I came home today to the new Fender Frontline in Home– the second issue! The cover and inside cover are promoting the new Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival Strat and Twin with the line art logos for Crossroads Antigua which is a charity that supports a treatment center for chemically dependent people and their families. There will be 100 guitars with 50 matched to amps. These guitars are going to be handcrafted at the Custom Shop to Clapton’s specifications and each with the smiling sun logo that he designed. The guitar is $20000 and the guitar/amp combination will be $30000.
Other new and interesting items in this catalog include the Joe Strummer Tribute page. I got to see one of these up close in King of Prussia, PA at Sam Ash. While I really like the idea of this tribute guitar, I have a hard time justifying over $800 for a Mexican telecaster. Plus, it doesn’t look as good up close. It is one thing to be relic’d, but the matte black finish makes it look kind of fake. Just my opinion, of course!
This issue also includes the new California Series Sonoran SCE Custom Acoustics. These are kind of cool looking– coming in some vintage “surfy” colors with painted headstocks. I’d consider one of these. It certainly would look nice hanging next to my other Fenders since it has a CBS Strat-looking headstock on it.
Another free T-shirt!! Again, you need to do a “test drive” at an authorized Fender dealer. This time you don’t need to test drive something in the catalog– which is an improvement. Test drive any Fender product. Last time I went to Guitar Center and the only thing they had was the “VG” Stratocaster from the catalog. This T-Shirt looks much nicer than the last Test Drive– this one has a ’52-ish Telecaster leaning against a classic Twin amp with a simple Fender logo under it. Still on a black Tee. I know what I’ll be doing this weekend!
A focus on the Squier Artist Series with the Avril Lavigne Telecaster with the nifty Cheap Trickish black and white checkered pickguard. Basses from Pete Wentz, Mike Dirnt and Frank Bello. I guess it is cool to bring the Artist Series into the budget line. Also a Rockband ad showing the new Stratocaster controller for Rockband. That’s cool. Much cooler than the Rockstar SG’s.
New Super and Vibro Champ XD amps that are hybrid Tube with digital effects. Seems cool, but if you end up doing digital effects aren’t you killing why you have tubes to begin with? Plus, they say “tube powered” does that mean they use tubes in the power stage only and not part of the tone stack? I’m sure tube purists everywhere have made their decisions…
I see a new Mexican Telecaster called the Blackout Tele. A Standard Mexican Telecaster with maple neck, dressed in black with a three-layer black pickguard and 6-saddle bridge. Has a third chrome “lipstick” style pickup between the neck and bridge. Seems pretty unique and really sharp. I may need to try one of these to see what interesting sounds come with the extra pickup. The Power Teles have the extra single-coil, so maybe they sound like that.
If you haven’t signed up for Frontliine in Home– you should if you’re into Fender products. Click Here to find the signup page.