The new Fender Pawn Shop Series

[Tig]

Hmmm... I just don't know. :what Partscasters pre-built? At least they don't cost a Gibson arm and a leg!

"Fender's new Pawn Shop (http://www.fender.com/products/index.php?section=guitars&series=Pawn+Shop+Series) guitars are based on the offbeat "road less taken" instruments you'd find in a pawn shop in the 1960s and '70s with the look and vibe of a modified vintage guitar and hybrid models that have never existed before."

http://static.musiciansfriend.com/images/promoImages/MF/LPages/MF_MD_LP_FPS_slide1_3-30-11.jpg

The Fender '51...
http://media.fmicdirect.com/fender/images/products/guitars/0266002306_frt_wmd_001.jpg
http://media.fmicdirect.com/fender/images/products/guitars/0266002307_frt_wmd_001.jpg

The Fender '72...
http://media.fmicdirect.com/fender/images/products/guitars/0266200300_frt_wmd_001.jpg
http://media.fmicdirect.com/fender/images/products/guitars/0266200357_frt_wmd_001.jpg

The Fender Mustang Special...
http://media.fmicdirect.com/fender/images/products/guitars/0266400302_frt_wmd_001.jpg
http://media.fmicdirect.com/fender/images/products/guitars/0266400309_frt_wmd_001.jpg

[sunvalleylaw]

I'm ok with weird stuff if it is of decent quality. A couple remind me a little of the Squire '51 that I missed.

[oldguy]

Yeah, the first two look like the '51 Squier..........I kept one of mine and gave the other one away.
I got in at the very, very last and Overstockdotcom was blowing them out for 89 bucks. The order got screwed up and they sent me two for the price of one.
I wonder if the Fender is better, but I don't wonder seven hundred dollars worth.
I know the Classic Vibes are selling great, and for a reason. I hope they don't get phased out like the '51's did.

[marnold]

I just knew that they were going to do this eventually. At very least I'd like to play the blonde '51 and see how it compares to my old Squier. $800 is the price they are selling at, not the MSRP. The Enforcer at the bridge is a very high-wound pickup. Splitting it with the Texas Special at the neck would be interesting to say the least. Hard to tell, but it seems that the bridge is string-through instead of the Squier's top-loader.

[Tig]

I just knew that they were going to do this eventually. At very least I'd like to play the blonde '51 and see how it compares to my old Squier. $800 is the price they are selling at, not the MSRP. The Enforcer at the bridge is a very high-wound pickup. Splitting it with the Texas Special at the neck would be interesting to say the least. Hard to tell, but it seems that the bridge is string-through instead of the Squier's top-loader.

You are right about the bridges. They all appear to be string through's, I like the '51 Blonde the most, too. I'd have to play one before making any real judgement.

One knob is volume (with push/pull coil split), the other is a 3 position pickup selector switch, and no tone control! Dang, that might hurt potential success.
At least the Mustang Special has a seperate selector and a tone pot.

http://www.fender.com/themes/products/pawnshop/images/Fender51Special.jpg

[duhvoodooman]

Video review on Premierguitar.com:

http://www.premierguitar.com/Video/20110401/1407/Video_Review_Fender_Pawn_Shop_Series_51_72_Mustang _Special.aspx

[progrmr]

That '72 looks awesome!!

[marnold]

Video review on Premierguitar.com:

http://www.premierguitar.com/Video/20110401/1407/Video_Review_Fender_Pawn_Shop_Series_51_72_Mustang _Special.aspx

You just beat me to it, but I'll do you one better. Here it is inline:

vBBUGn3jO4E

I was surprised at how bright the bridge pickup was when tapped, given how highly wound that pickup is.

[Tig]

I was starting to wonder if this was an April Fool's Day joke, but MF has them in stock. I even placed one in my cart and all but completed the order, so it appears real.

[Tig]

Could these guys be any more baked? I'd be surprised they aren't hitting the bong between takes! :messedup:

[sunvalleylaw]

They do look kinda neat, but I do not think I would spend $800 on one, esp. with no separate pickup switch and tone control. If I wanted one like it, I would find a Squire '51 used and mod it to my specs for that price.

[MAXIFUNK]

LOL honestly thought the same thing. LOL

[MAXIFUNK]

I will have to check these out looks like they might be very cool.

[DeanEVO_Dude]

I'm not very impressed, but then again, I am more of a Les Paul style guitar guy... I've seen the Squier '51 in pawn shops and on CL and am quite immune to the GAS they inspire in so many others. I watched the review video, and they seem like just another Fender... ok and all, but not something I want. Maybe if I hit the PowerBall... LOL. I must say, though, nice attention to detail with the Klusons and the "F" tuners, 3-bolt necks, as well as the bullet trus rod. So, for those of you gassing, you can have mine, I won't be getting one... LOL :-)

[bcdon]

I bet those guitars went straight to a real pawn shop to fund another bag of weed! LOL. These guys have to be from Vancouver, I'm getting a buzz just listening to them. ;-)

[Duffy]

These are not Fenders that I'm interested in. I find it hard to believe that some of them don't have tone controls. I'd say that they are way overpriced for "odd ball" type guitars. This is almost like the type of thing Gibson has been doing, but at a lot less money, but still more money than I'd be able to get a real nice Lone Star or Roadhouse strat for, and a Baja tele would satisfy me WAY more than one of these. There are way more sensible purchases available, at least for me.

[wingsdad]

I think this may be the most brilliant marketing move that Fender's come up with since Leo sold the company to CBS.

To name a guitar series so clairvoyantly, a self-fulfilling prophecy, so as to predict where they will actually end up post-haste is a stroke of 3-martini lunch genius.

They may have outdone Gibson's recent forays into the theatre of the absurd.

[Tig]

This is almost like the type of thing Gibson has been doing, but at a lot less money, but still more money than I'd be able to get a real nice Lone Star or Roadhouse strat for, and a Baja tele would satisfy me WAY more than one of these. There are way more sensible purchases available, at least for me.

Duffy and wingsdad, I gotta agree. This is more about marketing than something truely unique or in demand. I'd guess all they did is use parts supplies already on hand except for maybe a few pick guards. For $800, a Baja Tele would be much more desirable and have a wider variety of useful tones!

[DeanEVO_Dude]

There is one thing that is missing from the info on these guitars... Where are they made? Either I'm blind and can't find it or they are hiding the info... My suspicions are, Mexico. But, the price (to me) is a little high (MSRP: $1000, Retail: $800) for a MIM instrument, and a little on the low side for a USA. Fender makes a nice Fat Strat (MIM) in Sienna burst that I like, LOTS, I could get that AND a hard case and still buy some strings, picks, etc... for the same $800 that these cost.

P.S. Funny comments wingsdad, sad as well...

[marnold]

I read on the Gear Page that they are CIJ, but I'm not sure if that was speculation or not.

[Jimi75]

Sorry to say, but I am not that impressed with these guitars. I think that with all the relics and now pawnshops the players are deprived of their own whatever...

[poodlesrule]

I think this may be the most brilliant marketing move that Fender's come up with since Leo sold the company to CBS.


I am waiting for the Dumpster-Diving Series, brought to you by Fender.

...The guitars you always wanted, but were afraid to dive for.

[Jipes]

Too me the Mustang Special looks appealing at least in the shape and the pups

[marnold]

One thing I will say is that at least these guitars are more different than the typical Fender line. It's almost laughable to look at Fenders or Gibsons in an MF catalog and see pages and pages of basically the same three guitars with only minor tweaks to tell them apart.

[Eric]

One thing I will say is that at least these guitars are more different than the typical Fender line. It's almost laughable to look at Fenders or Gibsons in an MF catalog and see pages and pages of basically the same three guitars with only minor tweaks to tell them apart.
You mean with those extra-descriptive terms like special, custom, deluxe, standard, ultra, etc.? I gave up on deciphering that stuff.

IMO Fender and Gibson should go to some sort of code syntax like most parts manufacturers do. That would at least give apathetic people like me a fighting chance of understanding what the heck distinguishes a given guitar from another.

[marnold]

You mean with those extra-descriptive terms like special, custom, deluxe, standard, ultra, etc.? I gave up on deciphering that stuff.

Bingo! It's "special" because a) it's blue and b) the pickups have four more windings!

And that's before you even talk about: here's the guitar made in America, here's the same guitar made in Mexico, here's the same guitar made in Japan, here's the same guitar made in Indonesia, here's the same guitar made in China.

[syo]

Actually the Mustang reminds me a bit of the MIJ Fenders which are sometimes quite nice. However I'm with wingsdad on this one. I think, coming from Fender, this is absurd.

"Guitars that never were,
but should have been."
Really?!

Between Gibson and now Fender, I can't keep up with their expanded offerings that are long on marketing and short on substance. I think that both of them are getting increasingly short sighted. They already have an enviable share of the market but now they are diluting their brands by offering a whole range of forgettable products at inflated prices. They should just concentrate on their core and buy up companies that represent different ends of the scale. Like Fender did with Gretsch for example.

[solly]

I am more than happy with my Fender Pawn 51. 15% off plus some rebate credit i had and it was mine for a bit over $500.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm88/solly4444/IMG_0488.jpg

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm88/solly4444/IMG_0490.jpg

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm88/solly4444/2011-04-12_16-53-51_163.jpg

[Duffy]

A lot of people really liked those 51's. I like reading the opinions of someone that actually bought one of these guitars and is happy with it. There is no substitute for experience and beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder.

I tried a Squier '51 that was priced very acceptably, a couple years ago. I went home with a walnut finish/black pickguard, Squier Standard tele that I am very happy with to this day. Last month I put into it a new set of Fender Vintage Noiseless tele pickups and it is now even more fun to play. It was originally a great feeling, looking, playing guitar. The neck is quarter sawn and very beautiful and I like the rosewood fretboard on this walnut finished guitar. I am playing it right now thru my Peavey 6505+ combo high gain amp and it sounds very excellent, with no more noise than my average humbucking guitar.

Is the single coil in your new guitar noiseless? I suppose not. Of course that's easily rectified.

[marnold]

Is the single coil in your new guitar noiseless? I suppose not. Of course that's easily rectified.

It's a Strat Texas Special, so no.

One thing that I did notice that they changed is that they mounted the single coil to the pickguard instead of the body. That was a pet peeve of mine with the Squier version because you had to remove the pickguard to adjust the pickup height. Unfortunately, if I'm looking at the picture right, it also seems that they added a glossy finish to the neck.

I'd still like to try one. Unfortunately, I'd have to drive an hour to the closest GC and hope they'd have one. I've toyed with upgrading my '51 (which my son is now using), but every time I think about it for very long I abandon the idea.

[Duffy]

That Texas Special is nothing to scoff at and it's not a light weight pickup even if it is noisy. I like those Texas Specials and you can definitely get that sometimes sought after "ice pick" tone out of it. Makes me think of Albert Collins' playing. What did they call him - "The Ice Man"? I have a bunch of his CDs and they are all good. His wife actually wrote some of his famous songs, which was a surprise to me. I like to watch the "Live at Montreau" DVD that I have in my collection. That dude had character.

The Pawn Shop line sounds admittedly a little hokey, but people that buy them like them and it sounds like they are rigged up nice. I'm also surprised that the very affordable and excellent playing, sounding, looking Blacktop's aren't getting more mention here. I have a black Blacktop strat that is very incredible that I am going to put a set of Fender brushed nickel locking tuners on. I need to take some pictures of it as well as my new PRS SE Singlecut Tremolo guitar that I put a set of Grover mini locking tuners on, and get them posted on the site. Both of these are great guitars by my reckoning. One could definitely do a lot worse. I got the mint PRS SE tobacco sunburst for 250 out the door, lowest action guitar I have and no buzziness.

[Tig]

Hello solly. First, welcome to The Fret!

Made in Japan? That's good news. I was afraid they were charging that much for MiM's. Tell us more about the feels and sound of yours.

The only thing I don't like about the Pawn '51 is the lack of tone control. I'd replace the pickup selector switch with a tone pot and add a 3-position selector toggle.

[markb]

Here's the Ian Rich Squier '51 control plate made here in NZ which gives you a slot for a switch. It needs a bit of routing in the cavity iirc,

http://shop.seeker.co.nz/51/51_chrome.aspx

[marnold]

Here's the Ian Rich Squier '51 control plate made here in NZ which gives you a slot for a switch. It needs a bit of routing in the cavity iirc,

It does on a Squier '51. I'm not sure about the routing on the Fender, but my guess is that it would have to be very similar.

[sunvalleylaw]

I just have to pipe up again and support Fender for making something different. The fact that they called these models guitar that were never made but maybe should have been I guess recognizes that a lot of people thing they should stick only to the old models. But others criticize Fender and Gibson for never making anything different. I am glad they put out some different stuff. That Blacktop series looks killer too. But I agree, I would want a tone control on the '51. Like Syo says, don't put out anything sub par. Go ahead and put some good quality controls on there, rather than make folks mod a guitar in this price range.

I like the idea of the Mustang and bet a guy could get some good sounds out of that one.

[oldguy]

I agree with you, Steve. I like the idea that they're spitballing new ideas and actually producing something. OTOH, I'll pass on the reverse Flying V. But it's good the big names are trying new things.