James Burton, Brad Paisley, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Chrissie Hynde, Albert Collins, Julian Lage, Joe Strummer, John 5… The list of players who have picked up the Fender Telecaster is long and illustrious. Can we now add Pac-Man to the list?
Well, yes, we can. Why? Because Fender has just teamed up with Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. to bring us some real arcade fire – a special Pac-Man Player II Telecaster that transfers the graphics of the O.G. arcade game to the solidbody electric guitar that we all know and love.
Somehow this Tele still looks contemporary even now as it celebrates 75 years in production and is dressed in the livery of a videogame that debuted in 1980.
With all those dot inlays and PAC-MAN’s notorious appetite for, y'know eating dots, this is a match made in heaven, or as Justin Norvell, Fender’s chief product officer, puts it, “a collision of two cultural forces that have shaped generations”.
And, also, it is an opportunity to learn something new. Those ghosts that chase Pac-Man around the maze have names (they have families, dammit!), and answer to Blinky, Inky, Pinky and Clyde. They are all over the finish.
The guitar itself is a regulation Player II Tele, which is to say it's a bona fide crowd-pleaser, with that super mainstream C profile neck, the 9.5” radius rosewood fingerboard with rolled edges, the Player Series Alnico V single-coil pickups, and a six-saddle bridge that makes intonating a Telecaster that much easier.
The Pac-Man Player II Telecaster is priced $1,099/£949 and is available now.
Fender has also unveiled a new F Is For Fender x Pac-Man capsule collection, exclusive to the Japanese market, which is something to think about if you are vacationing in Tokyo any time soon and are visiting the Big F’s flagship store in Harajuku and are looking to pick up a T-shirt or a ballcap to match the guitar.
The Pac-Man Tele is Fender’s second collab with an iconic Japanese pop-cultural icon in as many weeks, and follows the Godzilla Distortion pedal. It’s just the thing to go with that sick Godzilla Stratocaster that Fender Japan unveiled last year.
Like the Pac-Man Telecaster, it has a wraparound graphic, and if Fender’s Hello Kitty collabs have taught us anything it’s that these things tend to sell fast.
For more information, head over to Fender.
