Fender Missed the Boat...

[Telemarkman]

Originally Posted by neocaster

I never saw a Hank Marvin Strat, but I think of every 60s Fiesta Red Strat as exactly that. I can't look at one and not think "Nice Hank Marvin Tribute series" and whenever I see a rosewood Tele, it's a George Harrison Tele. Zakk Wylde made his guitars his own, and I was unsurprised to see his name on a signature series. Not just because he's a talented player, but because anything that's unique seems to wind up being copied. If 99% of everything is a copy anyway, would you rather have a copy of something common, or a copy of something different?

To me the 2 most iconic Teles are Roy Buchanan's '53 Tele (Nancy) and Steve Cropper's '63 White/Blonde Tele. But though it may seem unfair, I can see why they never got a Fender signature Tele: both of these guitars were standard models with no mods that I know of.

You come pretty close to Roy's Tele with a '52 RI, and the 60's Classic does a great Cropper impersonation . Or, if you have the getus, you could always get a CS '63 Tele ...

[smitty54017]

Originally Posted by Southern ILL

Fender did approach and make a few Keef prototypes......But when Keef was informed of the price they were gonna charge he wanted no part of having his name on such a overpriced signature guitar.......Keefs alright in my book..I love ya' Keef !!!

+1

I think this may be an issue with other players.

The Jimmie Vaughan Strat is a rarity. It's a signature model, but it's cheap, largely because is MIM. From the reviews I've read, it's also a QUALITY guitar, especially for the price. In my opinion, some of the artist models are over priced, especially the Custom Shop models. As much as I like SRV, Clapton, and Eddie Van Halen, copies of their guitars aren't worth $25,000 to me, even if they're limited to a handful of copies. They're clearly not for the average player.

I'm sure there are a lot of reasons too. Maybe the artists themselves aren't interested, maybe their "handlers" aren't interested, or maybe those models are still in the works. I'm sure artists are being pulled in so many directions by so many people that they don't always have a lot of control over what products they endorse or bare their name.

Sometimes the quality of the product isn't there either, maybe not the case with Fender. I do remember Schecter (correct me if I'm wrong) selling production copies of Prince's cloud guitar a few years back. They looked nice, but I heard the quality was bad. Paint rubbed off, etc. And they weren't $500 guitars. Not good.

Telemarman's point is valid as well. Some guitars are just standard models with no mods. I don't think Vince Gill has modded his '53.

As far as sig models I'd like to see...a Marty Stuart/Clarence White signature model.