OffsetGuitars.com

LOL

Any gut shots of these trems anywhere? The smaller footprint is potentially cool, but I'm curious to know if there are any innovations beyond that- if they're still knife-edge (as opposed to to rollers), if there's any mass added, that sort of thing.

This is so fucking awesome and I have to say it’s dope as hell to see a brand new idea, custom shop or not, when we’ve gotten so used to the essential partscaster thing they’ve passed off as innovation lately.

This is genuinely awesome.

tribi9 wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 20, 2019 8:44 am

timtam wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 19, 2019 8:37 pm

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs1khoKHc84/

Inspired by vintage Japanese, Fender inspired designs.

Inspired by modern music man designs that were inspired by post Fender Fender designs that were inspired by ... rejected Fender R&D designs?

Yeah, it's basically a Yamaha SG-3 crossed with a Stingray guitar, but that's still cool.

It's a very minor thing, but the sunburst guitar would look better with a bigger first hump on the bottom of the headstock, more like a CBS headstock.

The trem on the tele, called vibra-dyne, looks perfect aesthetically, and is a hige improvement on the JM tren look of the Jazzmaster tele.

It’s so nice to see innovations that work aesthetically and keep that «vintage» look. I don’t want sperzels on my guitars, i want the kluson look - but i appreciate innovations such as the locking klusons (?).

For those not familiar with Ron Thorn, he has built his own guitars for years: https://www.thornguitars.com
The C/S was one of his own shapes that he offered.
No longer can you order those with him working for Fender, but he is an amazing builder. I am lucky enough to own this version of his C/S:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BVA0uVoh7Wx ... hare_sheet
He is doing a lot of unique things already. He has a cool take on the tele bridge. He also had his own trem for his guitars but it is probably too similar to the PRS design to be adopted at Fender. That offset trem is a new design since he has been at Fender that he developed.
Soon, we will get a look at his antigua Coronado:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsywxdEHC1u ... hare_sheet
and the Coronados in build progress as raw (but lovely) bodies:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsC_MLOHECO ... are_sheet
Here you can see route for the offset trem: https://www.instagram.com/p/Br0m2RMnZ9n ... hare_sheet
Hard to say

Looks like we will see one in "68 Ford lime gold" as well soon:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BslLkdDnY7- ... hare_sheet

Interesting. I think "California Special" could be a Ford trademark. They sold cars in 1968 and again in the 2000s under that name.

https://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/201 ... gt-cs.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAMJrUkqxCU

Goddamn I love it. It's like a more Japanese-inspired Music Man design.

I'm happy to see Fender looking into a new design, with new hardware, even if it's only a toe in the water.

Larry Mal wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 20, 2019 6:57 pm

I'm happy to see Fender looking into a new design, with new hardware, even if it's only a toe in the water.

The important thing here is that they've actually hired someone with good aesthetic sense to do design work. Ron's guitars are beautiful. The meteora, the jaguar strat - there have been some real ugly designs coming out lately. It wasn't that many years ago that they released that Marauder with a redrawn silhouette and no plates that managed to lose everything redeeming about one of the most attractive Fenders ever built.

Even if the C/S isn't a new-for-Fender design, at least it (and its creator) are a sign that Fender might be trusting the right people to come up with new stuff for a change.

Right, it seems kind of clear that Fender has had very little design genius for a while now, most of their stuff just looks like bizarre Frankenstein monsters stitched together of dead parts and thrown out into a cruel world with little chance of understanding or acceptance.

Yes, the trem looks great.

Hello OSG!

Thanks for this thread and for the comments. I appreciate the feedback and look forward to hearing more, all input welcomed especially this early in the game.

To answer a few questions:
I designed the vibrato a few years ago in CAD but never got around to machining it up. During my first month at Fender I was showing some of the VPs various hardware and designs I’ve done in the past and they showed interest in this.
I whipped up proper drawings and issued to our machine shop and had a couple prototypes made. Proof of concept, find out if it’s worth doing, find out where I went wrong.

The function is a basic “why didn’t I think of that?” design. It essentially a Strat’s inertia block pivoting on a precision machined knife edge (not stamped steel), and top loaded like a JM.
The top plate is purely aesthetics, covering the internal bits. I’ve got a few shapes for this plate depending on the body and bridge it’s coupled with.
There’s a rear cavity along with springs and claw like a Strat’s.
I had originally drawn it with 2 fulcrum grooves to choose from: JM-feel or Strat-feel.
After stringing up the first proto it was more like Floyd-feel or Strat-feel...oops.
I under estimated just how little pivot angle is required to achieve the desired effect.
Added a third groove and that nailed it.

It feels extremely smooth and responsive, quite different than a JM or Bigsby. Not a dive bomber at all, very subtle vibrato. The few Master Builders that have checked it out dig it. Yuriy, in particular, is in love with it...heh.

I’m still experimenting with the arm retention. The protos were like my trem, a nylon sleeve with adjustable tension.
The ones that are going on the NAMM guitars use the Pro-series style. I’m considering the RSD Strat arm or the Marr style too.
Again, input from you guys on your preferred arm is welcomed.

The California Specials are a modified version of my old C/S shape. Made some perimeter tweaks that I wanted to do, neck pocket is obviously different, etc.
When they say “build what ever you want for NAMM”, that’s the golden ticket for a guy like me. I had some fun with these and can’t wait to hear comments at the show this week.
If they’re a flop, I’ll work on something for next year. If we take orders, i’d better get busy.

I hope that helps. Again, I appreciate the feedback and some very kind comments, thank you!

Ron