Fender Custom Shop

Fender Custom Shop Electric Basses — The Dream Factory, Built for Bass

The Fender Custom Shop has been called the Dream Factory since it opened in Corona, California in 1987, and the name has never been more appropriate than it is today. What began as a small team of master craftspeople building one-off instruments for high-profile artists has grown into the most celebrated custom guitar and bass operation in the world, producing a carefully curated annual collection of production instruments alongside a continuous stream of individually commissioned Masterbuilt pieces that represent the absolute pinnacle of what the Fender name can produce.

Every Custom Shop bass is built by hand in Corona. Every fret is individually leveled and crowned. Every body is selected for grain, weight, and resonance. Every finish, whether a pristine NOS instrument that looks just delivered from a 1960s music store or a deeply worn Heavy Relic that tells the story of decades of hard playing, is applied by craftspeople who have spent years developing the techniques that make these instruments indistinguishable from the vintage originals they reference. The difference between a Custom Shop bass and a production instrument is audible, visible, and tactile from the moment you pick one up.

The Relic System

One of the most celebrated and widely imitated innovations to come out of the Custom Shop is the aging and relicing system that Fender has refined over more than three decades. Five distinct levels of aging are available across the bass lineup.

NOS, or New Old Stock, replicates the condition of a well-stored vintage instrument, with light checking in the finish and pristine hardware. Closet Classic captures the look of a guitar stored carefully but played occasionally, with faded finish and lightly tarnished hardware. Journeyman Relic delivers the look and feel of a working instrument from the 1950s or 1960s that has been well maintained but clearly played, with checking, buckle rash, and hardware wear applied with restraint and credibility. Heavy Relic produces the most dramatically aged appearance, with significant finish wear, hardware aging, and body checking that replicates decades of hard professional use. Super Heavy Relic is the most extreme option, reserved for players who want an instrument that looks like it has survived everything.

Every relic finish is applied entirely by hand, and no two instruments age exactly alike, giving each Custom Shop bass a visual identity as individual as the player who owns it.

The Collections

Time Machine Series — Fender's most historically rigorous vintage reissue program, built to period-correct specifications sourced directly from factory records and surviving vintage instruments. The 1957 Precision Bass in two-tone sunburst with a maple neck and the 1960 Precision Bass in vintage white with a rosewood fingerboard are among the most faithful recreations of the instruments that defined the electric bass in its first decade, available in Journeyman Relic and Heavy Relic configurations. The 1964 Jazz Bass brings the mid-1960s offset-body bass to life with hand-wound Custom Shop pickups, a bound and blocked fingerboard, and a playing feel that players who have owned vintage originals consistently describe as indistinguishable from the real thing.

Limited Edition Series — Reserved for instruments with specifications typically found only on artist collaborations or Masterbuilt pieces, the Limited Edition basses represent some of the most tonally and visually sophisticated instruments the Custom Shop produces each year. The 2024 P-Jazz Bass, a hybrid instrument pairing a hand-wound 1957 Precision Bass pickup with a 1960s-style Jazz Bass neck profile on a two-piece select ash body, is among the finest and most versatile Fender bass instruments ever produced.

Artisan Series — The most visually spectacular collection in the Custom Shop lineup, built around exotic tonewood tops that elevate the Precision and Jazz Bass platforms into collector-grade objects. The 2024 Artisan Maple Burl Jazz Bass, featuring a four-A maple burl top in aged natural finish over a traditional Jazz Bass body, with hand-wound vintage pickups, round-laminated rosewood fingerboard, and a 1960s-style U-profile neck, is the kind of instrument that stops a room the moment it comes out of the case.

American Custom Series — A refined middle ground between the vintage reissue collections and the full Masterbuilt program, the American Custom basses offer premium tonewoods, compound radius fingerboards, and custom-voiced pickups in a more contemporary specification that reflects current professional playing demands without abandoning the classic Fender formats.

Masterbuilt

The pinnacle of the Custom Shop program is the Masterbuilt instrument, built from start to finish by a single designated Master Builder. Each Masterbuilt bass is a fully commissioned instrument developed in direct collaboration between the player and their chosen builder, with complete freedom over body wood, neck specification, pickup configuration, hardware, finish, and aging level. The Master Builders currently working in the Custom Shop include Jason Smith, whose Masterbuilt 1960s Precision Bass in purple-to-gold Stratoburst finish is among the most visually dramatic bass instruments produced in 2024, alongside a team of craftspeople whose individual styles and specialties allow players to find the builder whose sensibility best matches their own.

Why Custom Shop

A Fender Custom Shop bass is not simply a better Fender bass. It is a fundamentally different experience, from the quality of the tonewoods and the hand-wound pickups to the individual care invested in the fretwork, the finish, and the setup. Players who have owned both consistently describe the Custom Shop instrument as the one that makes them stop thinking about equipment and start thinking only about music.

Browse our full selection of Fender Custom Shop electric basses. Reach out if you'd like guidance on specific models, relic levels, or the Masterbuilt commission process.