Tom DeLonge has sign-posted the seemingly imminent arrival of his new signature guitar, the Fender Tom DeLonge signature Starcaster.
The Blink-182 guitarist took to Instagram to share a new shot of himself looking down the neck of what looks a lot like a dot-necked Starcaster model, alongside the legend “10,9,8,7…”
The inlays are significant because his previous Fender Custom Shop builds have featured custom Blink-182 logo inlays, created by the careful hand of one of the firm’s leading luthiers, Ron Thorn.
Obviously, a production-line signature model will be produced in much vaster numbers and the complicated inlays appear to have been sacrificed in the name of economy.
It’s probably a savvy move, both in terms of price point (along with its likely origins as an offshore build) and in terms of widening its appeal beyond non-Blink fans, too.
Rumors are now abounding of an April 16 launch date and the guitar being produced in the firm's Indonesian facility.
It’s definitely a Fender logo on that headstock, but the current Squier Starcaster models – the only ones in the Fender family’s line-up at present – are Indonesian-made and the black hardware (found on many Indonesian builds) also makes us think there might be something in this rumor.
What’s more, Fender previously badged its Chinese-made Modern Player Starcasters with its own logo (rather than Squier) and Jimmy Eat World guitarist Jim Adkins’ signature Fender JA-90 Telecaster Thinline is also now produced in Indonesia.
The overarching concept of the build seems to be about hitting a sweet spot between DeLonge’s initial Fender signature model, the Tom DeLonge Stratocaster (reissued last year) and his later Gibson build, the Tom DeLonge ES-330.
We’re fairly sure of the specs at this point. Having peered over the Custom Shop model, we reckon it will pair an overwound PAF-style Seymour Duncan SH-5 humbucker and semi-hollow construction, with the oversized ’70s Strat headstock and single volume control of his first Fender signature.
The Custom Shop build also features a Gotoh tune-o-matic bridge and Grover tuners, though we’d question whether we’ll see that level of branded hardware on the production-line model.
As for the date, well April 16 would tally with DeLonge’s countdown, so we guess all will be revealed then.
While we wait to find out, we suggest occupying yourself with DeLonge’s previous Custom Shop one-offs, which, er, really put the ‘Star’ in Starcaster – including a Roswell-inspired build and a guitar that incorporates actual meteorite dust into the finish.
For more information on the Tom DeLonge Starcaster, keep an eye on Fender.
