Fender/YouTube
Three houses, three Fenders, three great guitarists.
- Fender has created a trio of Custom Shop guitars to celebrate "Game of Thrones."
- The axes are based on iconic Fender designs and will sell for $25,000-$35,000.
- The collaboration is the result of Fender's guitar-playing CEO connecting with the guitar-playing showrunner of "Game of Thrones."
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If you wanted to come up with an epic book series and TV show that would appeal to fans of heavy metal and progressive rock, you'd probably create "Game of Thrones."
With HBO's series drawing to a close this season, the sprawling tale - based on George R.R. Martin's novels - is provoking all manner of praise. But one tribute has come from an unexpected source.
Fender guitars are known less for heavy metal than for pop, hard rock, blues, and country. But the California-based instrument maker has a side that craves engagement with the Iron Throne. Fender CEO Andy Mooney is a guitar player whose tastes tend toward punk rock and heavier tunes, and he has forged a friendship with "Thrones" co-creator D.B. Weiss, Fender said in a statement.
The result is the Game of Thrones Sigil Collection, a product of Fender's legendary Custom Shop.
"Principal Master Builder Ron Thorn ... drew inspiration from each house's family sigil, costume designs, armor and weaponry, as well as each of their locations in Westeros, sparing no details," Fender said, adding that the new guitars "boast ornate and unique features such as dragon scale carvings, custom engraved inlays, hand carved headstocks and gold-plated pickguards."
These axes don't come cheap: Prices range from $25,000 to $35,000, Fender said. The three guitars each took over 100 hours to craft.
Designs based on Fender classics
HBO
"Game of Thrones" is heavy metal HBO.
The design is based on a trio of Fender's most popular instruments: the iconic Telecaster, the world's first commercially successful solidbody electric guitar; the beloved Stratocaster, made famous by Jimi Hendrix; and the Jaguar, a guitar that was rediscovered by indie rockers in the 1990s.
Fender
The House Stark Telecaster.
The Tele is for House Stark, the Strat for House Targaryen, and the Jag for House Lannister.
Fender
The House Targaryen Stratocaster.
"Ron Thorn at Fender has built three beautiful, GoT-inspired works of art, and you can out-shred your enemies with all of them," Weiss said. "The craftsmanship and attention to detail reminds me a lot of what we saw in our costume and armory shops, and on our sets. I hope these make a few other people 1/1000th as happy as they make me."
Fender The House Lannister Jaguar.
Check out the individual guitars below - and yes, these axes can play the "Game of Thrones" theme, as Tom Morello, Scott Ian, Nuno Bettencourt, Ramin Djawadi, and D.B. Weiss demonstrate.