Fender is a company built on the back of a long and storied history of innovation.
Innovation by artists like The Ventures and Jimi Hendrix, right through to modern guitar heroes like Mk.gee and IDLES. Innovation on the guitar doesn’t necessarily mean virtuosic soloing and music theory, but to push the instrument forward. The innovation of Fender also extends to Leo Fender’s designs that launched in the 60s, Leo himself being a repairer primarily—who designed the early Telecasters and Stratocaster to be easy to service; he was sick of sourcing spare parts, or simple repairs being overly complicated because of inaccessible routing, electronics and switches.
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The Player II Modified Series follows a long lasting legacy and culture of modification, customisation and serviceability into a comprehensive range that has something on offer for everyone.
“[The Series] is aimed at players who are looking for a little bit more than a base model,” begins Justin Norvell, EVP of Product at Fender. “Like if you were looking for a car, it’s got the deluxe package on it.” he adds with a grin.
“I think in the past we’ve had series’ that were maybe further afield, and we thought ‘Let’s pull it back to its essence. What do people want? What do people look for?’”
Justin continues, explaining that Fender sits in a unique space. Most instruments are modifiable, arguably they’re all modifiable with the right tools, but as we now understand, Fender are built to be modular.
Player II Modified Series
“What would we do as players?” he muses. “Well— Noiseless pickups, different humbuckers, locking tuners and all of that, as well as visual modifications. But really important mods, tonally… the new bass preamp, for example, is something that we’ve wanted to do for quite some time, and we’ve put a lot of time into it.”
Justin explains that for all the modifications that the Player II Modified Series features, you can also use it to kickstart further modifications.
“[Leo] created the platform this way as an easy service concept.” he explains. “This design concept was considered crude back in those days,” he says. “Y’know screws and plastic! But what Leo decided was good for servicing was the ability to repair necks and swap necks and stuff like that, and it led to that culture of modification. Fender was not the first to put a humbucker in the bridge of a Strat.” clarifies Justin.
“It was players, it was people.”
Fender noticed people modifying their guitars, Justin citing Dave Murray (Iron Maiden)’s HSH Strat, as well as Jazzmasters and Jaguars with humbuckers in the bridge position.
“We had some Lead IIs and some things with odd pickups in ‘em for a while, but our first humbucker in a Strat wasn’t until the mid 90s.”
“You just think it’s so ubiquitous, so we just got a little less precious about the platform, and understanding that [a Fender] is what people say it is, this is what people are doing with our instruments. So we flipped at some point a couple of decades ago to just listening to people, and what they do and what they wanna do.”
“That’s led to instruments like these, but also the concept of our accessory business, and we say ‘Nothing’s more than a dozen screws away’.”
Fender understands people want to personalise their stuff, especially in the modern day where people are blending genres and pushing new boundaries on the guitar.
“Y’know, Mk.gee tuning a Jaguar to baritone tuning with flatwounds and playing through a four track.” says Justin. “This is all part of that, and everyone’s finding their way to get a sound and have their own thing. Whether you want to do it yourself or you want it straight from the factory that way, that’s what we embrace.”
The Player II Modified Series features additions like Noiseless pickups and upgraded electronics and wiring, as well as reasonably simple upgrades like modern string trees and locking tuners. Visually there’s some unique colours and pickguard finish options available, building on Fender’s classic designs and aesthetic. Justin is especially excited about the addition of an 18V preamp in the bass models, allowing for more versatility across a famously versatile bass guitar design.
Justin speaks further to the happy accidents that’ve happened over history because of people having the chance to experiment, distortion on a guitar being an accident, tremolo being intended to be a subtle ‘Spanish guitar’ style effect, not the hard volume modulation that it’s now famous for. The Floyd Rose as well was meant to be a supremely stable tremolo, but it was never intended to be for divebombs—ironically now what it’s most famous for.
“Musicians always find a couple new gears on the transmission and that’s the dream, really.” says Justin excitedly. “People can take it to the next place.”
IDLES
Fender has partnered with IDLES to help launch the new series, the British band being a perfect match for such a forward-thinking range of guitars.
“I think they’re so iconoclastic,” Justin says. “They’re not a blues band, or someone that’s going over previously paved road. They are sonically adventurous, they are not precious about gear and tools, and if they wanted to hack something out to put something else in, they will!” he says, smiling.
“I think the combination of the sonically adventurous, not all the riffs sound like typical electric guitar riffs. The same thing with Mk.gee— who’s sort of virtuosic, slow, but it’s tapping into that vein of inspiration, whether it’s high energy, low energy, anything is possible, and it’s outside the box.”
“IDLES, they’re a band that we’ve been following, and working with for a very long time, so we thought it was a perfect marriage.”
The modifications available from the factory in the Player II Modified Series are the result of Fender having their ear to the ground, as well as their eyes to the future, but also bringing their own experience and anecdotes as players and musicians into the fold for consideration.
“We talk to artists, we see what they like and what they don’t like, and then we have our opinions as well.”
“And things can get spirited, there’s definitely some radical ideas that get thrown into the pot.” concedes Justin with a grin. “We end up choosing something that’s a little more down the middle and not as radical, so these are upgrades that everyone would see as upgrades and it’s a good centre place.”
For local enquiries, keep reading at Fender Australia.
