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Fender Tom Petty Kingman Signature Acoustic Guitar

Fender Custom Shop introduces the limited edition Tom Petty Kingman, a black dreadnought with Strat style headstock.

Fender Tom Petty Kingman

This acoustic and Stratocaster hybrid is built to reflect the style and specs preferences of the artist, bearing his signature on the soundhole label and on the back of the headstock.

Best known as the lead vocalist for the Heartbreakers, an as a founding member of the Traveling Wilburys, Tom Petty has quite a number of hits under his belt. With a career that now spans five decades, it should go without saying that he knows what he wants when it comes to his guitars.

Now Fender and Tom have come up with a premium signature acoustic guitar, set for a very limited production run. According to the press release, all of Petty’s proceeds from each instrument sale will benefit the non-profit organization Heal EB, an organization dedicated to researching and identifying treatment strategies for Epidermolysis Bullosa. The guitars are also meant to help raise awareness of the disease.

As expected, Petty’s signature Kingman is quite the eye candy, with a dreadnought body wrapped in nitro gloss black finish. The body is built using premium tonewoods, featuring solid Sitka spruce for the top and solid mahogany for the back and sides. The top is supported by Fender’s forward shifted scalloped X bracing, while the back and sides are supported by Sitka spruce back bracing and basswood kerfing.

Further visual appointments on the body include the gold pickguard, checkerboard rosette, ivoroid top and back body binding, and black-ivoroid-black purfling.

The guitar has a maple neck that is carved into a “modern C”-shaped profile. It has a dual-action truss rod and comes with a gloss natural finish that features a special “Midas gold” tint. Following the hybrid Strat design of the Kingman line, this limited edition guitar comes with a headstock shape that is based on vintage Stratocasters from 1962. It also comes with a vintage-style “wing” string trees to complete the classic Strat headstock look.

For pluggin in, Tom Petty and Fender went with the Fishman VT-2 pickup/preamp system. The output jack is discretely positioned at the lower strap-button, while controls are top mounted in keeping with the Strat and acoustic hybrid look.

Other premium features of the Tom Petty Kingman include a 20-fret Indian rosewood fingerboard with 10” radius, rolled edges and custom clay-colored dot position inlays; Stratocaster-style bone nut; Fender “Viking”-style Indian rosewood bridge with compensated bone saddle, bone pins and maple plate and vintage-style tuners.

A matching black hard-shell case is also provided with each purchase. Inside the special guitar case you’ll find an autographed copy of the “Hypnotic Eye”, Tom Petty’s latest album. It also comes with an Acoustic Custom Shop toolkit for maintenance work and a certificate of authenticity.

The advertised price for the Tom Petty Kingman Custom Shop model is $5,500. Visit Fender for further details and other information.

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