Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Re: Dino, JR: So the instrument failed to inspire?

Bill, a Shell Pink Tele in crazy rare. Imagine one with a maple neck!!!

with a strat neck!

"....a Shell Pink Tele is crazy rare.."

yep, Music Zoo had a Custom Shop one a while back that was incredible looking, even reliced, but WAY out of my price range. I'm thinking parts-0-caster and some spray lacquer.

Shell Pink and maple...Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

The Fender Custom Shop is just another factory assembling bolt-together guitars from nicer parts, it seems. I've got nothing against the guys who work there (as if they'd care anyway), who have a shot at glory, because if they are talented and behave themselves, Fender will promote their names as "brands"--something Fender is very good at. It would seem to me that the old-timers there, and a good percentage of the younger guys, too, have talent way beyond what the CS requires.

Fender has promoted the "Custom Shop" brand to a point where it's very well-established, and allows them to do all sorts of counterintuitive stuff and get away with selling it at premium prices. When people think "Custom Shop (despite what reason will tell you--they crank out hundreds of guitars a week), they get a mental picture of a concrete block shed somewhere with a few guys beavering away at handbuilding a few choice specimens at a time.

That "relic" Tele could just as easily been a very nice $900 guitar, but instead, it went for just under $3K if memory serves me. Why? Branding, not intrinsic value.

I'm thinking I want to build one, too! Can't get that color out of my mind, and even with premium parts I can crack $700.00 building one.

Shell Pink is gorgeous, isn't it? I can't help but think that a 660 that color would look gorgeous.

A pink 660...not bad, except the fretboard would clash...

By the same token then, wouldn't a Blue Boy/Sonic Blue clash with their dark fretboards? I actually tend to like Sonic Blue guitars with rosewood fretboards rather then maple - I like the contrast.

Hard to justify, but to my eye, Blue Boy looks fine with a dark fretboard but would look a bit strange with maple. Sonic Blue is a shade darker (at least the formula I have is) and I think it looks good with maple.

You'll get no argument to your "contrast" comment; I agree that it can be a positive attribute. I'm thinking more about colors themselves; it's a gut thing that I won't try to explain or qualify.

Rosewood boards look good with blue bodies...have seen daphne blue strats with maple that look good though....

I love shell pink and rosewood. Different strokes...

"Rosewood boards look good with blue bodies..."

I've got a CIJ Sonic Blue Strat body and MIM Classic 60s rosewood neck I'm going to put together as sort of a replica of the Lennon-Harrison Strats. Still shopping the electronics and hardware.

Bill

Burgundy Mist, w/ matching headstock! Gorgeous on a Jazzmaster with a tortoise guard.

"Burgundy Mist, w/ matching headstock! Gorgeous on a Jazzmaster with a tortoise guard."

Mitch, I had to fight a major bout of GAS a couple weeks back on one of those--an MIJ on the 'bay. BM is another great color--I've got a Classic 60s Strat in that finish. Agree, it's awesome on the offsets.