Fender Bringing back the Starcaster and Coronado

[crunchee]

Speaking of guitar builders who's names we're never quite sure should be pronounced with a short or a long "a"...

Dennis Fano's making waves with these right now:

Fender probably think they can win back a piece of their pie. (Not)

This color sure reminds me of a Hamer Newport. Makes me wonder how many Newports coulda been built from the budget allotted to the new Coronado and Starcaster series.?

[sonny o'hoolighan]

The Starcaster has those Fender "Wide Range" humbuckers- I'd suggest really testing a guitar with those before buying. About a year ago I bought a 72 American Thinline Tele Reissue with the WRH pickups, and I just could never bond with it. The bridge pickup was "ok" but the neck pickup just fell flat tonally- it just didn't have much going for it. Apparently Fender doesn't make the WRH pickups the same way they did in the 70's- the materials now being too expensive. The pickups can be modded to 70's specs, but I decided to sell that guitar instead. Oh well, I was never going to sound like Tab Benoit anyway.

[diablo175]

Yeah, gin and tonic made me ditch my mild mannered and measured Brit persona and get stuck in to what's wrong with the big music corps.

And to be fair, let them get on with it.

I don't go to other forums to post things, no point...because I wouldn't last. I'm not going to be a sycophant to the big boy brands.

It's getting to the point where the genius of the classic designs are just getting diluted to fit any perceived demographic. Even if some really great individual instruments come out of them.

I don't reckon that much has got better since maybe 1993 for those boys, save the uber expensive custom shop stuff.

Granted 200 quid buys you a better new guitar that I could ever buy when I was starting out, and that's admirable, but regarding product development?

Bollocks, largely, in my educated and valuable opinion

Not to ride the cranky coat tails of my UK brother, as I've been sampling a bit of Mexico's solution to civilized behavior - tequila, triple sec and lime juice... BUT... I agree. Fucks sake! Gibson and Fender are re-releasing absolute shite and to what end? FMIC shit-cans Hamer, arguably the best of their line because of some botched business decisions in Hamer's past. Hamer may not have had the longevity of Strats, Lesters and what not, but they were better built in most cases and had a solid reputation. Rather than refurbish the brand, they shit can it in favor of putting out fucking Starcasters. and Coronados? Really?

Bah.

Those of us who managed to acquire Hamers during their brief but rich history are indeed lucky. The rest of the lemmings may continue over the cliff with their over-priced crap in hand.

[Ethan]

I guess the beauty of what the big brands are doing now is kind of like the same thing as what happened in the 70s-80s...they were out of touch so now there's tons of good stuff from smaller brands. Are brands like Fano, Suhr, and Knaggs the modern equivalent of what brands like Hamer, Charvel, and Robin have done in those years?

[sonny o'hoolighan]

I guess the beauty of what the big brands are doing now is kind of like the same thing as what happened in the 70s-80s...they were out of touch so now there's tons of good stuff from smaller brands. Are brands like Fano, Suhr, and Knaggs the modern equivalent of what brands like Hamer, Charvel, and Robin have done in those years?

Not to get too far off topic, but I'd never heard of Knagg's Guitars before this post- I just saw an "Influence Tier 1" on eBay that caught my eye...