Fender Custom shop rivals?

Matt_McG

Partly inspired by the other "Do it all" guitar thread.

Assuming someone was in the market in the next few months for a Fender style guitar: Strat, Jazzmaster, maybe Tele style

What's out there that rivals the Custom Shop in terms of build quality? I'm looking to broaden out the range of things to look for on the new or secondhand market.

Assume a price of up to about 2K used. Maybe a tiny bit more for the right thing. 

Matt

JerkMoans

K-Line. Fantastic quality for the money. My old Truxton blew any custom shop Tele I’d played out of the water. 

Forhome grown, modern twists on the classics look no further than our very own @FelineGuitars ;

Whitecat

This will turn out to be a long list. There are so many superb boutique builders that it will be hard to keep track of it all. Fender C/S is certainly the best Fender you can get, but loads of other people have improved on the design because they can, because there is no weight of expectation based on the history of the marque. 

Just a few that I love:

Knaggs (Severn/Choptank models)
Red Rocket (T/J styles, but they could probably do S as well)
Novo (T/S/J)
BilT (J)

Suhr, Patrick James Eggle, Xotic all do S & T styles too that are astonishingly good. 

There will be loads more. 

It’s a great time to be a high-end guitar buyer...

brooom

Having owned multiple iterations of fender custom shops and some vintage examples. I'd say there's several brands out there that fit the bill... in this photo you can see 4 telecaster I own, all of them excellent in their own right.

The top one is a Danocaster, the whiteguard is a musikraft "blackguard" build, the thinline is a Fender Masterbuilt by Greg Fessler and finally the Sunburst is a Fender Japan 62 Custom VSP.

If you ask me to pick a favourite I wouldn't be able to.

Wonky

Personally I believe that if you forget about the name on the headstock and the residual value and concentrate on the sound and playability it isn't hard to find many, many instruments that better the big brands.  Some amazing luthiers in the world.

HoraceB

Suhr for me, my classic pro replaced my CS Strats, really great reliable gigging guitar. There is a really nice Classic T in the classifieds atm which I am currently coveting.

prlgmnr

Haar!

brooom

prlgmnr said:

Haar!

Matt_McG

Heh.

 Haar Campilongo would be tempting.

Resale value is maybe less important than overall quality. I don’t flip guitars. But, I’d ideally not lose 80% the second I left the point of sale.

Strat54

Matt_McG said:

Heh.

 Haar Campilongo would be tempting.

Resale value is maybe less important than overall quality. I don’t flip guitars. But, I’d ideally not lose 80% the second I left the point of sale.

You mean Hahn?

mikesl

Setting aside the headstock and (assumed) strong residual value.. the S & T style Suhr’s I’ve had and the current Xotic XSC-2 I have, both equalled (bettered) the Fender CS models I sold.

The current CS alternatives are putting out exceptional build quality and top prices! Take your time for sure with £2k plenty great advice and sound forum members to help out.

Matt_McG

@Strat54 Yeah, you are right. Brain Fart.

WindmillGuitars

There's more to life than Fender! Suhr would be my number one pick- along with Haar which someone also mentioned above.
I have a Classic Pro Metallic Suhr listed in the classifieds within your budget @Matt_McG

Ossyrocks

Richard Henry currently has a Crinson Esquire which he rates very highly.

alexh

I suppose there are some guitars that will be as good but not maintain their value in the same way as the custom shop fenders. On the other hand there may be some that have even stronger residuals or appreciate more over time.

Adam_MD

Can't believe no ones mentioned Jooky yet!  

kswilson89

Matt_McG said:

@Strat54 Yeah, you are right. Brain Fart.

Go for Haar! I've had one in the past and in my experience you're basically getting a CS quality guitar for half the price. Musik Produktiv seem to have the best price on these with a couple at around £1600 at the moment... https://m.musik-produktiv.com/gb/electric-guitars/haar/

I've been eyeing the surf green Cabronita myself

jimmyguitar

Ossyrocks said:

Richard Henry currently has a Crinson Esquire which he rates very highly.

It looks great but he sanded the Crinson logo off and added a Fender one which completely ruined it for me, I was keen on buying it before he did that 

Strat54

jimmyguitar said:

Ossyrocks said:

Richard Henry currently has a Crinson Esquire which he rates very highly.

It looks great but he sanded the Crinson logo off and added a Fender one which completely ruined it for me, I was keen on buying it before he did that 

Think he did that for the new buyer. It was sold within a couple of hours of being posted on his FB page and at that point it had a Crinson logo. Not many of those guitars about, Crinson long since recieved the C&D order. 

Fuengi

Anyone got any thoughts on John Page guitars? I love the styling but never seen one in the flesh let alone played one.  

Matt_McG

That's a brand I'm curious about, too. There's something a tiny bit sterile about the aesthetics for me, but that wouldn't matter if the playability and tone was there, and there seem to be some nicely thought through updates over the classic Fender designs.