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BIZARRE: Fenders - What They Never Told You

“I struggle to think of any Fender that surpasses a Mary Kaye Strat in value or collector appeal”: Body dated January 1956, the first of its kind, played on an Aerosmith album – is this the holy grail of all holy grail Fender Stratocasters?

Only two features distinguished a Mary Kaye Stratocaster from any other Strat that might have rolled off Fender’s production line during the mid-to-late 1950s. So why are vintage examples so darn valuable?

Guitar World

“People always say Rory Gallagher and Stevie Ray Vaughan had acidic sweat – but this is what I think”: Why some of the most famous Fenders are so heavily worn, according to a Custom Shop Masterbuilder

Dale Wilson attempts to solve the mystery of why vintage Fenders played by big-name artists have so much gnarly wear

Guitar World

“When I go, ‘Let’s try a Marshall,’ and we put it in, I go, ‘I don’t like that!’ Marshalls hurt my ears these days”: Ricky Byrd on tracking with Joan Jett, his Franken-Tele that sounds nothing like a Tele, and how sobriety has improved his playing

Byrd has seen the world of rock ’n’ roll go through changes, but one thing he’s stuck with is his “tricky” approach to playing – and he’s full of optimism for the future

Guitar World

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“It’s ugly, but if you want probably the best-sounding Stratocaster in the house...” Norman’s Rare Guitars is home to some of the finest Strats in the world – but you’ll never guess which one sounds the best

The store has waxed lyrical about a mid-priced, made-in-Mexico Strat that’s given its vintage counterparts a run for their money

Guitar World

“The authentic broken-in feel players love about vintage Fenders”: Fender’s Road Worn guitars have become a dying breed – but now they're back as limited-edition Vintera II guitars

An all-new aging process that offers a subtle 'closet classic' vibe is paired with era-correct pickups and authentic neck shapes

Guitar World

“I went to Guitar Center and saw this Iceman sitting there and I was like, ‘You know, that’s a guitar that not too many people use’”: How the Ibanez Iceman became System of a Down’s Daron Malakian’s go-to guitar – and why he initially didn’t play it live

The System of a Down guitarist even got his own limited-edition signature version in 2004

Guitar World

“One guitar that got used a lot was an ex-Keith Richards 1956 TV Yellow Junior… we were drowning in amazing gear”: Wrecking old tube amps, thrashing vintage Fenders, Chris Buck is taking no prisoners as Cardinal Black return

With their 2022 debut, Cardinal Black introduced the world to a budding guitar hero. Chris Buck explains how its followup has taken his playing and songwriting to the next level

Guitar World

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“It just never felt like it worked with Queens. There’s something about it – it’s a little too ordinary”: Troy Van Leeuwen explains why Queens of the Stone Age are not a Fender Strat band

The alt-rock maverick doubles down on his love for offsets and the Tele's versatile tone

Guitar World

Glastonbury 2025: the iconic guitar moments that stole the show at one of the world's biggest music festivals

Pop icons with pointy metal guitars, oddball Masterbuilt Fenders, historic Martins and more – Glastonbury was a dream weekend for players, and here are the pictures to prove it

Guitar World

“I don’t want a guitar that, the moment I play it, sounds like the blues. Sometimes I want a guitar to sound truly horrendous!” For IDLES’ Lee Kiernan, modding guitars is a gateway to sonic chaos – and Fenders make the perfect platforms

The post-punk trailblazer is one of the faces of Fender’s new Player II Modified series. He explains why he’s not interested in perfection while making music – to the point of not wanting a guitar to sound like a guitar at all

Guitar World

“I got that bass for $50 off this coke dealer. I don’t know what Jaco did to it, but he totally messed up the insides!” How Cro-Mags’ Harley Flanagan went from buying a Jaco Pastorius bass on the street to fronting one of hardcore’s most influential bands

The Cro-Mags founder on the reason he plays Fenders despite loving Rickenbackers, learning from Lemmy and the new documentary about his struggle for survival

Guitar World

“If this guitar had come out of one of our other facilities saying Fender no one would be having this conversation”: Fender’s Justin Norvell on the $599 Standard Series, how it was made, and why it is not a Squier with a different decal on the headstock

Fender’s EVP of product on who its new Indonesian entry-level series is for, what its critics are getting wrong, and why this is (probably) as affordable as the Acoustasonic is going to get

MusicRadar

“I was playing a lot of jazz when we did Longview. I’d sit in at jazz clubs and read off the Real Book”: If you think Mike Dirnt is another clueless punk, think again

Every success story needs a behind-the-scenes hero, and for Green Day, it was bassist Mike Dirnt. He details the making of American Idiot and his forensic approach to bass tone

Guitar World

“This is really emotional and personal for us”: $18 million of fake Gibson guitars seized by US Border Protection officers in biggest counterfeit instrument bust on record

Over 3,000 counterfeit Gibsons – along with a handful of fake Fenders, Gretsch guitars, and PRS guitars – were seized after arriving in the US in ocean containers from Asia

Guitar World

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“I went there with the intention of buying a Gretsch Jet Firebird. He said, ‘Forget the Gretsch. That’s a toy compared to the 335’”: Ritchie Blackmore recalls buying his first Gibson from amp pioneer Jim Marshall's music store

Blackmore used the Gibson ES-335 all throughout the '60s, from The Outlaws to Deep Purple’s 1970 breakthrough album, In Rock

MusicRadar

“I’ve played some new Gibson and Fenders that really nail it”: Joe Perry says guitar making is as good now as it was in the golden era – and explains why you don’t need to spend $7000+ on a vintage Klon

The Aerosmith guitarist has a formidable stockpile of vintage gear but argues you that the new gear is just as good, and more affordable too

Guitar World

“People have always gravitated to guitars by Fender Japan because you get so much more choice… The build quality is the best Fender makes outside the Custom Shop”: How the Japanese Fender offset conquered the world

Fender Japan showed the world how radically offsets could be modified. We visited specialist Japanese guitar retailer Gas Station Guitars to chart the evolution of the MIJ offset

Guitar World

“Don’t sell your first bass. Even if you never play it again, in later life you’ll wish you still had it”: With a stage name coined by Bootsy Collins, Freekbass names the one bass that “like an idiot” he ended up selling

Chris ‘Freekbass’ Sherman on how a Rickenbacker and a BC Rich (via Tiran Porter from the Doobie Brothers) set him on a lifelong low-end path

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Guitar World

“I never thought that my signature would be on anything – never mind Fenders, Gibsons, and Martins, they're the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost of guitars”: Mark Knopfler is selling off 120 guitars, including his Money For Nothing Les Paul

See the Scottish guitar great talk through highlights of his immense collection of signature models, custom builds and guitars used on Dire Straits’ most iconic tracks

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