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Fender Masterbuilt

#21
madmic said:
Dennis Galuszka is most likely a fantastic builder, however my 2008 1961 Jazz was very disappointing.
Body/neck weight-balance was off, way too much neckdive. The neck pickup output was not good, too much output, causing compression.
Bought due to the smoothness of the neck, and the beautiful rosewood fretboard and swamp ash (too) lightweight body.
Should have tested it more/better before I bought it.
Traded it.
Click to expand...


That is pretty damn disheartening...
At that price point, you'd think that the absolute top-of-the-line fenders would be impeccable.
 
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#22
A friend of mine has a Todd Krause masterbuilt Strat. Sure, it's not a bass. But he said that it's the single best-playing guitar he's ever had.

Another interesting fact about Todd? He worked with Roscoe Beck to develop the Roscoe Beck signature basses. And for that he has my eternal gratitude! I've been playing mine since 1999, and it's still my go-to bass!

***EDIT - as far as the PRICE of a masterbuilt instrument from Fender? It's well out of my league. Personally, I just cannot afford to drop $3000 - $4000+ on an instrument at this time.
 
#24
I have this Jason Smith example and it plays and sounds phenomenal.
Apparently he is a bass player himself so that can't be bad!
MBPJfullFront.jpg
 
#25
Hi all

I'm resurrecting this thread as I'm hoping to order a Fender masterbuilt bass but I'm struggling to choose a master builder. Does anyone on talkbass who owns a masterbuilt bass care to elaborate on who built it and how it plays etc.

Any pics would be grand too!

Cheers

Deaky
 
#27
I vote Dennis Galuska. Abagail Ybbara no longer works at FMIC btw. I used to be an FMIC employee and he built Marcus's clones. BTW I have played Marcus's actual bass. But honestly do not get hung up on the builder they are all great guys that when they get a non relic job have a lot of fun and do great work.
 
#30
There are two "custom shops". Production mix and matchers for "custom" Fenders. Then the Masterbuilders. The guys get a lot of what makes fender the most money - relic's. People line up to buy a beat up strat and pay top dollar for them, so the masterbuilders spend I would say 3/4 of their time relicing. I am sure it gets old, they know how to do it really well. Abagail was in the masterbuilders area...don't think the builders wind pickups at least not often. They can have the guitar R&D wind something for them if they need to, its just down the hall. I would assume that they get the order, purchase parts, parts are ordered/delivered, and then they start work.
 
#31
Thanks again Hapa. After seeing some of Jason Smiths work and the fact he is a bass player I think I'm gonna go for him. I watched a Wildwood YouTube interview with Jason Smith and he seemed a really nice guy.

Plus he made a bass for Geddy Lee which looks awesome.
 
#39
joeyl said:
so I guess Fender employees are totally embracing the Genz Benz acquisition?
Click to expand...

HAHAHA, no. I was the brand manager for SWR and Genz I was let go right before this years NAMM, that photo was during prototyping of the Dimension bass. I was taking some artists for a tour.

Lets not hijack this thread. PM me if you have questions about that.
 
#40
Just gonna throw this out there:

Even the 'cheap' American Standards are pretty badass, in just about every way. If you're looking at investing top dollar in a masterbuilt CS, any of those builders had better deliver the goods.

I know it was long ago, but the OP mentioned fretwork - seeing as that's 'supposed' to be up to par when you get the basic of the professional level (ie. AmStd), it shouldn't even be questionable at the masterbuilt CS level, regardless of which master builder you chose lol. Just my opinion.
 

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