Fender's new American Professional Classic line of instruments evokes the golden age of the electric guitar with features that meet modern expectations. To build a bridge between those worlds, the company has tapped beloved Maryland hardcore outfit Turnstile.
Turnstile has already accomplished the most unlikely feat in its young career, becoming a nexus between punk, alternative, metal and hardcore, without overtly catering to one particular scene. Fender guitars, meanwhile, have played a role in nearly every musical movement of the past eight decades, lending the brand a timelessness that grows only more baffling the more you consider it.
"I see Turnstile as a future classic band. So I think that meshes very nicely," Fender President Justin Norvell tells Q104.3 New York's QN'A. "For as irreverent as punk and hardcore as communities can be, there are boundaries on what's punk or what's not. And Turnstile has just never cared. ... When bands kind of graduate to the mainstream, sometimes there's a backlash, and I think [Turnstile's] unapologetic path has been fantastic."
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As Norvell points out, whenever Fender chooses and artist to front one of their campaigns, the options are usually wide open.
"They say don't be all things to all people, but if Fender guitars and basses are so versatile, you really can play any style of music on them," he says. "You know, James Burton played a telecaster with Elvis and Ricky Nelson. James Root plays a Telecaster with Slipknot and that whole continuum. I think a hyper-contemporary band that's playing heavier music is a lens of the versatility that Fender guitars can really go anywhere and do anything."
The American Professional Classic basses and guitars are designed to feel comfortable and modern and deliver the clarity, punch and dynamic range of a brand new instrument. Aesthetically, the guitars refer back to classic Fender appointments, from vintage-inspired hardware to colors like 'Butterscotch Blonde, 'Faded Lake Placid Blue,' 'Faded Sherwood Green Metallic' and others which evoke timeworn Fender finishes.
Watch the Fender x Turnstiles introductory video via the player above!