The huge NAMM tradeshows are where the music industry shows off its hot new products for the coming year. Most of the leading guitar makers will have created an assortment of exclusive NAMM one-off builds, showcasing the inventiveness and skills of their top designers and craftsmen. Once the shows wrap up, these exotic instruments are often sold to the various manufacturers’ elite dealers. Ex-NAMM guitars are very highly prized – and often very expensive.
Inspired piece of thinking
Built in December of 2003, for the 2004 NAMM show, this is one of the coolest guitars we’ve had through in some time. A hardtail version of a Mustang/Cyclone cross, powered by a killer set of Custom Shop ‘Black Dove’ P-90 pickups, check out our soundfile to hear what this inspired piece of thinking produced!
Sonic wonderment
Big, warm, full tone, with a hint of jangle to picked notes, you can have slabs of fun with it run clean, or dirty it up a little and discover acres more sonic wonderment. And the magic doesn’t stop at the tone…
Orange peel
Finished in one of Fender’s original and most famous Custom Colors, the Fiesta Red nitro even features the vintage “orange peel” dimple effect that appeared on some late fifties and early sixties Fender instruments. (Orange Peel usually happened when the factory was operating at peak production volume and couldn’t always allocate extra hours for the wet sanding process to remove the dimpling effect) More subtle than glaringly obvious, the orange peel effect is not easy to photograph, but is visible at the bottom of pic # 5.
Other features
Alongside the Fiesta Red body, the orange peel and the Black Dove pickups, other features of this Custom Shop beauty include matching Fiesta Red headstock; a very slightly fuller, more vintage neck profile, (though still close to a regular ‘modern ‘C’-profile); and a really nice tortoise scratchplate. This is a very deluxe, very sexy package!
Gagging to be played
Complete with Fender Custom Shop certificate, original Fender brown Tolex hard shell case, (still with its NAMM show foil sticker – “ONE–OFF NAMM SHOW CYCLONE/MUSTANG” – see pic # 8), and original Fender leather strap, this guitar is gagging to be played in public. Since the NAMM show it has changed hands several times, going from one US dealer to another to another. We really don’t want to see it in the hands of yet another dealer – it’s time to get it out there in front of a crowd.
Ridiculously low price
If you know your Fender product, you will have an idea of Custom Shop prices. You may also know that the limited number of ex-NAMM show guitars that come onto the market usually attract a hefty premium. At just $3950, this is a ridiculously low price for this guitar! Including FREE COURIER DELIVERY to any address in Australia, this has to be 2016’s best deal on an elite level instrument…
Weight: 7lb 8oz / 3.42kg
Just Guitars
