I appreciate all the knowledgeable feedback. I am pretty familiar with ebay so realized there is usually a last minute run on items but there were a few things that bothered me about this item:

1. The tuners not being consistent with the type I usually see with a roller nut. Overall, it seemed like a funny combination of features.
2. That scratchy looking neck plate (maybe just the pic).
3. All the language about the set up - sounds like your basic tune up
4. The fact that I asked the seller a basic question about the neck plate and they either had no idea or fed me a line.

On the positive side, I liked the general look, the guitar is close enough to me that I could possibly try it out and if the price was low enough it might be a good risk. I have never purchased a guitar without at least being able to try it and not sure I would want to start with a custom strat.

Thanks again for all the great feedback. In the end this one falls into the life is too short and there will be other guitars for me category.

Thx again,
Dave

Since it's close to you, you don't have any need to be suspicious. Go check it out in person. Verify that the COA matches the serial number on the neckplate, and that everything is in order and that the guitar is in good shape.

As other posters have mentioned, many auctions don't get bids until late in the auction. There are a gazillion used sunburst CS strats for sale out there, so it's difficult to get them to stand out amongst all the others for sale in auctions.

Price-wise, $1200 is a good starting point, but that is not necessarily the least the Seller will take for it. A fair, market price for that guitar is probably somewhere between $1250 and $1650 depending on many factors, so it's not like it's an unheard of starting price or something.

Go check it out in person man. That's your best bet. Hope you find a great guitar that you love- good luck!!

My CustomClassic had SCN's and S1 switching from new.

I do think the guitar is a fake mainly because of the poor advert. No self respecting guitar buyer comes out with such excuberant claims on a guitar that sells itself. The plain maple is my biggest red light. The neckplate looks plain shoddy, unlike the rest of the guitar.

Contoured heel, tuners, neck/headstock, nut, pickups, flame or plain maple. All are options for customshop guitars. Non by themselves set my alarmbells ringing. All of them together plus the overload of bad information given in the advert, set off a big red light.

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No no and no

There is nothing odd about the heel contour, nut or other features that are standard on the CS PRO strat. The Pro has additional modern features incorporated into the vintage guitar, to give more modern playability to the vintage feel and vibe.

Do some Googling on the Pro, and you'll see that there is nothing unusual about this auction. The tuners do look a bit caddywompus in the photos, but you can't tell unless you see it in person. All the mumbo-jumbo in the Description is just sales-talk. They want to sell it.

Would appear I'm not correct in any of that above.

Look at this.




Here
http://www.elderly.com/fmic/items/FSPCCAM.htm

List price of $3200. I'd be going round now with the cash in my hand if it were on these shores.

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No no and no

Ok...I'm gonna toss my $.02 worth in here too.

First I have to agree with a number of the other comments in regards to the seller's description...it -really- comes off sounding like a used car salesman to me as well. That in and of itself could simply be nothing more than a person with poor communication skills or even someone who feels a chronic need to b.s. their way through life but even on it's own, it makes me hesitate a bit.

Now with that, -if- I were considering this guitar (which I'm clearly not) there are, at the very least, a few things that I would like clearer, better pictures of. Number one is the issue already mentioned about the tuners...I would ask that the seller remove one of the tuners and take pictures of both the front and back of the headstock to ensure that there aren't any "extra holes"...maybe those Sperzel's in the other auction came off another guitar, maybe they didn't.

With that, I would also want some nice, BIG pictures of the headstock logo too...it could very well just be me but there is something fishy looking about that logo...although I can't really put my finger on it. I would also want some nice pics of that bridge as well...in the end shot it looks like an American Standard bridge but in one of the body shots, they look like "cheap chrome" saddles...it could be the camera angle, but I would want to make extra sure there. I also find the lack of a serial number on the headstock to be suspicious...I don't know CS models well enough to know whether they made any with the serial number only on the neck plate or not, so if I were buying I'd investigate that completely.

As someone else said, the lack of any pics of the COA is also highly suspicious...the seller claims to have one and it looks as though there is one in the first shot of the guitar in the case but I would want pics of that as well so that I could verify it through Fender.

Personally I'm not worried about the condition of the neck plate as someone else mentioned...that could easily be a "camera thing". Chrome doesn't always come out well in digital pictures, particularly with the use of a flash. I would however also ask for a picture of the trem cavity with the cover removed...it's really hard to tell from these pics there but it almost looks like one of those half-sized trem blocks on that bridge...which would go with the comments I made about the saddles as well.

Another thing that catches my attention is the seller's feed back score. While yes, it's 100% positive, if you look at that, he/she only has a score of 111....-and- nearly half of their feedback is as a buyer and not a seller (and it seems a lot of that is for shirts or t-shirts or something). To me this could suggest that this seller may not be all that reliable for high dollar items such as this.


Any one of these things alone would be easy to over-look but all together, there's a lot of tiny little issues there that make me seriously hesitate on this auction. If it were me, I would really make the seller -WORK- for this sale. I know that for some folks $1200 is just a "drop in the bucket" but to me, that's -a lot- of money. Add to that the fact that there -are- a lot of fakes running around out there (even good ones) and I would demand several more pictures and a lot more information and I'd do a lot more research...maybe even contact Fender with the info (assuming the seller was willing to provide it) at the very least before I would even consider a bid on this thing.

My advice here is caution...don't let your greed over-come your good sense here...yea...that could be a steal -if- the instrument is legit, but with what's been presented so far, it could just as easily be a scam too and in my book at least, $1200+ is a lot of money to risk on the proverbial coin toss. -If- the seller is willing to provide more pictures and a lot more information...it might be worth considering. That said, I would use nothing less than a major credit card via Paypal for a purchase such as this so that if there is something amiss here, it can be resolved though Paypal and/or your credit card company without getting burned too badly. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut but personally mine is telling me that with the info there alone and as is, to just walk away unless the seller can -prove- this instrument is truly legit...and if the seller really wants to sell this thing then they had better be willing to provide it.

Again, just my $.02,
Jim

A lot of things can look funny in a picture. I checked out what he has sold in the last few months and it is mostly clothing. This is where you can take advantage and get a good deal as the guy does not deal in music gear. I believe he did change and sell the tuners but that is no big deal. Just ask him if there are any dings, dents, scratches, cracks in the neck joint or anywhere else, how are the frets and is the guitar all original or has it been modded. You now have all your bases covered and if you buy it and something is not right -just send it back. You will be totaly covered by paypal for item coming not as described and will be refunded in no more than two weeks

I have bought plenty of guitars on ebay over the years and only had to return two and paypal took care of the problem. To be honest everything favors the buyer these days on ebay so have no fear. But this is the kind of buy you want . A guy who does not know a lot about guitars and just looking to sell one he has. Instead of someone who knows exactly what they have.

I'm still mystified by the sale of the original locking tuners in January this year:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 500wt_1018

Vintage-style tuners would be a pointless mod to that guitar, particularly when installed so badly... and there was only $40 in it for the seller. Maybe they just had to fiddle around with their guitar, realised that they didn't have a clue and decided to sell before they stuffed it up any further.

Just for the record, I emailed the seller and he admitted that the Gotoh tuners were an aftermarket mod that he'd done himself. He claimed the guitar was stock apart from that, and on the evidence of the low quality photos I see no reason to doubt him.

I got plenty more "salesmanship" in his reply to my enquiry...!

Anyhow. Sale ended; nine bids; $1575.

So everyone's happy.

Cheers - C

As I had hoped, this post was a good learning experience. A lot of you folks have a better eye than I do (the tuner installation) and great insight into what to look for when buying a new guitar.

I am still hoping to pick up a custom shop but will probably play a few of them before making the leap, maybe take a trip to Guitar Center in Hell-A since I hear they have a huge assortment in stock compared to what I can find in San Diego. Maybe in the process I will bond with one of them. In the mean time I suppose I should actually learn how to play the ones I have

Thx,
DP