GPOTD Guitar Pic Of The Day 4/15/2011

Elias Graves

Common misfit
Fender Friday returns!

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Fender Coronado XII Sunburst 1967
This Fender Coronado is a double-cutaway thin-line hollow-body electric guitar, manufactured by Fender in 1969. Designed by Roger Rossmeisl (who had previously also designed instruments for Rickenbacker, but who went on to create numerous models for Fender), the Coronado was an attempt to capitalise on the increasing popularity of semi-acoustic guitars following the high-profile use of hollow-bodied instruments, such as the Epiphone Casino by bands like the Beatles.

Three versions of the Coronado guitar were produced from 1966 through 1972. The Coronado II has an added bridge pickup.

The top, sides and back of the body were constructed from laminated beechwood, the top being slightly arched, and featuring two generous, routed and bound "f" holes. The body of the instrument was finished in a high-gloss nitrocellulose lacquer, a finish which is no longer frequently used in the manufacture of modern guitars.

The Coronado also features relatively thin 'C'-shaped bolt-on maple neck, topped with a rosewood fingerboard, and a headstock shaped similarly to that of a Fender Stratocaster.

Unusually for Fender at the time, the Coronado's pickups were made by DeArmond, and the bridge was a free-floating, non anchored, 'tune-o-matic' style bridge, with a suspended tailpiece.



Summary

Body: Hollow beechwood body with a sunburst finish.

Neck: Maple, rosewood fretboard with block inlays.

Cosmetic Condition: Very clean! A few small blemishes and tiny chips around the body edges and neck plate.

Weight: 6lbs 8oz

$1,895
 
Ugly, and the few vintage coronado guitars I played were not my thing. To me they felt terrible. I know they have a bit of a following, but everything about them just felt bad to me.
 
The body is a beauty, butter face! I don't know if I'll ever get used to the Squidward nose head stock.
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I liked the first pic, that headstock looks ridiculous though, stood up playing it would look like it was melting
 
ah, fender friday. if this is what i'm returning to, you can keep it.

as for the guitar, they look great and play like shit. no thanks.
 
I guess the designer felt the need to out-Gumby the Rickenbacker's headstock, since that would have been the main competitor in the 12-string market.

Looks ridiculous, but I'd still like to try it out.
 
I haven't either. Now I'm curious.
Thought the bolt on neck for a hollow was kinda weird, but what do I know?

EG

The few that I have played (although not 12 strings) had a number of problems that added to the overall shitty feel experience. The biggest problem was the neck heavy feel to them, the next was the thin C neck (both in profile, and what felt like narrow string spacing too) combined with a curvy radius an mini frets that made it very uncomfortable to play (of course some people like this, more of a preference), the third was a really poor neck fit on the body....with both examples having a poor angle, and enough gap that you could make tremolo effects by wiggling the neck. My final complaint was the pickups/sound. Not sure whether it was the pickups, the beech wood laminate, or a combo of the two, but both guitars sounded really, really bad. I know some people really love these, but I remember thinking the first one I played was probably the worst guitar I have ever held. The second one I tried was to see if the first one was a fluke or damaged...it wasn't, apparently, they all play like crap. I'm not knocking those who have well made examples and love them, but I've never felt another guitar that so very clearly indicated to me that we would not be making music together.
 
The few that I have played (although not 12 strings) had a number of problems that added to the overall shitty feel experience. The biggest problem was the neck heavy feel to them, the next was the thin C neck (both in profile, and what felt like narrow string spacing too) combined with a curvy radius an mini frets that made it very uncomfortable to play (of course some people like this, more of a preference), the third was a really poor neck fit on the body....with both examples having a poor angle, and enough gap that you could make tremolo effects by wiggling the neck. My final complaint was the pickups/sound. Not sure whether it was the pickups, the beech wood laminate, or a combo of the two, but both guitars sounded really, really bad. I know some people really love these, but I remember thinking the first one I played was probably the worst guitar I have ever held. The second one I tried was to see if the first one was a fluke or damaged...it wasn't, apparently, they all play like crap. I'm not knocking those who have well made examples and love them, but I've never felt another guitar that so very clearly indicated to me that we would not be making music together.

:eek:

EG
 
There is a guy over at HC EG who had a petition to ask fender to make a reissue of them. :messedup: I guess some people really love them, or some superstar band person played one at the MTV awards or something. Anyway, every time I think of that petition arriving at fender and being discussed by the management, I see a situation where the production manager says it is impossible to do, as the new CNC machines can't be programmed with poor enough tolerances and slop to properly recreate the coronado.
 
There is a guy over at HC EG who had a petition to ask fender to make a reissue of them. :messedup: I guess some people really love them, or some superstar band person played one at the MTV awards or something. Anyway, every time I think of that petition arriving at fender and being discussed by the management, I see a situation where the production manager says it is impossible to do, as the new CNC machines can't be programmed with poor enough tolerances and slop to properly recreate the coronado.

the Coronado? really? i would have thought it was for the Starcaster because Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead plays one. the Starcaster was actually a decent to good guitar, if you could find one that didn't fail from CBS tolerances.
 
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