FENDER BENDERS
FENDER GUITARISTS HAVE long been attracted to the idea of customizing and mixing-and-matching components to create something entirely their own. The company celebrated this DIY aesthetic in 2018 when it launched its Parallel Universe collection. Fender wowed the crowds at that year’s winter NAMM show with an eye-popping assortment of guitars that were designed from the ground up to be off-the-wall hybrid pairings of classic models. Presented in mirror-reflecting display cases that gave the presentation a kind of funhouse theme, the models included the enticingly named Strat Tele Hybrid, Jazz Tele, Jaguar Strat, ’51 Telecaster PJ Bass, Whiteguard Strat, Tele Thinline Super Deluxe, Troublemaker Tele and the retro-futuristic Meteora, the first guitar designed and built to test the Parallel Universe concept. The Parallel Universe models proved to be a hit with Fender fans, and the limited numbers produced at Fender’s factory in Corona, California, sold out quickly as they were released throughout that year.
But Parallel Universe wasn’t about creating way-out wonders, as Fender had done in the past with guitars like the Marauder Type II, Swinger and Electric XII. So what sparked the idea of crosspollinating different models to create this new breed of
