Showmaster
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The Fender Showmaster is an electric guitar.
History - Pre Showmaster
- Main article: Super Strat
During the 1980s, many hard and stadium rock guitarists made modified their Fender Stratocaster guitars in order to let their athletic music styles be played on their guitars. Modifications included new pickup configurations with added humbuckers in addition to single-coils, deeper cutaways; 7-string capacity; heavy-duty locking tremolo arms (such as the "Floyd Rose" series); droopy, pointed headstocks (sometimes reversed, Firebird style) and active electronics. Such guitars became known as 'SuperStrats' due to their origin in the Stratocaster. Soon, many guitar manufacturers began producing instruments with these modifications straight out of the box. Most notable were the manufacturers Ibanez, Jackson/Charvel, Carvin and Yamaha (the company Bill Schultz started at before his tenure as the current FMIC Chrmn/CEO). However, Fender itself, the genesis of the entire class of guitars, had limited success thereabout. Some of this was due to Fender's CBS ownership, often looked back upon as the cause of Fender following instrument trends rather than leading them as it had in Leo Fender's day. Another factor was the 1985 sale of Fender to Bill Schultz and his group of investors. Many radical instrument ideas were either severely weakened or straight out killed in the crossfire during the sale. One such instrument was the Fender Performer, which had many superstrat characteristics. However, it survived, being produced in Mexico and Japan until the early 1990s. While Fender licked its sale-induced wounds, the company's R&D teams realized that Superstrats were being more and more accepted by the popular grunge, punk-revival and heavy metal movements of the early and mid-'90s. If Fender didn't respond to the trend, the company might be sold again, or, worse yet, be driven into extinction. (This in itself is highly doubtful, partially in that Fender's own vintage models such as the Jaguar and Jazzmaster were at the core of grunge and revival styling.) Fender had already made multiple attempts at the superstrat audience, such as the HM Strat (i.e. heavy metal) and the Prodigy; however, none were especially successfull. So Fender came up with an idea - the prototype to the Fender Showmaster.
The Showmaster
Note: In descriptions of pickup configurations, H refers to humbuckers and S refers to single-coils.
The Fender Showmaster was introduced as a Custom Shop model in 1998. It featured a carved maple top, a set maple neck, and an HSS or HH pickup configurations. Later, it appeared as a U.S. Special/ Highway 1 model, retaining the set maple neck, HSS & HH pickups and its traditional Stratocaster headstock (with Showmaster label, respectively). A Squier model soon appeared; however, it had a bolt-on neck and either a reverse Strat headstock or a 3 to a side arrangement. All models are absent of a pickguard. Some may come with Floyd Rose tremlo systems, Fender's standard 6-point tremlo, or Fender's American Series 2-point tremolo. Custom Shop Models are also available with a hardtail, or non-tremolo bridge.