"How can I help today?"

[zhivago]

"Could I interest you in a Jaguar or a Marauder, sir?"

[Pop Rob]

I never get tired of the pic.  Fantastic.

[Orang Goreng]

Of all the marauder variants, I think this is the best-looking one. Just very slick.

[TheMilford]

Yeah, these look the easiest to replicate too.

[TheMilford]

Also... are those maybe the first models to sport blocks and binding?

[mjet]

Yeah, these look the easiest to replicate too.

Except for the pickups - they'd have to be pretty strong to work that far under the pickguard, eh?

[Jay]

You could remove a layer or two of plastic under the pickguard where the pickups sit so that they could get a little closer to the strings but I'm afraid even with a really high output pickup the sound would be rather dull as the pcikups are going to be at least a centimeter or more away from the strings.  That might be okay at the neck but the bridge would sound dead I bet.  This one certianly loosk a little cooler IMO...  all the switches look too much like a cheap knockoff.

[flatfiver]

I'll take the Marauder with a side of nachos, please.

[Mad-Mike]

I see how it could work, but it would be a bit different from the photo.................just a tad......

The neck slot would need to be deeper than usual, where the fretboard is maybe a few millimeters higher than the pickguard, and the bridge would have to be inset into the guitar as well.  The pickups would have to be fairly high output, another option would be active ala EMG pickups.  EMG's are cased into a plastic cover about ergo thick, so it's not impossible to get a good tone, even in the bridge.

The key to getting the pickups at the right height would be having the strings almost dead straight from neck to bridge, it'd be hard to do, but probably could be done if the neck and bridge are positioned right.  Another way would be to angle the top of the body (make it thicker) towards the back of the instrument to the pickguard follows the string angle, and then rout the pickup depths to follow the string angle.

[TheMilford]

I dunno... maybe if the neck pocket was deepened to move the strings close to the pickps. you can get the saddles on those strat style bridge pretty low.

maybe implement a peizo too.

you've got 4 switches.

Also I really like those white switched on the silver one.

[TheMilford]

Hah! funny we we're thinking the same thing!

[burker]

Niiiiice, I like the ice blue metallic (or is it silver?) one, it looks like its non trem bridge, maybe string thru like a tele? (I never did like the strat trem on such a cool guitar... or really even on strats)

[matthew]

The neck pocket was apparently a little deeper, but the pickups were much stronger too.

There is an interesting discussion of the Marauder from 2001 with a lot of information on the first version here http://www.fenderforum.com/forum.html?d ... ber=107568.

The patent for the hidden pickup design is http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Pars ... PN/3035472

[zhivago]

The neck pocket was apparently a little deeper, but the pickups were much stronger too.

There is an interesting discussion of the Marauder from 2001 with a lot of information on the first version here http://www.fenderforum.com/forum.html?d ... ber=107568.

I believe the patent for the hidden pickup design is http://patimg2.uspto.gov/.piw?docid=US0 ... PN/3035472 but I haven't been able to look at it yet (I think Quicktime on my laptop is not working properly)

thank you for the links!!

[mjet]

Maybe someone needs to get Robb Lawrence over here - he could really help us with the Marauder project.