Design your dream guitar and save up to $400 on upgrades with the limited-time Fender Mod Shop sale

A Fender Mod Shop Jazzmaster on a purple background
(Image credit: Fender)

You’d think that ordering a guitar custom-built to your exact specifications might cost you a princely sum of cash, but with free upgrades that can offer massive savings of up to $400, the Fender Mod Shop just made designing your dream guitar a little bit cheaper. With all the popular Fender models available to be chopped and changed to your desires, this is one early Black Friday guitar deal that’s well worth a look.

I went and had a look at the Mod Shop to see what was available - not at all because it’s great fun designing your dream guitar - and put together my ideal Jazzmaster to see what the price came out at. Opting for a Skyburst Metallic color scheme I added a Rosewood neck, American Vintage II pickups, a set of deluxe locking tuners, and a 6-saddle bridge with Panorama tremolo, all of which were free upgrades from the sale.

It came out at $1,999.99, which is really not bad for a guitar made to my preferred specification. It’s less than the brand-new American Ultra II range of guitars, making it a great option if you're a bit tired of the standard Fender models. Free upgrades are available on a huge range of parts too, meaning you can get your dream axe at a significant discount.

Fender Mod Shop: Save up to $400

Fender Mod Shop: Save up to $400

Build your perfect guitar for less with this awesome sale over at the Fender Mod Shop. With a huge selection of free upgrades, you can save yourself up to $400 designing your ideal instrument, with savings available on all the classic Fender guitar shapes. It also includes bass guitars and the ever-divisive Acoustasonic range of hybrid electric-acoustic guitars.

Although there are not too many body wood options for the Jazzmaster (you can only choose between alder and pine) other models in the lineup have plenty of free upgrades. You can go for a Mahoganyor chambered ash on the Strat and Tele models, as well as classic Alder if you prefer the gold standard for a Fender guitar. Alder also gives you the most color options as the others are a bit lacking in that department.

Neck’s also have an array of free upgrade options so you can select between Mahogany, rosewood, or roasted maple. As arguably the most important part of any guitar, this is a crucial choice when designing your dream instrument. There are also free upgrades for more aesthetic choices available, like a black-painted headstock or block inlays of the fretboard.

There’s a wide array of pickups available too, and you can select pretty much any configuration when putting together your axe. Free upgrades can get you a Shawbucker humbucker, V-Mod pickups, and Gen 4 Noiseless if you like your sounds more modern. For classic Fender tone lovers you can also upgrade to the American Vintage II pickups in a range of classic configurations.

Matt McCracken
Junior Deals Writer

Matt is a Junior Deals Writer here at Guitar Player. He regularly tests and reviews music gear with a focus on guitars, amps, pedals, modelers, and pretty much anything else guitar-related. Matt worked in music retail for 5 years at Dawsons Music and Northwest Guitars and has written for many music sites including MusicRadar, Guitar World, Guitar.com, Ultimate Guitar, and Thomann’s t.blog. A regularly gigging guitarist with over 20 years of experience playing live, writing, and recording in bands, he's performed everything from jazz to djent, gigging all over the UK in more dingy venues than you can shake a drop-tuned guitar at.