Premier Guitar features affiliate links to help support our content. We may earn a commission on any affiliated purchases.

Fender & Nile Rodgers Introduce the Hitmaker Stratocaster

Fender & Nile Rodgers Introduce the Hitmaker Stratocaster

Modeled after Nile Rodgers' legendary Strat used on hits with David Bowie, Diana Ross, Madonna, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and more.


This Fender Artist Signature Series release honors both Nile and the iconic guitar he used to write, produce and/or perform on countless hits for the likes of: David Bowie, Diana Ross, Madonna, Daft Punk, Duran Duran, The B-52ā€™s, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Daddy Yankee, Robert Plant / The Honeydrippers, Jeff Beck, The Vaughan Brothers, Lady Gaga, Sister Sledge, INXS, Sam Smith and many more. The Nile Rodgers collection will include words of advice from Rodgers himself, insight into his collaborative, creative process and individual video lessons for hits like ā€œGood Timesā€ and ā€œLe Freakā€ (Chic); ā€œIā€™m Coming Outā€ and ā€œUpside Downā€ (Diana Ross); ā€œLike A Virginā€ and ā€œMaterial Girlā€ (Madonna) when selecting the Pop path.

A number of features make the Hitmaker truly unique. It has the body of a 1960s Stratocaster guitar but the neck of a 1959 model. When played in Nileā€™s signature ā€œchuckingā€ style, the sound of this guitar became an essential component of Nileā€™s world-famous songwriting. Fender worked closely with Rodgers to study the original Hitmaker and design a meticulous recreation of the original guitar.

Nile Rodgers Hitmaker Stratocaster

The Hitmaker features a 1960 alder body that is uniquely smaller and more contoured than a typical vintage Strat guitar. The Olympic White lacquer matches the finish Nile sprayed on the guitar himself just after he acquired it in the early days of Chic. The custom ā€™59-profile one-piece maple neck has a 9.5ā€ radius fingerboard, medium jumbo frets and a satin finish. A ā€œNile Rodgers & Chicā€ logo adorns the back of the headstock and a custom Hitmaker logo is stamped into the neck plate. The Nile Rodgers Hitmaker single-coil Strat pickups are voiced to accurately replicate the quack, chime and bell-like clarity of the original Hitmaker. Other features include a hardtail string through bridge with period-correct bent-steel saddles, an eye-catching mirrored chrome-plated brass pickguard, locking Sperzel tuners and a set of white speed knobs. The guitar also comes with a vintage-style case with Hitmaker-embroidered interior and a custom certificate of authenticity. $2,599.99 USD.

Exploring the Nile Rodgers Hitmaker Stratocaster | Artist Signature | Fender

For technical specs, additional information on new Fender products and to find a retail partner near you, visit www.fender.com. Join the conversation on social media by following @Fender.

The Spirit Fall trio: drummer Brian Blade (right) and saxophonist Chris Potter (center) joined Patitucci (left) for a single day at The Bunker. ā€œThose guys are scary. It almost puts pressure on me, how good they are, because they get it really fast,ā€ says Patitucci.

Photo by Sachi Sato

Legendary bassist John Patitucci continues to explore the sound of a chord-less trio that balances melodicism with boundless harmonic freedomā€”and shares lessons he learned from his mentors Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter.

In 1959, Miles Davisā€™ Kind of Blue and John Coltraneā€™s Giant Stepsā€”two of the most influential albums in jazz historyā€”were recorded. Itā€™s somewhat poetic that four-time Grammy-winning jazz bass icon John Patitucci was born that same year. In addition to a storied career as a bandleader, Patitucci cemented his legacy through his lengthy association with two giants of jazz: keyboardist Chick Corea, with whom Patitucci enjoyed a 10-year tenure as an original member of his Elektric and Akoustic bands, and saxophonist Wayne Shorterā€™s quartet, of which he was a core member for 20 years. Patitucci has also worked with a whoā€™s who of jazz elites like Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Dizzy Gillespie, and Michael Brecker.

Read MoreShow less

The National New Yorker lived at the forefront of the emerging electric guitar industry, and in Memphis Minnieā€™s hands, it came alive.

This National electric is just the tip of the iceberg of electric guitar history.

On a summer day in 1897, a girl named Lizzie Douglas was born on a farm in the middle of nowhere in Mississippi, the first of 13 siblings. When she was seven, her family moved closer to Memphis, Tennessee, and little Lizzie took up the banjo. Banjo led to guitar, guitar led to gigs, and gigs led to dreams. She was a prodigious talent, and ā€œKidā€ Douglas ran away from home to play for tips on Beale Street when she was just a teenager. She began touring around the South, adopted the moniker Memphis Minnie, and eventually joined the circus for a few years.

Read MoreShow less
- YouTube

In our third installment with Santa Cruz Guitar Company founder Richard Hoover, the master luthier shows PG's John Bohlinger how his team of builders assemble and construct guitars like a chef preparing food pairings. Hoover explains that the finer details like binding, headstock size and shape, internal bracing, and adhesives are critical players in shaping an instrument's sound. Finally, Richard explains how SCGC uses every inch of wood for making acoustic guitars or outside ventures like surfboards and art.

We know Horsegirl as a band of musicians, but their friendships will always come before the music. From left to right: Nora Cheng, drummer Gigi Reece, and Penelope Lowenstein.

Photo by Ruby Faye

The Chicago-via-New York trio of best friends reinterpret the best bits of college-rock and ā€™90s indie on their new record, Phonetics On and On.

Horsegirl guitarists Nora Cheng and Penelope Lowenstein are back in their hometown of Chicago during winter break from New York University, where they share an apartment with drummer Gigi Reece. Theyā€™re both in the middle of writing papers. Cheng is working on one about Buckminster Fuller for a city planning class, and Lowenstein is untangling Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmannā€™s short story, ā€œThree Paths to the Lake.ā€

Read MoreShow less