Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
Fender ramps up its Sanrio Hello Kitty Kawaii Collaboration - celebrating 50 years!
Key Points
Fender’s Sanrio Hello Kitty Kawaii collaboration marks 50 years and includes guitars, accessories and fuzz, with Japan receiving additional options. The guitar is described as $500 with one pickup and control; the complete collection totals nearly $780.
The pink fuzz is op-amp style, closer to Fuzz Face than Big Muff, with a blown-speaker character. It differs from Fender Hammertoe Fuzz, which has an Octave switch. As of the article’s update, the price was £101 including delivery from GAK.
The range is positioned largely toward collectors and girls, with products available through Fender dealers.
Who doesn’t like a bit of Japanese Cutesy Kawaii Culture. Fender certainly does - and has been onboard with Sanrio and Hello Kitty now for half a century.
This latest release obviously comes just in time for the Christmas season - in fact I would imagine a few princesses will be waking up to one of these guitars on Christmas Day. And Japanese princesses have even more to be excited about - as you can see in the overview video below - with some unique product available in Japan!
While the price point is a little high on most of this to be all-inclusive - so we’re mostly talking fairly affluent families. The whole Kit and Caboodle in the above visual sums up to near $780 - which is a considerable outlay.
And you’re only getting a single pickup and control for your $500 which doesn’t seem entirely fair - albeit the aesthetic is rather wonderful. And as mentioned - you get more in Japan! A little like with the Harry Potter World thing!
I’m really quite tempted by the pink version of the Fuzz - it’s OpAmp style rather than transistor, but presumably classically voiced - albeit there are no details as to its specific core voicing. It’s certainly not the same as the Fender Hammertoe Fuzz - which has an additional Octave switch. Judging from the below demo - definitely closer to Fuzz Face than Big Muff - but slightly distinctly voiced - kind of blown speaker sounding at times - it’s cheap enough to be worth a gamble!
Update - they had one in stock at GAK - @ £101 including delivery - I was in that king of mood - and so hit the trigger on that one. I would kind of file it in the same category as my Korg Miku - it’s not necessarily going to get a tonne of play - but it’s great fun in small doses - and probably kind of worthy owning! - especially at this price.
I guess this is more for the collector side of things in many ways. But undeniably the overall range is crafted to very much appeal to girls.
I wonder if they did the full conjoint pricing analysis on all of these - and whether they would not have sold more and made more profits overall - if the guitar and bag were priced a bit leaner!
I happen to like most of the Sanrio stuff - so I like that these sorts of things exist - surely they’re much more fun than those super over-priced ’Supreme’ badged editions.
I’m all for Kawaii culture - and there really should be more of this around - especially if it helps get more girls into guitar - and we end up with more Annie Clarks, Grace Bowers, Lari Basilios, and Yvette Youngs!
Greater or lesser parts of this collection are available at all typical Fender Dealers! And Japan as mentioned gets a lot more options!
Demos / References
