Latest news with #BrosLandreth
CBC
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- CBC
Winnipeg's Ariel Posen electrified with signature Fender Stratocaster crafted to his specifications
Ariel Posen has been a member of the Juno Award-winning Bros. Landreth and more recently a solo artist, but now the Winnipeg musician is sharing a stage with legends like George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Holly. Fender, the storied electric guitar manufacturer, has created a signature Stratocaster in his honour, and named it after him. "I'm just super grateful. It's not an opportunity everybody gets to experience," Posen told CBC Manitoba Information Radio host Marcy Markusa on Friday. The limited edition model, which can be purchased by the public, was unveiled last week at the Fender factory in California. Posen, 37, who has been playing guitar since he was nine, calls it a dream come true. Every aspect is customized to his liking. "I've had a relationship with the folks at Fender for a long time and I've always been experimenting with different configurations on instruments and trying stuff out," he said. "I had been in contact with them, just letting them know about what I was doing and what I was thinking about doing." During the discussion, the folks at Fender suddenly suggested "why don't we do a signature," said Posen, who has been recognized by Rolling Stone and Music Radar as one of the top guitarists in the world. "I value them and I'd like to think they value me. I guess from their end, they saw … the potential of doing something unique with the ideas I was suggesting, which are nothing groundbreaking, but slightly different than what that model and that style of guitar usually includes," he said about Fender. "It was an opportunity I couldn't really say no to." That was 2½ years ago. The lengthy process involved prototypes and testing and tweaking. "It wasn't like, 'OK, we finished the one model for you, we're going to announce it tomorrow. Hope you like it,'" Posen said with a laugh. "This has been years of going back and forth, making sure it's right, and to be honest, they pretty much nailed the important things right out the gate." Some of the customizations involved the neck profile, the pickups and "just little things in the electronics and the shape," Posen said. "Every single detail was something that I wanted to do. It wasn't just like they said, 'Hey, why don't you just pick something off the website? You pick a colour and we'll make it.' Literally every aspect of it was something I suggested. "It's a true representation of what I would do for my own guitar." The Fender website says the maple neck, rosewood fingerboard and faded Lake Placid blue finish give the guitar the look and feel of a well-loved mid-'60s instrument, while it can "deliver anything from flowing, bell-like chime to gnarly, punchy tones." When it was time to pick it up, Posen performed for the staff on the factory floor. "We just tried to show them as much love and appreciation. I wanted to make them feel valued and special and play a couple songs for them," he said. Posen is now preparing to take the new instrument on the road as he embarks next month on his Future Present Tense Tour, which will wrap up with a hometown date at Winnipeg's Park Theatre on Dec. 12.
CTV News
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Winnipeg musician partners with Fender for Signature guitar
A Winnipeg musician now has a custom Fender guitar that he can truly call his own. Ariel Posen, who has performed with the Bros. Landreth and as a solo artist, recently partnered with Fender to launch a Custom Shop Limited Edition Stratocaster. 'It's the greatest thing; it's the full circle,' Posen told CTV News during a recent interview. 'It's like the culmination of it all, like you're designing something first and foremost. At least 98 per cent of the reason why I would do something like this is to have an instrument that I can fully depend on and identify as my own thing. And when you finally get it, when you finally have it finished, and you're playing it, if you're not happy with it, then you probably didn't do it right.' Ariel Posen Singer-songwriter Ariel Posen is seen playing his Signature Limited Edition Fender Stratocaster in a photo posted on July 15, 2025. (Facebook: Ariel Posen) (Ryan Piorkowski) Posen has had a relationship with Fender for multiple years, but the process to designing his own guitar started two-and-a-half years ago. 'I had been experimenting with a couple things; I'm always just having ideas and trying stuff out,' he said. 'And I just happened to discuss the idea for something that I was just wanting to put together on my own, and they just suggested, 'Why don't we do a Signature guitar?'' From there, Posen started collaborating with Fender, workshopping ideas for the guitar on how it should look and sound and trying it out until they were fully satisfied. 'The process was very organic. It was basically, 'How do we build you something that's truly and authentically you?'' he said. 'And I based it off of a couple models that I have and a couple things that I'm used to using and having that I feel genuinely identify as me.' Ariel Posen Singer-songwriter Ariel Posen plays on the Fender Factory Floor in an image posted on July 16, 2025. (Facebook: Ariel Posen) The guitar includes a pair of AP-90 pickups, which are among Posen's favourite elements. 'Those pickups don't exist in any other guitars,' he said. 'Their voiced to how I sound, and how I like guitars to sound.' Returning to Winnipeg in December Posen will be getting lots of practice with his new guitar this fall and winter. He will embark on the Future Present Tense tour throughout North America starting in October. The tour will end with a show in his hometown on Dec. 12 at The Park Theatre. 'Winnipeg is always home, and whether or not it's filled with familiar faces or even people, there's this energy of being at home,' Posen said. 'There's something special about this place. I'm just grateful to get to do this in general, but to get to do it at home, being a guy that grew up cutting his teeth often times playing gigs to nobody at Dylan O'Connor's on Portage or somewhere when I was like 18 or 19, it doesn't grow old to come back once a year or once every two years to do a real show.' Tickets for the Winnipeg show go on sale Friday.
