Music China 2018: Fender, Washburn and Walrus Audio (Day 3 Recap)
There’s no slowing down after Day 1 and Day 2 of Music China 2018. Here’s what we spotted – plenty of Fenders ahead.
Handsome guitars gleaming in glass cases greet us in the exhibition hall. Behind them, the sign “Fender Custom Shop”. We spend more time than needed at the booth, before reluctantly slipping out to drop by the other US brands represented at Music China and catch a few fingerstyle performances…
Passers-by can’t help but stare at these lovely Fender Custom Shop models…
…like this heavy relic Telecaster.
We meet the Parallel Universe Troublemaker Telecaster again.
Likewise with the Strat-Tele Hybrid.
Here’s a ’60s Stratocaster from Fender’s 2018 American Original series. We reviewed its younger sibling, the ’50s Strat, in our March issue.
Dragging ourselves out of the Fender zone, we see a Hong Kong retailer, FICCY International, spread out a herd of Walrus Audio pedals. (Find out why we gave the Emissary Boost a 9/10 score in our review.)
The artwork on the Janus tremolo – which takes its name from the Roman god of duality – is something else.
Washburn is another big US brand proudly on display at Music China.
A close-up of Nuno Bettencourt’s Washburn signature, the N2-NUNO, and its Bill Lawrence L-500 bridge humbucker.
After all that gear-spotting, some live music is in order. Here’s Italian fingerstyle guitarist Nazzareno Zacconi to close out the day.
And that’s it for our Music China excursion – next up, NAMM!