The
Fender Custom Shop is a division of Fender Musical Instruments, housed within their headquarters complex in
CoronaCorona is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 124,966. The city of Norco lies to the northeast, Chino Hills and Yorba Linda to the west, and the Cleveland National Forest to the southwest; unincorporated areas of...
,
Riverside CountyRiverside County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of California, stretching from Orange County to the Colorado River, which forms the border with Arizona...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
. The Fender Custom Shop primarily exists to compete with smaller companies and independent luthiers that, in turn, build products reminiscent of those which were designed and built by Fender in their 'golden era' of circa 1950-65. Indeed, much of the output from the Fender Custom Shop is replicated vintage models, and in the case of the Fender Relic series, legitimized forgeries of would-be vintage examples, complete with scratches, chips, wear, burn marks, and general signs of abuse. In addition, the Fender Custom Shop produces special-order guitars for customers ordering through their Custom Shop dealer network, creates limited edition 'art' guitars, builds limited edition amplifiers, and does some research & design for the parent company.
History
For nearly 20 years Fender was owned and operated by the
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is an American television network, one of television's original "big three", which also include NBC and ABC. Like NBC, CBS started out as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System...
corporation. Many players felt that the interests of CBS were at odds with the marketplace, profits declined, and in 1984 CBS sold the rights to the Fender name and designs to an investor group of employees led by
Bill SchultzBill Schultz was the former CEO of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.Schultz became the company president of Fender after his recruitement from the American musical division of the Japanese giant Yamaha Corporation in 1981. He was supported by associate Bill Mendello....
who launched Fender Musical Instruments. The Custom Shop was begun in 1987, under the supervision of then-CEO Bill Schultz. The initial staff comprised only two Master Builders (John Page, Michael Stevens) and a modified for woodwork Haas VF4 CNC machine which cuts 3 bodies or four necks at once.
The primary intent of the Fender Custom Shop was to create instruments in the tradition of
Leo FenderClarence Leonidas Fender , also known as Leo Fender, was a Greek-American inventor who founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, now known as Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, and later founded MusicMan and G&L Musical Products...
and his staff at the original Fender facilities in
Fullerton, CAFullerton is a city located in northern Orange County, California, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 126,003....
, accommodating famous endorsers and other discerning players who wanted the accuracy, detail, and quality—as well as customization and personal touches—that were widely perceived as omitted under the tutelage of CBS, and considered lacking on the revamped Fender's mass-produced instruments. In 1991, the Fender Custom Amp Shop was created and housed in
Scottsdale, ArizonaScottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. As of 2007 the population of the city was 240,410. Scottsdale is regarded as an upscale tourist and shopping destination and as a representation of western American style...
, Fender's headquarters at the time. Seven years later, the entirety of Fender's US manufacturing and R & D operations, along with Custom Shop divisions, was moved to its present location in Corona. Currently, the Fender Custom Shop employs over 50 craftsmen and produces both custom one-off projects and limited CNC-tooled production runs.
Personnel
- John Page (founder and actual CEO of John Page Guitars)
- Michael Stevens (founder and actual owner of Stevens Guitars)
- Mark Kendrick
- John English (1950-2007)
- George Blanda (Electric Guitar R&D chief project engineer)
- John Suhr (founder and actual owner of JS Technologies Inc., who built with Rudy Pensa
Pensa Custom Guitars is an American company that manufactures electric guitars and basses in handmade fashion. The company is based in New York City. Pensa Custom Guitars was founded by New York luthier Rudy Pensa. Pensa strives to make extremely high quality guitars. They are therefore among the...
the Pensa-Suhr MK signature modelsMark Knopfler OBE is a British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer....
for Mark KnopflerMark Knopfler OBE is a British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer....
in 1987)
- Jay W. Black
- Larry L. Brooks (co-designed with Kurt Cobain and built the Jag-Stang guitar for Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American musician, best known as the lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of the rock band Nirvana....
/ Founder and actual owner of Brooks Guitars, 1981-present)).
- Steve Boulanger
- Duane Boulanger
- Art Esparza
- Yasuhiko Iwanade (actual president of Gibson Japan
The Gibson Guitar Corporation, of Nashville, Tennessee, USA, is a manufacturer of acoustic and electric guitars. Gibson also owns and makes guitars under such brands as Epiphone, Kramer, Valley Arts, Tobias, Steinberger, and Kalamazoo. In addition to guitars, the company makes pianos through its...
)
- Ronee Pena
- Scott Buehl
- Dave Nichols
- Mike Bump
- Alex Perez
- Gene Baker (founder of Baker Guitars, responsible for the superstrat-style Showmaster series
The Fender Showmaster is a model of electric guitar made by Fender, and is characteristic of a superstrat.-History:During the 1980s, superstrats were becoming popular amongst the many hard rock and metal guitarists, who needed the modifications to suit their individual playing styles. Soon, many...
guitars, manufactured between 1998 and 2009)
- Fred Stuart
- Alan Hamel
- Mike Ponce
- Greg Fessler
- Ralph Esposito
- Jason Davis
- Yuriy Shishkov
- John Cruz
- Stephen Stern
- Louis Salgado
- George Amicay
- Todd Krause
- Dennis Galuszka
- Chris W. Fleming
- Jason Smith (son of Dan Smith, one of the employees who bought the Fender companies from CBS in 1985)
- Scott Grant (Production Supervisor)
Notable Products
The Fender Custom Shop has produced a huge range of instruments, often limited in number, which reflect its original mission as a link between the needs of specific players and the Fender corporation and their established designs and innovations as a whole.
First and foremost, the Custom Shop creates one-off products, not explicitly intended for the public, designed to meet the needs of specific artists. Examples include the tweed Twin Reverb remakes crafted by hand by John Suhr for
Eric ClaptonEric Patrick Clapton, CBE is an English blues-rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Clapton has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Yardbirds, of Cream, and as a solo performer, being the only person ever to be inducted three times...
, and later delivered to
Mark KnopflerMark Knopfler OBE is a British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer....
and B.B. King, the Jag-Stang model designed with help from
Kurt CobainKurt Donald Cobain was an American musician, best known as the lead singer, guitarist and songwriter of the rock band Nirvana....
and later manufactured by
Fender JapanFender Japan is the Japanese division of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.-History:Fender Japan was officially created in March 1982 and consists of two Japanese Music companies that handle the ordering and distribution. The two companies are Yamano Gakki and Kanda Shokai...
, and the
Danny GattonDanny Gatton was an American guitarist who committed suicide at his Maryland home in 1994. A biography, Unfinished Business: The Life and Times of Danny Gatton by Ralph Heibutzki, was published in 2003. It has a voluminous discography...
Telecaster, a very early Custom Shop effort that eventually mutated into a limited production item.
Closely related, and in some cases a direct result of collaborations with and for specific players, are the artist models that are specifically available to the public. Some of these models are designed to be near-exact replicas of a noted player's trademark instrument - including the "relic" treatment and the various degrees of ageing (patterns of wear, modifications, stickers and abuse) - such as in the case of the
Jeff BeckGeoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He was one of the three noted guitarists — the others being Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page — to have played with The Yardbirds...
Tribute Esquire, the
Jaco PastoriusJohn Francis Anthony "Jaco" Pastorius III was an American jazz musician and composer widely acknowledged for his skills as an electric bass player....
ersatz fretless
Jazz BassJazz bass is the use of the double bass or bass guitar to improvise accompaniment and solos in a jazz or jazz fusion style. The double bass began being used in jazz in the 1890s, to supply the low-pitched walking basslines which outlined the harmony of the music...
, and the replica model of
Stevie Ray VaughanStevie Ray Vaughan was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Eighteen albums of Vaughan's work have been released...
's heavily weathered trademark Stratocaster. These models are meticulously crafted by hand, under the supervision of one
luthierA luthier is someone who makes or repairs stringed instruments. The word luthier comes from the French word luth which means "lute".The craft of lutherie is commonly divided into two main categories: stringed instruments that are plucked or strummed, and those that are bowed. Diverse places and...
as opposed to part of an
assembly lineAn assembly line is a manufacturing process in which parts are added to a product in a sequential manner using optimally planned logistics to create a finished product much faster than with handcrafting-type methods...
. Fender makes this distinction by tagging these models as 'Master Built' and 'Team Built'. These instruments are designed to closely replicate the original examples and are very limited in number and often extremely expensive. Far more common under the Custom Shop banner are production models commissioned by players and made available to the general public, albeit in more limited quantity than Fender's standard lines. This line includes high-end models in series such as Custom Classics,
ShowmasterThe Fender Showmaster is a model of electric guitar made by Fender, and is characteristic of a superstrat.-History:During the 1980s, superstrats were becoming popular amongst the many hard rock and metal guitarists, who needed the modifications to suit their individual playing styles. Soon, many...
s and Time Machines. Examples of guitars designed by specific players and manufactured by the Custom Shop include signature guitars for
Eric ClaptonEric Patrick Clapton, CBE is an English blues-rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Clapton has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Yardbirds, of Cream, and as a solo performer, being the only person ever to be inducted three times...
,
Jeff BeckGeoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He was one of the three noted guitarists — the others being Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page — to have played with The Yardbirds...
,
Albert CollinsAlbert Collins was an electric blues guitarist and singer whose recording career began in the 1960s in Houston and whose fame eventually took him to stages across the U.S.A., Europe, Japan and Australia. He had many nicknames, such as "The Ice Man", "The Master of the Telecaster" and "The Razor...
,
Merle HaggardMerle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band "The Strangers" helped create the Bakersfield Sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies, and a...
, and curiously, John5, best known as a guitarist in
Marilyn MansonMarilyn Manson is an American rock band founded by Brian Warner and Scott Putesky in the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The band advocates nonconformism and iconoclasm, often utilizing controversial imagery and lyrical content...
's band.
Some models, such as the aforementioned Jag-Stang and the Venus model, designed with
Courtney LoveCourtney Michelle Love is an American rock musician and actress. Love is known as lead singer and lyricist for the alternative rock band Hole and for her marriage to the late Nirvana singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain...
, are designed by the Custom Shop but manufactured by Fender's Far-Eastern import facilities, and in the case of the Venus model, Fender's low budget offshoot
SquierSquier is a musical instrument brand name owned by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.-History:Fender, under the ownership of CBS, acquired the Squier brand name in 1965 when it bought a USA based string making firm, but it lay dormant for many years...
. For further confusion, several models are available from both the Custom Shop, and made in the USA, and from Fender Musical Instruments' overseas facilities, often in much less limited quantity, and for much less cost.
An offshoot of Fender's forays into replicating the look of heavily worn instruments was the introduction of the Fender Relic series in the late 1990s. This idea came as guitarist
Keith RichardsKeith Richards is an English guitarist, songwriter, singer, record producer and a founding member of The Rolling Stones. As a guitarist, Richards is mostly known for his innovative rhythm playing. In 2003 he was ranked 10th on Rolling Stone magazine's "Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of...
of the British rock group
The Rolling StonesThe Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in 1962 in London when multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones and pianist Ian Stewart were joined by vocalist Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early lineup...
told the Custom Shop that some replicas he commissioned for a Stones tour 'looked too new', stating: "Bash 'em up a bit and I'll play 'em". His statement catalyzed with the presence of Vince Cunetto and Jay W. Black at the start of the Custom Shop. Cunetto guitars have since become known for their high level of quality and artistry among the Custom Shop Relics. The Relic models aspire to perfectly replicate vintage instruments, both in terms of the parts, design and finishes used, as well in the varying degrees of wear that would usually be found on a 40-50 year old instrument. Fender tarnishes metal parts, purposely marks and scratches paintjobs, yellows and cracks plastic parts, and burns marks in the headstock (where it can be used to tell time during jam sessions and tripping, a cigarette might be about 8 minutes) in the process to faithfully replicate the overall look of a battered old original. This move caused a controversy among players who failed to see the logic in paying a premium for a deliberately damaged instrument. Fender offers grades of wear on the relic series, from light to very heavy 'wear', and has since introduced a line of 'NOS' (new old stock) and 'Closet Classic' instruments that employ the period-correct parts, designs and finishes but do not feature faux abuse, weathering or aging.
Recently, the Fender Custom Shop has devoted much time and resources to creating limited 'Art' guitars and basses. Generally shown off at the annual NAMM conference, these instruments are generally geared more towards guitar collectors than players and are often created to tie in with other industries as collector items, such as guitars created as a tribute to, and under the design influence of Ford's
MustangThe Ford Mustang is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. It was initially based on the second generation North American Ford Falcon, a compact car. Production began in Dearborn, Michigan on March 9, 1964 and the car was introduced to the public on April 17, 1964 at the New York...
automobile. Many of the Art guitars created by the Custom Shop vastly expand upon
Leo FenderClarence Leonidas Fender , also known as Leo Fender, was a Greek-American inventor who founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, now known as Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, and later founded MusicMan and G&L Musical Products...
's historical decorative innovations, who originally pioneered the use of custom colors on their instruments, which are essentially based on traditional designs but do not strive for accuracy to specific models.
The Fender Custom Amp Shop, a subset of the Custom Shop, has produced several limited-run amplifiers during its existence. Examples include the Tone-Master, Prosonic, Tweed Reissue Twin Reverb, and Two-Tone models.
External links