As you probably already know if you’ve been following Fender News, we got together Feb. 19 with our Japanese distributor, Yamano Music, and bestowed the title of Fender Custom Shop “Showcase Dealer” on 13 Japanese Custom Shop dealers as well as the title of “Product Specialist” on 24 select sales personnel. The ceremony occurred at Fender Showcase Tokyo in the heart of the Japanese capital.
Shortly after the presentation of the awards, a number of select Custom Shop instruments were offered up for purchase, and the competition was stiff — so stiff, in fact, that representatives from individual dealers had to gather in the middle of the floor and resort to playing “Rock, Paper, Scissors” to determine who’d take a given instrument home. Fantastic event, and a lot of fun was had by all in attendance! The photo says it all:
….To the JAZZMASTER (1958-2008). Though never gaining the level of mainstream use or ubiquity of its older siblings (the Stratocaster and Telecaster), few could argue that the Jazzmaster forged its own path at the creative edge of music. From Surf to punk, to new wave, to grunge, the Jazzmaster has made its own history on the sonic periphery.
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In addition to its musical legacy, it has spawned its own community of fervent followers. Type the name into a search engine-there are tons of sites out there dedicated to this great offset guitar.
Stay tuned- throughout the year we will be celebrating this instrument with historical info, artist interviews and more!
A tip of the hat and raise of the glass to the Jazzmaster. May 50 be that kind to all of us…
Tim Whittaker of Stephens City, VA, was naturally pretty skeptical when he got the big call from us letting him know that he had won the Fender Play Loud-Go Fast Sweepstakes. But, sure enough, Tim now finds himself the proud new owner of a new Ford® Shelby® GT Mustang® coupe and matching Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster® guitar! Read the full story in Fender.com News.
No, not the guy that smashes fruits and veggies with a sledgehammer…this is a Rory Gallagher Strat- the kingpin of all relic models. It looks so cool, and feels like an old pair of jeans. I have a lot of guitars around me every day, but it had been a while since I’ve held or played one of these. Sadly, my clutches are but a quick pit stop in this guitar’s journey, as this stunning instrument has to move along to its final destination with an artist.
Click photos to enlarge…
Look how they replicate the tuning key replacements…holes and all…
If you aren’t familiar with Rory, check this out….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k4iocWURPk
If you participated in our recent Show Us Your Fender / Tell Us Your Story campaign here at Fender.com, you might be in for a surprise. As we’ve already mentioned a few times, we’ve used your photos throughout our entire American Standard Series “Make History” campaign: the website, the ads, the brochure, the trade show display … heck, we even screened your photos onto a couple one-off instruments that we had on display at the recent NAMM Show!
Anyway … Fender.com Community member Brian Krashpad was surprised to find himself in the American Standard Telecaster® guitar ad in the March issue of Guitar Player magazine, and was kind enough to share his excitement with us. Fender’s been a big part of his life and he had the following to say:
Fender and me, we go way back. My first decent axe was a 1960 Duo-Sonic® guitar I found in a local mom&pop in the late ’70’s for $67 and change, which my dad refinished to natural wood (some cretin had used house paint on it!), and which I still own … The biggest moment of my Fender “career” (haha!) so far was playing bass for Bo Diddley at a benefit a couple years ago — on my MIM Fender Standard Jazz Bass® guitar (with a MIJ Squier P Bass® guitar in reserve). Just goes to show you don’t have to spend a fortune on an instrument to have a perfectly giggable axe.
Brian sent in photos too. For starters, here’s the right side of the advertisement in the 2-page Guitar Player March issue:
Here’s a closeup of Brian, featured right above the ‘T’ in the word ‘THE’:
And here’s the original photo Brian sent in:
Cool stuff indeed. Thanks, Brian, for sharing!
