Ever just cruise the Fender Japan site and dream?
Do you ever just cruise the Fender Japan website and dream? Cos I sure do…
Click each pic for more info.
Fender Custom Shop 2013 Custom Collection
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (Dec. 27, 2012) — The Fender Custom Shop’s 2013 Custom Collection presents some of its most sophisticated and meticulously crafted product offerings to date, including eight guitars and two basses. The most distinctive features of each individual model are listed below:
2013 Custom Deluxe Stratocaster®
- Okume body with access heel and AAA flame maple veneer top in Faded Three-Color Sunburst, Candy Yellow, or Ebony Trans
- Urethane-finished AAA flame maple neck with a mid-’60s oval “C” back shape
- Dark rosewood or one-piece maple fretboard with 22 medium jumbo frets
- Custom Shop Fat ’50s pickups with five-way pickup switch and modern Strat® wiring
- Chrome hardware with pearl button tuners Continue reading
COOL GEAR ALERT: Squier USB Strat
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (November 12, 2012) – Squier is proud to introduce an innovative new Strat guitar model that can directly connect with and record to Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or Windows-based computers.
The Squier by Fender Strat Guitar with USB and iOS Connectivity features an onboard mini-USB connector that allows players to interface directly and easily with all these devices, with no additional hardware needed – including GarageBand and other music apps on iOS. Continue reading
Roland Guitar Friend Jam
This has got to be the coolest thing to happen to jamming since the music store notice board: Roland’s Guitar Friend Jam. It’s a social media application which hooks you up with other guitarists and lets you share your rockin’ with the world. It requires a few specialised pieces of gear to work: either a Fender GK-Ready Stratocaster GC-1 or a guitar with a Roland GK-3 hex pickup, and either a Roland GR-55 Guitar Synthesizer or Roland V-Guitar System VG-99.
Personally I have a huge crush on the GC-1 and GR-55 (almost to the ‘Put Money In A Jar Labelled Roland GR Stuff’ level). When I was all of 16 years old a local music store loaned me a much, much earlier version of Roland’s guitar synth technology so I could figure it out and do a demo/clinic in-store. I loved having that thing to play with for a few weeks, but as soon as I brought it back to the store somebody bought it and they didn’t need me to do the demo any more. Booo!
Here’s the press release:
New Fender American Vintage Series guitars!
SUMMER NAMM 2012: Dean Markley Carl Verheyen strings
If you’re a Stratocaster user, you’ve probably seen that video above by Carl Verheyen. It’s been passed around on forums for a few years, and it explains how to perfectly balance the string tension and spring tension of your Stratocaster so that when you float the bridge you can achieve specific intervals by bending the bar up, and so you can maintain better return to pitch and some rather nice vibrato sounds as well.
Now Carl has teamed up with Dean Markley to create what appears to be the ultimate set of Strat-friendly strings for players who prefer this type of setup. Check it out! He explains it even further in this new video:
PRESS RELEASE:
Dean Markley and Carl Verheyen Tame the Strat
SANTA CLARA, CA – July 10, 2012 – Dean Markley today announces the release of the new Carl Verheyen Balanced Bridge Helix Electric strings. This partnership brings a unique string set intended to balance the six screw and two screw Strat-style bridges. The new string set features a unique blend of gauges and features the new Helix patent-pending hyper-elliptical windings.
Tech Basics: The Fender ‘Ashtray’ bridge cover
For almost twenty years, all Fender Stratocasters came with a chrome bridge cover. When the Strat was first designed, the bridge itself was considered kinda ugly, so it made sense to cover it up and make it appear smoother and more sleek. The cover has a small notch on one side so that the whammy bar can still do its thing, and when it’s in place it gives the Strat a slight Cadillac vibe.
The colour of the universe: Yngwie
See that up above? That’s the average colour of the universe. NASA determined this by computationally averaging the light emitted by one of the largest sample of galaxies yet analysed (the 200,000 galaxies of the 2dF survey). The resulting cosmic spectrum has some emission in all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, but a single perceived composite color.
Does the colour look familiar?
Well, maybe not quite, but it’s close, yeah?
That’s the Fender Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster. That’s an old pic: the current version comes with Seymour Duncan YJM Fury pickups.
INTERVIEW: Buddy Guy
Blues legend. That’s all there is to it. Buddy Guy is one of the pioneers of the Chicago blues sound, a continually amazing guitarist, highly energetic performer, and a prime influence on one Mr Jimi Hendrix. At 75 years young, Guy is nowhere near slowing down, playing Australian dates in Sydney and Melbourne with Jonny Lang, as well as a standout set at Bluesfest. I spoke to Guy prior to Bluesfest and just after he finished up a string of dates on the Experience Hendrix tour in the USA.
“I’ve can’t count the times I’ve been to Australia,” Guy says. “I started coming down there in 1972. That was my first time coming down and I had never met [Delta Blues legend] Arthur Crudup before. I think it was the guy who created the Newport Jazz Festival, George Wein – he was taking it around the world, and that was my first visit to Australia. And what a country, man. I just fell in love with it.”
A Strat Is Born
Check out this great video by Fender about the birth of a Fender Stratocaster. I was lucky enough to take the factory tour myself earlier this year, and I was surprised to see just how much handwork is still put into the guitars. You’ll see examples of that here: even though computer-controlled gadgetry is used in some steps, there’s still a huge amount of human involvement in the birth of a Fender guitar. Fine sanding, installing inlays, building bridges, installing truss rods, hammering in frets, shielding the electronics cavities, winding pickups… its’ just cool to see that there’s such a human element in every Fender.
It’s fun to compare it with the one below from 1959 and see how many things are different and how many are the same.
Hi! I'm Peter Hodgson. I write for Gibson.com, Australian Guitar, Australian Musician, Mixdown Magazine (including my instructional column, 'Unleash Your Inner Rock God,' which has been running since 2007), Blunt, Beat (including their weekly hard rock/metal column Crunch) and The Brag. And I'm Assistant Social Coordinator with Seymour Duncan.
I've been playing guitar since I was 8 years old, and I've been writing for magazines since I was 18. I've also worked as a guitar teacher (up to 50 students a week), a setup tech, a newspaper editor, and I've also dabbled in radio a little bit. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and my hobbies include drinking way too much coffee, and eating way too much Mexican food.
You can check out my guitar playing at Bandcamp or on YouTube, and feel free to email me at iheartguitarblog@gmail.com