When Ryan Adams showed off his '80s-styled Fender Signature Strat in an Instagram post a few days before this week's Summer NAMM convention, we assumed that was going to be the company's big official release. Instead, Fender has announced two entirely different artist models: the Albert Hammond Jr. Signature Strat and the Active Flea Jazz Bass.
The Albert Hammond Jr. Stratocaster is modeled after The Strokes guitarist's own 1985 '72 Reissue. In a 2015 interview with Reverb, Hammond explained how, in the early days of The Strokes, he lucked into finding his trademark guitar after buying some handmade strings from an apartment in Manhattan's East Village.
Hammond's '72 Reissue features a unique pickup selector pattern. The fourth position—instead of activating the neck and middle pickups, activates the neck and bridge pickups. Additionally, because he usually prefers the middle pickup and doesn't want his strumming hand to knock the switch out of place, the first and third positions are flipped.
The brand-new Albert Hammond Jr. Signature Strat recreates this unique pickup wiring, as well as the "Modern C" shape neck, jumbo frets, 3-bolt neck plate, and oversized '70s-era headstock (along with Hammond's signature on the back).
Fender's other big news follows on the heels of its popular 2016 Flea Jazz Bass, a signature model based on the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist's own Shell Pink '61 Jazz Bass. The new Active Flea Jazz Bass swaps the two single-coil pickups for an active humbucker at the bridge and an Aguilar OBP-1 18-volt preamp.
It also keeps the finish intact, as opposed to the relicing of the 2016 model, features a maple fretboard instead of rosewood, and loses the pickguard entirely. The Active Flea Jazz Bass will be available in Shell Pink and Inca Silver.
Both new releases are available for pre-order now. For all the latest news and product releases from Summer NAMM 2018, click on the banner below.