Question about special ordering?

[xXxTWO FACExXx]

When you special order a bass lets say for example the Fender Jaguar Bass if I special order it at guitarcenter will they give me a list of options for what I want or will I have to choose from the sunburst, black, or red colors.

 

[bongomania]

When you buy a Jaguar (or any other factory-production bass) from a normal retailer you are not "special ordering" it. You are just placing a regular order for what they have in stock. If they have multiple colors in stock, that's what you get to choose from. If they have other variations (4/5/6 string, fretted/fretless, 1 or 2 pickups, etc.) in stock, then you get to choose from those. But it is not a special order.

If you want special non-standard features that are not in stock or normally made, then you have to pay a pretty high price for custom work.

 

[JTE]

"Special order" can mean a lot of different thing, depending on where you are in the supply chain. For a retail customer going to Guitar Center "special order" means ordering something the store doesn't have in stock. And the choices you'll have are only the options the manufacturer has. So, for a Jaguar it's probably only color (maybe rosewood/maple, but I don't know about FMIC's current offerings). For US Lakland 4-94 from Guitar Cancer, you'll still have all the choices Lakland offers, but they offer more options.

For a STORE (or more likely a chain of stores), "special order" might mean ordering enough to get a special run from the factory. It used to be for US Fenders that if you ordered 100 units, you could get some different combinations that weren't regularly offered. For example, a store could order 100 Lake Placid Blue Vintage Series '62 Precision basses with VS '62 Jazz necks. That's a combination of features that they offer, but not on any one instrument.

John