Fender Showmaster

The Fender Showmaster is a model of electric guitar made by Fender, and is characteristic of a superstrat.

Construction

Note: In descriptions of pickup configurations, H refers to humbuckers and S refers to single-coils.

The Fender Showmaster initially started as a Custom Shop model. It featured a carved maple top with hand scraped edges and cream binding, a set-neck maple neck (bolt-on on some models), a sleek mahogany body (many Showmaster guitars are made from basswood or alder; later models such as the Showmaster Elite, employ more exotic timbres such as lacewood and spalted maple for the top and back), HSS or HH pickup configurations which consisted of Seymour Duncan '59 Trembucker humbucking pickups coupled with a pair of Fender Custom Shop Fat '50s single-coils. Other features included a rosewood or maple fingerboard with abalone inlays and 22 frets, as well as a choice of deluxe locking tremolo bridge, deluxe 2-point synchronized bridge with pop-in tremolo arm and stop-tail bridge (some Team Built one-off Showmasters came with the original Floyd Rose locking system and featured a lightweight ash body and a translucent Amber finish). Later, it appeared as a U.S. Special/Highway 1 model, retaining the set maple neck, Fender Enforcer humbuckers, a special "kill" switch and its traditional Stratocaster headstock (with Showmaster label, respectively), equipped with a Floyd Rose licensed vibrato and a 2-octave rosewood fingerboard. Some later Showmasters—such as the Elite—were produced in Korea, followed by Squier variants (formerly known as Stagemasters) featuring a sleek basswood body, a reverse headstock, Floyd Rose licensed locking systems and Duncan Designed humbucking pickups.

All Showmaster carved top models are absent of a pickguard like most superstrats and came with a choice of bridges, abalone-inlaid rosewood fretboards with 24 frets, Seymour Duncan humbucking pickups, locking machine heads and an LSR roller nut. The main distinguishing feature of Fender Showmasters—with the exception of the Flat Head—from other superstrats is the luxurious carved (quilted and flamed) maple top with the hand-scraped edges and cream binding. The Showmaster series also included a short-lived 7-string version with a stop-tail bridge that had been introduced around 1999/2000 and discontinued two years later. The most distinct feature of the Showmaster Elites was the inclusion of a black-painted Telecaster-shaped headstock with pearloid tuner buttons.

In 2009, all Showmaster models were discontinued.

Squier models

Squier, Fender's budget marque, also produced the Showmaster. The Squier Showmaster was made in China and retailed for $499. The line included a Jason Ellis signature model.^[1] There were Squier Showmasters marked "Crafted in Indonesia" as well (specs: HSS, 22 frets, rosewood fretboard, standard 2-point vibrato).

References