Fender Marauder

In the guitar world, it can be very hard to get over the "Made in China" or "Made in Korea" labels on the back of headstocks. This guitar opened my eyes. When Fender released their modern player line, one of these guitars popped up at my local Sam Ash. I picked it up and immediately fell in love with it. And I also fell in love with the price tag. I was gifted this guitar on my 16th birthday. It was shipped to my house and came out of the box perfectly set up. I have not set up the guitar since I purchased it and it is just starting to need to be set up. 4 years later.
The neck profile is very comfortable. This neck is home to me. The slim C profile is perfect for practicing. The guitar features two pickups, A jazzmaster neck pickup and a Triplebucker. OH! Triplebucker?? Whats that? The bridge pickup is three blade single coils wired together. And as an added bonus the guitar features a 5 way pickup selector. This allows me to use the triple bucker as a humbucker, a triple bucker, or a single coil with just a the flip of the switch. You also can combine the single coil from the triplebucker and the Jazzmaster pickup which gives you strange strat like in-between sounds. And of course you can play the neck pickup only on its own. I have obviously modified the guitar like I do a majority of my instruments. I replaced the cheap minipots with full sized CTS pots and have added an orange drop cap and treble bleed mod on the volume pot. This has really opened the guitar up to its true potential. I find that the humbucker sounds like a Firebird mini hum more than a PAF style humbucker. The triplebucker sounds like a fat strat. The single coil on its own sounds like a tele. The only issue with the pickups I have is that as you move more into the middle on the switch I find that there is a clear drop in volume. Other than that, this guitar is probably my most played, may it be practicing or at lessons.

A guitar that has surprised me, this features a triplebucker pickup (three single coils rolled into one) and a p90 in the neck. I use this for gigs and teaching, great value for money!

While it may have been one of the cheapest Fenders at the time of its arrival, this guitar captured my attention with the beautiful tone of the neck jazzmaster pickup. I just remember shopping for a guitar, and picking this one up at a music store and plugging it into a Deluxe Reverb and being blown away by the clarity and warmth of that neck pickup. The fact that it has a humbucker within the triplebucker bridge pickup, was the nail in the coffin. I did some set up to mine, adjusting the trem for minimal friction and best return to pitch, and it is pretty stable. The trem arm is really terrible, as it creaks and flops around. I really wish it was a push-in one, since the threads at the end of the travel are kind of thrashed. With a simple bridge height adjustment, it is incredibly playable. The neck is jaw-dropping, and the vintage tint really brings out the subtle, occasional flame and bird's eye. It is a little on the thin side for me unfortunately. The pickups sound great, but when switching between the humbucker and the neck pickup, the bridge is dark enough that it might disappear from the mix if your sound is geared towards the single coil tones already. That being said, since it has 500k pots, it is a really bright and hot on the single coil sounds, versus a strat or tele. The pots are reasonable, but could use a volume kit. One last quibble, is that in position 2, (neck and bridge single coil), it is not hum canceling. I should just mention, the body. It is extremely comfortable, standing or especially sitting. It looks similar to a Jaguar or Jazzmaster, but it is smaller and sleeker, meaning it fits in normal cases. Win. Aside from some minor hardware eccentricities, which all can be solved cheaply and quickly, this is a fantastic guitar for the money, if you can find one now, and it truly is a great guitar period. Great playing, great sounding, and amazingly comfortable. This is my first, and main axe. I rarely leave home without it, and it's the one I'll never sell.

I use this guitar almost exclusively live. It's more versatile than anything I've played.

Although built in Indonesia, this guitar has a quality feel. The shape is close to Jaguar but it isn't the same. The 9.5" neck is close to strat standard. The electrics are killer. A Jazzmaster single coil in the neck and a three (!) blade humbucker in the bridge which can be split and combined in a number of ways by the five way switch. Comes in a lovely nitro blue sparkle or black.

I bought thus guitar iff a friend dirt cheap. I had never looked into these guitars until he offered to sell it to me. It was my first "big brand name" guitar (so something besides epiphone or squier) and the more I played it, the more I have fallen in love with it. It has been my main guitar for gigs and recording since I bought it and it never lets me down. The pickups on this thing are kind of weird. There is the Fender triplebucker in the bridge, which basically is like a mini humbucker with a single coil stacked on top of it. It has a 5 way switch which is really cool for some diverse tones. 1st=regular humbucker 2nd= triplebucker 3rd= top coil of triplebucker 4th= top coil and jazz master pickup and 5th= just the jazz master pickup.

This is an awesome guitar as this isn't a regular Fender such as the legendary Stratocaster or Telecaster for example. It has a solid body with all the swiftness and quality from a true Fender instrument with an exclusive visual.

Most of my electric tones from the first record came out of this... as well as Justin's PRS Custom 22.