“The fact that Fender is so passionate about making the Hellcat still blows my mind”: Tim Armstrong's signature acoustic has a new Checkerboard look

Tim Armstrong holds his new signature Fender Hellcat guitar

Fender has sent Tim Armstrong’s Hellcat acoustic guitar back to the paint room for a fresh new Checkerboard finish, and while it might be a new-for-2023 aesthetic it looks like it has been around forever. 

But then the Hellcat’s new black-and-white Checkerboard paint job has long been subsumed into pop-culture short-hand for punk rock, and was inspired by the British two-tone movement of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s that in turn inspired so much of Armstrong’s sound.