The Fender Cyclone denotes a series of

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

s made by Fender. Introduced in late 1997, the Cyclone body is similarly styled to the

Mustang The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticated animals, they ...

, but it is a quarter of an inch thicker than the body of a Mustang and is made of poplar, whereas contemporary Mustang reissues were made of

basswood ''Tilia americana'' is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae, native to eastern North America, from southeast Manitoba east to New Brunswick, southwest to northeast Oklahoma, southeast to South Carolina, and west along the Niobrara River to ...

. In July 2002, the Cyclone II was introduced as the successor to the Fender Cyclone and featured cosmetic changes such as the Mustang racing stripe as well as 3 vintage single-coil pickups and switching borrowed from the

Fender Jaguar The Fender Jaguar is an electric guitar by Fender Musical Instruments characterized by an offset-waist body, a relatively unusual switching system with two separate circuits for lead and rhythm, and a short-scale 24" neck. Owing some roots to t ...

. the range included the original Cyclone, the Cyclone HH with two humbuckers, and the Cyclone II with three MIA Jaguar pickups controlled by on-off switches in place of the selector switch. As of January 2007, all Cyclone variants had been discontinued by Fender. In 2020, Fender's budget brand

Squier Squier is an American brand of electric guitars owned by Fender. The former manufacturing company, established as "V. C. Squier Company" was founded in 1890 by Victor Carroll Squier in Battle Creek, Michigan, producing strings for violins, banj ...

reissued the Cyclone II as part of its Paranormal Series. The 2020 model was available in Shell Pink or Daphne Blue, with an Indian Laurel fingerboard. The 2021 model was available in Candy Apple Red and Pearl.

Cyclone

The Cyclone has a scale of 24.75 inches (the same as a

Gibson Les Paul The Gibson Les Paul is a solid body electric guitar that was first sold by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1952. The guitar was designed by factory manager John Huis and his team with input from and endorsement by guitarist Les Paul. Its typi ...

but an unusual intermediate size for Fender), and a

Fender Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuously ...

-style synchronized

tremolo In music, ''tremolo'' (), or ''tremolando'' (), is a trembling effect. There are two types of tremolo. The first is a rapid reiteration: * Of a single Musical note, note, particularly used on String instrument#Bowing, bowed string instrument ...

. The original Cyclone used an Atomic humbucking pickup in the

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

, a Tex-Mex pickup in the neck position, and a conventional 3-way toggle switch.

US Cyclone

The Cyclone was also promoted as a USA-made guitar for a brief time in 2000. The US Cyclone featured two dual-coil ceramic Vintage Noiseless single-coils and a modern 2-point synchronized vibrato with stainless steel saddles. The Custom Cyclone had similar features, but used two Gold

Lace Sensor The Lace Sensor is a guitar pickup designed by Don Lace and manufactured by AGI (Actodyne General International) since 1985. Lace Sensors are true single coil pickups; however, internally they are different from classic single coils. The chief di ...

pickups with black covers and a custom vintage 2-point tremolo bridge with bent solid steel saddles. Both guitars were made at the

Fender Custom Shop The Fender Custom Shop is a division of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, housed within their headquarters complex in Corona, Riverside County, California. The Fender Custom Shop produces special-order guitars for customers through a Custo ...

. These American-made Cyclones were gone at the end of 2001.

Cyclone II

Introduced as the successor to the Cyclone in July 2002, the Cyclone II features changes such as the Mustang racing stripe as well as pickups and switching borrowed from the Jaguar. The guitar employs three pickups angled in a similar fashion to the

Telecaster The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful Les Paul had built a prototype solid bod ...

bridge pickup, rather than the standard two straight pickups of a Jaguar. It also features a

Jazzmaster The Fender Jazzmaster is an electric guitar designed as a more expensive sibling of the Fender Stratocaster. First introduced at the 1958 NAMM Show, it was initially marketed to jazz guitarists, but found favor among surf rock guitarists in th ...

headstock similar to a 1970s Strat. It has vintage tuning heads as well as vintage

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...

string saddles, which were found on 1950s model Strats. It was available in a choice of two colours, Candy Apple Red and Daphne Blue, both with the white racing stripe found on the Mustang. The Cyclone II has a scale of 24.75 inches, a Stratocaster-style synchronized tremolo, and an on/off switch for each pickup. While it is different in design to the Stratocaster, it has seven pickup selections, including bridge pickup with neck pickup or even all three pickups.

Cyclone HH

The Cyclone HH had the same features and specifications as the original Cyclone, except for the addition of a 3-ply black pickguard and a pair of humbucking pickups, a Fender Santa Ana and a Fender Atomic II in the bridge and neck positions. Introduced in 2003, it was discontinued, like the other Cyclone models, in 2007. The Cyclone HH also included a vintage-style synchronized tremolo, a three-position toggle switch, master volume and tone controls, as well as chrome-plated hardware. It was available in Black, Pewter, Daphne Blue and Orange.

Paranormal Cyclone

In 2020,

released the Paranormal Series, a series that released guitars that feature mash-ups of classic Fender models and rereleases of obscure Fender models. Alongside the Toronado, Cabronita Telecaster, Offset Telecaster, 54' Jazz Bass, and

Super Sonic is a title character and the main protagonist of the video game series of the same name published by Sega, and appears in numerous spin-off comics, animations, and other media. He is an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who can run at super ...

, Squier released a new take on the Cyclone II. It features the same thicker

body and Jaguar-Style pickup switch and electronics, but has 3 Alnico Stratocaster Pickups and a bent steel Vintage Style Tremolo Bridge. It comes in Daphne Blue and Shell Pink from the 2020 release, and Pearl and Candy Apple Red from the 2021 release.

Notable users

* John Paul Pitts *

Craig Benzine Craig Gene Benzine (born October 5, 1980) is an American video producer, musician, and vlogger better known by his YouTube channel name of WheezyWaiter. On July 15, 2020, his channel hit 1 million subscribers and has over 155 million total vide ...

Brian Molko Brian Molko (born 10 December 1972) is a Belgian-born Scottish-American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and lyricist of the band Placebo. He is known in particular for his distinctive nasal, high-pitche ...

With a humbucker-sized P-90 in the bridge position. *

Sawao Yamanaka are a Japanese alternative rock band formed in 1989. The group has released 22 studio albums, several EPs and compilations, and over 40 singles. Outside Japan, they are best known as the group responsible for the soundtrack to the '' FLCL'' ani ...

Zachary Cole Smith Zachary Cole Smith (born November 7, 1984) is an American musician, model and music video director, best known for being the founder, frontman, and principal songwriter of the indie rock band DIIV. He first began playing in bands like Soft Blac ...

* Erin Lynn Silva * Lawrence Warner

References

{{Fender guitars

Cyclone In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an anti ...