Design your own Fender Bass

[Andrew]

http://www.fender.com/american-design/

[Dave W]

Interesting idea but you wind up paying list for it. No thanks.

[Lightyear]

Not many options either.  I played with it on a Jazz bass  - no stacked pots option and didn't see any ash tray options either

[Aussie Mark]

I wouldn have thought there would be more finish options than the handful available there.   It's not really your own design if you're stuck with the 8 or 9 most popular colour choices.

[hieronymous]

I played with it a little this morning - created a monster - in a not so good way 

I much preferred the Dressing Room at offsetguitars.com - though it can only do Jags & Jazzmasters now, at one point you could do the Bass VI too and I came up with this:



which inspired me to love my MIJ reissue much more once I realized that I could live with the 3-tone sunburst as long as I ditched the horrid faux-tortoiseshell pickguard for a black 3-ply. Might not have figured that one out without it!

[Dave W]

I haven't looked at new Fender basses in a long time but I do know Tele models, so here's an example: Choosing the modern Tele and outfitting it just like an American Standard gives me a price of $1500, but you can buy the Am Standard for $1250 MAP, and if you know where to shop, you can get it for $1100. So why would you want to go this route? If you wanted any of the three other pickup options, you'd still be much better off buying an Am Standard and then buying the pickups separately. If you wanted the Am Deluxe neck ($200 upcharge) you'd be better off just buying an Am Deluxe to begin with.

If there were more custom options -- say, being able to choose fret size or different pickup configurations -- then the extra cost would be justified. All you're getting now is different off-the-shelf options, and the extra cost just wouldn't make sense for most buyers.

[Denis]

I would much rather Gibson offer a "design your own bass" and really mean it.

[ilan]

I would much rather Gibson offer a "design your own bass" and really mean it.

I was thinking the same thing about Rickenbacker 

[ilan]

I much preferred the Dressing Room at offsetguitars.com - though it can only do Jags & Jazzmasters now, at one point you could do the Bass VI too and I came up with this:

Toyed with it a little and came up with this...

[Highlander]

 

[hieronymous]

Toyed with it a little and came up with this...

See - isn't it fun?