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Post subject: Fender Toronado?
Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 5:05 am
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Any owners here?


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Post subject: Re: Fender Toronado?
Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 6:16 am
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Yes, I bought a mint, candy apple red one last summer at a fire sale price. It sits in it's tweed case, a valued part of my humble collection. The first guitar designed at the Mexican factory. A very high quality guitar in my opinion.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Toronado?
Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 8:25 am
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tvr1979 wrote:
The first guitar designed at the Mexican factory.


For a certain period the Tornado was manufactured in the United States before the production moved to Korea and came into a halt shortly after.

There's a Jim Root Tornado with EMGs but actually this guitar was exclusively made for Jim himself and not available publicly.

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Post subject: Re: Fender Toronado?
Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 7:46 am
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I bought my Toronado GT on eBay a couple years back after seeing pics of one on this Forum. I love oddball guitars and I believe this one qualifies in that category.

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The guitar is in almost mint condition and is one of my favorite colors for guitars and trucks. This guitar was made in Korea and features genuine Seymour-Duncan pickups, while all the US and Mexican Toronados sported Fender Atomic humbuckers.

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This is one of the few Fenders to sport a Tune-O-Matic bridge setup, one more reason it's a truly strange Fender guitar. The S-D humbuckers are a reverse-wound Vintage '59 at the neck and a Pearly Gates at the bridge. This is a nice, hot solid mahogany guitar.

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Post subject: Re: Fender Toronado?
Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 12:51 pm
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The Toronado was first offered to the public in 1998, MIM.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Toronado?
Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 7:54 pm
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A little more info From Wikipedia:

The Fender Toronado was an electric guitar made by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. Introduced at NAMM in 1998, it is a part of the "Deluxe Series" of Fenders produced in Mexico, generally to higher specs than most "Standard" models.

Design

The Toronado features two Fender Atomic humbucking pickups, a rosewood fretboard, and four chrome knobs (2 volume and 2 tone). Many models also include a tortoise-shell pickguard. The headstock features the Fender "spaghetti" logo and sports vintage style Gotoh/Kluson tuners. The body shape shadows the designs of Fender's Jazzmaster and Jaguar guitars. The Toronado also has a 24.75" scale length — an unusual feature on a Fender guitar, as this scale length is usually associated with electric guitars manufactured by Gibson.

The Toronado was reissued in 2004. This reissue has several differences from '98-'03 models, featuring more modern colors like Midnight Blue, Caramel Metallic, Blizzard Pearl and Chrome Red. The pickups are also open-coil as opposed to the covered humbuckers featured on the earlier models. The 2004 models were discontinued in 2006 and are rare due to their short 2-year production span. The Fender Toronado GT HH (05-06) was crafted in Korea, sporting a mahogany body and Seymour Duncan humbuckers rather than Duncan-designed pickups. It was part of Fender's "Big Block" series. The guitar came in metallic finishes with a painted headstock and a racing stripe in a reverse L shape going from the left side of the body to the upper right horn. Unlike other variants of the Toronado, it has no pickguard.

As of January 2007, all Toronado variants had been discontinued by Fender.

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Post subject: Re: Fender Toronado?
Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 9:58 pm
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Though the Tornados were officially discontinued in 2007, the only Tornado still in existence (JR said it's a Jazzmaster but looks more like a Tornado in appearance) is the Jim Root signature model; it differs from the original Tornado for the addition of a 1-piece maple/neck fretboard and a pair of EMG humbuckers.

Not available publicly yet.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Toronado?
Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 2:06 am
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Love em!

I have Five...3 MIM and 2 MIA.

I actually prefer the early MIM's with the bent steel bridge w/vintage saddles over the Tune- a- Matic style bridge. I did swap out the Atomic p/u's on my black Toro with Seymour Duncan JB and Jazz. Also changed my sunburst to SD's 59 and Pearly Gates. I have a very dark metallic blue (almost black) MIM with the Tune-a- Matic that I fitted with a Bigsby B5 tremelo. My butterscotch MIA w/ black doves and my transparent crimson MIA with Atomics II's are both left stock.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Toronado?
Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 6:47 am
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DragonFire54 wrote:
Love em!

I have Five...3 MIM and 2 MIA.
All right then - where's the pictures? Especially the Bigsby!

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Post subject: Re: Fender Toronado?
Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 2:22 pm
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I originally bought the Vibramate to go along with the Bigsby since it allowed installation without drilling holes however I had some issues with the Bigsby pulling the bridge screw posts studs from the body! I tried re gluing the studs to no avail. The vibramate did make a great template to screw the Bigsby permanently:)


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