Fender Bullet Owners Club

[jays0n]

Don't imagine there are a lot of folks with these, but have seen a few around TDPRI and hope we could get those, as well as fans, the curious, and ... so on and so on, together to chat about the guitar. I actually tried to start similar thing in a Yahoo group but that died miserably. Hope this goes better.
The guitar in question is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Bullet


I am wondering is if the group should be limited to a certain date range, like
1981 - 1984 when they seem to have switched to Squire and start to become not
what they were. Thoughts?



Some links that might be interesting for Bullet owners:

U.S. Made Serial Number info from fender.com:
http://www.fender.com/support/usa_instruments.php

A Bullet fan site (a bullet owner's site)
http://fenderbullet.info/index.html

An awkward attempt at dialog about the guitar at the Harmony Central:
http://reviews.harmony-central.com/r...llet+Guitar/1\
0/1


Also, John Page is lurking around at TDPRI these days and did some great posts of his experience with the Bullet. Starting about here in this thread:
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaste...ml#post1868250


Thanks for listening and I hope to hear from some of the others. Gonna post some photos of mine in another post.

j

[jays0n]

My 81' Bullet. I got one just like this (not this one) in late 81' or early 82' as a present and it pretty much got me into playing. I had been playing an acoustic for a but was a whole new experience with the electric of course. I guess I am therefore exactly the person Fender was targeting with this inexpensive model, a teenager with no cash, and in a family with no cash, that would learn to love Fender Guitars if they could only afford one.

I lost the original guitar by being a stupid teenager, and moved on to Telecasters (wonder if there is a owners club for those :) but later I got a chance to get one in mint condition again, and the very same year, model and color as I start out with and though pricey I got it. It came with the manual, inspection tags and the original case. Really great find for me.

Anyway here is my 81'

j

[Johnny Isaacs]

My Bullet's decal says it's an 81 but I think it's actually an 83. The model number of mine is called the H-3. The pickup is actually two single coils but they're not wound together like a traditional humbucker.

The neck is really amazing on these things.



I added the 70's reflective Johnny Cash sticker to mine in tribute to Bob Wootton, the guitar player who replaced Luther Perkins after he died. In early 80's Kramer guitars made his a red guitar with a single humbucker in it he played all the time. So I named my Bullet after him!

Johnny Isaacs

[Sollophonic]

I had one of these till recently, but mine was in a pretty poor state. The neck was just not reliable at all, it would twist with any change in temperature.



I have to say while it was a fun guitar, I sold it on and for less than a quarter what I got for it, I got a much more playable, nicer sounding Squier Standard.

[Cunningham26]

Just saw the really great rock band Phoenix, and their guitarists both use bullets, though the rhythm guitarists' primary was a rosewood tele. the lead had two, in cream and red. amazing

[jays0n]

Funny, when I first had one, my friends all had Gibsons with humbuckers and I always thought my bullet did not work well in the punk rock bands I was trying to play in. Now I am all nostalgic about the sound of these and then now see alt rock or punk groups using them from time to time. I checked for photos of that Phoenix group and yeah, hey, there they are with a Bullet, cool.



Sorry to hear that the neck on Sollophonic's was having issues, I am with Johnny I, and think the neck is the best part of em. Folks tend to buy these now days on the bay, then take the necks off to put on Tele bodies. I seem to see a lot of Bullet body's for sale without necks and sometimes necks alone for waayyyyy to much. I got a body (complete) really cheap recently that is a bit road worn, and had been repainted at some point too. But it has been hard to get an actual Bullet neck for it. I will probably get a Tele neck sometime for it I imagine.

[Yogi]

Just found a blonde '81 deluxe locally for $495+ tax. Put $60 down and should pick it up later this month. I went in to get a Squier CV tele and stumbled upon it. Its a really awesome and unique guitar

[jays0n]

WOW, that is a great price for an 81. Did you play it in the shop? The neck should have been really sweet. The CVs are nice from what I hear and I want one too, but I think your gonna be pleased with the Bullet. I just put mine down before checking mail BTW.

Hope you can get some photos of er up here once you get it.

j

Originally Posted by Yogi

Just found a blonde '81 deluxe locally for $495+ tax. Put $60 down and should pick it up later this month. I went in to get a Squier CV tele and stumbled upon it. Its a really awesome and unique guitar

[Yogi]

Originally Posted by jays0n

WOW, that is a great price for an 81. Did you play it in the shop? The neck should have been really sweet. The CVs are nice from what I hear and I want one too, but I think your gonna be pleased with the Bullet. I just put mine down before checking mail BTW.

Hope you can get some photos of er up here once you get it.

j

Yes I played her for a couple of hours through a HRD, Once I picked her up I knew I had to have her . The white finish has nicely aged to a blondish yellow, and she has a few bumps and buckle rash, and the metal parts have slightly oxidized. It really stood out in the store, I had never seen a guitar like it, and I used to own an '83 MIJ Squier Bullet H2

[Yogi]

crappy cell pic

[yoreel]

[QUOTE=jays0n;1893862]Don't imagine there are a lot of folks with these, but have seen a few around TDPRI and hope we could get those, as well as fans, the curious, and ... so on and so on, together to chat about the guitar. I actually tried to start similar thing in a Yahoo group but that died miserably. Hope this goes better.
The guitar in question is: I am wondering is if the group should be limited to a certain date range, like
1981 - 1984 when they seem to have switched to Squire and start to become notvwhat they were. Thoughts?

Hi, I have just registered, I am Leeroy the guy in the pics on the link you pasted ( http://fenderbullet.info/index.html ). I have 12 Bullets & use an S3 USA Bullet as my main guitar. I have been collecting them since 2004 along with mustangs & other guitars, I know quite a lot about the USA Bullets & I am currently building a website to give people more info on the guitars, if you have any questions I will be happy to answer them if I can.
How do you upload pics to this forum ? Is it like most others, ie , through a photo bucket URL etc ?????

[Yogi]

[QUOTE=yoreel;1924616]

Originally Posted by jays0n

How do you upload pics to this forum ? Is it like most others, ie , through a photo bucket URL etc ?????

Yeah add pics to photobucket or Flikr and then use the IMG tags

[yoreel]

[QUOTE=Yogi;1924980]

Originally Posted by yoreel

Yeah add pics to photobucket or Flikr and then use the IMG tags

Thanks for the info, heres some pics of the USA Fender Bullet I use as my main guitar, the neck on this guitar is superb.

[yoreel]

Here are some pics of the first Bullet I bought on ebay, the one that started me on the road collecting these little gems.
This is one of my favourites & it plays well, the neck has that lovely worn in mojo, it also sings acoustically which is always a good sign.
The only problem with the standard Bullet, is the rattle of the saddles on the metal pick guard, due the the all in one bridge design.
Although this guitar has an E1 (81) serial No, the pots are dated June 82 & the neck 83, most of these have E1 serials, I believe that fender had a job lot of these E1 serials & just used them up on the Bullet.

[xrolandtx]

Hey guys, Im not officially a part of the owners club yet, but I plan on becomming one soon :)

Could any of you measure the body thickness on the bullet tele style? Is it the same as a tele? Thinner?

[jays0n]

Been away from the PC a bit lately. I am having a lot of trouble with my hands, and fingers from too much computer use (I have been a software engineer since 95 and it is now too much) so try to stay off it when I can. Want to address some of the posts I missed seeing.

@Yogi: WOW, even for a Phone pic that looks cool sitting there. I would be blown away to walk into a music store and see one sitting there like that. Have you seen this:
http://brochures.yokochou.com/guitar.../en_p1516.html

@Yoreel: Good to have you on board Leeroy, and thanks for sharing. Your site was what got me wanting to have some kind of Bullet forum. I tried on Yahoo (and I think I emailed you through your site about it, but did not get or missed your reply) but Yahoo was as lost cause. Here there are real Guitar people and some have Bullets along with their Telecasters (I have a Telecaster along with my Bullet :), so it seems to work better. Those Pics you post here and that S3 on your site are Dreamy. You do nice work. There is a thread kicking around in the Telecaster forum here about Guitar Photography. You should get into that one. Some are asking for samples and advice. I think you have something to offer.

You know that John Page is around this forum so you could hunt him down and ask about that serial number situation. Maybe he will get in this thread and tell.

Oh and and since you asked, I have one question: Can we see all 12 Bullets all together? That would be so cool.


@xrolandtx: Welcome and if none of the others do before I get home from work, I will measure one then. I have an 81 complete and another 81 or 82 body and both are thinner than a Tele for sure. Lighter as well.

[xrolandtx]

Originally Posted by jays0n

Been away from the PC a bit lately. I am having a lot of trouble with my hands, and fingers from too much computer use (I have been a software engineer since 95 and it is now too much) so try to stay off it when I can. Want to address some of the posts I missed seeing.

@xrolandtx: Welcome and if none of the others do before I get home from work, I will measure one then. I have an 81 complete and another 81 or 82 body and both are thinner than a Tele for sure. Lighter as well.

Thanks for the welcome! I cant get the bullet off my mind they are so cool haha. I sent you a PM, so check your inbox, I have a project cooking that maybe you can be a part of.

[ripper]

I've still got my Bullet I bought brand new in 81. I've played her alot over the years. Anyone here change the pickups out on theirs?

[jays0n]

Dont want to Hijack Ripper's request about pickups above, but I forgot to reply with the body thickness for xrolandtx.

Just measured but only had calipers in millimeters. So it is 48.5mm (roughly)

[Yogi]

Oh I went back to the store today to pay another $20 bucks on her, I have about $430 left to pay so I should have her next week on pay day if I don't pull the trigger on one of those $599 Road Worns. If you look in the pic on the far right, and I just noticed this today the shop has another bullet, but one of the second generation ones with the strat style body