The Fender custom shop was established in 1987, shortly after the company had been sold by CBS to a group of investors lead by Bill Shultz. Up until the mid eighties, Fender’s reputation as a guitar builder had taken a bit of a battering. The quality of their guitars declined considerably during the seventies and by the following decade they were in real trouble. New brands were popping up including some in Japan who were making Fender copies that were better than the genuine article of the time.
A Strat from 1979, Probably the worst year for production quality & some awful examples.
In 1986 Fender moved production to a new factory in Corona, California and the quality of the guitars started to improve considerably. Although they were producing great guitars, they still weren’t quite the legends that the original pre-CBS company were making in the 50s and 60s.
Early beginnings
The Fender Custom Shop was set up to produce the very finest instruments that the company had to offer. It was officially opened in 1987, but was operating prior to then as a small batch division producing the range of American reissues, two Stratocasters, a 57 and 62, a 52 Telecaster and some bass guitars. These became known as the AVRI series and remained in production in one form or another until 2014. They were the companies first attempt to make historical reissues of their old products.
They actually began the production of them in 1982 under the CBS ownership, using much of the original tooling and some of the same factory workers who had worked on the originals a couple of decades earlier. The result was a small selection of superb guitars. These early AVRI Fenders became very collectible during the 2010s and have changed hands for as much as £3000!
A 1982 American Reissue 62 Strat – Many Pre CBS appointments were back at last.
Fender Custom Shop Guitars
Once the official ‘Custom Shop’ brand had been established, in 1987 they set about producing high end, one-off and custom made models for artists and customers. They produced some artist models as well as high end modern spec Strats and Teles. It wasn’t until the mid 1990s that things started getting interesting.
The very first Custom Shop guitars were denoted by this small logo on the rear of the headstock.
The Fender Custom Shop Relic series guitars
There is an urban myth that Keith Richards of Rolling Stones fame had commissioned some guitars from the custom shop and complained that they looked too new compared to the genuine vintage guitars he was used to. He said ‘Bash them up a bit & I’ll play em’. A great story but sadly it wasn’t true.
The first Relic guitars were extremely high quality reissues of 50s and 60s Fender guitars with various levels of pre-aging. Corrosion to metal parts, faded plastics and chipped and worn lacquer and paint. This series of guitars gave the custom shop the opportunity to produce very realistic copies of the guitars that built their name in the early years. It was also an opportunity to put new Fenders back in the hands of preforming artists who had previously avoided new in favour of the old pre-CBS models.
By the mid 1990s the craze for vintage guitars was already well underway with original pre-CBS Strats and Teles selling for thousands of pounds. The Relic series gave people the opportunity to own a ‘vintage’ guitar at a fraction of the cost of an original, and without the worry of it being a fake.
For the first five years of Relic production the guitar parts were shipped out of the custom shop in kit form to a separate workshop run by Vince Cunetto. Vince was a vintage guitar enthusiast who had been making relic replicas of old Fenders and reproducing very accurate period correct Fender logos. At the time, Fender were unable to spray Nitro Cellulose lacquer at their factory due to emission restrictions so they looked to outsource the painting and ‘Relicing’ of the Custom Shop reissues.
Vince Cunetto in the 1990s with some Relic guitar parts ready for assembly.
Vince decided to set up a factory in Springfield, Missouri, he figured that down there no one would notice, or care, about the lack of regulation paint spraying.
“I was living in Estes Park, Colorado, and there was no way to find a place to do it there. But my wife at the time, her family was from north of Springfield, Missouri, and I figured, ‘No one is going to be watching anything down there, and I can probably find some labour…’”
He set up a production facility and employed staff to take the guitar parts that Fender sent them, paint them very accurate vintage correct colours, pre-age them and then send them back to Fender to assemble and do the final set up.
This lasted until early 1999 when Fender had become fully kitted out with a 5-million-dollar extraction and emissions system that allowed them to spray vintage style paints legally.
Fender continued building the Relic guitars and these became the most popular product line for the custom shop. The “Time Machine” series was available in various stages of Relic, from mint, to totally battered.
Those early guitars became known as the ‘Cunetto era Relics’ and can be identified by the style of custom shop logo on the rear of the headstock. They have started to become quite collectible of late and people often ask a premium for them on the used market. They have also risen in price due to large price hikes in new Fender custom shop guitars, which has resulted in used prices being dragged up behind them.
Two very early Relic Prototypes.
Custom shop Relics post-2012
There is little doubt that the original Relic guitars were excellent instruments. They did however lack some of the detail, feel and vibe of the originals they were copying. In fact, it was always very clear that they were reissues, not original pre-CBS guitars. They featured standard Fender parts from the American reissue series and it was clear that the Relic jobs were deliberate.
One thing we’ve noticed however is that around 2012 something magical started to happen at the Custom Shop. The finer details were finally getting the attention they deserved, we got Pat Pend bridge saddles and machines heads with a band of writing down the middle (to emulate the ‘Kluson Deluxe’ writing on the originals). Pickup magnets, bobbins, waterslide logos, even knobs and switch tips were all becoming more and more period correct.
Details like ‘Pat Pend’ saddles were a nice touch, very authentic!
Combined with more realistic pre-ageing and an apparent step up in build quality, the Relic series of Fender guitars went from being great to being amazing. They became first rate instruments that vintage guitar buffs could get really excited about.
This 1965 Relic Strat features all the correct patent numbers and a very accurate water slide logo.
Limited special editions and Dealer Select models
The Custom Shop has been blessed with some genius thinking in their production and marketing department. Every year they release a small selection of limited edition models with unique specs. These are often used to commemorate certain milestones in the company’s history or simply to demo some new pickups they’ve wound. Lately they have been naming these editions after hot chillies, presumably because they have ‘hot’ pickups in them. The Ancho Poblano Strat, the El Diablo Strat, there is even a Tomatillo Strat!
The El Diablo Strat from 2016, a rare limited edition.
Another stroke of genius was to allow Fender Custom Shop dealers to spec their own guitars. People like Coda Music and Peach Guitars in the UK have become well known for creating some great spec guitars. In a market that has become stupidly competitive on price, this was a clever way to allow dealers the chance to offer something seemingly unique.
Turning their staff into superstars
Another stroke of amazing genius by the Custom Shop marketing heads was to make their workers and builders famous. In the old days of vintage guitar collecting it was only the nerds who knew the names of the factory workers by the quality control stamps on the inside of neck pockets and other parts of the guitar. They became a form of authenticity identification at the time.
Fender realised that they had staff who had been working for them for decades, people who had literally made history, the lady who sat and wound pickups had likely wound those that had been on Jimi Hendrix’s guitar, some of the master builders had been at the company for years and their names were becoming known by the guitar buyers and collectors.
Abbigail Ybarra at the NAMM show with a vintage pickup winding machine.
Soon guitars and pickups that had been made by certain staff were becoming more in demand than others, a custom shop Strat that had the name John Cruz stamped on it somewhere was now worth more than one that didn’t. If the pickups had the signature of Abigale Ybarra on them (the lady who had been winding them in the 60s and beyond) then they were now a collector’s item.
Today the Fender Custom shop is at the top of it’s game. It is producing some of the best guitars in the history of Fender and the job of buying and selling these fine instruments is fantastically good fun.
Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster
Much of the custom shop stock we get in is of the Strat variety, hardly surprising given it’s the most popular model Fender sell. The amazing thing about the Strat is that custom shop have a myriad of versions, years, iterations, pickup combinations etc etc to choose from. A limited edition 1954 Relic Strat is a gulf apart from a 1969, Hendrix era Relic. In fact, you can request any spec on your strat from 1954 through to today and even mix and match these specs and features on the same guitar. No two custom shop strats are the same.
Used Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster
At Coffee House Guitars we simply love to buy used Fender custom shop Stratocasters. We typically source these from the private used market, ideally from the original owner who purchased it new. We then recondition them, clean them, check they are 100% genuine and original, dress the frets, set them up and offer them for sale.
