Fender

Fender unveiled its Fender Select Series of guitars and basses, also known as "select instruments for select individuals": the Fender Select Stratocaster HSS, Stratocaster, Telecaster, Carved Koa Top Telecaster, Carved Maple Top Telecaster, Precision Bass, and Jazz Bass.  

Pump up your guitar tones with either the Fender Acoustasonic 100 Combo or the Acoustasonic 150 Combo acoustic guitar amps. Available in 100W and 150W varieties, the new combo amps are said to be lighter, louder, and more fully featured than their predecessors in the Acoustasonic series.  

Practice, perform, and record with the Fender Bronco 40 bass amp, now shipping. The 40W, 1-channel Bronco 40 boasts 24 presets and built-in FX, plus unlimited preset storage when the amp is connected via USB to a computer running the Fender FUSE software interface, which comes included.  

There's a small cult in San Fransisco, a cult based around a single fetish item: the Tascam 388 8-track reel-to-reel recorder. Wymond Miles, guitarist for the Fresh & Onyls, is a recent acolyte in the 38 order. We spoke with him about his new life outlook at the recent Pitchfork Music Festival.  

Fender released the heftier, more powerful versions of the Precision Bass and the Jazz Bass: the Blacktop Precision Bass and Blacktop Jazz Bass. These new instruments in the Blacktop Series offer high-gain humbucking pickups that deliver all that booming bass tone that players need.  

Check out the new Telecasters from Fender -- the American Vintage series includes the American Vintage ’69 Telecaster Thinline, the American Vintage ’72 Telecaster Thinline, and the American Vintage ’72 Telecaster Custom. These guitars in the American Vintage series have been redesigned and revoiced to reproduce classic 1960s and 1970s tones.  

The Velvet Monkeys appeared out of the fruitful music scene in the early 80s in the U.S. capitol. Don Fleming, from the band, has some new projects and he chatted with Gearwire about his modified 1967 Fender Jaguar.  

David Daraghi of The Postelles plays a 1962 Fender Jazzmaster Reissue. He looked at the Jaguar and even thought about sticking with a Strat. But the Jazzmaster won him over.  

Pete Biltoft runs Vintage Vibe and J.D. McPherson loves his pick-ups. They are a big part of McPherson's modified "frankentele."  

And the popcorn is poppin' in your face and it's. . . HD!!! And the Fender Mustang II Modeling Amplfiier is being demo'd and it's in. . . HD!!  

Simplicity itself, the Fender Pro Jr. III is uncluttered amp with rich tone and response. Owen tries it out with a number of different axes and details what sets it apart from its predecessor, the Pro Jr. III Sr.  

We're guessing the new Fender Blacktop Telecaster HH bears the name "Blacktop" because of its over-wound, hot AlNiCo pickups, and because blacktop gets really hot in the summer sun. Who's with me?  

The instrument that started it all gets yet another update with the 2010 Fender American Standard Precision Bass. Gearwire staffer Owen O'Malley scrutinizes the recent additions and determines whether they're welcome or un-.  

This vid is the greatest/
vid I've ever known/
Can’t live for some other vid/
It’s prolly much too long/
I burn my eyes out/
Before I get out.

I don't know what those last two lines are about.  

Kill the hate with Fender's Wayne Kramer Stratocaster, a replica of the original starred-and-striped Strat that MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer played way back when.  

Fender debuted its new line of Super-Sonic amps: the Super-Sonic 100 head, the Super Sonic 100 412 Straight Enclosure, the Super Sonic 100 412 Slant Enclosure, and the Super-Sonic Twin combo.  

Fender introduced its Pawn Shop Series of vintage-style electric guitars: the Pawn Shop Fender ’51, the Pawn Shop Fender ’72, and the Pawn Shop Mustang Special.  

First up in the Gearwire Friday video demo freakshow! It's a Fender with the neck of a Jazz Bass, and the body of an acoustic guitar! O! What cruel god hath wrought the Fender Kingman Bass SCE?  

This summer, kids between the ages of 10 and 18 will have the chance to attend Fernando Jones’ inaugural Blues Camp for free. The week-long blues camp will provide student musicians with professional blues instruction from Fernando Jones, at the Fender Center in Corona, Calif. If your kids pass the audition stage and make it in, all you have to do is get them there -- the camp is free but you're on your own for lodging and transportation.  

Imagine yourself a studio architech who's been told by your most recent client "the control room is adjacent to a small chamber wherein I regularly set off timed explosions and no, we can't move it." Even that would be easier than what Fender's Chuck Adamas and Panasonic's Natan Budiono had to deal with designing the new Fender Premium Audio System. We spoke with the pair about the painstaking tuning process for car audio.  

Remember when VW did that weird collaboration with First Act guitars? You know, the commercials featuring Slash and a "stack" of Jettas? The audiophile-targeted Fender Premium Audio System — available in select 2012 models — hopes to avoid any associations with those sorts of novelty brand tie-ins. . . Oops, my bust.  

Fender wants you to show off your passion for music with not just your choice of instrument, but your display of jewelry. Starting this week, King Baby Studios will be offering special Fender-collaborated jewelry with a rock 'n' roll vibe. Think rings, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, pendants, belt buckles, cufflinks, and more.  

There are many contenders in the lightweight tube combo division, but there can only be one (Super)Champ. Does this XD reissue deserve to be called the pound for pound greatest of all time, or is it just another bum soon to be hustling down by the docks? Joe Charpakorn stepped into the squared circle with this plucky 15-watter, and gives a blow by blow account in his hands-on review.  

Not about to let some other company best them at modeling their own tones, Fender came to Winter NAMM with three more amps in their digital Mustang line. We checked out the Fender Mustang IV 2x12 combo at the show.  

The Fender Kingman sure looks nice, but is it more than just a pretty face, or all sizzle and no steak? Gearwire's own Owen O'Malley recently demoed this acoustic bass, and he pulls no punches in this hands-on review. Forewarned is 4-stringed, so read on before adding this pony to your stable.  

Don Miggs has a bunch of nice guitars. We are not exaggerating. And like his Fender Andy Summers Telecaster, he isn't afraid to bring them on the road to play. You just have to be security conscious. Guitars are, after all, made to be played and not locked in an investor's vault.  

Fender's new Blacktop series is gaining some traction with musicians, delivering big tone and a solid feature set at a reasonable price. Michael Ross got to spend some quality time with the Blacktop Jazzmaster, and he tells you how it went in this hands-on review.  

While you can't play with Pink Floyd, what you can do is play a bass just like the one Roger Waters performed on -- the new Fender Roger Waters Precision Bass Guitar.  

Ian Worang plays for Toronto act, Bishop Morocco and he uses a Fender Jazzmaster he bought new in 2006. Yes, we know, the guitar pictured is not THIS guitar but it is a Jazzmaster. Worang has some insight into the guitar, how to modify it and what sort of effects work best with it.  

Jesse Harris has played a lot of different instruments through a variety of amps. These days his primary guitar is a Les Paul and he plays it through a 1960s Fender Princeton. HIs only regret is that it isn't a Princeton Reverb.