Endorsed artist guitars, are they better than ours.

AlexO

Do endorsed artists who play non CS guitars, let's use Fender for this example. Do they get a better guitar than the everyday guitar shop customer? Are the Fender Professional series or American Original picked out especially for them.

Surely the guitar brand wants the player to be seen with their model, so you would presume they would give them a guitar they won't want to put down.

I'm thinking about this as I've seen a American Original for sale on eBay which belongs to a pro from a popular indie band , he used the guitar in the fender promo videos. I previously owned a Mexican made mustang Bass which I got from a lad I know plays in a popular band who got given it by Fender and it was heads and shoulders above the USA P Bass I had at triple the price.

We all pretty much agree that as a whole a Custom Shop guitar beats a non CS standard guitar.  But obviously you can get lets say a American Original Strat which is just as good if not better than its CS counterpart but you may have to try 20 to find that one.

Has anyone here been fortunate enough to go to the Fender / Gibson artist showrooms and played the guitars they have in stock.

stickyfiddle

I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me if they got a bit of fettling from the Fender artist chaps immediately before being given to the artist.

pintspiller

Maybe not CS but certainly a Standard that's had a set-up done in-house.

EricTheWeary

I've certainly read/ heard musicians who have said there's is just like one off the shelf ( I saw Michael Batio play part of a set with his own guitar then the rest with one off the promoter's stand at a guitar show , FWIW, as he was trying to illustrate that point). 
The most opposite I can think of was GE Smith ( Hall and Oates, SNL,etc) who had a signature telecaster but gave up the relationship with Fender because he did go try them in shops and found them to be inconsistent and dissapointing.

digitalscream

Quite often the artists end up with a final proto from the brand's custom shop (ie the one that's used as the template for production).

I've noticed that Nita Strauss doesn't do that, though - whenever she needs one, she just grabs another Jiva from a local shop. Pretty good endorsement of the quality, for a sig guitar that's < £1k.

spaceman_inorbit

I had a similar thought after seeing Joe Trohman playing his sig squire tele at the Reading festival. Is he really playing an off the peg Squire?

DeeTee

spaceman_inorbit said:

I had a similar thought after seeing Joe Trohman playing his sig squire tele at the Reading festival. Is he really playing an off the peg Squire?

Came here to say about Trohmann. He's said in interviews that he does. No changes, not even pickups (I'd love one, but I'd be swapping the pickups out).

Strat54

Had the pleasure of inspecting Eric Johnsons person signature EJ Strat after a gig a few years back, it was nothing like the ones for sale. Fit, finish, neck profile.....was more like a Masterbuilt guitar, which I suspect it really was. 

Elwood

Mark Holcomb plays his PRS SE live for 6 string work.

Tony Iommi and Dave Murray do not play their respective signatures.

sgosden

Elwood said:

Mark Holcomb plays his PRS SE live for 6 string work.

Tony Iommi and Dave Murray do not play their respective signatures.

Think MH has a little bit of work done to his personal SEs (Locking tuners added), but very often plays the off the shelf models, and has even borrowed fans guitars to do some shows.

Whitecat

The Private Stock dept builds artist guitars at PRS. 

Although they have a pool of loaners/sample units too that artists can try out - they are all B-stock, interestingly. Cosmetic issues only one would presume, since there’s the old legend that PRS takes a bandsaw to anything with fundamental structural issues. 

HAL9000

I remember hearing a story (not verified) about someone who tried out a load of Strats in a Shop. One was head and shoulders above the rest in terms of playability, quality of woods used, etc. After he got it home he got a phone call from the shop wanting the guitar back. Apparently Fender had built it for Clapton but it had somehow found its way into a batch for retail. The way I heard the story is that the buyer refused to return it.

IvisonGuitars

Not really. Unless you are a BIG name player like the few in the league mentioned above, you may get a guitar with particular care and attention attached but otherwise you get one off the shelf....you would usually get a choice of course but there's no magic 'better' guitar tree. And that's of you even GET an endorsement, Fender have tightened up on it considerably (as have a lot of manufacturers) many are just loaners today.

I went to the Rossetti showroom off Oxford street (showing my age now!) with a band to get some guitars for an endorsement deal and, even then, they were only on loan. However the Les Paul in question got so trashed - including someone running over it in a splitter van and miraculously the headstock didn't break - that Rossetti didn't want it back and wrote it off!  

Grumpyrocker

The lovely Courtney Cox - who plays in The Iron Maidens - has a rather special Jackson Adrian Smith signature guitar. Unlike Smith's own white guitar, she's got a green one. Apparently Jackson asked Adrian's permission and he said yes. 

"My favorite guitar, or guitars I should say, as I have two, are my one-of-a-kind Absinthe green Adrian Smith Jackson, and my raspberry Peavey Vandenberg; both are very special to me. The Jackson was made for me personally after receiving an approval from Mr. Smith himself."

digitalscream

Oh - Nuno. He always played the #1, which was the prototype that Stephen Davies made, and all others were copies of.

When he's out doing non-Extreme gigs, though, he always seems to play regular N4s...which were all made in the Washburn Custom Shop anyway. Until recently, at least - some time in the last year, production was farmed out to a third party.

RiftAmps

Mrs Rift had quite a few endorsement deals with all the big brands.

Gibson - Loan stock only - she had access to any guitar at any Gibson showroom which she could borrow for an agreed amount of time for no charge. She would borrow a few LPs for tours/music videos etc and just returned them afterwards. They did swipe her CC every time in case they weren’t returned. All guitars were just ‘off the shelf’ quality and usually required a setup.

Fender - Artist pricing on selected models only, no loan stock. The A&R guy would hand select the best example of her chosen model from a selection of about 10. She bought a USA Strat which is CS quality.

Blackstar - Same as Gibson, artist pricing available

Marshall - Same as Gibson, artist pricing available

Yamaha - Same as Gibson, artist pricing available

Ernie Ball - 5 sets of strings per tour

Dunlop - Heavily discounted strings, picks, accessories that had to be bought as a ‘package’

Rift - She got whatever she wanted and I paid for it.

dbphoto

You can buy a green Adrian Smith signature @Grumpyrocker ;

https://www.jacksonguitars.com/gear/shape/san-dimas/x-series-signature-adrian-smith-sdxq/2913052587

And @digitalscream ;N4’s have been ‘ghost’ built for around 3 years now by guys in Ohio.  My old 2016 ‘Vintage’ was made by them, and other than the neck shape which I ended up hating, it was great guitar.

AlexO

RiftAmps said:

Mrs Rift had quite a few endorsement deals with all the big brands.



Fender - Artist pricing on selected models only, no loan stock. The A&R guy would hand select the best example of her chosen model from a selection of about 10. She bought a USA Strat which is CS quality.

Thats really interesting thanks for sharing and you have answered my OG question really about using Fender as a example interesting how Gibson do it.

Tell me to mind my own business but does she get invited down by the brands who want her to use their products or does she/her management approach them?

RiftAmps

AlexO said:

RiftAmps said:

Mrs Rift had quite a few endorsement deals with all the big brands.



Fender - Artist pricing on selected models only, no loan stock. The A&R guy would hand select the best example of her chosen model from a selection of about 10. She bought a USA Strat which is CS quality.

Thats really interesting thanks for sharing and you have answered my OG question really about using Fender as a example interesting how Gibson do it.

Tell me to mind my own business but does she get invited down by the brands who want her to use their products or does she/her management approach them?

She was in fairly strong position because the big brands were desperate to get female musicians on their rosters so she was approached by most of them. I think that’s quite rare today unless you’re a big name. She’d get endorsements that much bigger male guitarists couldn’t get.

I’ve just asked her specifically about Fender and that was different...the bass player in her Dad’s band is an endorsee and made the first introduction.

RE selecting guitars - that’s how Fender did it 10 years ago, it may be different now

Grumpyrocker

dbphoto said:

You can buy a green Adrian Smith signature @Grumpyrocker ;

https://www.jacksonguitars.com/gear/shape/san-dimas/x-series-signature-adrian-smith-sdxq/2913052587

And @digitalscream ;N4’s have been ‘ghost’ built for around 3 years now by guys in Ohio.  My old 2016 ‘Vintage’ was made by them, and other than the neck shape which I ended up hating, it was great guitar.

It's not the same as Courtney Cox's guitar. This is what hers looks like.

dbphoto

Ah, ok, that’s a completely different colour!

WTF is that photo all about though, it couldn’t have been taken in the 80’s.......