Just an opinion or two..

I was going to get a custom shop Tele but after playing on a bunch I found one for half the price that has"that" sound. I already had a custom shop Strat

I have a custom shop mary kaye closet classic 56 (?) strat reissue.  I have an american standard too.  The custom shop is way better.  

acah cakraoawo rrhuahwhwohoworcwo craroc acah.

Just like my post count, dollars matter not to space_cowboy when buying instruments.

It's probably due to the carved top. Maybe a thin veneer flat top costs much less?

I know for Warmoth bodies, the carved tops are a much bigger upcharge than just a figured (flat) top.

You could probably also make (and sell) a few thin laminates out of a single thicker piece of premium wood you need for a carved top.

drewfx1


You could probably also make (and sell) a few thin laminates out of a single thicker piece of premium wood you need for a carved top.

??
I'm failing to see what I can do has to do with what Fender is doing. You lost me.
 

Jonbouy


I'm loving my £50 chunk of solid timber.

I'd pay top bucks for something Spacey built because I can see the value of that individual kind of craftsmanship.

Anything in between strikes me as a complete mystery. 

Always has even when I was a dealer and I knew what I could sell at what people were likely to pay for it.

Mostly people will decide something plays and sounds better once they've seen a name.  Not all the time but mostly.

I think the 'select' range I wouldn't have had in stock, they'd have been 'special order'.

Thank you Jon.
 
I think most evaluate what they are getting. The real problem that I'm mentioning is
that Fender has decided to price a very nice guitar at an unreasonable price.
 
One simply cannot justify $750.00 for an exotic wood top plate ONLY. If they can it sure
must be something I'm missing.
 
"Carved" doesn't mean squat in a factory made guitar. It's just minutes to the machine.
The price of exotic wood is a factor but much less of one to a large business such as Fender.
 
There are NO additional features to consider when comparing the "Select" to the "Deluxe" other
than the top plate of wood.
There isn't $750.00 worth of wood in the whole guitar!
 
I've been here a long time and many of you know that I've never raised a stink about what
manufacturers charge for their guitars. Our talk bad about cheaper guitars. I feel this is very different and very wrong so I thought I'd raise a flag for any that may be considering the "Select" model. Watch out. Unless I may find reasoning that I'm unaware of (if there is) it is a rip-off.
 

Diseconomy of scale?

Or the greater fool theory?

Starise


 IMO a person really wants that name and style badly and isn't very phased by the sticker price to buy that Koa guitar.

Why would anyone buy this ???>>

http://www.musiciansfrien...-relic-electric-guitar

To me this is on par with the *artists* who blow what looks like a psychedelic turd onto a canvas and call it art.

Did you read the article? They claim that "Custom Strats" are "Ferrari's" LOLOLOLOLOLOL...


Noooo.... Custom Strats are like Custom Chevy's: way too much for too little... People will indeed pay large sums of money for products that do not actually have the value. And, I am sorry, but what kind of loser buys a new guitar that has no pedigree but looks like it does? Does he/she then tell the world that some bullsheet story of  how "I set it on fire during a concert at the MGM grand in Vegas"? I mean, WTF.... its like a fat man in a track suit holding a doughnut and diet coke... not fooling anyone.

I hesitate to enter the discussion, but yes, I do think that when a company enjoys an economy of scale by purchasing boatloads of pre-graded lumber it precludes the opposite practices. e.g. Sending an employee out to the storage area to hand inspect and "select" a board, no matter how un-special it really is, becomes an activity that occurs at a wholly different scale of economy.

The same goes for the CNC machining. The companies may invest heavily in CNC machines to achieve consistent results, but this precludes custom shaping because setting up the work holding clamps/jigs on the machine table and writing the custom G-code for the new shape takes a lot longer than simply carving a one off example with powered hand tools.



Fender may sell a bunch... or this "select" category may fall flat on it's face. At least the Fender guys will know they didn't dip in to their existing economy of scale savings to explore the chance. It seems like they simply tack on all the extra costs, and then quadruple that to get to retail pricing and put the stuff out there for the market to consider.



I like to buy used guitars made out of good pieces of wood. It suits my economy of scale... :-) I let the other guy take the big depreciation hit and then I consider if the used price is something I find reasonable.



Anyways,


best regards,
mike



edit spelling

foxwolfen


I mean, WTF.... its like a fat man in a track suit holding a doughnut and diet coke... not fooling anyone.

I wonder how many members are now ticked off at you for that comment...  LOL!

mike_mccue

I like to by used guitars made out of good pieces of wood. It suits my economy of scale... :-) I let the other guy take the big depreciation hit and then I consider if the used price is something I find reasonable. 

Not a bad philosophy. I know a guy who does that with cars. Has not owned a new car in over 30 years. Always has a 3-5 year old car in top shape. Buys it for a song. Drives it, with proper maintenance, until it dies. Does it all over again. He prefers BMWs and Merecedes (he's in sales).

To me this is on par with the *artists* who blow what looks like a psychedelic turd onto a canvas and call it art.

Hmmm, I suddenly feel inspired to do something creative this weekend.