Fender Custom Shop '55 Precision NOS

[marchone]

Custom Shop offered these in 2004 or so. Does anyone here know how many were made? How many in each color: burst and blonde? How much were they sold for new?

I've searched and have looked for one on eBay but no luck recently. I would consider a trade for my '68 Tele bass. Any information would be appreciated.

[Mastermold]

I don't know off the top of my head what they sold for new, but basscentral has some still that range between $3,500 and $4,500 (I have no idea what they base the price difference on). I bought mine used for under $2,000 off an ebay seller. He was the original owner and claimed only 300 of these were made, but I don't have any independent verification of that.

[gbarchus]

I've got one, paid about $2700 new.

Gale

[Caca de Kick]

I have one in shell pink, it was made in '05. They made them from '03 to '06. You'll never know how many were made of each color, Fender doesn't disclose info like that.

[marchone]

Thanks for the information, guys. How do they play for you? Is string-to-string balance good? Vintage tone comparison? Any noise or shielding issues? Overall fit and finish quality comments?

Any other comments at all will be greatly appreciated. It seems it will be difficult to find one much less play one before committing. I know a couple of you have other high end basses. Are you happy with it?

[M.R. Ogle]

To me, that's the Ultimate "Custom Shop" bass... something waaaay out of production, reproduced as faithfully as possible (by the original manufacturer), manufactured with the benefit of modern construction tools and techniques but with a lot of hand-fitting and loving attention to detail.

Yeah, those are certainly "objet du désir". The shell pink one is just breathtaking. One of my top five most favorite Fenders.

[marchone]

Thanks. I just listed my Tele in the Classifieds. See what happens. I know I'm in the minority, but I always prefer new vs old. In anything. Cars, houses, basses, you name it.

[Caca de Kick]

I got to A/B mine against a 100% original '56, and the Custom Shop bass was exact in every way with the generous contouring of the body, and even the V neck profile and the same radius of the fingerboard edge was identicle. Even the weights were as close as they could be. I was suprised how much they nailed it.

The single coil pickup is naturally going to cause buzz, but how much will depend on wether you play a tube or ss amp, and how each room is wired. At home I can't hardly heard anything, but at the practice studio it's buzz city. But on the gig I can't hear any of it simply because of all the other noise going on.

The one thing I hated that the CS did though was installing the 2nd resistor on the tone pot and wire the pickup lead to that lug on the tone pot. Is is a faithful recreation of how they did the 51-55 basses, but the volume lowers when you turn down the tone knob. Clipping the 2nd resistor and moving the pickup lead to the conventional lug on the volume pot makes it "right" so the tone knob doesn't affect volume.

[marchone]

That is great info. Thanks.

[mike marciano]

In can tell you that John English, before he passed made about 25 of these Masterbuilts in different levels of Relic.
I owned at one time 4
Shell pink ( now for sale at Rumble seat)
Seminole Red
Sunburst
LPB
They had a list Price back in 04 of about $6200
regards
Mike

[marchone]

Beautiful bass you had there. Coincidentally, my Tele is from Ithaca, when I lived there, circa '73.

[gbarchus]

Some people have swapped out the pickup. It took me awhile to adjust to the resistor that lowers the volume when you adjust the tone.

I almost bought a used John English one in red but couldn't afford the price. I was real happy to find one of the remaining CS models.

Gale

[marchone]

What color did you get?

[Mastermold]

Originally Posted by marchone

Thanks for the information, guys. How do they play for you? Is string-to-string balance good? Vintage tone comparison? Any noise or shielding issues? Overall fit and finish quality comments?

Any other comments at all will be greatly appreciated. It seems it will be difficult to find one much less play one before committing. I know a couple of you have other high end basses. Are you happy with it?

Here's a pic of mine:



I'm very happy with it--it's my main player! Having played a few real vintage early and mid-50's P-basses I concur with Caca de Kick, the CS made these about as perfect a replica as could be made. They nail the tone, the feel, everything. But unlike the real deal, you don't have to wonder whether or not these are in good shape because they're new. And this bass is light! The guy I bought it from said it weighed 8 lbs but it feels less than that to me, maybe 7.5 or so. As for string to string balance, they come stock with Fender 9050 flatwound strings that are pretty heavy guage, very percussive and deliver a fat, full G string tone that a lot of basses cannot. And yes the single coil pickup hums, but not any worse than every Jazz bass I've played. It's not a worry. I've had mine about a year and play it entirely stock, including the strings (which I'll hopefully not have to change for several years.) If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask or pm me.

[johnk_10]

John English was a very good friend of mine for years (rest his soul), and i don't want to sound harsh, but IMO, his forte' wasn't recreating a vintage fender bass. if i were to buy one of those, i'd actually look for one built by one of the other CS builders. i've played a couple of them that he didn't build that were dead on.

[marchone]

Very interesting. That's why I love this place.

[gbarchus]

The CS '55 PBass is my "go to" bass. I love the feel (contours) and sound of the single-coil pickup.

Here's mine, although it's now sporting a black, single layer pickguard:

[marchone]

You're killing me, Gale. Beauty.

[gbarchus]

Here's the John English one that got away:

[marchone]

They're all sweet. Even Mastermold's relic!