Today i tried a fender custom shop

[CHRISDABASS]

Ok so today i was in the leeds branch of PMT (bad name for a shop)

There was a rather lovely looking custom shop fender jazz in a relic dakota red finish with matching headstock and brazilian rosewood board! Wow! What a looker! And what a price £2500!!! Ouch! I picked it off the wall thinking.....This better be good!!


The only thing i could muster up was......meh! Its ok!

What a shame! It looked great but didnt play no where near as well as some of the cheaper (and i mean sub £500) basses!!

The one thing i was really dissapointed with was the fretwork! Even tho the action was pretty high it still choked and buzzed when played on the higher frets which i didnt expect from a custom shop bass!

plus the pickups seemed week in comparision to similar instruments!


Hmmm bit of a let down really! I really wanted to fall in love with it and beg steal or borrow to take it out of the shop!

Maybe my sadowsky's fretwork and general quality have spoilt me?!? Who knows.....

Anyone else had these kind of expectations from fender custom shop or other basses and been let down?


On a more positive note the musicman, sandberg and yamaha basses were much better! The musicman sterling in particular was lovely to play, shame i dont get on with big humbuckers haha there's just no pleasing me is there

[OutToPlayJazz]

I've just learned to accept over time that a company like Fender will never have an instrument set up to your liking off the shelf, no matter which department it comes from. With my Road Worn & 50th Anniversary, both played like dogs off the shelf, but the basic tone I was looking for was there - The rest is up to me to put on the correct type and gauge of strings & set it up to my preference.

Yes, companies like Sadowsky & Status spoil us to an extent - The significantly smaller production output makes the individual attention to each bass so much greater & the product that much better at the end of the day.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I probably needed a setup - most shops take 'em out of the box and hang 'em on the wall.

[CHRISDABASS]

Yeh a decent setup would probably help! I think i'd insist on setting it up myself while in the shop before i bought it or get the tech to do it, just to be sure it can actually play like a £2500 bass should

[Musicman20]

What shame Expectations I guess.

I would expect it to be stunning. I expected Laklands QC to be as good as the hype and Ive tried to buy 4 basses so far and they all turned up with extremely poor attention to detail.

[OliverBlackman]

Thats very strange, i played the same model at PMT Birmingham and it was by a long shot the best jazz bass i have ever played. When a crap and heavey 76 jazz costs £1700 and an origional pre cbs jazz bass costs £5k+, i thought the custom shop was amazing value and the one i played was exceptionaly well made.

Just makes you realise you always need to try it before you buy, because no two basses will be the same

[CHRISDABASS]

Its was well made with regards to quality woods / components etc and it light weight too! I'd guess around 8lbs! The relic job was great! I'll be honest im bangin on about this bass so much because i really like it!! I think if i had the available cash i'd take a gamble and hope once its setup correctly it'll play just as good as it looks!

[dan670844]

[quote name='CHRISDABASS' post='891639' date='Jul 10 2010, 10:18 PM']Ok so today i was in the leeds branch of PMT (bad name for a shop)

There was a rather lovely looking custom shop fender jazz in a relic dakota red finish with matching headstock and brazilian rosewood board! Wow! What a looker! And what a price £2500!!! Ouch! I picked it off the wall thinking.....This better be good!!


The only thing i could muster up was......meh! Its ok!

What a shame! It looked great but didnt play no where near as well as some of the cheaper (and i mean sub £500) basses!!

The one thing i was really dissapointed with was the fretwork! Even tho the action was pretty high it still choked and buzzed when played on the higher frets which i didnt expect from a custom shop bass!

plus the pickups seemed week in comparision to similar instruments!


Hmmm bit of a let down really! I really wanted to fall in love with it and beg steal or borrow to take it out of the shop!

Maybe my sadowsky's fretwork and general quality have spoilt me?!? Who knows.....

Anyone else had these kind of expectations from fender custom shop or other basses and been let down?


On a more positive note the musicman, sandberg and yamaha basses were much better! The musicman sterling in particular was lovely to play, shame i dont get on with big humbuckers haha there's just no pleasing me is there






[/quote]


This is just Fender all over, why can't a custom shop be fettled a bit? some US stuff is great, other stuff is Pee poor, what happened to the quality control they had up to a couple of years ago? If Cort can do it on the £300 quid Squier classic vibe stuff they make for Fender why can't they do this in the US?
They just havn't bothered to set it up properly on a £2500 bass there is not excuse. They always do this, thats why I play non export Jap Fender stuff. It has been set up properly, quality is very consist and its cheaper. I noticed Fender have put the Kybosh on people selling non export overseas again, must be a reason for that!
But I also blame the shop's a bit they never do themselves any favours by hanging just in stuff on the walls without even looking at it, they must loose a lot of sales like this.

[Grand Wazoo]

I agree that a setup from someone with a bit of bass know how would solve most issues but we are talking about an instrument which has is sold as "Custom Shop" special and as such you would expect at least that it is prefect out of the box. Now these are not rumours, A shop in Denmark St. had a custom shop Jazz 60's replica and I went to try it, I gave it back to the sales man, and said, are you kidding? The G string would slide off the neck at the least pressure and you just couldn't get it to tune properly. I was offended more than disappointed by the audacity that either the shop (failing to spot the problem) or Fender themselves put out an instrument which is worth a lot of cash in such conditions.

I am now on my 4th Ernie Ball bass all bought site unseen and ordered from new, all of which required absolutely no setup once out of the box.

And can someone please explain how comes Squier pays more attention to details? The 3 Classic Vibe's I've bought all came setup perfectly?

[Musicman20]

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' post='891699' date='Jul 11 2010, 12:15 AM']I agree that a setup from someone with a bit of bass know how would solve most issues but we are talking about an instrument which has is sold as "Custom Shop" special and as such you would expect at least that it is prefect out of the box. Now these are not rumours, A shop in Denmark St. had a custom shop Jazz 60's replica and I went to try it, I gave it back to the sales man, and said, are you kidding? The G string would slide off the neck at the least pressure and you just couldn't get it to tune properly. I was offended more than disappointed by the audacity that either the shop (failing to spot the problem) or Fender themselves put out an instrument which is worth a lot of cash in such conditions.

I am now on my 4th Ernie Ball bass all bought site unseen and ordered from new, all of which required absolutely no setup once out of the box.

And can someone please explain how comes Squier pays more attention to details? The 3 Classic Vibe's I've bought all came setup perfectly?[/quote]

Ive been MASSIVELY unlucky with basses recently. Luckily they were all covered with a returns policy, but heck, I even got an EB with a problem with the neck. I was gutted. Saying that, every other EB ive played has been exceptionally good. Lakland are the worst for QC IMO.

[Al Heeley]

If I'm playing a bass they are charging £2.5k for, I'm going to expect a pretty slick setup on it.

[Prime_BASS]

My Fender jag, came straight from the shop in it's box, not even checked or looked at since it left the factory way back in japan.

Surprisingly it was set up perfect, intonation, action were spot on, just had to raise the bridge pup and lower the neck pup. It even came with a card with the persons name who checked the electronics and set it up, wrote in pen.

To me anyway that's a great personal touch to the intrument.

2.5k a lot of that would be man hours, another chunk would be parts/exotic wood. I'd still expect it to be the knees of the bee.

[AndyTravis]

in my shop i check actions and have set up £90 Stagg...

Depends on the shop.

If they don't pay attention to that kind of instrument, then why would you buy an instrument from them?

[Veils]

[quote name='AndyTravis' post='891728' date='Jul 11 2010, 02:02 AM']in my shop i check actions and have set up £90 Stagg...

Depends on the shop.

If they don't pay attention to that kind of instrument, then why would you buy an instrument from them?[/quote]

Well said that man.

[Stacker]

I nearly bought this model from GuitarGuitar last year. The Rick 4001CS was on the move so I raided the savings and went for a look at this fella. I loved it at first sight, esp the beautiful figuring on the BR fingerboard. The set up was fine, it looked ok but it didn't sound right to me. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Also, the volume, when rolled back a bit, alsmost disappeard. Now, having owned a '64 Jazz and still have a few contemporaries sitting around, this was soemthing I hadn't noticed before. Anyone else spotted this?

I took a Road Worn one off the wall and immediately preferred it, though as some of you may know from previous postings by me, I couldn't get the 'Mexi' tag out of my opinionated brain and left the shop empty handed. I went back to try the CS again and it was sold(!!) but the got another one in and..... naahh. Not long after that I got Clarky's Nash (via Alanbass1) and, for me, that's my benchmark. That said, being a fiend for stack-knob Jazzes, I'm awaiting delivery of a new CS stacker relic from the 'States at £1k less then UK prices. And I know this one's set up good. Nice, eh?

Edited July 11, 2010 by Stacker

[Lozz196]

[quote name='Stacker' post='891754' date='Jul 11 2010, 07:59 AM']I nearly bought this model from GuitarGuitar last year. The Rick 4001CS was on the move so I raided the savings and went for a look at this fella. I loved it at first sight, esp the beautiful figuring on the BR fingerboard. The set up was fine, it looked ok but it didn't sound right to me. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Also, the volume, when rolled back a bit, alsmost disappeard. Now, having owned a '64 Jazz and still have a few contemporaries sitting around, this was soemthing I hadn't noticed before. Anyone else spotted this?

I took a Road Worn one off the wall and immediately preferred it, though as some of you may know from previous postings by me, I couldn't get the 'Mexi' tag out of my opinionated brain and left the shop empty handed. I went back to try the CS again and it was sold(!!) but the got another one in and..... naahh. Not long after that I got Clarky's Nash (via Alanbass1) and, for me, that's my benchmark. That said, being a fiend for stack-knob Jazzes, I'm awaiting delivery of a new CS stacker relic from the 'States at £1k less then UK prices. And I know this one's set up good. Nice, eh?[/quote]
Its a shame when you get experiences with instruments not being set-up properly. I recently bought a Fender Classic 50s P-Bass online, from GAK, and out of the box it was fantastic, needed nothing doing to it.

Suppose I was due one though, as previous to that, aside from 2nd hand instruments, every bass I`d bought needed setting up. Why can`t the manufacturer/retailer be bothered - well I spose they still get yr dosh is the answer, and at least I`ve learned how to do basic set-ups.

[chris_b]

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='891645' date='Jul 10 2010, 10:24 PM']....Yes, companies like Sadowsky & Status spoil us to an extent - The significantly smaller production output makes the individual attention to each bass so much greater & the product that much better at the end of the day....[/quote]
Presumably Sadowsky and Status are high volume manufacturers in comparison to Fender's Custom Shop? Sadowsky Metro are also production line basses of a very high quality and finish so Fender CS really have no excuses. At a price of over £2k I would expect CS basses to be perfect every time.

[CHRISDABASS]

You're right! fender have no excuse at this price point!

Sadowsky basses are in a completely different league to fender in my opinion!

Every Sadowsky that ive had i bought blind! and each and every one has been stunning!! you dont get that with fender!

The attention to detail and the skill of the people making them is second to none (IMO)

The metro range of basses aren't production line instruments at all, they are the same quality as the NYC basses but without flamed maple tops or fancy colour options

The fact that you can call the workshop and Roger answers the phone himself tells you just how small his operation is, and if you do talk to Mr Sadowsky about his japanese line, he'll tell you that with the metro basses they simplified the options to offer the same NYC quality at two thirds of the price

I think the fact that Fender custom shop can make a "limited edition" bass and produce 100 of them tells you just how big even the custom shop has become! to get anywhere near Sadowsky etc you'll need to go for Fender Master Built.......... i dread to think what that would cost?!?

Maybe all the extra money in the bass i played went into making it look old and battered? lets take a look at the Mexican Road Worn series of basses....just how much of the extra money you pay goes into the relic process and how much better are they from a standard mexican instrument? are they worth twice the money?

(im not attacking the RW series as ive never played one)

[RhysP]

[quote name='chris_b' post='891820' date='Jul 11 2010, 10:37 AM']Presumably Sadowsky and Status are high volume manufacturers in comparison to Fender's Custom Shop?[/quote]
I would think that There are a damn sight more Fender Custom Shop basses made than Sadowsky or Status basses.

The whole Fender Custom Shop thing is just a bloody big con, as is their "Master built" stuff.
It's all still cut by the same machines, it's just screwed together by an American "Craftsman" rather than a minimum wage immigrant drone.

I've worked in a music shop in the 80s that sold high end basses (Jaydee, Alembic, Pangborne, Manson, Overwater etc.) & these basses would invariably arrive at the shop set up to perfection. The most they might need is a bit of a truss rod tweak if they'd been through some different temperatures en route.

For the money they charge a Fender custom shop bass should arrive at the dealer with a great set-up. No excuses.

[Lfalex v1.1]

[conspiracy theory] Can't you see it? It's the techs and sales staff! They're all in cahoots! Set the cheap basses up well, so they sell through and the shop continues to thrive and their jobs are safe. Set the superb, expensive basses up poorly so they just keep getting hung back up on
the wall. Eventually, discounts get applied to shift the expensive ones. The staff get first dibs because they're always there. Add in staff discount, and BINGO! Low-cost super-basses in abundance! I reckon they take it in turns to buy them, too. Fantastic basses stay in the personal collections, anything less than utterly perfect goes on the 'bay with enough reserve to guarantee a profit. Profits get put back into the scheme to garner more instruments and better returns. [/conspiracy theory]

[JMT3781]

PMT never seem to set anything up.. i guess they cant because of the sheer amount of instruments that go through the place.. BUt you'd think at that price range they would. In my (Very humble) shop floor experience often a great setup that clinches the sale, as a good setup can often be a deciding factor when a customer is Umming and arring over a bass or guitar

[wesfinn]

the thing you have to remember is that everybody is different in how they like theyre bass set up. Most shops will offer a free set up tweak to your liking if you are going to buy the bass.

The set up might not of been to your liking but to some one else it may of been nice, never be afraid to ask the shop to give it a tweak while your there though as it may just be a 3 mintue job and that could be the difference between them making a sale or not.

[warwickhunt]

Few years ago I was in a large music store (mid-week, early morning hence quiet/dead) and I asked to try a top of the range USA Fender (not sure if it was CS or just one of the many expensive reissues etc). It had an awful set-up so I asked if I could borrow a couple of allen keys and a driver so the I could give it a quick tweak. It seemed a reasonable request (or so I thought) but the assistant was horrified and stated categorically that I wouldn't be allowed to change anything unless I bought it first. I pointed out that it was set up horrendously and I'd not know if I wanted it till I could tweak it. Categoric 'No!' because I might break it... but if it broke that easy after I bought it then I'd be returning it for a refund, so it made sense to do it now! 'No!' I then asked if someone in the shop could just drop the bridge saddles and/or up the pups; no truss rod tweaks (as that seemed to be his greatest fear)... 'No!' So I walked.

IMHO no excuse for expensive instruments to be badly set-up if the staff have half a clue what to do and they are sitting/standing around scratching their ar5es at quiet times.

[Stacker]

Re: set-ups.

AFAIR, the UK distributors techs are meant to give the guitars a once-over when they arrived at the warehosue. I know Aribter did this in the past (except for the real cheapo acoustics) so there's absolutely no need for badly set-up stuff going out to dealers. And if I'd shown a badly set up guitar to a dealer, I'd expect him to sort it out before it went back on the shelf.

[Grand Wazoo]

[quote name='Stacker' post='891925' date='Jul 11 2010, 12:49 PM']Re: set-ups.

AFAIR, the UK distributors techs are meant to give the guitars a once-over when they arrived at the warehosue. I know Aribter did this in the past (except for the real cheapo acoustics) so there's absolutely no need for badly set-up stuff going out to dealers. And if I'd shown a badly set up guitar to a dealer, I'd expect him to sort it out before it went back on the shelf.[/quote]

Which leaves me wondering if these dealers can tell the difference between a badly setup bass and a good one, or are they just business men that don't give a stuff as long as its on the shelf ready to be sold?