Yep, it’s that time again… Winter NAMM 2009 is now in full swing, and even though difficulties in my offline life have kept me from attending for the last two years straight, I’m certainly there in spirit!
The big news from Fender this season (at least as far as electric guitar enthusiasts are concerned,) is the official release of their new Road Worn Series of guitars and basses.
These instruments are basically lower-cost Relics –– coming off the assembly line looking like they’ve already seen a few decades of sweaty, grimy, nicotine-stained bar band mayhem.
The Road Worn Series guitars –– made up of the ’50s Strat, ’60s Strat, and ’50s Tele –– are all selling for less than $1,000, while the ’50 P Bass, and ’60s J Bass are hovering in the $1200 range.
At this point I haven’t heard where these are being built (though Fender’s Mexican factory seems likely,) and I’ll be interested to see how they stand up to the Custom Shop Relics when it comes to authenticity. Still, Fender went back to a Nitro finish on these babies, so who knows?
The other big news is the release of the Band Master VM Head, Band Master VM 212 cabinet, and the Deluxe VM Combo… both amps are suped-up versions of their all-analog predecessors, now boasting traditional Blackface tube-amp goodness mixed with essential onboard digital effects, including reverb, chorus/vibrato, and delay.
No word yet on pricing or availability.
- Your Chance To Win A Road Worn ’50s Telecaster… From Fender & BigBang
- Fender Reveals New ‘American Special’ Line Of Guitars
- New York’s Music Zoo Gets Exclusive Ultimate Relic Series Strats
- Fender Unveils Limited Release ’57 Heavy Relic Stratocaster
- Fender Unveils The ‘60s Closet Classic Stratocaster With Competition Stripe
- Fender Announces ‘Tele-bration’, Celebrating 60 Years Of The Telecaster
- Fender Introduces Squier Vintage Modified Series
- NAMM 2009: Archtop Eye Candy At The Ibanez Booth
January 16th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Cary, great to see you posting again!
I was just in guitar center and took a look at the road worn series (didn’t have a chance to play one though)I liked the finish but thought they would vary the wear areas – nope – the’re all worn in exactly the same place. The street price is $900.00 – a little steep to me for a MIM strat when the 08 AM STND’s are in the same range.
GRIMM
January 16th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
The Band-Master VM head has a street price of $650 and is already available for pre-order at webstores. I wonder how close the tube amp circuit is to the ’66 Bassman head?
January 16th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
A grand is a lot for a MIM guitar. I’m surprised they started that high. I thought they’d be in the $750 range.
January 17th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Interesting what GRIMM says about all models being worn in the same place.
ESP’s cheaper version of their George Lynch model has the same “wear” patterns guitar to guitar, and looks like they use some sort of finish template– pretty cheesy looking. The premium versions are identical too, but the aging looks more naturally occurring.
If a Squier Relic line comes, it will probably represent the first foto-finish distressed guitar… If they hurry, that is.
January 17th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
You know, during your self relic experiment, I said I would build you a trophy if Fender lowered their custom shop prices. Now that it has happened (sort of) I find myself on the other side of the fence. I am now inclined to think the pre-worn guitar fad is officially out of control. I think Stratoblogster has already used the best word to describe this – cheesy. A whole series of MIM guitars all worn down in the same spot is quite lame. I think it is time this generation of guitarists finally starts putting wear and tear in the gear the right way – by constant playing. Factory finished “relics” really suck the mystique out of the whole concept.
OK I’m done ranting and your Tele still looks bad ass. :)
January 17th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Rick, I’m right with you on this one.
Fender is OUT OF CONTROL.
But they’ll probably be laughing all the way to the bank.
:)
January 17th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Fender IS out of control. I can’t imagine the nightmare of managing all of those SKUs. Definitely not an 80/20 approach to business.
On the other hand, Gibson released the Darkfire too soon, and now they’ve had to recall it — or at least delay the release. And they want 10 grand for the 50th anniversary Les Paul. 10 GRAND!!
So…which company is more out of control?
January 17th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
You know Tom, I just bought a PRS SE Custom for less than $500.00 and I love the little Korean fucker. Maybe it’s time everyone stopped putting such a high premium on the Big Two. If other brands are putting out quality instruments in other countries, why are we paying 10 grand for reissues? Have we all lost our minds?
January 18th, 2009 at 7:42 am
Rick I’m with you 100%. I just bought an Epiphone Genesis that was made in Japan in the late 70s. Admittedly it’s a Gibson product, but I paid $375 for the guitar and got it with its original HSC and old-school coiled cord. The guitar plays and sounds amazing.
Companies like PRS, Reverend…hell, maybe even Eastwood…are putting out quality instruments at great prices.
On the other hand, if you want to spend a ton of money on a guitar, there’s this explosion of boutique builders that are putting our beautiful, handmade instruments that have got to play and sound better than production Les Pauls.
There’s more competition out there than ever before. Maybe that’s why the Big Two are out of control.
January 19th, 2009 at 9:38 am
Gearhund – The Band-Master VM head has a street price of $650 and is already available for pre-order at webstores. I wonder how close the tube amp circuit is to the ‘66 Bassman head?
I think it’s closer to the Hot Rod Deluxe, or the recent reissue 40 watt Deluxe, than to anything vintage.
February 4th, 2009 at 4:32 am
On the Road Worn series the neck is American made while the body is Mexican.
I just bought a ’50′s RW, and I must admit that it is something like a “best ever” to me. It’s got everything I want in a good strat: it’s light, it’s got a fairly fat V neck with most of the lacquer missing on the back -and the neck lacquer even is satin poly as I prefer as nitro can be too sticky for me. The body is 100% nitro, just as I want, and the frets are my prefered 6105′s.
A guitar with these appointments is normally only available from the CS. Now it’s avialable for just $850.
Does it look goed? Well, the body looks fairly good although it won’t fool anybody, but that’s basically with ALL relic jobs. The front of the neck just looks plain bad IMO. It’s just fake and totally over-done. The fret ends stick out too much, the nut is a bit high, but that’s about it.
Seriously, I think this strat is the best $850 can buy.
July 5th, 2010 at 11:52 pm
A friend of mine just bought one of those road worn guitars and I can’t let him off the hook. I love my NEW Mexican Tele Custom. I have customized it a little myself. I replaced the saddles with compensated ones and now the intonation sounds great. I don’t know why they don’t just come with those but whatever. Bottom line. I want to put my own scratches on this guitar. Who knows how it will turn out in twenty to forty years. There is no short cut to experience.