“Masterbuilt” or “guitar by stencil”...

Adam_MD

bgmartinsbridge said:

I've had 5 Masterbuilts and several dozen custom shop strats (standard custom shop and team builds). 

How do you go through at least 41 customshop or master built strats?  You do know you can change the strings right?  You don't have to get a new one everytime the strings are dead. 

How many is several dozen anyway? I based 41 on several dozen being at least 3 dozen or is it more? 

bgmartinsbridge

That's probably about right - over the years. 

Different specs, and weights. 

Surprising how many variations you can get. 

More money than sense, and the search for the perfect spec strat and tele. 

Kittyfrisk

Adam_MD said:

bgmartinsbridge said:

I've had 5 Masterbuilts and several dozen custom shop strats (standard custom shop and team builds). 

How do you go through at least 41 customshop or master built strats?  You do know you can change the strings right?  You don't have to get a new one everytime the strings are dead. 

How many is several dozen anyway? I based 41 on several dozen being at least 3 dozen or is it more? 

Awwww, you & your hangups about language & your like, number stuff.
Haven't you got like, clued to the vibe, man. This is post truth shit, just make it up as you go along 

bgmartinsbridge

Haters gotta hate lol.

Shouldn't even bother contributing. 

Kittyfrisk

bgmartinsbridge said:

Haters gotta hate lol.

Shouldn't even bother contributing. 

You silly sausage, if you were referring to comments from myself to be revealing me as a 'hater" ?.
 I was not being/intending/implying hate at all, ever. It was intended in jest (however lame).
Or, who else are you referring to??

lysander

bgmartinsbridge said:

I've had 5 Masterbuilts and several dozen custom shop strats (standard custom shop and team builds). 

All Masterbuilts bar one were stunning and beat the best team builds hands down. 

Amusingly the Masterbuilt that didn't cut it was a 69 nos. And it just didn't feel, play or sound like a great guitar - Friday afternoon and not a top builder.

I've had amazing team builds and I'd say all the newer ones are superb.

Where quality seems to be hit and miss is pre 2008 custom shop. You just get absolute planks of wood.


The key more me is that the masterbuilders get to choose the wood and assemble the guitars. 

As for relics - works of art and should be individual and look like light, mid or heavy vintage relics.

My opinion is templates is too far and sort of cheating to save money on Masterbuilts. 
Sure use it on a team build or a chilli peppers limited run. 

Oh and no one who buys a relic is trying to fake wear to appear like they have an old guitar to other people. It's so they can own a cool looking guitar and to them nos is a tad boring or bland :-) 

Out of curiosity, did you only collect Fenders and if so why, rather than going to Surh / Tom Anderson / Grosch / or others ?

Adam_MD

bgmartinsbridge said:

Haters gotta hate lol.

Shouldn't even bother contributing. 

Im not hating I just found it funny you could go through so many high end strats and not find one you like enough to keep.

Wazmeister

bgmartinsbridge said:

I've had 5 Masterbuilts and several dozen custom shop strats (standard custom shop and team builds). 

All Masterbuilts bar one were stunning and beat the best team builds hands down. 

Amusingly the Masterbuilt that didn't cut it was a 69 nos. And it just didn't feel, play or sound like a great guitar - Friday afternoon and not a top builder.

I've had amazing team builds and I'd say all the newer ones are superb.

Where quality seems to be hit and miss is pre 2008 custom shop. You just get absolute planks of wood.


The key more me is that the masterbuilders get to choose the wood and assemble the guitars. 

As for relics - works of art and should be individual and look like light, mid or heavy vintage relics.

My opinion is templates is too far and sort of cheating to save money on Masterbuilts. 
Sure use it on a team build or a chilli peppers limited run. 

Oh and no one who buys a relic is trying to fake wear to appear like they have an old guitar to other people. It's so they can own a cool looking guitar and to them nos is a tad boring or bland :-) 

Bingo.

Great post from someone who clearly has some experience and knowledge, rather than contrary reaction.

Wiz awarded.

p90fool

Well being realistic, we've all known all along when buying a Custom Shop Fender we're paying for a backstory rather than simply some parts, but at least with the "Masterbuilt" label you'd expect some unique, personal attention to detail to brag about. 

If that's no longer there, what's left? 

Lonewolff

This thread is getting noticed 
https://www.gearnews.com/fender-custom-shop-relic-guitars-stencilled-finishes-on-premium-instruments/

Winny_Pooh

In before the lock

dazzajl

I’m very much enjoying the idea of poopot being read out in BBC newsreaders voice

Sassafras

Frankly, I think anyone who spends over £4K on a brand new bolt-on guitar is insane regardless of its finish.

Mark1960

scalino65 said:

Mark1960 said:

Were the moon landings real or fake.....anybody

The early ones were real. However, people liked it and so they staNicerted faking them...

Nice one!

bloomer

I reckon the masterbuilders peruse the rack of finished team built guitars every morning, take the one they like best back to their bench, give the frets a little more polish, maybe put a few more dings in it and fine tune the set up, and it's job done. In this way masterbuilts ought to be consistently a bit better than team built without the lottery of what two bits of wood will sound like when screwed together.

p90fool

bloomer said:

I reckon the masterbuilders peruse the rack of finished team built guitars every morning, take the one they like best back to their bench, give the frets a little more polish, maybe put a few more dings in it and fine tune the set up, and it's job done. In this way masterbuilts ought to be consistently a bit better than team built without the lottery of what two bits of wood will sound like when screwed together.

Well given that I can build a Strat in 40 minutes what do they do for the other 35 minutes for their £6k, put their feet up with the Daily Mail and a rollup to choose their horses, or maybe head off to the staff bogs for a quick "masterbuild"?

AllthegearNoidea

bgmartinsbridge said:

Interesting comments about Masterbuilts V team built/ custom shop. 

Having owned four masterbuilts, loads of team built and loads of custom shops, I can say that all the Masterbuilts were exceptional apart from a nos masterbuilt. 

My interpretation is that masterbuilt get the pick of the best parts to ensure quality. 

Don't get me wrong I've had some truly amazing team built guitars - that have been on a par with Masterbuilts. 

However I've had some very very average custom shop guitars too. 


As for templates used on Masterbuilts, it's the first time I've seen it and it does put me off somewhat.
I'd expect an individual relic design and have never heard of  similar ones before this thread (apart from the Ltd runs). 

I can understand them using partial templates but churning them out doesn't seem right, albeit I've not seem many the same. 

As above there are limited run Masterbuilts, which again I personally find odd - for me the whole point is an individual guitar that noone else has. And that includes things like the £10k Clapton Masterbuilts which are all absolutely identical. 

But then nos guitars are churned out ten to the penny by masterbuilders ;-) 

Totally agree. I’ve had two masterbuilt guitars and I regret selling both. They were both better than any teambuilt. 

FatPete

FWIW, as someone who is more or less neutral on whole relic thing, when I dipped my toe in the guitar trading malarkey, I had a couple of @bgmartinsbridge 's Strats pass through my hands...

One was a 'normal' CS light relic and was a nice enough guitar, though IMHO the wear didn't look very realistic.

The other was a Masterbuilt heavy relic and was, subjectively of course, an absolute delight - it just felt and sounded (yes, Abby pickups) outstanding - the nicest Strat I've played by quite some margin. The wear/damage on the body, templated or not, was far more believable than the CS and clearly would have taken more work. 

Was it a good guitar because of the relic work? I can't see how or why, but that comparison isn't possible.

Also, in terms of 'believability', the neck on this particular example was only lightly relicked and had almost pristine, shiny lacquer on the back. My fairly extensive experience of old Fenders suggests that that's more than a bit back to front. I can't recall seeing any old Strats for sale in pre-relic days that looked like SRV or Rory Gallagher had owned them - of course it's fairly well documented that those guys used barrels of nails as cases.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfmI3sJlSl4

As a little footnote, that LP I posted earlier with the equally templated wear, was taken in trade against the MB Strat and my friend Steve, who is almost violently anti-relic, decided he liked it enough to keep it - he just 'repaired' the relic stuff on the front and doesn't look at the back. He tells me the touch-ups, which were presumably done with marker pens/felt tips are invisible. I wonder what that has done to the value.

poopot

I like a relic.
I like nos.
I like a brand new shiny poly finish.

what I don’t like is a marketing department freighting the price up because of some mystical “masterbuilder” who in reality is just a factory worker who has been there for a while... do the masterbuilders get a cut? Very much doubt it.

you are not getting a “hand made” instrument... you are not getting anything other than an expensive CNC partscaster...

I've put together more than my fair share of strats and teles from CNC parts, off the shelf parts and  handmade parts... Ive also built guitars from scratch... 

some have been shit... some (the keepers) have been better than anything I have tried from fender/gibson etc...

I still don’t know how they can justify the price tag of what is essentially a mass produced product, but moreover I can’t comprehend how folk can still fall for the “masterbuilt” bluesky marketing bollox that these companies consistently throw out!...

said it before:

Don't believe the hype!!!!

Sassafras

I'm surprised at how many people have owned dozens of masterbuilts and teambuilts. Weren't any of them good enough to keep?