The Fender Custom Shop has been making the brand’s top-of-the-line instruments for over thirty years. They’re known for meticulous craftsmanship, attention to detail, and custom/limited edition instruments.
However, few people know about the history of the Custom Shop and how it came about. The story of the Custom Shop is intimately related to Fender’s history, and it’s an incredible example of how a business can be brought back from the brink.
In today’s article, let’s take a deeper look at the Fender Custom Shop. We’ll look at how they came about, what sets them apart from regular Fenders, and how the Custom Shop has evolved over the years.
The CBS Era
The story of the Custom Shop begins with the CBS era of Fender. In 1965, Leo Fender sold his company to the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) for $13 million, which would be around $126 million today adjusted for inflation.
As many know, the CBS era is a very contested topic amongst Fender enthusiasts. While sales improved overall, there were a number of concerns from players.
CBS introduced many cost-cutting measures, such as switching from using four bolts for the neck to three. There was also an issue with quality control. This resulted in many sub-par instruments leaving the factory and being sold.
All of this contributed towards a general feeling that the CBS era instruments were lesser than those from the pre-CBS era. Fender began losing their reputation for making high-quality instruments made with musicians and the abuses of touring in mind.
However, all of this would eventually lead to new ownership that would take the company back towards its roots.
New Ownership
In an attempt to restore Fender’s reputation, CBS brought in three people from Yamaha—John McLaren, Dan Smith, and William Schultz. After taking a look at the company and procedures, they realized that big changes were necessary.
Their initial goal was simply to raise the quality of their instruments, bringing back customer confidence. But with the current state of Fender, they decided production would have to stop momentarily so they could retrain employees and start from the ground up.
In 1985, CBS had decided this was all too much for them. Schultz, some employees, and a few outside investors bought Fender from CBS for $12.5 million and became the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC). The deal however didn’t include everything.
Most notably, a number of Fender patents and their Fullerton factory where all Fender US instruments were made were not included in the sale. Because of that, US production was stopped for most of 1985, and all Fender instruments were being made in Japan.
Then, the yen drastically increased in value in 1987. This spelled problems for Fender, as suddenly Japanese manufacturing became much more expensive. However, this led to a return in US production.
In 1987, the American Standard series was announced. This was in part to help deal with the rising costs of Japanese production, but it was also a way to move back to the company’s beginnings in American production.
That wasn’t the only change they made in 1987 though, and soon Fender would put more focus on making the best instruments possible.
The Custom Shop is Born
Under the leadership of then-CEO Schultz, the Fender Custom Shop was born in 1987. The Custom Shop was established to focus on only the highest quality instruments, ranging from signature and custom models to vintage recreations and relics.
Schultz and company wanted to help restore the brand’s image by showing they could make some truly world-class instruments. This was all in direct response to the reputation hit the brand had taken during the CBS era.
The intent wasn’t necessarily to make money. Schultz even claims he would’ve been okay if the Custom Shop lost money or broke even. His only focus was proving to players that Fender was capable of making great instruments.
At the start, the custom shop was small. It consisted only of John Page and Michael Stevens— both master luthiers—and a CNC machine. However, these guitars were truly handcrafted, not like the standard mass-produced guitars Fender made.
The first handful of instruments to leave the Custom Shop weren’t truly Custom Shop instruments. According to Page they were, “marketing’s mix-and-match kind of stuff we had to do for shows, or the Japanese repaint.”
The first true Custom Shop instruments would start to be completed in 1987. Page says that his Mary Kaye Strat was the first, being a recreation of Mary Kaye’s original Strat. Stevens’ first was a double-neck Strat/Esquire, the first double-neck Fender ever made.
These two guitars really showcase what the Custom Shop is all about. The Mary Kaye Strat is a stunning recreation of a vintage instrument built to the highest standards with close attention to detail, while the double-neck was a custom project that never would have been made via standard production.
And with that, the Fender Custom Shop was finally established. They were now putting out top-notch instruments of undeniable quality, beginning the Custom Shop’s now long history of making incredible instruments.
Expansion and Success
With a couple guitars under their belt, the Custom shop was ready to keep going. Let’s take a look at how the Custom Shop grew over the years and became so successful, as well as some of the instruments that made it all possible.
Big Clients, Big Acclaim
Many of the earliest Custom Shop guitars were for big-name clients. David Gilmour and Pete Townsend were some of the first to get Custom Shop guitars, soon followed by Yngvie Malmsteen, Waylon Jennings, Danny Gatton, Robert Cray, and more.
These instruments really showed what Fender was again capable of. If the likes of Gilmour and Malmsteen were buying and satisfied with Custom Shop instruments, potential customers could be confident that their guitars would be up to snuff.
This all helped the Custom Shop build their reputation and grow. By the mid-90s, they had their own 30,000 square foot facility with 60 employees—many of whom were already known on their own as master level luthiers.
Art Guitars
In the beginning of the 90s, the Custom Shop began making what they called Art Guitars. These were one-off, limited run models that focused on the artistic element. They pushed what the Custom Shop was capable of, proving that they could also make extremely detailed, artistic, collectible guitars.
These guitars could be anything. If you could dream it up, they could make it—hence the nickname “the Dream Factory.”
One of the first guitars in this line ever produced were the aluminum body Harley Davidson 90th Anniversary Stratocasters. One look at these guitars is all it takes to see what they meant by “art guitars.”
Another early example of the Art Guitars are the (NSFW link warning) 40th Anniversary Playboy Stratocasters. These guitars have custom airbrushed art on the body, Playboy Bunny inlays, and more custom features.
They also often collaborate with well-known artists on these guitars—such as Dave Newman, Ron Thorn, and Sara Ray—giving them the freedom to use their skills to the fullest.
While the Art Guitars may not be the most practical or accessible guitars for most, they are unique art pieces that stand out as stunning instruments.
Team Built and Master Built
While the Custom Shop was successful in the 80s and early 90s, they realized they would need to focus more on offering instruments to the general public if they wanted to be sustainable. So in the mid-90s, they decided to split the Custom Shop into two divisions—Team Built and Master Built.
Master Built guitars are what you’d typically expect from the Custom Shop; they are built by one master builder, either designed by the builder themselves or at the request of a customer.
Team Built guitars on the other hand are made by a small group of apprentices, all hand-selected and overseen by a Master Builder. These guitars are more available, affordable, and accessible for the general public—all while still being incredibly high end instruments.
This helped in two ways. One, it helped make these high-end instruments more available to regular folks who couldn’t spend ungodly sums of money on a custom Fender. And two, it also helped shift the reputation that Custom Shop guitars were only for pros and collectors.
In the end, this allowed the Custom Shop to boost sales and be a sustainable division of Fender without sacrificing what makes the Custom Shop special in the first place.
The Custom Shop Today
By the year 2000, both Page and Stevens had grown tired of the Custom Shop and left to pursue their own interests. While they are gone, the Custom Shop Lives on.
A look at the Custom Shop website will reveal a wide variety of Custom Shop guitars, ranging from painstaking recreations of vintage instruments to modern guitars that push the limits.
Though many things have changed, such as the names of series, the Custom Shop continues to do what it does best—make incredibly high-quality instruments, whether they be designs from the minds of their Master Builders or custom requests from customers.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Custom Shop now makes a lot of relic’d instruments. These pre-road worn guitars have become very popular in the past decade or so, and the Custom Shop has capitalized on that popularity by making a number of stunning relic’d guitars.
The Custom Shop: Fender’s Finest
The Fender Custom Shop initially started out as a way to recapture Fender’s prestige for high-quality instruments after years of declining quality under CBS. They took a couple of master luthiers, gave them the resources they needed, and let them show what Fender was capable of.
As the years went on, the Custom Shop gained a reputation for making Fender’s finest instruments and grew, drastically increasing their size and output while maintaining their high quality.
From working guitars for the likes of David Gilmour and Pete Townsend to high-end art pieces for Harley Davidson and Playboy, the Custom Shop undeniably makes some of the best instruments on the planet.
So next time you see a Custom Shop guitar, remember all the history that led to that point.
Speaking of which…..
