Master builder Carlos Lopez is Leaving Fender

Discussion of newer designs, copies and reissue offset-waist instruments.
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snarf
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Master builder Carlos Lopez is Leaving Fender

Post by snarf » Sun Dec 05, 2021 4:57 am

Fender Custom Shop Masterbuilder Carlos Lopez announced he's leaving Fender on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CXDceMSrmUB/
My last Waltz. Thank you everyone for all the support through the years. I have made the decision to continue this Journey on my own. I don’t know what that looks like but im optimistic to my future of stepping into the unknown with open arms. Thank you to everyone that supported me through the years, 16 years to be exact. I am Humbled and honored to have the opportunity to work for the biggest Guitar manufacturing company in the world.

Keep a look out im coming!!!
#future #love
I just wanted to make a thread dedicated to his amazing instruments of which I have the pleasure of owning one of. If you got one, please share.

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Meriphew
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Re: Master builder Carlos Lopez is Leaving Fender

Post by Meriphew » Sun Dec 05, 2021 6:39 am

He was building the coolest looking stuff there. It's an interesting move in this time with everything going on though. I'm assuming he's going to form his own company.

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Mechanical Birds
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Re: Master builder Carlos Lopez is Leaving Fender

Post by Mechanical Birds » Sun Dec 05, 2021 7:08 am

Oh man bummer but hopefully yeah, he’s gonna start a company. I’ll probably never be able to afford a custom shop level guitar but I sure loved looking at his work.

The guy brought back the Marauder, GTFO everyone else (except for Ron Thorn)

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Re: Master builder Carlos Lopez is Leaving Fender

Post by Jaguar018 » Sun Dec 05, 2021 12:19 pm

Mechanical Birds wrote:
Sun Dec 05, 2021 7:08 am
The guy brought back the Marauder, GTFO everyone else (except for Ron Thorn)
Dennis Galuszka made my Jaguar in 2008, and he was perfectly nice. :whistle:

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Jonesie
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Re: Master builder Carlos Lopez is Leaving Fender

Post by Jonesie » Sun Dec 05, 2021 12:30 pm

edited by mod
You're a real charmer, aren't you.

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Re: Master builder Carlos Lopez is Leaving Fender

Post by algeriet » Sun Dec 05, 2021 1:29 pm

Calopez Guitars 2022 let's go! 🤌

This means unfortunately that the Fender CS version of the Squier Vista Series Venus XII he was going to build will never see the light of day, at least as a Fender. I was hoping to have an absolutely tiny part in the history of Fender but alas... :P

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Re: Master builder Carlos Lopez is Leaving Fender

Post by Powdered Toast Man » Sun Dec 05, 2021 5:23 pm

edited by mod

Care to expand on that? Why? What's the beef?

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Re: Master builder Carlos Lopez is Leaving Fender

Post by tammyw » Sun Dec 05, 2021 6:00 pm

Good for him, I hope he finds the opportunities he's looking for.

I'd imagine even the master builders get stuck building a lot of reissue Strats and Teles with only slight variations in specs.
All pain and troubles melted away like lemon drops beyond the contrails across the sky.

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Re: Master builder Carlos Lopez is Leaving Fender

Post by zhivago » Mon Dec 06, 2021 12:47 am

I just cleaned up the thread from the reported posts and issued a warning via PM.

Let's all remember site rule #1:
1. If you don't have anything useful to add, don't say anything. Be polite and respectful. Disagreement can be good and is perfectly acceptable. Don't take it personally if someone disagrees with you. Personal attacks, insults, hate speech or trolling will not be tolerated, and neither will displays of racism, homophobia, etc.
Resident Spartan.

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Re: Master builder Carlos Lopez is Leaving Fender

Post by bubba899 » Mon Dec 06, 2021 4:18 am

What a guitar to bow out on! Really interested to see what he does next, imagine he'll be cautious of treading on his old pay masters toes which could lead to some really interesting stuff.

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Re: Master builder Carlos Lopez is Leaving Fender

Post by dropthebeat » Tue Dec 07, 2021 7:07 am

I have a (non-Fender) guitar built by Carlos and it's remarkable - it's also remarkably heavy (he is, or at least was, a "heavy wood is good wood" guy).

He's built Fender-inspired guitars along with some fantastic original designs - the Brawler design was his, from what I can tell, and he's made a semihollow that obviously shares some Starcaster DNA but is its own very cool thing. Honestly it's refreshing to see a guitar builder with equal measures of skill and taste.

To that end, I had pretty high hopes for the Custom Shop with Ron Thorn at the helm and masterbuilders like Carlos working there. Custom Shop Fenders, especially at the MB level, will likely never be a financial priority for me - for the money, I would probably choose (and have already chosen) vintage or small builder, or most of a decent used car - but seeing FCS designs trickle down into production Fenders has always been fun, and models like the Brawler and the California Special could breathe new life into a stagnant product line.

Anyway. Carlos has obviously established his name and his skill is considerable, so I can't wait to see what's next for him.

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Re: Master builder Carlos Lopez is Leaving Fender

Post by smjenkins » Tue Dec 07, 2021 7:52 pm

I just went through Carlos' IG feed. Omg he's had some amazing builds. Huge loss to the quirky and offset output from the custom shop.

I hope he goes on to make more great instruments.

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Re: Master builder Carlos Lopez is Leaving Fender

Post by beninma » Thu Dec 09, 2021 6:35 am

Yah I just went and looked at his Instagram feed too.. not being a Custom Shop guitar person I don't follow this stuff.

The Custom relic Marauder he sent to CME recently has got to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

I'd never even heard of the Marauder, what a fascinating guitar. It looks like Leo Fender came up with the Marauder, then left for CBS, and then the guitar was never put into production.

The Marauder totally looks like some kind of missing evolutionary link between Pre-CBS Fender and what he made at G&L later. So cool to see a Custom Shop version of a guitar that's almost impossible to find a vintage one.

Hopefully he brings out some awesome stuff on his own and has great luck.

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Re: Master builder Carlos Lopez is Leaving Fender

Post by dropthebeat » Sat Jan 22, 2022 8:45 am

For anyone interested, looks like he's struck out on his own as expected - check out castedosaguitars on Instagram. He's posted one pretty cool finished guitar with kind of a JM-via-Strat-via-Kay K300 thing going on. Never going to feel as excited about a relic as an equivalent non-reliced guitar, but he knows his market I guess.

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Re: Master builder Carlos Lopez is Leaving Fender

Post by fuzzy_man_peach » Sat Jan 22, 2022 3:57 pm

That is a thing of beauty, love the CBS era prototype offset vibes and echopark vibes, I was gutted to hear him leaving fender because I was seriously hoping his designs would trickle down the chain much like with the rascal bass did, a fender brawler with a fixed bridge and normal humbuckers in classic shell pinks or reds would be amazing, even a squier version, and a marauder would be absolutely amazing but after seeing this initial design I think he's gonna come up with some modern classic offsets! I love his vision!

Wonder if we can get him to do a £1000+ line so some of us mortals can grab a piece of the action? ;)

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