Fender's new Tom Delonge Strat is out of this world, in more ways than one

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Originally published at: Fender's new Tom Delonge Strat is out of this world, in more ways than one | Boing Boing

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At that price-point, it’s a Les Paul Junior in a strat suit.

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I don’t get why musicians would pay such a premium for a guitar just because it has a ‘name’ on it. It’s a work tool. Does the ‘celebrity’ label make it work any better? (Rhetorical.)

The company was kind of enough

@thomdunn What’s with the superfluous preposition?

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1300 for a MIM Strat?
You can get an American-made one with a humbucker in the bridge for 1750.
And with a hardshell case instead of a gig bag. FYI.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/StratAP2HRDK--fender-american-professional-ii-stratocaster-hss-dark-night-with-rosewood-fingerboard

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Now that is nice.

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A typo! I meant “kind enough”

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Gibson did recently put out a Billie Joe Armstrong signature one-pickup LP Jr for over $2k. they wouldn’t send me one to try out myself but I imagine I’d have a similar response. (My main guitar for years was a mahogany flat-belly LP Jr Special with P-90s that I bought for like $800 twenty years ago. It’s essentially the same thing, but without Billie Joe’s name attached)

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Your previous daily driver sounds like a beauty! I love the chunky neck and p-90 combo, they really work for me. This being said, the price tag on Juniors nowadays is insane. I’d buy an Epiphone version if i didn’t dislike the headstock shape so much.

I worked at a music store when Gibson did a run of Melody Makers that were basically Juniors with a single coil and MSRP was around $400; i still regret not scooping one up.

ETA: MSRP, not RSVP

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I definitely didn’t understand what i was getting with the P-90s — it was just the cheapest Actual Gibson I could find, and I really wanted an Actual Gibson.

But now I’m a P-90 fanatic through and through. It’s like, why choose between a single coil and a humbucker when you can have both at the same time?

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I’ve never seen the point of celebrity signature guitars. Why would I want to spend more money on a guitar to try to copy someone else’s look and sound? The only thing worse than a signature guitar is a reliced signature guitar.

There is one exception, though. Technically a Les Paul is a signature guitar. I’m okay with buying one of those.

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The added bonus of this model (which I forgot to mention in the piece) is that Tom Delonge doesn’t even play this guitar anymore!

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Unless this is made out of the “alien alloys” Delonge claims to have acquired, probably not worth the markup.

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That would be dope and totally worth the markup (though it’d still be a marketing ploy since the alloy is BS anyway)

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P-90s? I assume you need a licence for that? :thinking: I guess it brings an interesting percussive quality to your playing.

BffGhH3CAAER_0Q

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Nope.

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Thank you for pointing out the price. I think it’s a lovely guitar and I may be in the market for a basic, no frills electric in the near future, but I’m still a beginner and that’s way out of my price range. Pretty thing, though.

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That new single pickup Squire may be a decent alternative!

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Friend of mine built me a Tele with a humbucker in the bridge and a P90 in the neck.
Ash body he did all the luthier work on and a Fender neck. Fun guitar.
I also have a 56 Reissue goldtop LP I bought used a long time ago for a song. It’s got a monster tone. That fat neck, tho. :slight_smile:

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Lucky! I payed 3k for mine in ‘97 :wink:

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I saw no movement (early on) with his left hand. Not a guitar guy here, but was his guitar open tuned?