Why not more Esquires?

[ihavenothingprofoundtosay]

Just curious: why are there not more Esquire routed (Tele bridge pickup only) Telecaster bodies?  It seems like they're all always routed for standard Tele neck + bridge pickups.  If any guitar body can be routed after the fact, wouldn't it make a bit more sense to have a few Esquire bodies for those folk who would want an Esquire sans pickguard?

Also: why is the Snakehead only available in maple through the builder? And only with 1 11/16" nut width?

 

[Cagey]

I would expect that the Showcase is almost always going to be driven by statistics. It would be foolish to do it otherwise. Too much money involved. Warmoth has been fabricating bodies/necks for a long time, so they have some pretty good data on what sells. It's not just what we see move through the Showcase, it's their total sales that they pay attention to, which I'm sure is what drives what goes into the Showcase as well.

If you rarely see what it is you want, it's more likely than not that it's not something others would want. They gotta play by the numbers if they wanna sell stuff. Of course, that doesn't mean that what you want isn't desirable, it just means that nobody else has thought of it. It's custom. If you can't wait, then you can order stuff custom. It'll just cost you 15%-20% more plus some wait time. But, if you gotta have it, whaddaya gonna do?

They're a great resource. You can't always get what you want, but there are few places you can go that will get you any closer at a reasonable price with any accountability.

 

[line6man]

My guess is because neck pickups rock.

 

[swarfrat]

I didn't see a way to determine age from the showcase, but there's 34 pages of Strats, and sorted by date, this is tail end charlie. Nuff Said.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Supply and Demand, is the reason.
Occassionaly, some "one off" experiments make their way on to the showcase, but for the most part, they supply the most demand for quick turnover.