Masterbuilt prices are insane!

The thing that turned my head on regular Relic’s a decade+ ago ? They were always the best Fenders in the store.

I’d go to Elderly 2 or 3 times a month back then and play all the cool Fenders that interested me from all price ranges and the Relics were the best playing/sounding/feeling by a wide margin.

I remember playing a real vintage completely stock 1958 Telecaster after playing a Relic Nocaster for about a half hour.

I gave the 58 back to Tim and went back to the Nocaster. I still think about that guitar.

Masterbuilt ? No interest . And no way are they $3k to $4k “better” than a reg CS model.

Relic’s ? I still can’t really afford one but I’d pay $2k-ish for the right one without feeling ripped off.

 

The Fender Comedy Shop - having a laugh since 1987.

 

I'd rather have a CNC'd guitar. Too much unexpected variation from hand built.
Hand verification of quality control and a good CNC setup sure. But CNC the parts so I know they are repeatable.


.

 

What's the expression -- if you have to ask, you can't afford it? Someone is buying that guitar, but it ain't us. That's the market. Imagine what would happen if these guitars because hot possessions for Chinese millionaires.

 

People and money are sometimes irrational. I read the inventor of that Peloton exercycle system was about to go under selling them at $1500. He used a little psychology, doubled the price to $3000 and now they can't make them fast enough. Twice as much means twice as good, right? RIGHT??

 

The same thing that happened when those guitars became hot commodities for Japanese millionaires in the 80s!....

 

That happened? If it did, it can happen again, and there are a 100 Chinese millionaires for every Japanese millionaire.

 

To some people $7500 is the equivalent of what $750 bucks is to others. Those guys might just think I want the best available and my time is worth more than what it would take them to create their ideal guitar via finessing a partscaster and reshaping a fat aftermarket neck. The idea of doing that might be totally out of their comfort zone.
Buying the raw materials such as the best body and neck blanks you can find along with the mojo pickups the woman that has worked at fender for 30 plus years throws together can get pricey.

It would be interesting to know how many masterbuilts you can reject before settling on one. Or maybe you are committed to believing the one you end up with is the best it gets?

 

I love classic telecasters, but I would never spend more than about $1200 for one

 

I know of a couple of those 'well heeled customers'. When I worked in the MI trade many, many years ago we were tild to butter up a certain man who came into the shop from time to time. He usually just waffled like any corksniffer but was known to be an aficionado of high-spec Taylor acoustics. He always bought the top of the range ones.

Just few weeks ago I bought a new Lowden but the salesman, whom I personally know, tried to get me to buy a pre-owned one. Upon enquiry, it was revealed that the previous owner was the Mr Spend who had moved on to Lowden from Taylor. He was a big-wig in a bank so I guess he could afford those guitars and the Harleys he used to draw up in.

Hand made acoustic instruments are different, to a degree, from their bolt-on , electric cousins but for me there comes a limit to the value of both.

 

If it's worth it to you it's worth it, but at the end of the day it's still just a strat or tele. Only so nice you're gonna make it.

 

Does one of the guys hold up a sign saying, MEN AT WORK!

 

It's crazy, but it's not shocking. If I could afford that much money for a guitar, knowing where I was at my peak as a player and where I'd like to get back to, the simple reality is that if I played through enough CS models I'd find one that I liked more, simply because it wasn't deliberately made to look like something it wasn't; I never liked pre faded Jean's with holes already made in them, because I buy the darkest blue Levi's the store has in my size in 527s, and eventually they will be faded and have holes in them.

If I buy a CS tele that I'm as drawn to as my Toronado, and had ample time to play and gig, I'm certain I'd "relic" it with sweat, mic stand "bruises", drum kit jump off dings, classic "3 kids under 10" scars, and just generally playing it.

And people not in the $7.5k=pocket change category will spend more time chasing money for the guitar than playing it, improving themselves and having fun. I'd rather have the skill and reputation as a good person to see live on a $350 used mim tele than the cat stuck working 3 jobs to afford the MB one. (But I bet the second guy is better at packing boxes and driving forklift than the first )

 

There is a shop here that caters to that crowd (or at least used to). Most of those instruments don't get played a lot, but there are a few folks who like to talk to the corner office clientele (often reformed corner office folks who decide to sell instruments) and the clients aren't looking for a run of the mill "perfect" HD-28 boutique style guitar.

The same thing goes on in the world of hand tools. Karl Holtey makes (woodworking) planes for sometimes over 10,000 pounds. People proceed to complain that those planes are too expensive and when they're bought, they're not used. It's the same as discussing a $22,000 flat top guitar - except in the case of the guitar, maybe there's a better chance of professional use at some point.

I'm not the market for those things, but despite the complainers (about Karl Holtey's plane prices) he never seemed to have any trouble selling them. From time to time, a professional woodworker buys one, but they aren't the guys making chairs by hand and relying on their wives to make ends meet and provide health insurance.

Real nice of the guy at the shop where you were buying to see if he could get you to buy something you weren't really looking for to preserve his ability to sell the other guitar to a different customer. If that guy is a primo customer, that's generally better done before the guitar hits the floor.

 

There are guitars for every income bracket. Someone (not me) is now wondering: "how come people buy those $500 guitars and expect playable instruments? My baby's crib toys cost twice that each, and they're not even top of the line..."

In cases like this Fender and Gibson are offering instruments for people who have way more income than they realistically need.

 

I'm just waiting for someone to pop in with. My Squier Infinity is WAY better than one of those things!!

 

We've got a bike shop guy in the very well heeled town next over who is a master at getting a guy who is aging & 50lbs overweight to walk out with a $10,000 Tour De France worthy carbon fiber bicycle with Carbon fiber wheels, electronically operated shifting, tubular tires that have to be glued onto the rims and cost $100/tire, etc... "It's full of F1 technology, etc..." None of the performance of that bike will make a lick of a different to a guy that weak & overweight. But he'll sit there and talk the talk about Porsches and fine Whiskeys and such and pull out a bottle of said whiskey while they discuss the custom build of the bike. Brilliant. The guy who buys that bike will have to bring it back for expensive maintenance too cause most serious guys who do their own maintenance balk at buying that bike anyway.

Hilarious cause he's also super super super bright about how to fit serious athletes to bikes.. he'll charge you some serious coin for what is essentially coaching time but if he knows you're really serious he backs off on the selling. Move your seat around, change the handlebar positioning, all of a sudden you're 5-10% faster which a major big deal. Totally different side of the coin. Of course that time is way cheaper than the fancy bikes he's selling to the other guys. The profits from those other guys fund the $100k of equipment in the "lab" used to analyze those top level athletes, and then when the rich out of shape guy comes in he name drops all the athletes to help sell the really expensive bikes.

I'm sure there is some of the same kind of stuff going on with these masterbuilt CS guitars.

 

I'm afraid i go along with there is only so good you can make a bolt on guitar that's made of ash/alder and maple. I remember when they revamped the AVRI range in 2012 (i think) apparently these were the most accurate replicas of the original instruments ever to come out of the fender factory. If this is the case then why would anyone need such an expensive MB instrument, especially as these master built are all based vintage instruments.

 

Maybe bought by some prisoner using another persons tax return money........

 

....or $6675 better than a Baja Tele. To me, the Bigsby on it would be a reason NOT to buy it.