We’ve had the Hello Kitty collabs. We’ve had the Wrangler collabs. Lexus, too. We’ve had the Jameson collab just in time for St Patrick’s Day that refinished the Tone Master Princeton Reverb and Player II Telecaster in the whiskey brand’s green livery…
Now it’s Palace Skateboards who have joined forces with Fender, launching a capsule collection headlined by a Telecaster with a ‘90s inspired rave graphic on the front, and including a custom pack of Fender x Palace 351 nylon guitar picks in various colours (including that graphic), and a matching guitar strap.
This is kind of radical. Well, the graphic is. “The artwork nods to classic flyer culture, grid-like high-energy patterns set against the Telecaster silhouette and finished under a durable clear coat,” says Fender.
A penny for Leo Fender’s thoughts. He designed the O.G. mass-produced electric guitar at a time when Western swing was the music that was getting the kids on their feet, and here we are, in 2025, with the Tele all dressed up to celebrate rave culture – itself now a distant (and kind of hazy) memory in the mind. It’s like they say, if you can remember the ‘90s you weren’t there.
Anyway, it’s all four beats to the bar…What about the guitar?
The back of this limited edition Tele is finished in black with the Palace Triferg and Fender logos positioned beside the string ferrules. This is a Player II Series build – Fender’s player-friendly unit shifters, made in Ensenada, Mexico – so the spec will be familiar to a lot of you. A
ll the recent upgrades are here, namely the rolled edges on the 9.5” radius maple fingerboard, making it feel lived-in and played, and you’ve got a pair of Alnico V Tele single coil pickups, for “crystalline highs, musical mids, and tight lows” – and most musical situations you can think of.
Well, maybe rave might be a tall order. You would need a pretty good synth pedal for a bit of squelch if you’re planning to dust off some classic acid techno tracks. But you get the drift.
There are ClassicGear tuners, the six-saddle Tele bridge, the Modern C neck profile with the satin finish, volume, tone and pickup selector all mounted on the chrome control plate.
Prices are TBC on this limited edition run, but the Fender x Palace limited edition Telecaster plus the strap and pick pack are available now, online and in-store, from Palace Skateboards.
