Fender and Mobile Fidelity Partner for Iconic Turntable Release
Fender, best known for its guitars, has partnered with Mobile Fidelity Electronics for a run of limited edition turntables.
The partnership has produced Fender's first-ever turntable, the Fender x MoFi PrecisionDeck. Limited to a run of only 1,000 units, the Fender x MoFi PrecisionDeck is a high-performance turntable with gorgeous looks that resonates with decades of music history.
The shape was designed by Principal Master Builder Yuriy Shishkov of the Fender Custom Shop (FCS) and utilises the same swamp ash wood as the famed Fender Precision Bass guitar. The blanks of swamp ash are sourced, milled, and finished in the iconic three-colour Sunburst by Fender USA.
The components are designed and built by MoFi. The deck is assembled featuring technology from the award-winning UltraDeck, with testing and setup by MoFi at the company's factory in Ann Arbor, Michigan. MoFi says the "turntable is virtually ready to play straight out of the box with its pre-mounted MoFi MasterTracker pickup."
The company says that each limited-edition unit is individually numbered, badged, and sure to become a collector's item.
MoFi Electronics President, John Schaffer, told StereoNET:
Working with the entire Fender team has been a great pleasure and we could not be more excited or proud of the result. From the beginning, creating this turntable has been a joy. The ideas on how to leverage both companies' strengths and create something authentic and special just flowed. With the very first prototype we knew we were really on to something, as folks would stop by to admire what we were creating.
The story of a turntable associated with Fender actually starts back in the early 1940s. Leo Fender was operating Fender Radio Service in Fullerton, California. His primary business was repairing home audio equipment - radios, TVs, and hi-fi sets. It's said that in 1945, Fender, with fellow inventors Doc Kauffman and Clifton Abbott, designed and patented a turntable of his own. Fender ultimately sold the turntable rights in 1945 for $5,000 in advance royalties and used the proceeds as seed money to fund the K&F Manufacturing Corporation with Kauffman. K&F manufactured lap steel guitars, amplifiers, and the record player for a short time before Kauffman sold his share in the company to Fender. Undaunted by Kauffman's departure, Leo Fender established Fender Electric Instruments in 1946. Now, 75 years later, Fender's name is once again gracing a technologically advanced turntable.
The Fender x MoFi PrecisionDeck will sell for US$3,495 RRP.
For more information visit Mobile Fidelity
Marc Rushton
StereoNET’s Founder and Publisher was born in England and raised on British Hi-Fi before moving to Australia. He developed an early love of music and playing bass guitar before discovering the studio and the other side of the mixing desk. After writing for print magazines, Marc saw the future in digital publishing and founded the first version of StereoNET in 1999.
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