Fender releases Made in Japan Limited Cyclone with domestically made pickups

Get big in Japan with a Made in Japan.

After nearly a year since opening its first flagship store in Tokyo, guitar maker Fender has been making itself at home in Japan while serving up delicious ham sandwiches. It’s perhaps in honor of this first year that Fender has now released its first nationally exclusive model in the Made in Japan Limited Cyclone.

Lookswise, this is essentially a re-issue of the original Cyclone, first made in Fender’s factory in Ensenada, Mexico, and has that same easy-to-handle Mustang body often used by ’90s alternative rock greats like Kurt Cobain, Liz Phair, and Thurston Moore.

The Cyclone brings some additional features, however, like a satin-finished C-shaped neck and comfy 9.5″ fingerboard radius. It also uses a tremolo arm like those found on Stratocaster guitars often used by ’80s virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen and our writer Seiji Nakazawa when he pretends to be Yngwie Malmsteen.

What makes this limited edition guitar unique are the Made in Japan Cyclone Humbucker and Made in Japan Cyclone Single-Coil pickups. These were designed specifically for this guitar using Japan’s infamously meticulous craftsmanship and design for versatile tones with a solid core.

▼ Here’s a sample of the kinds of sounds you can get from it.

Not only is this guitar made in Japan but it is also only sold in Japan, either from Fender Flagship Tokyo, the Fender Ship in America Mura, Osaka, or other authorized dealers across the country, including online for 140,800 yen (US$895). They’re sold in 3-Color Sunburst, Lake Placid Blue, Fiesta Red, and White Blonde, with Butterscotch Blonde also available only at the official Fender stores in Tokyo and Osaka and their online store.

However, if you’re like me and have nowhere near that much money to spend on a guitar, you can just do what I do and pretend you have one by buying a Cyclone T-shirt, pick case, or sticker, and then just keep telling everyone your Made in Japan Limited Cyclone is “in the shop”, which is technically true because you haven’t bought it yet.

▼ T-shirt (6,600 yen)

▼ Pick Case (1,980 yen)

▼ Sticker (550 yen)

Although, with the yen where it’s at these days, people from some countries could swing by Japan and get one for quite a bargain. It’d just be a matter of getting it back home on the plane ride in one piece.

Source: Fender Japan, PR Times
Images: PR Times
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