Fernandes Nomad "Hello Kitty"

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I can't really add this Fernandes Nomad "Hello Kitty" to the "Hideous guitars" tag here on this blog, because - let's face it - it's not aimed at the likes of me. However, it's seems like incredibly lazy marketing. You can imagine the conversation:

"We want to market this guitar to young girls."
"Let's make it pink."
"Yes, good idea. And maybe add a cute cartoon character too."

I mean, c'mon... Am I the only one that finds this "let's make it pink and cutesy" attitude cloyingly sickening? And isn't it a little bit insulting to women? I'm all for "guitars for girls" but much prefer the designs of Luna Guitars who make guitars suited to the female form that are feminine without being nauseating - some of which appeal to male players too.

Yeah, I get that the "Hello Kitty" Nomad is aimed at a younger age group, but in some ways that makes it all the worse... but hey, this is supposed to be a blog about guitars and not gender politics, so I'll leave it at that.

Maybe I'm wrong but I feel that the seller is being a tad optimistic asking a Buy It Now price of $599. This guitar may well be "discontinued" (I wonder why?), "rare" and "mint", but I can't really see anyone but the most rabid Fernandes collector going for this one. Or maybe a "Hello Kitty" collector.

G L Wilson

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

Fernandes Rieko and Maki Tele

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Of the weird and wonderful guitars we showcase here on Guitarz, some which I enjoy the most are the often surreal (to us Westerners anyway) instruments associated with Japanese bands. This left-handed Tele-style guitar from Fernandes is adorned with photos of Rieko Miura and Maki Miyamae from J-Pop group Coco, who were active from 1989-1994.

I'm guessing this guitar was a souvenir item for sale to fans. I can't imagine it being used by the group in a live situation. I mean, who'd play a guitar with a picture of themself on it? It does beg the question, why are only two of the group featured on the guitar and were the other members represented on a different guitar? Also, as it is left-handed, was there also a right-handed guitar (surely?) and if so, how did the artwork differ or was it merely a mirror image?

Granted, this is an extremely cheesy guitar but one that I find fascinating.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

It's that cat again! This time on a Burny Flying V

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Following on from our piece about the Fernandes "Love Driver" Strat, I would like to thank Ralf Mutz from bringing this Burny Flying V LV-115KK Ken model to my attention. Like the Fernandes Love Driver it has an ultra-sparkly finish, and there at the 12-fret is the very same black cat inlay. The Burny brand was produced by Fernandes, but the Fernandes name was initially reserved for Fender replicas with the Burny brand being applied to Gibson replicas.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Fernandes Love Driver is a real pussycat

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I almost feel that I should have to apologise when posting about another Stratocaster. However, this custom shop quality instrument is no Fender. Built in Japan's FujiGen factory in either the late 1970s or early 1980s (my guess would be the latter), this Fernandes Love Driver with "Erotic Body" is the kind of quality Japanese "copy" that got Fender thinking that if they can't beat them they may as well join them and which led to the emergence of the Squier and Fender Japan lines.

What would you call that finish? It's a kind of dusky pink sparkle. And I'm not usually one for fancy inlay work, but I do like the black cat at the 12th fret position.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Fernandes GM-85 MS Pearl Yellow Kenichi Ito

guitarz.blogspot.com:

ESP are usually the manufacturer we immediately associate with weird and wonderful signature guitars designed for a whole host of Japanese guitarists and bassists, names that we in the West are not familiar with. However, Fernandes have also got in on this act (indeed we have looked at some of these previously), and this particular yellow guitar, the Fernandes GM-85 MS is the signature guitar of Kenichi Ito formerly of the band Iceman.

If it looks familiar to some of our regular readers, that may be because we previously featured a diminutive version of this guitar with built-in amp.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

John Mayall's sawn-off Strats

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Latvis sent the above photo and comments that: "I know that John Mayall has many modified and odd shaped guitars. [In] 1990 he played this one at Kuusrock Festival here in Finland."

Indeed, John Mayall does seem to favour Strat-type guitars (in the above instance it's a Fernandes) with the body chopped down to the bare minimum. Quite why he likes such tiny-bodied guitars is anyone's guess. Perhaps it has something to do with the way he slings the guitar strap over his right shoulder?

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Fernandes Hisashi Imai Signature model BT-1200MM

guitarz.blogspot.com:

As a sequel to yesterday's blog post about Hisashi Imai's Fernandes stabilizer guitar, here's another of the Buck Tick guitarist's signature models, the Fernandes Hisashi Imai Signature model BT-1200MM.

It makes a change from all the ultra-pointy guitars, I suppose.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Fernandes Hisashi Imai Stabilizer Guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I don't know if you'll believe me that it's possible, but it would seem that the Japanese are even more crazy about the guitar than we are in the West. They have long had guitar models that simply do not see the light of day outside of Japan. Just take a look at some Japanese guitar websites - you'll see all sorts of guitars that you've never laid eyes on before.

The Fernandes Hisashi Imai signature guitar features their own Sustainer system and a stabilizer bar similar to that found on the Roland GR-707 guitar synthesizer controller of the 1980s. With the GR-707 the bar supposedly kept the neck rock steady and allowed for accurate tracking of the strings. I'm wondering if the bar on this Fernandes maybe performs a similar function and improves performance of the sustainer? But the cynic in me doubts it; I reckon it's just there for aesthetics.

Hisashi Imai is guitarist of Japanese rock band Buck Tick who formed in 1984, and are founders of the Japanese musical movement known as Visual Kei, a style of music characterized by the use of make-up, elaborate hair styles and flamboyant costumes (and which sounds like the 1980s never ended for some). I suppose it figures that such a band would use flamboyant looking guitars too.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Needs must...

OK, I'm having a bit of a sale right now, because (a) I don't really have the room for so many guitars, and (b) because I need to be able to pay for the latest purchase (more of that later!). So, here we have for sale the following:

• Danelectro '56 U2 circa 1990s with mismatched body and neck
  
• Danelectro 12+6 doubleneck circa 1990s (Was sold but the courier companies made it all but impossible for me to ship to Spain, so I had to issue a refund. I feel a rant coming on! - GLW, 20/02/09)
  
• Fernandes Native Pro with sustainer
  
• Washburn Idol WI-64DL with Buzz Feiten tuning system and VCC tone controls

So, if you like what you see, get bidding! EVERYTHING MUST GO!

(And yes, I did take my guitars out into the snow for a few photos, and no it didn't do them any harm whatsoever.)

Strange Fernandes Guitar

I'm not sure what to say about this very peculiar looking Fernandes Guitar. It's not a model I've ever seen before. Possibly it's a guitar intended for the Japanese market only. It appears to be quite a diminuitive guitar, so my guess is that this is aimed at children, and that it has an on-board amp and speaker (the big black "hole" near the bridge). Does anyone recognise the logo underneath the red button on the upper horn?

Fernandes Um Jammer Lammy

Life imitates art imitates life imitates... etc.

Blimey! Would you look at this? This guitar looks for all the world as if the designer had based it on a cartoon drawing by someone who, in turn, was basing their drawing on a Les Paul.

Actually, that's more or less exactly what has happened here. Apparently there is some computer game called Um Jammer Lammy (doesn't it just sound wretched?), and the above guitar - the Fernandes UJL-2000 to give it its correct designation - is based on the guitar played by a character within the game.

Now, you'll have to excuse my vagueness when it comes to such matters, because - I ain't ashamed to say it - I HATE ALL COMPUTER GAMES WITH A PASSION! Whilst we're on this sorry subject please bear it in mind to mention not the abomination that is Guitar Hero. I'm so sick and tired of finding crap about that load of nonsense every time I perform a search for GENUINE guitar-related news for this blog. It's part of the reason I turned to eBay for new material.

Now, let's never speak of it again.

Spiritual Enlightenment from Fernandes

According to the eBay listing for this one-off Fernandes with custom artwork:

"Porong" is a mountainous region in Tibet where the monks use their musical instruments to reach and maintain spiritual enlightenment. With that in mind look closely at guitars graphic: The little man (monk?) on the body of the guitar is wearing a backpack and hiking boots, his hand pointing upwards. On the headstock you see what he is pointing to: The mountainous region of "Porong"! Look closely at the hat he is wearing: the word "Porong" is written on the brim of his hat suggesting that his spiritual journey is always on his mind! So what we have here is an instrument that reflects ones "spiritual journey" towards enlightenment via music! Now that my friends is some serious MOJO!

Classic!

Skull Strings

I've just installed a set of Drop C tuning Skull Strings on my Fernandes Native Pro by way of experiment. The makers claim that they are of the "perfect gauge and tension for extreme music", and that they last longer and sound louder! Quite a claim.

Actually, I haven't used a Drop C tuning as such, I've downtuned the entire guitar by two whole steps below standard tuning, so that low to high it's tuned C-F-A#-D#-G-C. Experimenting with the various different effects settings I'm able to get some quite convincing modern metal tones, but far more interesting for me is that using digital acoustic simulation, I'm able to create some really interesting and quite usable sounds. (I'm not really aiming to get into that whole death metal/grindcore thing). Anyway, it's early days and I expect I'll report again on how these strings are working out for me.

Counterfeit Guitars Swarm Auction Sites: wise words from guitarsite.com.

I've more or less given up checking the eBay guitar listings because there are so many fake auctions and counterfeits on there. When I tried selling a Fernandes guitar earlier in the year, the auction was hijacked by a Taiwanese "seller" up to eight times. I was able to change my photos to include a wanring message and my real details on each image, and as the hijacker had just copied my text and image references wholesale, the doctored images showed up in his sale too!

So, my tip for sellers is to superimpose your eBay ID and email address onto each image you use to discourage it being copied.

Incidentally, the Fernandes eventually went for a ridiculously low price. I'm sure that buyers were put off by the confusion.

EBAY - ISN'T IT ABOUT TIME YOU GOT YOUR ACT TOGETHER?

A doubleneck travel guitar? Isn't that an oxymoron?

This tribute to Jimmy Page's Gibson doubleneck is part of Fernandes Guitars' new Art Rock series featuring 60/70s Rock Legend flavoured variations of their popular Nomad travel guitars (with built-in amplifier).

As well as the Two Heaven model shown above there is another Led Zeppelin-themed guitar, the Kashmir which is a Fernandes Nomad with a Danelectro DC-50 twist (lipstick pickup, "seal" scratchplate), and also one for Eric Clapton fans, the Sunshine Love which pays homage to Clapton's psychedelic Gibson SG. The series is completed with two basses - the Sunshine Love Bass and the Ladyland Bass.

However, the one fly in the ointment is that as far as I am aware, these are only available for the Japanese market and do not appear on the Fernandes Guitars website aimed at the rest of the world. I only found out about these guitars in the first place from a Japanese guitar magazine that a friend sent me. (I could hardly read a word of it, but there were lots of pretty pictures!)