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Bump of the year

Funny, I actually was just thinking about this thread the other day. I've had a lot more time to play guitar thanks to this quarantine and have been spending most of my time with the Mercury so I sent Tim an email checking in and thanking him for making such a nice gitfiddle. He's doing pretty well and said that a few more Mercurys have actually popped up since all this started years ago. They found someone who had a black one and sold it to Denny so now both Tim and Denny have one.

Hope people are safe and well, lot going on out there.

Gonna necro bump this thread:


I reached out to Clickeye around December last year but never got any response.

Anyways I made a Youtube video retelling the story about this guitar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOonazEdF-4

A while later Fender CS Master Builder Carlos Lopez DM's me on Instagram telling me he'd seen my video and bought a Venus XII to use as a template for new builds.



I guess history repeats!

(and yes I asked if I could share)

This whole situation is tragic. Fender ripping off their design, and then when it seems like things might get back on track, nothing.

Seeing all the enthusiasm is the earlier part of the thread wind up being all for naught in the end is saddening.

It wasn’t all for naught, we did manage to get one of the guitars back to Tim, the sea foam green one, and I think that’s huge!

I get the idea that Tim and Danny both have their fair share of work(at least before the pandemic, lots of things have changed I suppose) but I hope that one day they do start the company up again. Playing my CAR Mercury right now and it’s just a dream.

Hope everyone’s safe and healthy out there!

You know, reading this whole topic just makes me think especially with how the original mercury design ended up in fender hands, why don’t fender create a series/initiative where they give up and coming designers the chance to have their own fender branded model, even a squier series, that way designers don’t see their designs ripped off by another company, it gets lesser known designers a foot on the ladder and it’d benefit fender with new and original designs or new takes on their own models kinda like how thorn has brought the California special into the fender family! And it could benefit fender as these guys may go on to be master builders! It just seems to me a step fender could take to really advance and be creative and nurture talent that could be beneficial to both parties!

fuzzy_man_peach wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 19, 2021 5:50 am

You know, reading this whole topic just makes me think especially with how the original mercury design ended up in fender hands, why don’t fender create a series/initiative where they give up and coming designers the chance to have their own fender branded model, even a squier series, that way designers don’t see their designs ripped off by another company, it gets lesser known designers a foot on the ladder and it’d benefit fender with new and original designs or new takes on their own models kinda like how thorn has brought the California special into the fender family! And it could benefit fender as these guys may go on to be master builders! It just seems to me a step fender could take to really advance and be creative and nurture talent that could be beneficial to both parties!

Well the other Vistas like Jagmaster and Supersonic were in-house "original design" ...and pretty damn cool. I think the Venus (not until now I got it!!! Venus - Mercury!!!) was the only shameless rip-off

fuzzy_man_peach wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 19, 2021 5:50 am

You know, reading this whole topic just makes me think especially with how the original mercury design ended up in fender hands, why don’t fender create a series/initiative where they give up and coming designers the chance to have their own fender branded model, even a squier series, that way designers don’t see their designs ripped off by another company, it gets lesser known designers a foot on the ladder and it’d benefit fender with new and original designs or new takes on their own models kinda like how thorn has brought the California special into the fender family! And it could benefit fender as these guys may go on to be master builders! It just seems to me a step fender could take to really advance and be creative and nurture talent that could be beneficial to both parties!

Because why should they share credit when they could have all the credit? The fact that Mercury was defunct company and couldn't take any legal action against Fender for the Venus only sweetened the deal. I guessing when the Fender guys asked Courtney Love about where she got her guitar, she probably told them something along the lines of, "I dunno, some little company Kurt liked. I don't think they're around any more, so whatever."

Pacafeliz wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 19, 2021 5:57 am

fuzzy_man_peach wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 19, 2021 5:50 am

You know, reading this whole topic just makes me think especially with how the original mercury design ended up in fender hands, why don’t fender create a series/initiative where they give up and coming designers the chance to have their own fender branded model, even a squier series, that way designers don’t see their designs ripped off by another company, it gets lesser known designers a foot on the ladder and it’d benefit fender with new and original designs or new takes on their own models kinda like how thorn has brought the California special into the fender family! And it could benefit fender as these guys may go on to be master builders! It just seems to me a step fender could take to really advance and be creative and nurture talent that could be beneficial to both parties!

Well the other Vistas like Jagmaster and Supersonic were in-house "original design" ...and pretty damn cool. I think the Venus (not until now I got it!!! Venus - Mercury!!!) was the only shameless rip-off

I find this idea intriguing. Like a fender special super limited run. I'm sure the economics could be prohibitive though with the way they do things. They'd surely have to sell a certain number of units not to lose money and to get the price point where it needs to be (and vice versa). And dealers may be reluctant to order fringe designs that might not sell.
Eastwood does a thing where they propose an idea and then take deposits. Once they get to a certain threshold they've determined to warrant production is when they start building. If not, they figure demand isn't high enough. I think there're other perks to being a project backer too. This gives players the opportunity to "vote" before fender spends any money. Not sure how licensing to the og designer would work.
I imagine with niche designs like these would be, it'd have to go through online channels primarily, which let's face it, is where things are going to now. Still, if fender, say, shipped the instrument to the player's local shop for pick up and then paid the shop an appreciation kickback, that'd be nice. Do it enough times and the shop might consider bringing the design or others into their normal offering. Plus, they're bound to get an add on sale or two (case, straps, strings, etc) and might end up with a new customer they didn't have before. Win win.

Well people were/are begging for them to bring back the Jarman Squiers - they would sell like peanuts, even if they offered them at double the price of the original issue.

Who knows what they are thinking.
But yeah who needs a 3 pickup jazzmaster with p90s? Nobody

I would pay 900 to be at the front of the line for a new Jarman.
Especially if it kept the Squier sticker on it just to shove it in the face of all you amber tipped blooze snoobz

That's what I meant, exactly

This thread was referenced in a current Venus thread, so I read the whole thing today. I really hope Tim and Danny bring back the Mercury. I would buy one in a heartbeat.

Does anybody have the Ferrington Guitars book? I don’t have a copy anymore, but I believe Danny Ferrington made a custom guitar for Courtney Love based on the Mercury. This was before the Squier Venus, because I had the book before the Venus was released. Ferrington also made a Mustang-style guitar for Kurt.

I’ve googled but couldn’t find a picture. If I run across it, I’ll post it here.

robroe wrote: ↑

Sun May 02, 2021 4:32 am

...just to shove it in the face of all you amber tipped blooze snoobz

This isn't really a 'blooze snoobz' forum dude, quite the opposite in fact.

Sad to see this whole project die, what a great story.

If those Mercury's weren't built in the past 11-12 years this thread has been going, I doubt they ever will be. I kind of feel sorry for Live I evil though, he did such a kindhearted deed and never got the guitar he was promised in return, and they just kinda dropped off.