Q: How Many Guitarists Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb? A: None, They Just Steal Someone Else’s Light. Billy Corgan Gets the Signature Fender Treatment.

If the ego wasn't big enough already, Fender has helped to expand the size of Billy Corgan's melon by green-lighting the release of his own Stratocaster model. Corgan is the latest guitarist to be immortalized with a signature Fender guitar, joining the ranks of Eric Clapton, J Mascis, and Yngwie Malmsteen, all of whom have worked with the venerable instrument maker to produce axes according to their exacting preferences. The Smashing Pumpkins leader is not often recognized for his guitar prowess, partly because he is not overly flashy, but he is underrated and has a distinctive sound (“buzz-saw tone,” say some folk). Fender claims that Corgan emerged in the grunge period and “stepped forward with lengthy and unconventionally next-level instrumental breaks that could go from shredding, screaming incendiary intensity in one song to delicate, whispering beauty in the next.” They then mentioned something about his time spent as a shepherd, freeing Hebrew slaves, receiving commandments, and parting seas with an apathetic shrug, a few teen angst-fueled words, and oodles of fierce distortion and dramatic shifts in song tempo.

Guitarists are a serious species, so for spec lovers (I am specifically thinking of a high school acquaintance who had his walls covered with guitar layouts and configurations... he also got his hair permed to play in a Ratt tribute band), the Corgan strat features: alder body, satin lacquer finish, maple neck, 9.5' radius maple fingerboard, 22 jumbo frets, 25.5' scale length, chrome hardware, Fender standard cast/sealed tuning machines, modern hard tail bridge, 3-ply pickguard, special design Dimarzio 'Billy Corgan' single spaced humbucking bridge pickup, Dimarzio ‘Chopper’ Middle Pickup, special design Dimarzio ‘Billy Corgan’ single-spaced humbucking bridge pickup, 5-position pickup switching blade (full humbucking bridge, inside coil of bridge and full humbucking middle, full humbucking middle, full humbucking middle and outside coil of neck, full humbucking neck), 2-tone master control (neck and bridge), choice of Fat Black or Olympic White satin nitrocellulose lacquer finishes, and an exhaust, because it's so smoking hot! Hisssss.... rock... on...

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