard to say. ON my masterbuilt I actually put on Fralins and now sounds perfect. Depends on guitars. Some with fat 50's sound great and some with others. But..., no fast rule. You may end up changing.
Weight. should NOT be too heavy or light.
I’m not sure if you still have that guitar, but why don’t you just take the pickups and electronics and put them on another body. Try it out. If it doesn’t sound the same, go back to how it was. I really doubt repainting your guitar will do anything to the sound
I'm vintage.
It's PERFECT! STFU and enjoy your Unicorn guitar!!
i could never even consider pissing away five months worth of my income, period. let alone on a 10k custom shop guitar. i wish i was so fortunate to even consider it but i can barely afford insulin to survive by the skin of my teeth
Why on earth…. WHY all those amps ??
Have you noticed they’re just a little buzzy?