Fender Toronado

2000, Mexican made, Poplar body with Candy-Apple finish, 24 frets, contoured offset body, 2 volume. 2 tone knobs, twin Atomic Humbuckers (they are not kidding when they say Atomic!), rosewood fingerboard with jumbo frets, satin finished skunk stripe neck (silk!), hard-tail string through body, vintage tuners (will change to Sperzel Locking).

I play mostly blues and classic rock. The humbuckers are HUGE and with the 2 volume/2 tone configuration knobs, there are endless tonal capabilities, absolutely phenomonal! Name your tone.......betcha I can get it! I use a Yamaha DG-100 2x12 and it mates with this guitar wonderfully. Switched from Matchless All Tube (all weight, all problems) to solid state Yamaha modelling amp and am extremely pleased. This amp actually comes on when you turn on the switch! Imagine that tube-heads.

This guitar and the Fender plant in Mexico are; at least for now; the best kept secret around. The Candy-Apple red finish is breath-taking. When was the last time anyone saw a Candy-Apple red Fender anything new? Pick-up height adjusted from factory and left.

Will use this as a primary guitar without back-up because it is what it should be....durable. Everything about this axe is built to last and will take a beating on the club circuit. This ain't yo' mamma's Oldsmobile, Toto!

It's a Fender..................never have, nor will I ever, need this service...........as I said, It's a Fender!

As I said before, this is the best kept secret around. The Toronado takes Fender down a different path, and boy are they running! Something this good will invariably saturate the market soon enough, but for now, we are safe. If someone were to steel this guitar; may God have mercy on your sould should we cross paths. I would beat you with the replacement.

I love this guitar--it's features have been extensively detailed by other reviewers so I won't bore you with that. Mine came with a really nice gig bag--so nice that I haven't invested in a hard case yet.

The sound is beautiful--full of rich bass. I'd have to agree that the pickups are a bit noisy when your hand is not in contact with the metal parts of the guitar, but if you are playing, that's not a problem. I play Clapton, blues, rock, etc. and this really fits the bill.

The first one I ordered was vintage white--mucho ugly--I returned it and got a candy apple red one--beautiful. More info on why I returned the first guitar is in the next section.

O.K. this is why I bothered to submit a review when there was already so many out there. I bought my Toronado from Musicians Friend and when I pulled it out of the box there was a huge chip on the bottom of the guitar--all the way to the wood. I have no idea how much force it took to make that chip because I couldn't believe how thick the finish was! They must have taken a sledgehammer to it! Needless to say I shipped it right back and they replaced it ASAP. Despite the bad apple I got the first time--kudos to Fender for putting such a nice, thick finish on this guitar.

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If it was stolen, I'd cry for days and then overextend my credit limit to buy another.

I have a 1998, Mexican made, 22 fret, black Toronado. It has 2 volume and 2 tone knobs. It has dual humbuckers, an ugly pickguard called shell, and a finish from hell (compliment). This thing could take a brick wall down and have minor scratches. Much tougher than my Gibson. It has an offset body style that kind of resembles a jazzmaster or jaguar. Mine came with vintage style strat tuners, the thing is that the G strings tuner had a broken gear part so tuning wasn't possible without a screwdriver, but replacing wasn't had or expensive. It came with a gig bag, blah, blah, blah

I play everything from The Beatles to Dave Matthews Band to Meshuggah to Metallica (you get it) and this guitar really throws a crunch on distortion. It sounds especially great with any kind of BOSS metal distortion and chorus. It has a minor buzzing (which is easily ignored or eliminated with a noise suppresor). You can play anything with this guitar. I really don't have a complaint about the sound.

The action settings were fine as was everything else from the factory except the tuners which I mentioned earlier. The pickups were fine, very good actually. Really other than the tuner the guitar was perfect.

This guitar was withstood live playing, sweat, beatings you name it. Everything feels like it was built to last. The finish is perfect. This thing has hit the sharp edges of my bed many times and finally after months of doing this it got one minor dent in the bottom. The strap buttons have needed work so I replaced them with locking ones. This is one hell of a dependable guitar. The only thing that would ever give out would be the strings.

never dealt with them

It's well worth the money and maybe some more. This was the guitar that made me realize how badly some of my others sounded. I love this guitar, if it was stolen I would replace it but still hunt down the person who took and beat them. I got it because Fender was a big name, and this was string through and dual humbuckers, unlike most other Fender so I took a chance and love it.

This guitar..a black with red tortoise shell pickguard..is beautiful..solid hardtail string thru the back type thing...the tuners are fab..no problems with it going out of tune. the neck is thin..vrey comfortable..actually the whole body is contoured "off-set waist" so it really grabs your body when you cradle it. Medium jumbo frets..very cool..nothing gets in the way of your playing. Two Fender Atomic Humbuckers...decent pickups..but i think probably im gonna slap an EMG on it..since i favor that screamy dreamy tone of Zakk wylde...which is strange becuase i play more mellow rock/blues. It comes in a cool gig bag...the factory settings were ok...the factory strings blew chunks..they were like 9's..just rubber bands almost.

Becuase my influences are so broad...(tool, radiohead, led zep, clapton, kiss, g'n'r ,pink floyd..etc.) I HAVE to have versatility in sound..becuase i cant just swap guitars all night at a gig. So the toronado fits me perfect..do a little tweak with the tone knobs...and the sound just varies..its really a big difference...i love it. form a strat-like to tele-like to a warm, fat fender tone. Its a fender tone mind you, even with humbuckers.

factory settings were ok..but i did some adjustments of my own..since i had to take the factory 9's off..and slap some 12's on..my own demonicly favorite gauge. no flaws at all..every met my exacting standards..except the factory settings blew ass...bottom line..so definitely plan to learn to screw with truss rods and pickups. okie?

One of my tone knobs fell off..but a screwdriver and a little muscle...and the damn thing will be on there for years..but those knobs arent plasticky pieces of crap but heavy metal chunks..so its quality stuff! Im confident this guitar will keep on rockin after taking a few beatings.

never used it..but its got a fender lifetime warranty..so thats kind of reassuring.

this thing is a work of art...for the price its a steal...this should be like a 700 dollar guitar easily...one of my japanese friends..says that the toronados are getting popular in Japan..normally guitars are expensive there..and the toronado surprisngly can fetch a price as high as vintage strats..i can see why..these guitars have nice tone...built solid..look great...and are definitely unique...this guitar is for that unique guitarist...lookin for the unique sound.

MIM, medium-jumbo frets, dual humbuckers, hard-tail.

Play mostly R&B. I use it through a Hughes & Kettner Club Reverb. The bridge pickup in this combination sounds a lot like surf-style. The sound combinations are wide due to the individual volume controls.

I returned the first one due to a wiring problem in the bridge pickup. The replacement was nearly flawless with the exception of a loose string retainer. Finish is superb. Candy-apple red is beautiful with the back/red pickguard.

Seems solid as a rock.

No dealings with Fender, but Musician's Friend was very good at swapping the defective one. They sent UPS to my office to pick up the defective one.

This is rapidly becoming my favorite guitar. I have seven, including a Strat with Custom Shop '50s installed. It is my 'orphan' guitar when I go to select one, but each time I pick it up to play, I wonder why I don't do it more often. This is one fine guitar.

My toronado is a '98, made in mexico. It has 22 frets, is set up in the electronics department like most other dual humbucker guitars: with a three way selector switch and individual tone and volume controls. Mine is black with a red tortoise shell pickgard and chrome bridge, knobs, tuners, and humbucker covers. The shape of a Toronado is basically like a plump jazzmaster. The bridge is a 'hardtail', string through body design. The tuners seem to be really nice 'vintage style' non-locking tuners. I have had no problems at all keeping this guitar in tune (and I bend a lot). The scale length is 24.75", and it came with little whimpy strings that sounded like little faries trying to yell at you. The toronado is a beautiful looking guitar. If there is more you need to know, then there are other submissions. Oh, it came with a really nice gig bag. I hate gig bags, but every time I go somewhere with it everyone says "nice bag"... so I guess that is a good thing... if you like gig bags.

I like to play (or try to play) delta style blues, but most of what I play is indy rock type sound- you know; from melancholy slowness, to aggressive distortion, and then back again. I think this guitar works great for meeting my needs in the sound department. What I love about this guitar is that it is so versatile, I can adjust the tone to be bright and full like a nice jazz guitar, or i can make it muddy and dead like a blues guitar, or I can go for that fender 'thin' sound. When I'm trying to learn a new song, I can adjust my sound to be that of the guitar in the song I'm trying to learn... it's deadly versatile. The selector switch makes a little clicking when I switch it, and the humbuckers kind of (ironically) hum. The humming only starts when I'm not touching any of the metal contacts: like the strings or the bridge. I want to drop some new humbuckers in, but there are so many to choose from that I have been holding off until I have a chance to play with a whole bunch of other ones. I play through a little fender frontman 25r... not a bad practice amp. I have played it through twin reverbs, and ampegs... it still sounds like the same guitar, just amplified better. I think the sound is great in the versatility department, but I wish the pickups could go that extra mile, they tend to get a bit bassy when I have an open 6th string. Now, for the money, I think this guitar is great, but i want to change out the selector switch and the humbuckers (oh, what the hell. I'll put in shielded wiring and new pots too).

The action was fine from the factory. But the first thing I did was get rid of those wussy little strings and go for some blues strings with a wound third string, and that screwed up everything. I had to adjust the truss rod and reset the intonation... a bit of a pain, but worth it. Everything looks great on this guitar: the bridge, the neck joint, the neck is perfect, I went over this guitar a million times, and it is made wonderfully. I did notice that this guitar used to be red though. When I took off the back plate to see about the humming, I noticed that it was painted red inside...

this guitar is a beast. the paint is like 6 feet thick, and all the parts are made to last, the chrome should keep it from rust, and the thing weighs like 40 pounds. I have no doubts that this guitar will be around for the rest of my life. We get a ten here!

I took my guitar to a fender repair shop about the humming and it turned out that my amp was plugged into an outlet that wasn't grounded. The humming is much, much quieter now, but is still there, and the fender site has gotten much better with the fender discussion page... customer support is good, but I haven't really had any problems... I think the warranty is for a year, but I can't really remeber. The guy at the shop suggested that I get some duncans, and I will, but they make about 300 different pickups... they were nice though.

I think this guitar is a great design and I think for the money it rules. I mean I can spend under 500 and get a good guitar that can be made great, with just new humbuckers and maybe some graph tech saddles and whatever else you may desire... what I like is that this is my guitar. Everbody plays a strat, and they sound good, but this guitar has a unique sound and when I get through it will have MY sound. I would buy another one of these in a second, if I wasn't a bum who never has a job... but they have been dropping in price and I think I may score one if fender discontinues (please please). Don't buy one, 'cause I want fender to sell them off cheap so I can have a fleet of them. I've been playing about 2 years, but before that I noodled around on bass. I have a hummingbird, and my little fender frontman 25r, and a couple of basses, and another speaker cabinet... and a pair of pants.

The features have been described better by others here and I will only add that the Toronado is the only Non-Custom Fender that I am aware of where the volume and tone controls are mounted from the rear through the body, not a pick guard or switch plate (ala Gibson) which I felt made it unique. This guitar is a hard tail. While I am not a big user of a tremolo bar, it would have been nice to offer it with the Toronado. Fender has offered "humbucking" equipt units before butI feel none as successful as this. This is alot of guitar for the money.

I play country/rock and the Toronado offers up some interesting sounds that lends itself to a broad versatility. I play mine straight through a 59 Fender Vibrosonic and can tweek this combo to produce some classic Fender sounds that you swear were from a Tele or a Strat. The Toronado also has a zone of it's own by switching to both pick-ups setting and adjusting the neck pick-up just low enough to let the bridge pick-up take over slightly giving a unique growl unlike any Fender but unmistakenly Fender just the same. What a surprise find. If you think you're gonna get Les Paul sounds from this guitar because it's got Humbuckers forget it. This is a Fender! The Toronado will invite lots of experimentation with alot of tonal combinations. I certainly am not willing to trade my Strat just yet but glad I added the Toronadoto my arsenal.

This is my second Toronado. I returned te first because it was untunable. I called Fender who told me to bring it to an authorized dealer which I did. He could not tune it either. I returned it and opted to order another one. This one had some intonationation problems out of the box but was fixed in the set-up by my dealer. Tuning is still a bit finicky. A loose volume knob was annoying as is the G string popping from the nut when I bend it. The Factory set action was terrible. My Dealer tech took care of all the problems and I am quite satisfied with the outcome despite the piddly problems. Finish is excelent. Neck to body joint is fine. Control layout is good.

Well built despite the early problems as discussed. Don't make a big deal out of them. This guitar will last like any Fender

Fender was responsive and seemed genuinely interested in solving my early problems. I was somewhat annoyed with the first guitar when they sent me to a Gold dealer 60 miles away when they could have sent me to a silver dealer near my house. The difference, I found out later, was that the gold has a paint shop. The silver dealer was quite capable of solving the problems on the second guitar.

I have been playing for several years and have owned Les Pauls, several strats. teles etc. While not the greatest musician I feel somewhat capable of making an educated choice. If lost I would replace it. I love the fact that I can get more variation on a distinctly Fender sound. Tones that can not be replicated on a strat or a tele yet it can do a credible job of mimicking both. Good quality at very affordable price.

The Toronado is my first Fender. It is made in Mexico with a poplar body, maple neck, and rosewood fretboard. It has two of the new Atomic humbuckers. The set up is much like a Les Paul with the three way selector switch and two volumes and tones. It has a hard tail vintage bridge and vintage turners. The frets are pretty big. The body style ,if you have no idea what I'm talking about, is like the front of a Jazzmaster/Jaugar and the rear of a Strat or Tele. It came with a nice deluxe gig bag.

I have found it to suit my stlye very well. I play a lot of BUSH, Nirvana, and some lighter stuff for variety. The Atomic humbuckers are great. I play mostly rythm but this thing can scream out some leads as well. It also gives a great range of sounds, every setting gives a different, distinct, sound. My only complaint is that I have some kind of excess noise in the guitar. When the volume is up on my amp, there is a buzz that you can hear until I touch some of the hardware like the bridge or knobs. I'm sure that can be fixed with something simple I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Other than that this guitar has an excellent sound.

I like really low strings, the lowest I can possible get without a buzz, so I had to lower the strings and change the truss rod some, very easy stuff. Pickups were setup just fine, but I raised them just a hair, I guess just so I could feel like I did something. I found no flaws on the finish, however the "vintage white" was a little more like a light yellow. Honestly at first I didn't like it but it really grows on you and it is a nice contrast to the tortoise shell pickguard.

I haven't had it very long but this guitar looks and feels like one TOUGH S.O.B.

Haven't had any experience wiht it.

I've been playing this guitar for a little over a month. I also have a Peavey Raptor, my first electric. I usually play through my trusty Peavy Bandit. I would have liked to have seen the candy apple red model before I bought the other just to see which I liked better. I love the pickups and the overall style of the guitar. It has a look that demands questions and sparks curiosity because it is severly unique. I don't like the idea of buying something not American made, but hell there's no affordable quality U.S. made equipment except for Peavey, which is a great company. If someone stole it I would hunt them down and torture them, making sure not to kill them but to permenantly cripple them. I don't mean to seem brutal but come on I'm a collage student and don't have money just laying around and this is my first guitar from on of the big names like Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, etc. Overall a great guitar and I will be glad to answer any emails.

Made in Mexico, poplar body, maple(skunk stripe) neck w/ rosewood fretboard, 22 frets, 2 Fender 'Atomic' chrome covered humbuckers, separate volume and tone controls, 3 position toggle switch, hard tail 6-saddle/strings thru the body bridge and vintage tuning machines. Mine came in Candy Apple Red with brown, tortoise shell scratch-plate. This is an entirely new offering from Fender for 1998. The body design is offset and includes contouring at the waist and and bout. The guitar 'hugs' your body and is incredibly comfortable to play.

While I mostly play Telecasters, I had a need for a humbucker equipped axe. This guitar is absolutely marvelous sounding. The neck pickup can go from a warm-clean rythmn to a woody jazz tone with just a little tweaking of the tone control. The bridge pickup is is fat and clean and can even produce some Tele twang. Where this guitar really gets cool is using both pickups together. Now you have total control of your sound by how much volume and tone you apply from each pickup. I've only had the guitar for a week, so I'm still finding new tones. The ONLY thing I'll need to change on the guitar is strings! The electronics are dead quiet, the pots are smooth and the setup was perfect for me as it came from the factory. I'm a big fan of the vintage tuning machines because they have nearly-zero backlash which makes tuning and tuning stability easy. With a hard-tail bridge and these tuners it stays right where you tune it once the strings are broke in. This axe is built as solid as they come. With a little care it should last a lifetime.

Like I said above, the action was perfect for me right off the rack. It doesn't 'fret-out' or buzz. Barre chords are a breeze, even past the 12th fret. The neck is satin finished to perfection(I love satin necks), isn't too thick or too thin. The rosewood fretboard is very smooth. The frets are smooth with no sharp edges extending past the neck. Tight neck pocket fit and a great flaw-free paint job. I've looked this baby over real good and I can't find anything to complain about. Exemplary workmanship!

Like I said, with a little care this axe should last a lifetime. Besides, it's a Fender! That about says it all. In all honesty though, the guitars coming out of Fender's Mexican manufacturing facility are high-quality, low-priced instruments. I can't say enough about how nice it is to be able to buy a quality instrument at such an affordable price point.

I've never had a bit of trouble with any Fender product. They've always responded to my e-mail questions in a quick and friendly manner.

What can I say that I haven't said already? It's a great guitar at a great price. Kudos to Fender for making such a great axe that just about anybody can afford. Would I buy it again if it were lost, destroyed or stolen? You bet, without hesitation.

The Fender Toronado has the clean sounding "atomic humbuckers" which are also found on the cyclone series. Other than that, it resembles the jazzmaster in shape and feel. The pickguard covers the entire top half, which is a nice feature, and the body is poplar, with four, volume\tone controls, and three way switching. The frets are huge, but they don't seem to get in the way. The neck has a satin finish which feels like a Yamaha pacifica.

I love this guitar on every sonic level. From dirty blues, to crisp wails, I really haven't found an area that it lacks in as far as sound is concerned. The four volume/tone controls work together well, especially when looking for a 'fat' tone. Excellent vintage sound.

Great action, I think it came with Fender 9's, which suits the guitar well. One of my knobs fell off after three days, but I think it can be fixed with a screwdriver.

This guitar is incredibly solid. It has a good heft to it, and the finish seems thick. It's very durable.

I might have to talk to Fender about the tone knob, and the strap on the gig bag broke the first day. But until I talk to them, I guess I can't really say.

I'm in love with a fender. I looked at strats, teles, and gibson SG's before I found this guitar. For price, sound, and feel, I think I made the best choice in a new guitar under 500$.