RAISING THE TONECompetition
Up until recently, if you wanted a modded Fender you could either do the work yourself or dig deep and order a Custom Shop guitar. While the allure of CS instruments hasn’t waned, neither has their price tag – CS electrics typically cost north of three grand these days, with Heavy Relic aged instruments just shy of £5k in many cases. That’s simply out of reach for the majority of players, no matter how toneful or vibey the instruments themselves may be.
Nonetheless, we live in an era of personalisation, and over in the States the option to customise your purchase is built into every burger and beverage order, never mind the stuff you really dream of buying. That’s why Fender has made a big deal of its Mod Shop service in recent weeks. Not quite a new concept but one that is now fully operational, the Mod Shop offers a way to customise production-line Fender models to your preferred spec via point-and-click online ordering. The resulting guitars take a few weeks to be built but get delivered quicker than Custom Shop orders – and they’re cheaper, too.
We had to admit, the premise was intriguing. One of the more frustrating aspects of buying stock guitars is that you might set your heart on a particular vintage reissue, say, only to find it hard to get hold of in the finish you really wanted. Likewise, Fender’s Factory Special Run versions) to give it a try. Here’s what we found.
