Squier Venus

Last updated
Squier Venus
Squier Vista Venus XII.jpg
Manufacturer Squier
Period19971998
Construction
Body typeSolid
Neck jointBolt-on
Woods
Body Basswood
Neck Maple, 25.5" scale
FretboardBound Rosewood, 22 frets
Hardware
Pickup(s) HB pickup (bridge), single coil pickup w/staggered Alnico pole pieces (neck)
Colors available
Black, Sea Foam Green, Sunburst.

The Squier Venus (commonly known as Fender Vista Venus) is a signature series guitar released in 1997 and co-designed by Courtney Love in conjunction with Fender's Squier brand, under the Vista series. [1] At the time of its release, Love and Bonnie Raitt were the only two female musicians to have their own signature series of guitars.

Contents

Its shape was based on Mercury, Stratocaster and Rickenbacker solid-body guitars. It was released in two configurations, six or twelve string (the Venus XII). Colors available included black, sunburst and surf green. Surf green was named after paint code #57 (surf green) from Chevrolet c. 1957. [2] Upon its original release, the Venus retailed for US$699.99 and the Venus XII for $999.99. It was discontinued at the end of 1998. Shirley Manson from Garbage played a custom pink Squier Venus live. Ryan Jarman from UK band The Cribs, a friend of Love's, used the surf green version of the guitar as his main instrument between 2011 and 2015.

Controversy

A man named Tim George of the short-lived Mercury Guitar Company (of Atlanta, GA) has claimed to be the actual designer of the guitar, along with his company co-founder Danny Babbitt. [3] According to George, Babbitt snuck backstage at a Nirvana concert in Atlanta in November 1993 and sold the original custom metallic-green Mercury guitar on which the Venus design was eventually based to Love. Love played this guitar in public extensively over the next several years, and it is the guitar she played in the music video for Hole's song Violet. [4] The 6-string Venus model is virtually identical to Love's Mercury guitar, except with a Fender Stratocaster-like headstock.

Product dating

The Venus has a one-letter, six-digit serial number printed on the neck of the guitar. Serial numbers beginning with the letter V were manufactured in 1997. Serial numbers beginning with the letter A were manufactured between 1997 and 1998. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Johnson (guitarist)</span> American guitarist and recording artist

Eric Johnson is an American guitarist, vocalist and composer. His 1990 album Ah Via Musicom was certified platinum by the RIAA, and the single "Cliffs of Dover" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fender Stratocaster</span> Solid body electric guitar

The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed between 1952 and 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuously manufactured the Stratocaster since 1954. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top "horn" shape for balance. Along with the Gibson Les Paul, Gibson SG, and Fender Telecaster, it is one of the most-often emulated electric guitar shapes. "Stratocaster" and "Strat" are trademark terms belonging to Fender. Guitars that duplicate the Stratocaster by other manufacturers are sometimes called S-Type or ST-type guitars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fender (company)</span> American musical instrument manufacturer

The Fender Starcaster is a series of semi-hollowbody electric guitars made by the Fender company. The Starcaster was part of Fender's attempt to enter the semi-hollowbody market, which was dominated by Gibson's ES-335 and similar designs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fender Jazzmaster</span> Electric guitar

The Fender Jazzmaster is an electric guitar designed as a more expensive sibling of the Fender Stratocaster. First introduced at the 1958 NAMM Convention, it was initially marketed to jazz guitarists, but found favor among surf rock guitarists in the early 1960s. Its appearance is similar to the Jaguar, though it is tonally and physically different in many technical ways, including pickup design, scale length and controls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fender Showmaster</span>

The Fender Showmaster is a discontinued model of electric guitar made by Fender, and is characteristic of a superstrat. Also see the badge change of Stagemaster due to legal reasons.

The Fender Jaguar is an electric guitar by Fender Musical Instruments characterized by an offset-waist body, a relatively unusual switching system with two separate circuits for lead and rhythm, and a short-scale 24" neck. Owing some roots to the Jazzmaster, it was introduced in 1962 as Fender's feature-laden top-of-the-line model, designed to lure players from Gibson. During its initial 13-year production run, the Jaguar did not sell as well as the less expensive Stratocaster and Telecaster, and achieved its most noticeable popularity in the surf music scene. After the Jaguar was taken out of production in 1975, vintage Jaguars became popular first with American punk rock players, and then more so during the alternative rock, shoegazing and indie rock movements of the 1980s and 1990s. Fender began making a version in Japan in the mid-1980s, and then introduced a USA-made reissue in 1999. Since then, Fender has made a variety of Jaguars in America, Mexico, Indonesia and China under both the Fender and Squier labels. Original vintage Jaguars sell for many times their original price.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fender Precision Bass</span> Model of electric bass

The Fender Precision Bass is a model of electric bass guitar manufactured by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. In its standard, post-1957 configuration, the Precision Bass is a solid body, four-stringed instrument usually equipped with a single split-coil humbucking pickup and a one-piece, 20-fret maple neck with rosewood or maple fingerboard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fender Cyclone</span> Series of electric guitars manufactured by Fender

The Fender Cyclone denotes a series of electric guitars made by Fender. Introduced in late 1997, the Cyclone body is similarly styled to the Mustang, but it is a quarter of an inch thicker than the body of a Mustang and is made of poplar, whereas contemporary Mustang reissues were made of basswood.

The Fender Bass VI, originally known as the Fender VI, is a six-string electric bass guitar made by Fender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fender Mustang</span> US solid body electric guitar

The Fender Mustang is a solid body electric guitar produced by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. It was introduced in 1964 as the basis of a major redesign of Fender's student models, the Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic. It was produced until 1982 and reissued in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fender Eric Clapton Stratocaster</span>

The Fender Eric Clapton Stratocaster is the signature model electric guitar of English guitarist Eric Clapton. It was the first signature model guitar released by Fender.

The Fender Lead Series was produced by the Fender/Rogers/Rhodes Division of CBS Musical Instruments. The series comprised Lead I, Lead II, Lead III and Lead Bass models.

The Fender Mustang Bass is an electric bass guitar model produced by Fender and Squier. Two variants, the Musicmaster Bass and the Bronco Bass, have also been produced from time to time using the same body and neck shape.

The Fender Electric XII is a purpose-built 12-string electric guitar, designed for folk rockers. Instead of using a Stratocaster-body style, it uses one similar to a Jaguar/Jazzmaster body style. It also departed from the typical "Stratocaster"-style headstock, instead featuring a long headstock nicknamed the "hockey-stick" headstock to cope with the twelve tuners. The original Electric XII employed a unique split pickup design and had a 4-way pickup rotary selector allowing for neck, neck & bridge in parallel, in or out of phase, and bridge only options as opposed to the Alternate Reality version which sports a standard 3-way toggle switch for pickup selection. It also used a string-through-body design similar to a Telecaster to help increase sustain.

The Fender Bullet was an electric guitar originally designed by John Page and manufactured and marketed by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. It was first introduced as a line of "student" guitars to replace the outgoing Mustang and Musicmaster models.

The Fender Nashville B-Bender Telecaster is an American Standard series electric guitar made by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. This guitar is a Fender Telecaster with the addition of a factory-installed B-string bender device. The device raises the pitch of the second (B) string by one whole step to C-sharp. The bend is activated by a one-inch downward pull on the guitar neck, allowing the player to emulate pedal steel sounds and play complex country bends. The Nashville B-Bender Telecaster was introduced in 1996 with major design changes in 1998 and 2000.

The Fender Elite Stratocaster is an electric solid body guitar that was manufactured by Fender in 1983 and 1984. The name was revived from 2016 to 2019 with the Fender American Elite Stratocaster Series.

The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele, is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it was the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful solid-body electric guitar. Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music.

References

  1. "Secrets Of Celebrity Skin". Guitar World . January 1999. Archived from the original on November 27, 1999. Retrieved 29 October 2011.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. Fender 1997 catalogue
  3. "The real story of the Venus design". January 27, 2010. Archived from the original on September 29, 2015.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. Hole - Violet (Official Video). Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.
  5. "Official Fender Website: Japanese Dating".{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)