Famous UFOlogist Tom Delonge lately rejoined his teenage pop-punk band, Blink-182, and to rejoice the event, Fender has launched a new model of his previous signature guitar, which turned a little bit of a coveted collectors merchandise as a consequence of its popularity as a strong workhorse rock n’ roll guitar.
The corporate was type of sufficient to let me strive one out for a month, and I can verify: it’s really a wonderful no-frills rock n’ roll guitar. With one pickup, one quantity knob, and a clean matte end on the neck, that is easy, loud beast constructed for quick energy chords. It is a blast. It is also weirdly alien-themed, in becoming with Tom Delonge’s extracurricular actions as the top of a DoD-contracting UAE-research agency.
First, there’s the little alien on the neckplate, as seen above. Sure, it says “TOM” as effectively — apparently it is his personal signature / illustration — however after all he indicators his title with an alien. After all.
Then there’s that lone bridge pickup: a Seymour Duncan Invader. I am unsure if the corporate intentionally named it after Area Invaders; or if Tom chosen it as a result of it reminded of Area Invaders; however the title oddly suits.
It is also the loudest freaking pickup I’ve ever performed. I plugged it straight into my amp, with the clear quantity set to 4, and it nonetheless distorted in an awesomely musical manner:
This factor is all chunky mids and low-end, and I normally like my guitars a little bit extra jangly (although not fairly the usual Fender Bridge Twang, uck). However this factor doesn’t give a shit. It’s meant to sound thick, and large, and gnarly, and rattling, it really works. Mixed with the jumbo frets and clean C-neck, it is simply playable, too. I discovered myself selecting it up often to work out concepts — it simply felt much less fussy than my hole physique, or my Gibson Les Paul Jr (which is itself a fairly stripped-down workhorse guitar). This factor simply conjures up you to hit a chord and rock. It isn’t nice for giant bending solos and leads — but when that is what you are into, then you definately’re most likely not shopping for a Tom Delonge guitar within the first place.
However that brings me to the opposite manner this guitar is totally out-of-this-world: the worth. It retails for $1,300. Sure, you learn that proper! For a one-pickup guitar with a single knob and a hard-tail bridge — no whammy/tremolo system, as is frequent on Fender Strats. There are not any fancy design elaborations, both — no binding stripes alongside the neck or physique, or fancy gold inlays. Probably the most fundamental Fender Participant Strats are likely to run round $800, and include three single-coil pickups (plus the tremolo bridge). You would purchase a separate Seymour Duncan Invader pickup for $110 on high of that, and it nonetheless does not come anyplace close to the worth of this factor. I beloved taking part in this factor a lot that I used to be genuinely tempted to purchase one myself. However not at that worth (particularly since I simply purchased a elaborate new semi-hollow in March for … a lot much less).
I get that some individuals are keen to spend cash for a celebrity-branded axe. However that is an absurd markup — particularly while you issue within the high quality assurance. Fender needed to ship me to 2 fashions, as a result of each occasions, the pickup had fallen out of the guitar earlier than it arrived at my home. A fast scouring on Reddit revealed that that was a frustratingly frequent downside, too. It isn’t the toughest factor to repair, but when I would spent $1300 particularly to get a stripped-down, over-simplified workhorse guitar, the least you can do is be certain it really works proper out of the field.
In the meantime, Fender simply launched a fair newer $200 Squire Sonic Stratocaster that is principally this very same guitar however made in Indonesia as an alternative of Mexico, with a barely totally different humbucker within the bridge. It isn’t technically a Tom Delonge signature mannequin, and the standard assurance on Squires is usually a toss-up (I have never performed it myself). However I am not satisfied that both of these issues is well worth the further $1000 markup.