Hi I have a 2008 clapton strat it was made in the usa, can anyone tell me what the diffrence in parts and labor is " between " usa " made, " custom " shop built, " and " masterbuilt????? " thanks

a guitar made in the US is made in the US factory

A custom shop guitar is made in fenders custom shop with multiple builders involved

a masterbuilt guitar is made by a single builder

Okay - generally speaking the Custom Shop gets first choice of the raw wood when it comes in to the company. The Custom Shop is also a smaller production line than the regular production line. As cechansler says, "Masterbuilt" means that a single Fender CS Master Builder has built an individual guitar (some Master Builders do every process themselves; others do the processes they do best and personally oversee other builders doing other parts of the process). And typically they also take their choice of the woods set aside for the CS, so it should be the "best of the best" so to speak.

Of course that being said an Artist Signature generally gets the best of the wood that is routed to the regular USA production line (for example the Eric Johnson Strats have very specific requirements for the body and neck that rival the CS).

Hardware for the Claptons is going to be the same quality regardless of the version - same pickups, bridge, tuners, and mid-boost. There was a time period where the Master Built Claptons had a regular tone control instead of the TBX tone control found on the USA production and the team-built CS models; I'm not sure if that is still the case.

Hope that helps.

That's right.

Though an amazing statistic is that the the Custom Shop by itself is the sixth largest guitar maker in the world. If it was an independent company it would be a fairly big important one.

Makes ya think...

Cheers - C

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well you would think that a usa clapton strat that has all the same stuff like pick-ups and mid range, and hardwhere would at lest get a Certificate of Authenticity, and it seems like the signature markings should be more then a decal.
thanks for all your coments!

Not to mention the MIM bodies are made from the USA shop's remnants from their guitar blanks.

From everything I have seen read and heard he stopped using the TBX in 2009. Said it was too muddy.

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Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self. Therefore, trust the physician and drink his remedy in silence and tranquility.-Khalil Gibran

EC stopped using the TBX since he made the switch to VNs in 2000. He agreed having that feature included on the Teambuilt versions of his custom artist signature Strat as of 2009.