Iron Maiden Dave Murray’s 1957 Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar

“There’s a little bit of history behind the guitar,”says veteran Iron Maiden guitarist Dave Murray of the 1957 Strat he used to produce the wailing sounds heard on each of Iron Maiden’s first eight albums. “It used to belong to Paul Kossoff of Free. I bought it in 1976, a year after he died. Read more

Fender Squier Stagemaster with Floyd Rose Floating Tremolo

Squier Stagemaster is a uniquely different tailor of the typical Fender Stratocaster guitar. The Squier Stagemaster is made explicitly for the rocker players alike. With its sleek Strat body design, reverse Fender-shaped headstock and its drive-bombing License Floyd Rose double-locking tremolo system, the Stagemaster spells “flash” with all of its humbling features.

Much like Fender’s Fat Strat, the Stagemaster guitar is equipped with a lustrous hardwood body, smooth-shredder-fast maple neck. The neck is much thinner than the typical C-shaped Stratocaster and with its reverse headstock, the guitar has appeal and zazz. Playing it feels like Jimi Hendrix’s reversed Stratocaster; for his left hand playing–however, the Stagemaster is a right hand guitar. Whats more, the Stagemaster is equipped with a solid Rosewood fingerboard (12.6″ radius) and 22 frets. The die-cast machine head tuning pegs are what you’d expect from a guitar with Fender‘s name on it. The pickups are a bit bland, but certainly not bad for a guitar in this price range. The pickups are managed with its 5-way selector switch, master volume and a single tone control.

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The Squier Stagemaster, in a way, reminds me of a low-line version of Dave Murray’s [guitarist of Iron Maiden] 1957 Stratocaster. Dave Murray notoriously used his ‘57 Stratocaster back in the late 70’s through the 80’s. Like the Stagemaster, his 1957 Strat was equipped with a Floyd Rose double-locking tremolo system, HSH pickup configuration and a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard . However, his legendary Strat did not have a reverse headstock or a thin (fast) design-neck-shape. His guitar was black with a white pick guard (not to mention, Dave replaced the original Fender pickups with DiMarzio humbuckers to “fatten up the sound“).

The Stagemaster, though no longer in production [info that we can find is the last year made was 2001], was available in three different pickup configurations. The Stagemaster HSS features a scorching humbucker in the bridge position and two hot single-coils in the middle and neck with 5-way switching. While the HH features dual humbuckers and 3-way switching, and last but not least, the HSH has dual humbuckers and one single-coil pickup in the middle. The color options for the Fender Squire Stagemaster was: Frost Red, Polar White, Cobalt Blue Metallic, balck and Galactic Purple.

Fender Artist Series: Murray, Johnson, Blackmore

As Gear-Vault previously received word on Fender’s Road Worn series, Fender is now boasting a few new Artist Series Strats for 2009, including the Dave Murray Stratocaster, Eric Johnson Stratocaster RW and Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster. Read more

Jackson Adrian Smith model

With the ongoing history that is being built between Iron Maiden’s Axeman Adrian Smith and Jackson Guitars, it’s no surprise that the two are teaming up to populate Adrian Smith’s Signature Custom Superstrat Read more