He’s been a Fender signature artist since 2007, and just launched his first-ever signature model with Charvel, but Jim Root is eyeing up more affordable signature guitars in the future, potentially with Squier.
In a new interview with Guitar World, Slipknot’s #4 discusses the importance of keeping the cost of his signature models down, making them accessible to as many of his fans as possible.
“It’s important for me to try to keep that price low,” he says. “If I could do all of my signature models with Squier, or find maybe an Indonesian, Korean or Taiwanese company that could make it up to that quality [I would]. Like, Squiers are really good quality. My Squier Teles are fucking great. I have one here that I need to take on the road with me.”
He continues: “To be able to make my signature models and have them come in at like $600 or $700 would be fucking awesome. Maybe that’s the next thing I talk to Fender about. Even your top-notch professional guitar players would still be able to find a use for those guitars…”
Squier launched a Jim Root Telecaster back in 2012, but the model has been out of production for several years now, and his subsequent Fender designs have yet to be introduced in Squier form.
Elsewhere, Root discussed keeping costs down on his new Charvel signature model, the Jim Root Signature Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 1 HH FR, explaining: “I tried to [keep the price down] and it was really hard to do.
“For me, it was important to have the 1500 Series Floyd Rose, my EMG [Daemonum] pickups, the mahogany wood and a case, and to keep it under $2,000 was really fucking hard to do.
“That’s a little bit of the reason they’re made in Mexico because it cuts costs a little bit and keeps it at a better price point. And I don’t think you’re sacrificing any craftsmanship at all in that way. I’ve played guitars [that are] made in Mexico, made in Japan, made in America, and they’re all very comparable to each other. They’re all right up there in quality.”
Currently, Root has four signature models with Fender – a Stratocaster, Telecaster and two Jazzmasters – and one with Charvel. The Tele and the Charvel are most affordable, at $1,499 each.
Root’s journey with Charvel guitars has come full circle with the release of his new Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 1. That journey began when he received one for Christmas one year as a teenager.
“I freaked out,” he remembers. “It was a Charvel Model One with the fulcrum tremolo, one humbucker and a hockey stick headstock. It was like a goal to reach, you know? I would always think to myself, one day I will have one of those Charvel guitars.”
Regarding how the new signature model came to be, Root tells GW: “I have a really bad problem with buying guitars. For the past year, I’ve been buying a lot of Mexican Charvels, and they’re fucking great. So they offered me a signature model [and] I was like, ‘Okay, as long as I’m not getting kicked out of Fender I’m down.’”
