Fender Joe Strummer Masterbuilt – A $20k Punk Sell Out?
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Fender Custom Shop has just released a limited edition meticulous Masterbuilt recreation of the late Joe Strummer’s iconic 1966 Fender Telecaster.
Fender Joe Strummer Masterbuilt
Based on The Clash frontman Joe Strummer’s 1966 Telecaster, this Fender Joe Strummer Masterbuilt guitar is a new limited edition run. The Super Heavy Relic Aged Black finish attempts to emulate the original guitar character and the wear and tear of a long touring history.
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Worn Stickers = Profit?
Fender Custom Shop worked tirelessly to accurately recreate every scar, scratch, and mark. This included meticulously recreating details such as the worn stickers and a taped handwritten setlist.
Josefina Campos’ Fender Joe Strummer hand-wound ’67 Telecaster pickups deliver the same raw and expressive tones heard in the hits of The Clash and The Mescaleros.
Limited Edition Masterbuilt Sell Out? · Source: Fender
1966 Specifications & Upgrades
This Telecaster has a two-piece selected alder body, a medium mid-‘60s C-profile maple neck, and a round-laminated 7.25” radius AAA rosewood fretboard.
Other key features of the specification include 21 Jescar Vintage frets, a set of Schaller M6 mini tuners, a brass nut, and a six-saddle string-through-body Telecaster bridge with steel barrel saddles.
Joe had the guitar altered over the years, so upgrades like the Schaller tuners and a brass nut were made to his original punk rock machine. He toured heavily with the guitar, and Fender has attempted to recreate it in great detail.
It comes in a custom tour case with a limited-edition Joe Strummer guitar strap and a certificate of authenticity.
Fender cash in? or Punk tribute? · Source: Fender
Sell Out?
I’m guessing that Strummer would see this recreation as a joke. He was not about corporate profit, so he might not have been too happy about the $20k price tag of this collector’s item.
However, the original guitar these are based on must have meant a lot to him as he kept returning to it. Therefore, these expensive imitations may have honored him in some way. We will never know, but I suspect he wouldn’t have been too keen on these guitars’ ridiculous price tag and exclusivity.
Fender makes a far more affordable Joe Strummer Telecaster with faux aging, which might be more for the masses and fans who must have something branded with Strummer’s association.
This Custom Shop Masterbuilt guitar is a huge mistake from my point of view about what The Clash and Joe Strummer stood for. I guess the collectors will keep them stored in a vault and hope they increase in value.
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3 responses to “Fender Joe Strummer Masterbuilt – A $20k Punk Sell Out?”
This guitar says everything you need to know about the people who will buy it and those who have made it and are selling it.
If you know anything about Strummer you’d think it the perfect tribute to the man.
When Joe Strummer died he was a property investor and private landlord worth $2.5 million in 2024 money, with a very comfortable Grade 2 listed home on a large gated country estate well away from the plebs plus a nice pied-à-terre in the metropolis for those weekend parties in town with various other rich property owning ‘socialists’ from the British arts and music scene.
He was the massive sell-out – and the massive hypocrite. So spare us this nonsense.
Animal Farm was first published in August 1945.