Is Fender gearing up to release the first-ever seven-string Stratocaster?
Fender has partnered with Chris Garza of pioneering deathcore band Suicide Silence to create the first-ever seven-string Stratocaster.
Garza explains on his Garza Podcast that the project has been in the works for more than six years, headed by Javier Cuba of the Fender Custom Shop.
READ MORE: “We refer to it as the ‘sports car’ of the Fender lineup”: Fender launches its “most advanced” line of electric guitars to date, the American Ultra II series
While the model is the first official Fender seven-string, entry-level-friendly brand Squier – which exists under Fender’s family of brands – has dabbled in seven-strings before.
Garza says the new guitar has a mahogany body, maple neck, ebony fretboard with no fret markers and Luminlay glow-in-the-dark side dot markers. “I’ve had issues my entire career where the lights go out and I have no idea where I’m at,” he explains.
He adds that the model has 24 jumbo frets, a 26.5-inch scale length and Bare Knuckle Aftermath humbuckers, plus one volume knob and one three-way switch. “Nothing crazy,” he summarises.
The guitarist has even teased a potential production run. “There’s a bigger vision with this guitar,” he says. “I do want this to be a signature model at some point. We’ll see what happens.”
Garza has already played his seven-string Strat live, debuting it during Suicide Silence’s set at Mayhem Festival in San Bernardino, California, on 12 October. Fans instantly took note of the new model, with one comment under YouTube footage of the show reading, “Yo, Garza finally got Fender to make him more seven-strings!”
Suicide Silence have been playing seven-string guitars since their beloved 2007 debut album The Cleansing. Last year, co-guitarist Mark Heylmun released his signature seven-string Jackson model. He told Guitar.com about the hazing the band received from metal purists as they emerged, controversially mixing the death metal and metalcore genres.
“Death metal didn’t like us and metalcore wasn’t really into us, either,” he said. “Where we’re from, there was the Orange County scene, with Atreyu, Avenged Sevenfold and Bleeding Through. They didn’t like us and we felt like we had to not like them back. It was adversarial but, when you’re in Baton Rouge and playing to 450 people on a Wednesday night, you’re like, ‘Fuck them! It doesn’t matter.’”
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Javier Cuba (@javirelics)
The post Is Fender gearing up to release the first-ever seven-string Stratocaster? appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
