As the world fawns over the return of Game of Thrones, Fender has embarked upon a game of tones, embodying three of the series’ most popular/feared houses with their very own signature electric guitars.
The House Stark Telecaster, House Lannister Jaguar and House Targaryen Stratocaster will be built to order by the Fender Custom Shop, and promise meticulously considered details to capture the essence of the show’s Westeros setting.
Fender Custom Shop’s Principal Master Builder Ron Thorn is behind the guitars’ construction, which employs each house’s family sigil, costume designs, armour and weaponry as part of their design.
You can watch show creator Dan Weiss, composer Ramin Djawadi and legendary guitarists Nuno Bettencourt, Scott Ian and Tom Morello play the guitars above.
Here’s the skinny from Fender, including some eye-watering prices:
Game of Thrones House Stark, Telecaster - $25,000
PRESS RELEASE: The House Stark Telecaster guitar features a lightweight swamp ash body, weathered with inlaid sterling silver purfling that reflects the broodiness of Winterfell’s landscape.
The guitar features a maple neck with ebony fingerboard, hand-cut and engraved sterling silver Dire Wolf sigil inlay on the first fret in addition to an embossed nickel silver version on the pickguard.
The Tele also features hand-engraved knobs, an etched neck plate and is finished with thin lacquer over custom paints, including “Raven Black” and “Gray Wolf.”
Guitar case features a faux wolf fur lining and a black suede exterior as an homage to the direwolf sigil of the Stark House.
Game of Thrones House Lannister, Jaguar - $30,000
PRESS RELEASE: The House Lannister Jaguar guitar stuns with a lightweight alder body that features 24k Gold leaf with heraldry design on both the front and back, paying homage to the opulent Red Keep in King’s Landing.
The guitar has a maple neck with ebony fingerboard, hand-cut and engraved brass Lion sigil inlay on the first fret, a 24k leaf heraldry design carved headstock face, gold hardware and a gold-plated pickguard that is engraved with the Lannister’s sigil.
The Jaguar also includes an etched neck plate, hand-engraved knobs and is finished with a thin lacquer over custom paints including “Burnt Crimson” and “Lannister Gold.”
Guitar case features gold accents including a crushed gold velvet interior and all gold hardware.
Game of Thrones House Targaryen, Stratocaster - $35,000
PRESS RELEASE: For the House Targaryen Stratocaster guitar, Thorn drew significant inspiration from the family’s sigil, a three-headed dragon, as this Strat features carved dragon scales across the front and back of the guitar.
The lightweight alder body is adorned with black hardware, a maple neck with ebony fretboard, hand-cut and engraved sterling silver three-headed dragon sigil inlay on the first fret, as well as a hand-tooled and stained leather pickguard that also features the Targaryen sigil.
The Strat also boasts an etched neck plate and is finished with thin lacquer over custom “Dragonglass Black” paint.
Guitar case boasts an all-black reptile design on its exterior with red stitching accents both inside and out.
A staggering 300 hours went into the project, with 100 hours spent on each instrument - but both Fender and the Game of Thrones team reckon the effort has been worth it.
“This has been a two-year journey - much of it spent in the concept phase, nailing down a cool and authentic way to bring the two properties together,” said Justin Norvell, EVP Fender Products.
Ron Thorn at Fender has built three beautiful, GoT-inspired works of art, and you can out-shred your enemies with all of them
D.B. Weiss
“We worked directly and extensively with Game of Thrones’ creator and avid guitar player D.B. Weiss to ensure that our vision, design and materials reflected the identity of each house. And there’s no better place than the Fender Custom Shop to tackle this task with experts in not only guitar-building, but specialized skills, such as carving and engraving, that really set these instruments apart.
“As existing fans of the series, we couldn’t be happier with the final results and this partnership overall.”
“Ron Thorn at Fender has built three beautiful, GoT-inspired works of art, and you can out-shred your enemies with all of them,” said D.B. Weiss, who along with David Benioff, serves as creator and showrunner on Game Of Thrones.
“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.”
See Fender for more info.
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