The Fenders

Starting in the 1950’s guitar makers produced more and more radical guitars and Space aged influenced guitars.

Fender introduced the Jazzmaster in 1958.

In 1962 The Jaguar appeared.

The bodies pretty much the same, the shape the vibratos and the overall style of the pickguards but the pick-ups and controls were extremely different.

Then in 1965, there appeared a most radical design, The Marauder. Like the Gibson Moderne most information remains a mystery.

The model appeared in the 1965 catalogue but never made it to production. Sources say that only 6 prototypes were ever produced. The design was by Porky Freeman, a western swing musician. He apparently played one until sometime in the seventies. What happened to that one of the others is not clean. The rumour is that they are in the hands of collectors that want to remain anonymous.

These were real prototypes and not artist renditions

Where are the pick-ups you say? Well, there were four single-coil pick-ups hidden beneath the pickguard. This did cause problems. The output would be a lot weaker requiring stronger Pick-ups. The cost was high so this idea died before it was mass-produced. In 1966 they made another prototype with exposed pick-ups. It didn’t look much different than the Jaguar. It too died. In 2011 Fender decided to exhume the idea again. This time it was sort of cross between the Jazzmaster and the Jaguar.

 

Guild

Guild produced a guitar in 1963 up until 1968. Probably the best-known player using it was Zalman “Zal” Yanovsky of the “Lovin’ Spoonful”

 

The first thing that you’ll notice is that it resembles the Jazzmaster. What you can’t see is the novelty item. This was the only guitar that I know that had a built-in stand.

Gibson

Gibson owned Epiphone and in 1982 in produced the Map guitar under the Epiphone brand. It was manufactured in Kalamazoo in the old Gibson factory. To reduce costs and compete with the Japanese and Korean “lawsuit” guitars, Gibson opened a plant in Nashville where they were able to hire non-union workers and eventually fire all the union people in Kalamazoo. They then rehired some just for this made-in-American Epiphone run.

 

One year later and for the next couple of years they released a Gibson version. It is possible that they were just rebranded Epiphones.

 

Epiphone released some weird variations

One has to also wonder why they are displayed upside down.

Occasionally guitar makers released some questionable models. I’m sure Dr. Phil would have said” What were ya thinkin’ ?”

The one that comes to mind was the mirror image Fender Strat. Basically, it was a left-handed Strat with a mirror image decal.

Now you could stand in front of a mirror and think that you were Jimi. There are so many myths about Jimi’s guitar that I decided to try it for myself. I bought a left-handed Squire. I removed the nut and reversed it. Then I re-strung it. Now I had a Jimi Strat to investigate and experiment with. The best thing is that it only cost me $100.00.

The next guitar apparently never reached the stores. The ones that were made, were scrapped ( or were they ?)  It was the Gibson Stratocaster. Gibson?  Did I read wrong? Gibson, yes and remember what Dr. Phil would say.

 

Gibson did actually make a strat like models back in 1987 through 1989. There released the U2 and the US1.

Then again Fender tried their hand at making a Gibson

 

 

 

 

 

 

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