Johnny Marr’s Spirit Strat: When a Guitar Becomes a 9-Pickup Sci-Fi Machine

Hold onto your guitar straps because we’re about to dive into a wild mind-bending guitar territory! Johnny Marr’s Spirit Strat is a guitar so bonkers, it’ll make your head spin faster than you can say “Fender” !

In the realm of electric guitars, innovation is the name of the game. But Johnny Marr took things to a whole new level when he unveiled his nine-pickup Fender Stratocaster back in 2021. Yes, you heard that right—nine pickups, not your standard trio or even a fancy quad, but a whopping nine! That’s like a magnetic field on steroids!

Johnny Marr’s mind-boggling 9-pickup Strat – Source

In the Spirit, Power And Soul music video, Marr unleashed this otherworldly axe, leaving guitar aficionados everywhere stunned and, let’s be honest, a little bit intimidated. I mean, when was the last time you saw a guitar with more pickups than a porcupine has quills? That must be a magnetic extravaganza!

Now, let’s try to understand this cosmic creation.

Marr himself explained that all nine pickups “feed into each other” to create “one giant one”… Imagine that—an enormous, mutant humbucker or nine single coils conspiring together to create a magnetic symphony. The possibilities are as infinite as the universe itself!

But that’s not all. Feast your eyes on the 18 toggle switches scattered across the pickguard. This guitar looks like the control panel of a spaceship, and operating it mid-gig requires the brain of a rocket scientist. But hey, who needs a regular guitar when you can pilot your own interstellar musical voyage?

The Spirit Strat is not just a guitar; it’s an enigma. A rare specimen meant to be revered and admired from a safe distance. To wield such a complex instrument, one must possess nerves of steel and a fearless heart. It’s like trying to tame a dragon with a ukulele.

I doubt this groundbreaking creation is meant to be unleashed upon the world! I guess it will remain a coveted artifact for guitar enthusiasts to marvel at. But hey, only time will tell. But one thing’s for sure—the Spirit Strat is not for the technologically challenged.

Kudos to Johnny Marr for pushing the boundaries of guitar wizardry. After all, in the world of guitars, there’s no such thing as too many pickups or too much magnetism. As they say, “May your magnetic fields be ever strong, and your riffs be ever epic!”