"Retro futuristic" is the term that comes to mind. Like what 2002 was supposed to look like according to people in the 60s and 70s. Always glad to see fender experiment a bit
Yes. This. I wouldn't call the Meteora a futuristic looking guitar. Especially the first ones. It still looks like a classic Fender. Imho tied for the best looking Fender with Tele.
I just love the Meteora! As much as I absolutely adore Fender guitars they are horrendously conservative so any breath of fresh air is always most welcome.
PSA: I love my Meteora, but I want to let people know that the maple fretboard variants come with laquered frets. Once you play it, the laquer chips away from the frets and will make messes everywhere until you scrape it all off by hand. Pickups are not lined up properly at all, high E string is quiet on the neck pickup, G string is the loudest string for some reason. The gig bag sucks, mine showed up to the guitar store with a huge dent on the upper bout so I got it discounted. The laquer on the actual fretboard has dust and bumps all over it, there is a spot on the end of the fretboard, high E side, that was rotted out, chipped and browned then laquered over. The far tone pot on the bridge side had a lump. The lump was from where they drilled the scratch plate onto the body and pinched the bridge pickup wire between the two, causing the bridge pickup to cut out far too occasionally. Took it apart to polish frets, free the bridge pickup wires, intonate it (it was not playable in the LEAST), float the trem, remove the bucket loads of polishing compound and saw dust from the cavity and truss slot and it's a great little BRAND NEW fixer upper! I'm a Fender fan, but the QC is lacking huge. Just know that you'll have to put time into making it playable. It is now my personal favorite instrument, it just could have been executed better.
I am a huge offset fan, soI got the blue MIM Meteora a couple years ago and it is my favourite guitar in my collection and my new favourite body shape. Enough that I sought out the first USA tele-setup, and eventually another used MIM in red haha. They are so comfortable to play. So excited for this new range.
The biggest problem with the player plus series for me was the noiseless pickups in all the models.. They just didn't do what I wanted. So this having the humbuckers makes this meteora more viable option for me at least.
100% I was looking at a jazz bass but the noiseless pickups just weren’t … jazz bass pickups for me. It’s nice to have the option I suppose, but this meteora bass is really the first player plus bass I’d consider - it’s pretty cool, and dual humbuckers make sense if that’s the goal; don’t replace single coils with half humbuckers and pretend there’s no compromise. As they apprear to be paired jazz style pickups it would be nice to have a switch to flick them between humbucking and single coil though - that’d be an amazing tonal range as I don’t think it has much to offer in passive mode as is just from the demos I’ve seen so far, but it’s nice to have the switch.
I always skip videos with Strats and Teles, because I just think that nothing more could be said or done that was worthy of my time. Now suddenly, I am interested in a Fender again for the first time in decades! Obligatory things I'd change, paint the headstock the same color as the body and do something more interesting than dots with the fret markers. But Bravo Fender!
Always thought these would look 10 times cooler with a matching headstock. It's like the guitar is screaming for a matching headstock (and maybe the bigger 70's headstock too for a little more visual symmetry) Looks like something Dennis Fano would have designed for Novo. Very cool, would just be cool to see it with a matching headstock and a really dark fretboard.
Yeah that too! That would look sick. With that stripe on the bottom matching in colour (or better, the whole headstock matching) A bigger headstock would be so cool.
Looks like a Jazzmaster headstock, so sliiiiightly bigger. I still think it looks a little too small. Throws the overall visual balance off a bit to me.
When I was a kid you could hang and shot the breeze at the music stores. Not so much the case anymore. Most stores are focused on work and don’t have time for music store rap. So, Andertons saves the day by providing a music store to hang and talk the talk of music and gear. Thanks music shop friends for the hang time!
It seems to me that the more people that are on this planet, and the more cool gadgets we have, the more life just sucks. It should be just the opposite. I have fewer good friends. None of them have time to just hang out. At every store you go to, you'd better be able to find what you need on your own because, if you can find someone that works there, they're too busy to help you. I live in a small town and the shop owners want us to shop locally, but they never have what you're looking for and what they do have is far more expensive than driving 30 miles or just ordering online and waiting a few days to get it. Back when I was growing up, you'd order something and have to wait 4-6 weeks to get it, and there was no tracking. You just had to hope and trust it would show up.
I really like these guitars, but I would switch the fretboards. The pau ferro would look much better with the bursts and the lighter colour of the maple would look better with the blue and green.
You're right. I can never find a fender or squier guitar that's in the colour I want, the right specs, and the right fretboard. You can only get certain colours with maple fretboard, and certain colours are pau ferro/rosewood only, and I can never seem to find the combo I'm looking for.
I know what you mean. Also, I'll find a strat with the perfect color, perfect fretboard, perfect specs...and it will have that butt ugly oversized headstock that I cannot stand! I understand tradition and all that but I cant see how anyone thinks the larger headstock looks better than the standard one.
I bought the Meteora bass in silver and gray 6 months ago and absolutely love it. Playing it feels like a Jazz but nicer. I owned a Jazz in the 70s. Active electronics are great to use, but I actually use the passive electronics just as much. I was excited to see Fender do something new and this model, MIM, is a great buy for the quality you get. The Meteora always gets positive comments for its appearance when my band plays out.
These look great. Probably the only Fender shape other than the tele and strat that I would buy. They have a similar aesthetic to the Music Man St Vincent range, though obviously not quite so much of the Jetsons.
The Meteora is an interesting guitar. In a guitar stand alone it’s an awkward looking disproportion guitar. But the minute it’s being jammed on, it’s the absolute coolest looking guitar in the room. Every part of its shape falls right into place
I really love some of the things fender are doing at the moment. But I think I'm going to wait and see if they eventually do a Noventa Meteora. I think that would be epic
I've got a Strat HSS, a Jaguar HH, & an Explorer. While I appreciate & use their individualistic tones, if this had been around when I put together my current lineup of electrics (I also have a Les Paul & classicals & acoustics, but they're not really a part of this) I'd only have one, the Meteora.
This guitar is basically George Blanda's "Rocketcaster" custom shop design from 1992, without the tremolo system. See "The Dream Factory: Fender Custom Shop" book byTom Wheeler, pages 194 and 22.
I dunno… the Meteora shape has now been around in one guise of another in one range or another for the past 4+ years. I’d have thought they must be selling otherwise Fender would have dropped them by now.
Probably. And it has basically nothing to do with whether they're good instruments or not. People want traditional from Fender. It's been proven time and time again. At this point Fender trying anything new is commendable since its success is going to be unrelated to quality and it'll almost definitely fail.
These are cool updates of the Meteora-gotta say though why would you make some 3 color sunburst as one of just a few color choices-this body shape invokes modern futuristic vibes so why an old school color like 3C Sumburst or even Silver burst for that matter. Hows about something more contemporary like the Skyburst or a variation thereof or the Mercury silver or silverburst or the dark night burst-how’s about a red-orange flame burst. Cmon-if your gonna go cutting edge on design-color should follow. i thought Fender was all about “Innovate”.
I didn't really like any of the colors. They should have made them more adventurous. I actually liked the bass version of that tequila sunrise but it only comes on the bass. That blue fade is cool but it doesn't suit the body shape. Same with the sunburst.
The only color i like is the 3C sunburst and I think it's the best looking guitar i've ever seen. It reminds me of some retro 70s guitar in some weird alternate reality. Both futuristic but retro at the same time
Fender Player Plus are amazing guitars, for sure they will release more models this year. I have the Strat Player Plus in maple and I must say that after the months I really like how good a guitar and how well made it is.I bought the Jag Stang sonic blue a few months ago and I love it. Made in Mexico ok.
I've said it before and I'll say it again both the Mexican Player and Player Plus are the best bang for the buck with the name Fender on the headstock. I've got the Player H/S/H (built late year) and that has a rolled fingerboard like the Plus. Pete.
@@ptrisonic I think the Charvel DK24 is the next thing you come out of that Mexico factory. The Player Plus is a half measure for people who aren't ready for the ergonomic dream that are the Charvels. I want a Charvel version of a Jazzmaster and Meteora.
The Butterscotch Bumblebee Meteora blew my mind! The coolest guitar I had ever seen. Watching that video of Jim Root playing it, it just looked so cool in a players hands. It flows into your body. Just cool. Wish those were easier to find. Everyone hoards them..
These sound great and look nice, but I also think a matching headstock would look even better. Also, why the pick up surrounds? Would look cleaner directly mounted in the scratch plate
They need to put the Starcaster headstock on that thing and it would be bang on perfection! Retro futuristic guitar needs a retro futuristic headstock. Just picture it with that color matched edge on that beautiful Starcaster headstock. Ahhhhh.
I have one of the Cosmic Jade PP Meteora HH models, and it's one of the best Fenders I've ever played, with a few caveats (see below). It's this weird and brilliant Strat/Tele/Jazzmaster mashup in looks and tone, the S-1 coil taps are great. if you find it thin use a clean boost, if you're already using one turn it up slightly, problem solved as the original Guitarist print review does count that as a negative. It's very versatile and I've used it a lot for recording because it does clean and slightly driven tones so well, better than my hotrodded Jag actually. The Jag has high output pickups so the cleans do suffer a little, whereas the more modest output Meteora ones can sparkle. The caveats are :- * The shape. If you're using a standard foldable A-frame stand for gigs, you need to put a thick towel under the guitar to stop it moving. * The jack. Poor positioning of the output jack means certain seated positions push against the socket. Live, if you use a wireless kit that has a jack and dongle setup with the battery, even if you tape it in place it moves around and puts strain on both. It can be moved to the top, on the pickguard, which is a more logical place for it. * The fit. I would say the neck on mine wasn't great, even after a setup the action was too high especially for a 12" radius Gibson style board, the pickup selector got more and more intermittent with selecting neck only or neck/bridge, the strings can make a weird "thonk" sound as they hit against the pickups even when using 10-46 strings and the pickups not that high. * The controls. I think a master volume and two tone controls was a poor choice. Separate volume for each pickup and a master tone is fine, and gives you more options when using what I consider to be the best sound on the guitar whether humbucking or tapped, which is the middle position. You can choose your blend like a Les Paul then. * The board. This is the most minor so it's on the end, but from the company that paired Cosmic Jade with a maple fretboard on Strats and Teles which looks great, why they've reversed that for the Meteora is beyond me. They've given the Silverburst and sunburst models maple, and the Cosmic Jade one Pao Ferro, that's the reverse of what they should have done. It's an aesthetic thing more than a feel thing (yes maple and rosewood and pao ferro are all subtly different, I agree, but when you play so regularly you have callouses in your fingertips so much you don't have much feeling in them, honestly not as big a deal as some guitar forumites would make out.) All of this is correctable, either by yourself if you have modest luthiery skills, or for the rest of us paying a good luthier makes a world of difference. Mexican Fenders have improved but all 3 of the Meteoras (or is the plural of Meteora just Meteora again, or Meteorae?) I tried didn't quite feel right straight off the peg from a guitar store. My genuine opinion for all models of Meteora is that they've sold poorly now, will be ignored for a decade or two, someone famous or someone who later becomes famous will pick one up because it's cheap and get known for it, then the prices will skyrocket as collectors start buying them up hoping to emulate that tone. It's exactly the same as happened with the Jag/JM in the late 80s/90s because the mentality of guitarists seldom changes, so I'd recommend pick one up now while they can be had for so little money relative to their quality. As I write this there are two of this exact model on Reverb for £550, both in pristine condition. That's less than I paid for mine which was reduced due to finish chips on the edges, shipping damage so I was told. I'm not selling mine unless I literally can't afford rent one month.
Love the concept, and the tone is unlike anything else in the Fender line. I've tried two of these now at different stores and the fretwork on both of them was terrible. For a guitar in this price range, it shouldn't need a bunch of work to make it playable.
Great playing and video as usual. I’m a little confused about the pickup choice. It feels/looks alternative but then they put straight old boring humbucker on it.
My first impression is that aesthetically it needs a uniquely shaped headstock and Sonically, humbuckers on a Fender always sound more spanky like a Fender
In hennig Pauly's video he noted that the bridge pickup is quite bright for a humbucker (and I hear it as well). Therefore, the two tone pots really serve a nice purpose of allowing you to set the bridge with a little less bite if you want but keep the neck pickup's tone wide open and not have to fiddle with knobs on the fly when you flip between the pickups (same idea as with a strat's single coils).
Next up the Vintera Meteora for that aged retro futuristic look. A guitar from space, in the future, that gets sent to Earth in the past and used by the Ancient Egyptians, aged by the sand, air and winds of time.
I think I’d still rather buy a revstar…5 way switch, hard tail, stainless steel frets, and enough cash left in my pocket for a katana or a bang tidy new pedal.
The revstar is great! Looking for one myself. Other guitar brands seem like a ripoff if you see what Yamaha can produce for the amount of money they ask for their guitars.
Perhaps the Marauder is what Captain meant...? Meteora is new, in 68-69 catalogue, they introduced 3 models of Marauder with "hidden Pickup" and more offset design. These guitars surprisingly never materialized. All true versions are a similar experimental looking Starcaster/Jazzmaster Hybrid.
Trust that you guys do know that the Jazzmaster headstock and big 70s Strat headstock aren’t the same, right? Does this Meteora have the Jazzmaster headstock to go with the Jazzmaster style Fender logo?
Fender certainly hold all ace's, these new banjos are the bobbins, especially that silver burst. I remember in the 80"s there was a fantastic rockabilly band from Norfolk called Fireball XL5, superb group. Their double bassist went on to play for The Stingray's & then Morrissey. I think his name was Johnny Bridgewood? I saw them when they supported The Cramps.
Fender did these a couple of years ago, first a USA made version with the Tele layout. Later a mexican made dual humbucker model. I think they rebranded the pickups and added the Strat vibrato bridge for this one. I remember those MIM ones because I was on the fence about getting one at blowout sale when they went out of production.
Did Anderton's know, the original smaller headstock for the Mustang guitar during the Fender to CBS transition, that headstock didn't disappear. It instead went to the acoustic lines of the time.
pretty strange that fender is still using pau ferro and indian laurel fretboards. Eevn PRS has rosewood on their SE Silver Skys, and G&l has the same on their tribute series guitars. I'm not buying a new fender till they bring back rosewood. That ferrari yellow SSH guitar has an ebony fretboard that has me well excited though
Really a nice style. The bass is VERY good. That said, I wish Fender would lose the Pao Ferro which I've never liked the look of. I also wish they would add some roasted maple options like so many up-and-coming makers who are offering so much more at a lower price.
