Have Fender got something right at last with the Pawn Shop Series?

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Now I'm not normally one for doing a piece on every new guitar released by one of the Big Boys in the Guitar World. I usually let the other guitar blogs cover that kind of thing whilst I continue ploughing through eBay and elsewhere for the weird and wonderful.

But, Wow! Here are some new issue Fender guitars that I'd actually want to buy. These are the Fender Pawn Shop Series dubbed in the marketing blurb as "Guitars that never were, but should have been", instruments with the "look and vibe of a modified vintage guitar and hybrid models that have never existed before".

OK, so these could be considered to be variants on existing models - indeed we on this blog have been very critical of Fender in re-issuing variants of the same guitars, mainly Stratocasters and Telecasters, over and over - but now Fender are being a little bolder with these designs, I believe.

One model which should already look familiar to us is the Fender '51, which is essentially a higher spec'd, bona fide Fender version of the Squier '51. The '51 was so-named because of its looks based on the '51 Precision Bass. I guess that the Fender '72 is likewise named after the 70s version of the same bass reissued and renamed the Telecaster Bass. The Fender '72 takes the '51 template but adds a chambered f-hole body and a neck humbucker. The other model in the series is the Mustang Special which features two Fender humbuckers and a hardtail Strat bridge.

Personally I'd love to get my mitts on a Fender '72 in surf green, which I think looks absolutely fantastic.

Thanks to Bill Cesavice on Facebook for the heads up.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!