Scottsdale, AZ (August 27, 2014) -- Fender is proud to release several new Limited Edition American Standard Series guitars, new Classic Player Series models and a Special Edition Blacktop Series guitar.
The venerable American Standard Stratocaster now comes in a new limited edition model featuring Fender’s innovative channel-bound compound-radius fretboard and the time-honored look of a Dakota Red or Sonic Blue gloss finish. The fingerboard is inlaid into the neck in a design with an elegant appearance and a distinctive fretting-hand feel in which both edges are comfortably rounded, with no side seam between neck and fretboard. Further, the fingerboard’s 9.5"-14" compound radius graduates smoothly from a more rounded profile at the nut (great for chording) to a more flattened profile near the body (great for soloing).
The workhorse American Standard Telecaster is also available as a new limited edition model featuring Fender’s innovative channel-bound compound-radius fingerboard and the time-honored look of a Dakota Red or Sonic Blue gloss finish.
In addition, Fender introduces two brilliant new limited edition looks for the American Standard Stratocaster—Vintage White with a tortoiseshell pickguard and rosewood fingerboard, and Mystic Aztec Gold with a parchment pickguard and maple fingerboard. All the acclaimed features, sound and style of the archetypal American Standard Stratocaster, now in even more beautiful finish options.
Former Fender Custom Shop Master Builder Chris Fleming has taken his previous design for the Classic Player Baja Telecaster and upgraded it with full-on 1960s features and vibe, including a rosewood fingerboard and a comfortable ’60s “C”-shaped neck profile. The guitar also features an alder body, 9.5" fingerboard radius and 21 medium jumbo frets, single coil American Vintage ’52 Tele (neck) and ’58 Tele (bridge) pickups with special four-way (including both pickups in series) and S-1™ switching, three-ply pickguard, American Vintage string-through body Telecaster bridge with three brass “barrel” saddles, special Custom Shop neck plate engraving and more.
Fender Custom Shop Master Builder Yuriy Shishkov has designed an entirely new model for the Classic Player series that blends ’60s and ’70s styling with modern high-performance. The Classic Player Strat HH has special touches including dual Wide Range Special humbucking pickups, five-way switching with coil splitting for more traditional single-coil Stratocaster sounds, and a sultry Dark Mercedes Blue gloss finish with a matching headstock. Other features include a maple neck with a comfortable ’60s “C”-shaped profile, bound rosewood fingerboard with 9.5" radius and 22 medium jumbo frets, three-ply black pickguard, two-point synchronized tremolo bridge with modern plate and vintage-style saddles, and vintage-style Fender “F”-stamped tuners.
Fender Custom Shop Master Builder Todd Krause has designed an unusual take on the Telecaster for the Classic Player series. The high-performance Classic Player Triple Tele rocks three slanted Nocaster single-coil bridge pickups for truly distinctive modern tone and the classic look of a black finish and pickguard paired with a one-piece maple neck/fingerboard. Other features include a thick “C”-shaped neck profile, 9.5” fingerboard radius and 21 vintage-style frets, five-way Stratocaster-style switching, vintage-style string-through-body bridge with three brass saddles, special Custom Shop neck plate engraving and more.
Originally created in the Fender Custom Shop by Master Builder Jason Smith, the Rascal Bass joins the Fender lineup as a sleek short-scale Classic Player model loaded with distinctive features and personality. With its ’60s-era Bass VI body, three Seymour Duncan lipstick Stratocaster pickups, 30” scale and gorgeous gloss Ocean Turquoise finish with matching Coronado-style headstock, there’s no other Fender bass like the Rascal. Other premium features include a flat-sawn maple neck with a comfortable “C”-shaped profile, 9.5”-radius rosewood fingerboard with 21 medium jumbo frets and special inlay scheme (bass-side dot markers from 3rd to 9th frets, double dots at 12th fret, treble-side dot markers from 15th to 21st frets), vintage-style heel-end truss rod adjustment, white pearloid pickguard, five-way pickup switch with chrome “barrel” tip, push-pull master volume control that delivers seven pickup configurations, master tone control, distinctive bridge with four adjustable steel “barrel” saddles, vintage-style tuners and more.
The Blacktop Jazzmaster is now available in a scorching special edition HH model with dual humbucking pickups for even more supercharged tone. Further, a new all-black look features a Candy Apple Red racing stripe that takes a sleek cue from the great “competition stripe” Fender models of the late ’60s and early ’70s.
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One of the reasons classic Queens of the Stone Age tracks leap from radio speakers like striking vipers is because Josh Homme is a true recording artist—an individual that chases and realizes the sounds in his mind by any means necessary. When you play the 10-watt, solid-state Peavey Decade Too with Homme and QOTSA in mind you understand why the original Peavey Decade became integral to that process. It’s feral, present, nasty, bursting with punky attitude, and when tracked and mixed with a booming bass, sounds positively menacing. But it’s also a lovely clean jangle machine that will lend energy to paisley psych pop or punch to a Bakersfield Telecaster solo.
Objectively speaking, if you’ve played an ’80s Peavey practice amp before, you will know many of these sounds well. (Many of my own early amplified experiences came courtesy of a borrowed Backstage 30, so they are etched deep in my marrow and consciousness.) Like any small amp with a little speaker and cabinet, it’s marked by an inherent, pronounced midrange honk—no doubt, an ingredient that Homme found appealing in his original Decade. The saturation is thick and surprisingly dimensional. But it’s the 3-band EQ, with added bass and top-end boost buttons, that really extends the versatility of the Decade Too. In many contexts, it made a cherished vintage Fender Champ sound like a one-trick pony. The Decade Too may not excel at cooking-tubes-style distortion, but in terms of punch, clarity, and versatility in the studio environment, it delivers the goods.
Peavey Josh Homme Decade Too 10-watt 1 x 8-inch Combo Amplifier
The day before they played the coveted Blue Room at Third Man Records in Nashville, the Washington, D.C.-based garage-punk duo Teen Mortgage released their debut record, Devil Ultrasonic Dream. Not a bad couple of days for a young band.
PG’s Chris Kies caught up with guitarist and vocalist James Guile at the Blue Room to find out how he builds the band’s bombastic guitar attack.
Brought to you by D’Addario.
Devilish Dunable
Guile has been known to use Telecasters and Gretsches in the past, but this time out he’s sticking with this Dunable Cyclops DE, courtesy of Gwarsenio Hall—aka Jordan Olds of metal-themed comedy talk show Two Minutes to Late Night. Guile digs the Dunable’s lightness on his shoulders, and its balance of high and low frequencies.
Storm Warning
What does Guile like about this Squier Cyclone? Simple: its color. This one is also nice and easy on the back, and Guile picked it up from Atomic Music in Beltsville, Maryland.
Crushing It
Guile also scooped this Music Man 410-HD from Atomic, which he got just for this tour for a pretty sweet deal. It runs alongside an Orange Crush Bass 100 to rumble out the low end.
James Guile’s Pedalboard
The Electro-Harmonix Micro POG and Hiwatt Filter Fuzz MkII run to the Orange, while everything else—a DigiTech Whammy, Pro Co Lil’ RAT, and Death by Audio Echo Dream 2—runs to the Music Man. A TC Helicon Mic Mechanic is on board for vocal assistance, and a TC Electronic PolyTune 3, Morley ABY, and Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 3 Plus keep the ship afloat.
