SuperVee's Maverick Spotted on MIYAVI's Telecaster

The Telecaster turns 75 this year, and Fender is celebrating by handing the spotlight to players who have pushed the instrument somewhere new. This week, that player is MIYAVI: the Japanese "samurai guitarist" whose percussive slap style has made him one of the most instantly recognizable guitarists on the planet. Fender just released a short video of MIYAVI talking about what the Telecaster means to him and how it helps him express emotion through music. While you're watching, take a close look at the bridge...

That's SuperVee's Maverick tremolo!

Why MIYAVI's Tele Isn't Like Other Teles

MIYAVI's playing style is brutal on a guitar, but in the best way. He attacks the strings with a slapping technique borrowed from the shamisen and funk bass, then bends and warps notes with heavy whammy bar work. The problem? Traditional Telecasters don't have a whammy bar. When asked why he doesn't just play a Strat, MIYAVI told Guitar World he loves Strats, but "a Tele is a bad guy, a rebel."

So when Fender built MIYAVI's signature Telecaster, they needed a tremolo system that could deliver full vibrato performance without compromising the Tele's character, and they chose the SuperVee Maverick, integrated right into the bridge pickup plate.

For a player whose entire technique is built on hard attack and expressive pitch bends, tuning stability isn't a nice-to-have, it's the entire game. That's exactly what our patented blade design was built for: drop-in tremolo performance that stays in tune under the kind of abuse most guitars only dream of seeing. 

Want a Whammy Bar on Your Tele (or Strat)?

You don't need a signature model to get there. The Maverick installs on your Telecaster with minimal modification. Plus, we make a version for Strats too.