OffsetGuitars.com

Stumbled across my old Custom Shop calender from 2004...



Some Starcaster style guitars by Sierra. The guy who oversaw production of these is called Gene Fields. He was a Fender designed who co-designed the Mustang Bass, Marauder and Bronco as well as designing - the Starcaster! (I just found this out too while searching for more Marauder pics)



I have some pics of the hidden pickup Marauder somewhere too. I'll post when I find it.

P

Awesome finds!
Though none of these particularly guitars tickle my fancy.

I'd take the Marauder XII without a second thought!

DB

Are those mini-hums on the marauder?

I think they're chrome P90s with tort tops. I think they should be black myself. I'd love an offset XII, I reckon if I ever build a guitar it'll be one.

They look to small to be p90s, judging from the looks of my sg that has p90s in it.

Heres the pic I was gonna scan, its on a site already. Hidden pup Marauder, very different to the actual Marauder, I much prefer it.

spacewhale wrote: Heres the pic I was gonna scan, its on a site already. Hidden pup Marauder, very different to the actual Marauder, I much prefer it.

It's been a long time since I've read about these... What was the story on them exactly? Were they designed post-JM and Jag? What was their goal in making it/who were they trying to appeal to? As far as I can tell, they're just Jags with hidden pickups and a strat trem with a less pleasing body shape. Am I right?

Wikipedia entry

'Between 1965 and 1966, Fender prototyped the Marauder. There were two versions made: Type I, with pickups hidden underneath the pickguard and Type II, with the pickups mounted as standard on the pickguard. The Type II variation has three pickups, arranged as upon a Stratocaster. It also has seven switches and four knobs. The thinking behind the model was to combine the ideas behind the Stratocaster and Jaguar guitars while adding some new features to increase versatility.

The guitar never officially passed the prototype stage, allegedly because the hidden pickups of the Type I variation were either too expensive for mass-production or the technology itself was too expensive to license. It is perhaps the rarest Fender guitar ever made and it is said that only 8 Marauders were created.

Around the turn of the 21st century, the Fender custom shop later made a 12-String Marauder model. However this model was radically different, having fewer buttons and a very different body shape.'

Seems like it was a post-Jag model, a next generation offset after the JM and Jag. Fender was really active in developing new ideas in the 1960s, problem was there just wasn't the demand since they had existing models out already which were still only a handful of years old. I also think Fender over-estimated players' desire for new stuff. People were still very happy with their Tele's and Strats so a big guitar with loads of switches and the like just didn't appeal.

Heres the Type II:

                                                   

spacewhale wrote:
                                                   

Wow! That's really... overkill

Overkill +100!!!

.....crazy looking but kinda nice!!

There's a whole other thread on these..... index.php?topic=280.0