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This Fender shape...

Fender Limited Edition Parallel Universe Meteora - Butterscotch Blonde with Maple Fingerboard

Interesting, but I think I'd rather see how @JIO spins it. As a bass of course!

Humm... to start with, let's give the Fender folks a cookie for doing something different. I see a (pg design) reference to the Gibson-like Dimention basses Fender came out with a few years ago, which looked like... a Gibson. This guitar though is less referential to a specific brand but it definitely is hinting at the space-age designs coming out of Japan in the 60's. Maybe they are getting back at them for doing all those Jaguar/Jazzmaster copies. :D It's got all the trad Fender touchstones like ash body, butterscotch finish, TM hs, and basically Tele configuration. (if it quacks like a duck...) I find it interesting that Fender is moving in on my territory ;) making a "space-age" referenced quirky offset like this one - where's my lawyers! :laugh: Don't know about that body style being a bass... guitarists can always get away with wacky shaped bodies because they are smaller and have less 'neck-dive' restraints. As much as I appreciate it for being different, it's problematic in a couple ways to my aesthetic/funtional demands - primarily the extreme offset. Similarly to a T-bird, you have to have a neck-yoke stand - period. (no leaning against amp, wall etc) And the short upper horn wouldn't cut it for a full scale bass. (if they made one with the same body design) And lastly, I experimented with an elevated 'peak' like the one that occurs on this body as a result of the elevated off-set (at the forearm area) and it can work or not depending on a players style. Some player (like me) like to palm-mute and rest my forearm on the body when I do. The one I made ended up hitting in a location that caused discomfort, so I had to alter it.

I wonder if Fender would be interested in my "Gilaxis" - it too is from a parallel universe... ;)

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I think it's a decent shape. The lines flow. Could have used some sort of chrome control plate instead of the elongated pickguard tail for that price though.


<----- Of course, I'm kinda partial to tele-jazzmaster hybrid shapes...
 
As JIO says, give them a cookie for sure. Nice tilt on a Jaguar body. I like the lines. I was always enamored with the Maverick and the Swinger guitars. Actually it's a pretty funny story if you haven't heard it.

The Fender Custom (or Maverick) was a short-lived model released by the CBS-owned Fender in 1969. Essentially a six-string Fender Electric XII, the Custom was an attempt to sell off unused factory stock instead of simply writing it off. The guitar was made with unused parts from Electric XII guitars, including the body, pickups and neck, and also unused Fender Mustang bridges. The six extra holes in the headstock for the tuning machines were filled and veneered over. The Custom was featured more prominently in sales material than its companion, the Swinger, but sold poorly, and was never expected to compete with Fender's more popular models.

The Fender Swinger (also known as the Fender Musiclander and Fender Arrow – as the "Swinger" emblem is usually missing from the headstock) was a short-lived electric guitar model released by Fender in 1969, with few made. The Swinger was an attempt by CBS (which had bought the company in 1965) to extract cash from inventory by combining unused bodies from the failed Fender Bass V with parts from the Fender Musicmaster. Another use of surplus stock was the Invalid Link Removed(a.k.a. Fender Maverick). The Swinger was marketed as another cheaper, short-scale 'student' guitar, but never seriously promoted, with resulting low popularity.[1]


The Swinger and its cousin, the Custom, were both developed under the supervision of Virgilio 'Babe' Simoni, without the help or even involvement of Fender's R&D Department. Simoni had begun work at Fender in 1953, at age 16. He had risen to Product Manager by the mid Sixties, and was both skilled and well-liked within the company. The Swinger used excess parts from the Fender Bass V and Fender Musicmaster, with the Bass V pickup routing hidden under the pickguard. Between 300 and 600 Swingers were produced, and the model never appeared in any Fender literature.[2]

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I really like the Maverick on top and if I get bored some day, I will make a bass version of one - in medium scale of course...