Fender has made a guitar for everyone
The LA-based instrument manufacturer have tapped Turnstile, hardcore’s most exciting band, to fly the flag for the new American Pro Classic.
In Corona, California – a city 30 miles east of LA and surrounded by the Santa Ana Mountains – you’ll find a sprawling, 176,000-square-foot factory. From the outside, it doesn’t look much different than what you’d imagine a massive business park to look like; inside, though, its workers are hand-building guitars which could later spark creative genius and soundtrack someone’s life.
There’s a smell of cut wood in the air, and in a sea of safety goggles, protective gloves and heavy machinery, the instruments played by so many of our favourite musicians (Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Beabadoobee to name just three) emerges. It’s quite easy to gloss over how much expertise, time and effort goes into crafting Fender guitars. After all, we’re so used to seeing them at gigs or festivals, being played – or even smashed up – on stage.
Hundreds of people paying lots of attention to tiny screws and knobs and getting the corners and contours exactly right: this is what goes into Fender’s new American Pro Classic, which took two years to develop, from pick-ups (which capture the vibrations of a guitar string) to paint-styles. The Stratocaster has a vintage vibe to it: its bridges, tuners and pick-ups are all made in the same way as they were back in the ’50s and ’60s, not long after the brand was first established by Leo Fender in 1946. The result is a chime-like sound, which Fenders are known for. When Fenders first came out, the brand used car paint for their guitars. The new American Pro Classics have a faded look, like a well-worn, well-loved T‑shirt.
“The crowning jewel of these guitars are the necks,” says Justin Norvell, President of Fender. “They have a satin finish, feel modern and are very fun to play.” Norvell started his career as an aspiring musician working the complaints desk at Fender. 30 years later, he’s still there and has worked in every corner of the company. “The pendulum started to shift for me. I am so passionate about music and guitars and absorbing all the history. My wife always says, how are you still excited by all this? After all this time, it’s still inspiring to me.”
The cherry on top? Turnstile are leading the charge in the American Pro Classic campaign. Fresh off the back of their massive 2025 album Never Enough, the five-piece are taking their crossover hardcore sound across the world tour, with Fender in tow. “When you’re in a different place constantly, sometimes the most familiar thing is the guitar you bring with you every single night,” says Turnstile guitarist Pat McRory.
To celebrate the launch of the American Pro Classic, we caught up with Justin Norvell at Fender’s HQ in LA to discuss the history of the brand, where he’s taking it next and, obviously, how many guitars he keeps at home.
Hi, Justin. In layman’s terms, can you talk us through the new American Pro Classic?
It’s the gateway to our Corona, California instruments we have in that factory, which you went to yesterday. It’s a highly specialised series that is hyper modern for people who want all the bells and whistles. It’s that elegant, simple, meat and potatoes entry point to our Made in USA guitars. It’s got a modern feel and playability, but it also harks back to the classic-ness of these instruments and their history. I think sometimes people take classic to mean old, but things that are classic or iconic can be hyper relevant. Classic-ness is not to be avoided or run away from. It’s got to be embraced, because what people do with these instruments is continually reinvent sound. What you can do with a guitar, there’s a timelessness to it.
Why did Turnstile feel like the right ambassadors for this project?
Including Turnstile in this campaign feels very now and not emblematic of, you know, classic rock or things that have come before. It was a bold choice, and a good choice. Turnstile is a band that we’ve been talking to and working with for years. With the American Pro Classic, you can play the blues or beautiful clean lines, but you can also get up at an arena and rip into some loud, distorted hardcore which Turnstile do. It’s about that versatility, which is why Fender has endured. It’s not an old sound. It’s a sound that is half itself and half you. Smashing Pumpkins sound like Fender, but so do Sultans of Swing, Nirvana, Pink Floyd. It’s a very individualistic thing, which allows a thumbprint to be put on the music.
It’s more about the spirit than the product, then?
Yeah. Turnstile have a great spirit, they have energy and humanity in this era of AI. It’s about seeking music that is visceral. That’s where the guitar shines. If 10 people line up with the same guitar, someone’s going to hit it harder than someone else, someone’s going to play it lighter, someone’s gonna bend the string slightly. All those small human things make it sound different. I love that our instruments are kind of amplifiers for letting that shine. It can’t be faked.
How many guitars do you have at home?
I’ve probably got about 40.
Do you keep them in a special room?
I do. I rotate them. There is a process of elimination over time because they all do something different. One of the things that’s magic about guitar is that even two of the same model can be different. It’s like being an artist and using all kinds of different paints.
The amount of detail and process that goes into making these is very impressive.
There are factories where they produce something that’s got, like, two pieces, and they screw them together. This is hundreds of ingredients. It’s wood, it’s metal. The wood moves. It’s under tension. There are over 100 processes the whole way through. It’s not the tree going in one end and a bunch of guitars coming out. When we’re talking about measurements, it’s 1000ths of an inch. It’s a science.
Describe the new American Pro Classic in three words.
A true original.
