There is a Fender Marauder 1967 at Well Strung Guitars today

[windmill]

Its is on their facebook page, well worth a look



https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=872 ... 4924199469

The link may not work for long.

[MattK]

WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

[Embenny]

Hot damn.

[cestlamort]

Wowza. My guess is it’ll be “vacation cabin” money.

[Embenny]

Wowza. My guess is it’ll be “vacation cabin” money.

100%. It's the old, "if you have to ask how much it costs...you can't afford it."

[Futuron]

Having never seen one, I've not noticed the upper frets before. Is that common?

[windmill]

Having never seen one, I've not noticed the upper frets before. Is that common?

Never seen slanted frets on a Fender before.
☺

[Embenny]

Good eye, those are definitely slanted frets.

I have to think there might be a Rickenbacker connection there. Roger Rossmeisl, who designed the Rickenbacker 340 and 360 (among others), joined Fender in the mid 60's. I believe the Coronado was the first model he designed for them, so he was there when this prototype was produced.

Rickenbacker offered slanted frets as a custom option starting around 1969, and put them on the 481 as standard in 1973 IIRC. They even called them "patented slanted frets" in some ad copy, though I don't know offhand if they actually applied for a patent or were granted one.

I don't think Rossmeisl designed the 481, but he designed the 4001 bass upon which it was based, so you have to wonder whether the slanted frets had been an idea he put forward that simply wasn't used until after he left.

Seems like too much of a coincidence that they appeared on this prototype during his tenure at Fender, and then again on a Rickenbacker based on his older design work for them.

This really is a guitar with historic significance. I hope it doesn't get hoarded away for another 50 years before anyone else gets to see it.

[ThePearDream]

Supposedly, four of the eight type II prototype Marauders had slanted frets, which nobody cared for.

[zip73]

Eric Johnson playing this Marauder:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh5kbCyHhEA

[andy_tchp]

What picture am I missing - the frets look absolutely straight/parallel to me? The neck heel not so much.

[Embenny]

What picture am I missing - the frets look absolutely straight/parallel to me? The neck heel not so much.

I think it's the frets that are slanted, not the neck heel. It's a confusing perspective. I clicked the link, and they have more photos on their Facebook page, including the headstock and nut.

You can also compare the angle of the frets to the angle of the neck pickup.

[PorkyPrimeCut]

Those frets are messing with my eyes...



...I dunno, is it just me or do you think the images have been slightly skewed & cropped for some reason?

[bulrich]

Eric Johnson playing this Marauder:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh5kbCyHhEA

I believe that Eric is playing the exact guitar for sale in that video. The Songbirds museum was created by Well Strung Guitars and a prominent collector. Since sadly Songbirds was short lived, WSG has been slowly selling off guitars that were in that collection. I know this one has been in a few books, etc.

I’d love to know more about how many Marauders are actually out there. Certainly we’ve seen the famous Ice Blue one that Fender owns and Carlos Lopez build his CS replicas after but I’ve never seen any others besides this one.

[thisisnickpaige]

Woah, they are slanted! Watching the video with Eric you can clearly see it. Crazy! Who woulda known?
Take that Strandberg!