Mötley Crüe’s Mick Mars plays some of the coolest Fender Strats in the biz. Have you seen the cool distressed-looking Strats with neck and bridge humbuckers, big fat headstocks and Floyd Roses that he routinely uses? They’re high on my wish-list of guitars-that-don’t-exist-yet-but-totally-should. Well recently I interviewed Mars for a non-guitarry publication, but eventually – we both being guitarists, and guitarists being a particularly talkative lot – the conversation turned to Strats and why they’re so damn cool. So, since it wouldn’t really be appropriate for the magazine the interview was for, here’s the little guitarry portion of the chat, just for I Heart Guitar readers. Enjoy!
It seems like whenever I see you interviewed on camera, you’re always surrounded by Strats. Why is it about them that you like?
Maybe I’m a little bit strange, because I’ve got a lot of Stratocasters – ’60s, ’50s – but I like the bigger headstocks. I dunno, I like Stratocasters, and that really shows it: here’s a big, giant Fender Stratocaster logo in your face! Like, when Marshall amps first came out they had that little tiny logo, and then they went up to this gigantic, huge thing. It’s like that kind of a deal. I don’t know, I just prefer the bigger headstocks. It’s funny, when I was a kid I didn’t, but when I got older I started to like the bigger headstocks, which started in ’66.”
Has there been any talk of doing a signature model Fender for you, based on the customs you use with the humbuckers and Floyd Rose?
There’s been some talk between Guitar Center and Fender. I don’t know how far it’s gotten, but Guitar Center want to do a limited edition of my guitar, like they did with Eric Clapton’s ‘Blackie.’ So they’re talking to Fender about it. But I don’t know. There’s a little excitement going on, but right now Fender is in the middle of switching up. People are coming in, people are leaving, and they’re right in the middle of that. They’re still Fender but some people have taken over this, some people have retired, some of the people I worked with have left the company. So the guitar is still in the talking stages, and they’re still excited about it.”