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Fender Elite Prices

#121
TalHaz said:
Personally love and play Fenders as well as boutique Fender based instruments. IMHO, Fender is the one now days copying innovations and improvements from the boutique fender style luthiers. I might be wrong but are there any original, unique innovations made by Fender corporation lately to their Jazz or P designs?
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$0.02....

There aren't many improvements or innovations left to do to a P or a J. The fact that Fender is incorporating some of them into their product line is a good thing, at least for those who prefer such tweak-ups.

It doesn't matter to me who/what came first....the chicken or the egg?....as long as there is progress. Wheel truss rod adjusters, asymmetric neck profiles, improved hardware and Fender's new hardcase (one of the nicest I've ever seen) are all good stuff IMO.

With that, comes a price increase, naturally. Not to mention that prices for virtually everything are on the rise, anyway. I'm not ready to shell out $1800 for one, but I'm even less inclined to cough up that much (or more) for any EBMM, for example. Both cost more than I care to spend at the moment.

OTOH, for a production bass, the USA Fender Deluxe Dimension offers a boatload of features for about the same price. I see real value there....half tempted to shell out the dough for a new one before they're discontinued for lack of sales. I'd be willing to violate my "always buy used" rule....the Dimension is that good, and used ones are kinda scarce.

YMMV
 
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#123
Please provide links to these custom builders that will build me a custom bass exactly to my specs for less than $2,000.00.

Don't bother if they are not well established and reputable with a reasonable lead time. They should also be capable of honoring some kind of return policy if you intend to compare their services to that of Fender and Fender's dealer network.









Didn't think so.
 
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#124
DiabolusInMusic said:
I think you should compare the wages in America versus Indonesia.

On that note, your import Lakland would be appropriately compared to an import Fender. A Fender Deluxe or Elite would run you less than $1000, unlike an American Deluxe or Elite.
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I get it. It's a 2,000.00 Fender Jazz Bass. Again, I guess my question is what is it about this bass that justifies that cost. Before I got my Laklands, I tried a few American Deluxe basses and for the $$, the quality IMHO was questionable. What is it about these new models that justify an increase of approx $200.00.

I mention my 55-AJ, because honestly it's superior to the American Deluxe V in every way. and I paid 1200.00 for it new with a warranty... My .02 of course.
 
#125
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#128
RolandMHall said:
I get it. It's a 2,000.00 Fender Jazz Bass. Again, I guess my question is what is it about this bass that justifies that cost. Before I got my Laklands, I tried a few American Deluxe basses and for the $$, the quality IMHO was questionable. What is it about these new models that justify an increase of approx $200.00.

I mention my 55-AJ, because honestly it's superior to the American Deluxe V in every way. and I paid 1200.00 for it new with a warranty... My .02 of course.
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DiabolusInMusic said:
That's, like, just your opinion, man.
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#132
I'm not buying one but I don't think the price is terrible. It is a super J, right? So compare it to a Sadowsky Metro, another Super J, at $2450. Or a Lull, not an American Standard Fender.

Is the Metro worth $650 more? Maybe. The Sadowsky, as compared to the Deluxe, has better fret work, sounds better to me due to the Sadowsky pre (I know this can be subjective), silent operation, nice pickups. It also has a smaller body. Is it worth $650 for these benefits? Depends on YOU.
 
#136
Helaskold said:
Carvin, Warmoth, or the guitar techs who use my garage.
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I dig those...in fact I am a Warmoth devotee. But none of these choices are necessarily a better investment than the Fender. Your initial bang for the buck will become a wake up call when you go to sell this (semi) custom bass.

I have never ponied up for a bonafide new USA made Fender but I won't knock them. If I had the $$ I would probably have one or two in my stable. As it is, they don't have the specs that I dig for my main playing instruments.
 
#137
Carvin and G&L are pretty much the only reputable builders I can think of where you can piecemeal a "custom" bass together vis-a-vis their options menus. But it's not hard to go beyond $2K with G&L, as many of their upgrades can be kinda pricey. Carvins are nice, but they somehow don't exude the same level of quality (IME), and resale value is not so great when the time comes. There can also be considerable wait time with either company.

Warmoth. They've always been a parts merchant. When I see one (regardless of who assembled it), I see a "parts guitar". Kit guitars can be fun, but not everyone can be bothered to go that route just to have "something different". Resale is lousy, so better plan on keeping it, or taking it real hard up the wazoo.

With all the above, you can never be sure if your personalized custom creation is going to turn out as good as you hoped. No guarantees it will sound as fantastic as imagined. This is the obvious advantage to buying a production guitar off-the-rack, even if it involves playing a few to find a "good one".
 
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#139
Okay, so I tried to duplicate, as close as possible, the specs of the Fender Elite Jazz Bass with the bass builder configurators from G&L and Carvin. Niether of their Jazz Bass style options could come very close to the Fender. The pricing was lower but came with many compromises.

At $1,554.00 (list $2,072.00) the G&L did not have options for active electronics or blocks & binding. I don't think the G&L comes with a hardshell case. The neck radius options did not include a compound radius. It does come with some nice split coil alnico pickups.

The Carvin is dirt cheap at $1,034.00 even with a HSC. However they were also not very flexible with the options, all I could change to make it more like the Fender was to add stacked humbucker pickups, black blocks (no binding) and the 10" neck radius (I picked a more traditional radius over the stock 14"). Still no apparent option for active electronics...a mid-sweep control was available but only with the non-existent "AC" option. EDIT: turns out that the "AC" option doesn't exist because it is actually standard on this bass! The JB4 comes with a three band active/passive preamp...sweet.

I did this exercise to clarify two things...could I get just what I wanted with these two "custom" builders...and how could they stack up to the Fender offering at $1,899.00? Sure Carvin has alot of fancy options you could add like laminate necks and beautiful tops but if you wanted all that you wouldn't be interested in the Fender in the first place.

Well, neither of them could provide an active Jazz bass with blocks and binding at all...so that throws the whole "I could go custom for that price and get what I want" argument under the bus.

You can't always get exactly what you want after all.

Maybe you could convince Carvin to add binding and add an active preamp for $800, good luck with that. EDIT: well as mentioned above, this bass does come with a pre so the binding is actually possible and still come in below the Fender. Carvin wins!

G&L doesn't even offer blocks or binding so that would probably be pretty costly to do and definitely push their price over the top for sure once you add even a cheap preamp.

Sure, there are plenty of things you can get from those two that Fender doesn't offer at their price points but that would be apples & oranges. I was doing this to simply try as direct of a comparison as I could.
 
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#140
Double E said:
Please provide links to these custom builders that will build me a custom bass exactly to my specs for less than $2,000.00.

Don't bother if they are not well established and reputable with a reasonable lead time. They should also be capable of honoring some kind of return policy if you intend to compare their services to that of Fender and Fender's dealer network.
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Sandberg Configurator

I just ordered a custom P-MM California from Sandberg through a German retailer with a fantastic return policy for under $1500. Bass will be made in the German factory and is from a well-regarded manufacturer. Being made to my specs exactly. I could have gone exotic wood or other options and still kept the price well under $2k. No hardshell case, which I will concede, but I think that there's probably an option available for less than $500.
 
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