Short Scale Guitars

Gibson Byrdland

Frank — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:50:26 +0000

The Gibson Byrdland is a short scale, hollow body, electric guitar. The scale length is 23 1/2 inches, an inch and a quarter underneath the standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. It was developed in the mid-1950’s by Gibson’s legendary president in that era, Ted McCarty, in conjunction with jazz guitarists, Billy Byrd and Hank Garland. The guitar was named after them.

The Byrdland, introduced in 1955, was the first in Gibson’s Thinline series to be brought to market although there have been indications that there may have been earlier factory prototypes constructed. The idea behind the guitar was to give guitarists a smaller, lighter, less bulky hollow body guitar than Gibson’s flagship hollow body archtop, the L-5. The specs called for a body depth of 2 1/4 inches, considerably thinner than the L-5’s 3 3/8 inch girth. During the design process, the two jazz guitarists decided that a shorter scale would also be useful since it would allow fingerings that would be more difficult for most guitarists on a longer scale guitar.

The Byrdland entered production in 1955 and remained in the regular Gibson line-up until 1969. After that, it appeared in limited production runs in 1977, 1978 and 1992. There were also custom made versions made in off production years and, since the guitar didn’t usually sell too well due to the high price and specialized nature, it wasn’t unusual for them to hang on a guitar shop’s wall for years. In 1976, a 12 string model was made available to 20 lucky purchasers. Recently, the Byrdland has been available as part of Gibson’s Custom Series so the instrument at a very substantial price tag of $10,471.

The early models, from 1955 through 1958, used a single coil Alnico pickup. This was switched to the new Gibson PAF humbucker in 1958. All years featured separate tone and volume controls with the typical Gibson 500K pots. A three position toggle switch is used to activate either or both pickups.

The body style of the Byrdland varied over the years. The original version, made between 1955 and 1960, had a single Venetian cutaway. This cutaway is rounded. During the 1960’s production runs the Florentine cutaway was used which comes to a sharp point. The most common body colors were a sunburst or natural finish although a wine/burgundy and ebony colors are sometimes seen in production runs. There are rarely seen custom colors and refinishes said to be out there though.

The short scale, 23 1/2 inch, neck is made of five-piece curly maple and has a 22 fret ebony fretboard with pearl block inlays. The neck joins body at the 14th fret and has an adjustable truss rod. In the hardware department, the Byrdland features an adjustable Tune-O-Matic bridge and standard Gibson tuning pegs.

Beyond the two inventors, the Gibson Byrdland was regularly played by John McLaughlin and the guitar was a regular member of many country and jazz studio musician’s arsenal. However, the Byrdland is most associated with rocker Ted Nugent who used the guitar extensively, and often suggestively, in his acts. The Nuge is said to have liked how easy the guitar was to play during is very physical sets and continues to use it today.

A vintage Gibson Byrdland can fetch well over $10K, depending on the condition and originality of the parts. Newer production runs may go for less but they’re still quite pricey. While the Gibson ES-350T was originally intended as a low cost alternative to the Byrdland, it’s reissues have been standard scale, not short scale. Also, the Byrdland or a close match to it hasn’t been issued by Epiphone as an inexpensive choice for the budget minded guitarist.

Fender Duosonic II

Frank — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 10:41:43 +0000

The Duosonic II was released by Fender in August of 1964, during the transitional period where the company was changing hands from Leo Fender to the CBS corporation. It was a companion to the new Mustang model that was released at the same time. The intention was the the Duosonic II would be an economy model of the Mustang so it was designed for student and budget guitarists. The main difference between the two guitars was that the Duosonic II did not share the rather impractical Mustang tremolo. Instead, it had a fixed bridge.

Originally the Duo-sonic II was offered in both the 22.5 inch and 24 inch scale. Over time, the 24 inch model proved more popular and the shorter scale length became rather rare. Also, as was the case with other Fender guitars of the transitional and early CBS periods, the headstock became larger, the logo was changed and a veneer, rather than slab, fretboard was used. The veneer fretboard was a cost saving move by the company since it required less materials and fewer manufacturing steps.

The Duosonic II guitars were available with three different body finishes: Dakota Red, Olympic White, and Daphne Blue. You may encounter other colors as well such as black or sunburst but these are typically refinish jobs and not original. Rumors of factory custom color jobs have been around but, from what I understand these can’t be proven.

Fender discontinued the Duo-Sonic II in 1969 after a production run of five years. Under CBS management, cost cutting became paramount and they trimmed the product line down to the bare bones. Many also say that their cost cutting also cut the quality of the guitars. From my experience, transitional and early CBS models are still well made and can often be purchased for much less than comparable pre-CBS models just a year or so older. CBS Fender models after around 1968 do show a reduction in quality in my estimation but you can still find some real gems from this time period as well.

The Fender Duosonic II has been growing in collector value due to its rarity as well as player demand. Many guitar players have come to prefer the fixed bridge Duo-Sonic II to it’s cousin, the Fender Mustang. Many players find the tremolo bridge of the Mustang troublesome and difficult to maintain. Ironically the lack of a tremolo bridge is probably what sunk the Duo-sonic II during its original production run. Collectors, having snapped up most pre-CBS Fender guitars, appreciate the lower costs of the CBS era guitars and hope that the price will rise to the same levels over time.

Fender Jag-Stang

Frank — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 10:41:42 +0000

The Fender Jag-Stang, as the name implies, is a blending of the Fender Jaguar and Fender Mustang electric guitars. The idea for the guitar came from Kurt Cobain, lead singer and guitarist for Nirvana. Cobain presented his idea to Fender and they created two prototypes, one in Sonic Blue and the other in Fiesta Red, in their custom shop for him. Both of these guitars were left-handed and were built by Larry L. Brooks, a Custom Shop Master Builder at the time. However, only one of these guitars was ever played by Cobain due to his suicide in April 1994.

Since the Jag-Stang never got past the prototype stage before his death, there are many details about the guitar that are sort of unfinished. Cobain was said to have been dissatisfied with some aspects of the guitar. He did use the Sonic Blue guitar occasionally on the In Utero tour. The Fiesta Red one had been completed and was ready to be delivered to him at the time of his death. The guitar went into production at the Fender Japan facility and had two production run periods where guitars were imported to the US from 1995 through 2001 and 2003-2005. I’ve heard that it is still possible to purchase the Jag-Stang in Japan but I’ve not been able to confirm this.

Fender promoted the Jag-Stang as blending old and new features into a “radical new Fender guitar.” To achieve a new look, the guitar’s basswood body mixes the curves and horns of the two parent guitar to create a new, but not entirely foreign, look.

Electronically, Fender went with a Texas Special single coil pickup in the neck position and a DiMarzio H-3 humbucker in the bridge position, both at a slant, for the prototypes. There was also a master volume and tone knob and a pickup on/off switch for each pickup as well as a phase switching feature. The slant positioning causes some subtle variations in tone as compared to a perpendicular pickup placement. The DiMarzio H-3 is a custom pickup made exclusively for Fender and not available for separate purchase although the DiMarzio Evolution pickup has a very similar sound and specs. On the production guitar, the pickups are cheaper copies of the pickups, not the Texas Special or H-3. It is recommended that you upgrade these pickups for the best sound.

The bridge was the somewhat troublesome Mustang style Fender Dynamic Vibrato. Some people have reported more problems with this than with the original Mustang bridge. Given that the stock, vintage, style tuning gears don’t do well with a trem, this isn’t surprising, especially for aggressive punk and alternative players.

The 24 inch scale neck was copied from Cobain’s own Mustang’s neck. The neck is quite thin feeling and is clearly designed for punk rhythm playing, not soloing. This is a guitar intended for a singer/rhythm guitarist, especially one with smaller hands.

The legacy of the Jag-Stang is closely tied with Cobain. Courtney Love gave his Sonic Blue prototype to Peter Buck of R.E.M.. Buck used the guitar on the video for the song What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? and has used it sometimes in live performances of their tribute song for Cobain, Let Me In. Most people who select this guitar as their main guitar are fans of Cobain although some rhythm players simply appreciate the comfortable feel of the Jag-Stang.

Fender Jaguar

Frank — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 10:41:40 +0000

The Fender Jaguar was introduced in 1962 just as surf music was becoming popular. While surf essentially made the guitar popular it’s likely that the Fender design team was wanting to improve upon the Jazzmaster. To this end, the Jaguar had the same offset waist and dual circuit wiring that the Jazzmaster had. They did decide to go with a shorter scale length, 24 inches, for this guitar. The idea was to make the Jaguar the top of the Fender product line. However, it didn’t work out that way as the problematic bridge and changing musical tastes in the 1960’s caused many guitarists to stay away from it. It wasn’t until the 1990’s with the arrival of grunge music, most notably Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, brought this guitar back into the spotlight for a moment.

The two critical elements of the Jaguar were the unusual electronics and the Fender Dynamic Vibrato (aka tremolo) system with a rubber string mute.

One of the things that you’ll first notice with the Jaguar is the number of switches, 3 on/off switches on the lower bout and an on/off switch and two roller switches on the upper bout. The roller controls on the upper bout are a presets for the neck pickup only, primarily intended for jazz players to control the tone and volume separately. The switch is to choose between this special circuit or the main circuit on the lower bout. On the lower bout, there’s a selector switch for each pickup and the third one is a switch that has a high pass capacitor that thins out the sound somewhat. The Jaguar has master volume and tone pots and are 1meg pots rather than the usual 250K or 500K found on most other Fender guitars. While many Strat style single coil sized pickups can be shoehorned to fit into a Jaguar you’ll get the best results from a pickup specifically designed for this guitar.

The bridge, which has given unsuspecting guitarists and guitar techs headaches over the years, is the Fender Dynamic Vibrato paired with a rubber mute. The important thing to understand about these features is that they were specifically designed for use with heavy gauge, flatwound, strings. They weren’t intended for use with light gauge strings or for heavy whammy bar wanking out. If you try to rock out with a Jaguar, you should have a good guitar tech do a few simple mods to at least lock down the bridge. Otherwise, you’ll be knocking it out of tune a lot. Kurt Cobain ended up swapping his bridge out for a Gibson style Tune-O-Matic for this reason.

Another common problem with the Jaguar is string buzz. While using flatwounds can cure this, there’s also the option of using a buzz stop or doing more extensive modifications to the guitar. My recommendation is to know what you’re getting when you buy a vintage style Jaguar rather than hacking up the guitar with mods. If your goal is to rock and you like the style of the Jaguar, perhaps you should consider one of the alternative versions of the guitar that are better designed for rock.

Most vintage Jaguars were sunburst since there was an upcharge for other colors and most had to be special ordered. The colors that were available included: black, blonde, burgundy mist, candy apple red, charcoal frost, fiesta red, inca silver, lake placid blue, olympic white, shell pink, shoreline gold, sonic blue and surf green. Other fancy appointments such as binding and a painted headstock were common in different model years but the guitar failed to capture an audience after the initial interest in the early 1960’s.

The original Jaguar had a thirteen year production run from 1962 until 1975. It became popular with alternative musicians during the 1980’s because of its low price as compared to other, more popular, vintage Fender guitars. Groups like Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr and John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers made the guitar popular in alternative rock circles. This led to reissues of the Jaguar and variations on the Jaguar design in the 1990’s and I’ll be cover them in other articles.

Fender Swinger

Frank — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:33:12 +0000

The Fender Swinger was a limited run short scale guitar made in 1969 when then CBS run corporate management came up with the idea of using their existing parts inventory to build a guitar. The idea was to combine the guitar bodies left over from the failed Fender Bass V project with excess parts from the slow selling Musicmaster II, particularly the 22.5 inch scale neck. Parts from other discontinued projects, such the Fender Maverick, were also included.

The Swinger was to be another member of Fender’s student line of guitars. In addition to the short, 22.5 inch, scale rosewood fretboard neck, the guitar was equipped with one single coil pickup in the neck position, much like the Musicmaster. The bridge was fixed. The guitar was produced in Dakota Red, Black, Candy Apple Red, Olympic White, Sonic Blue and Lake Placid Blue.

The unusual thing about this guitar is how the headstock shaped. It has a distinctive arrow shape and is why it’s often called the Fender Arrow rather than the official name, Swinger. Some marketing material also referred to this model as the Fender Musiclander, further indicating how much at a loss the CBS marketers were in positioning this guitar in the marketplace. As a result of disjointed promotion and the overall obvious cheapness of the patched together guitar it did not sell well. It is estimated that only about 300 of these guitars ever made it into the hands of guitarists.

One notable Fender Swinger player was Tina Weymouth of the Talking Heads. She played her Swinger often in live concerts and the guitar is seen in the concert movie Stop Making Sense.

Because of the very limited production the Swinger has become somewhat of a collectors item and it’s rare to see one up for sale. As of this date, there hasn’t been an exact reissue of this guitar although there have been some other Fender guitars that borrow somewhat from its look.

Pre-CBS Fender Duosonic

Frank — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 06:35:06 +0000

The period between the time Leo Fender started the Fender Electric Instrument Company around 1948 and the company’s sale to CBS in 1964 is known as the ‘pre-CBS’ period. The original Fender Duosonic was introduced during this time period, in the summer of 1956. Fender guitars made during this period are valued for their quality craftsmanship and have considerable collector value. While the Duo-sonic isn’t as highly valued as the Stratocaster or Telecaster from the same period they are recognized for their construction quality, especially as compared to other student guitars from the time period.

The collectible value of these guitars skyrocketed in the 1990’s when the vintage guitar market took off due to guitar players like Stevie Ray Vaughan popularizing vintage, pre-CBS, Fender guitars. This has made finding a pre-CBS Duo-sonic difficult because those that have not been purchased by speculators and collectors have been parted out by scam artists who use the vintage guitar parts to build a fake vintage Stratocaster or Telecaster.

Let’s take a look at the original, 1956, Fender Duosonic. This guitar had a Desert Sand brown finish painted on an ash slab 3/4 sized body. The body wood was switched to cheaper and more readily avaiable alder in late 1956. This production switch makes a 1956 ash Duosonic a rare find. The pickguard was made of anodized aluminum during this early time period. The neck was the 22.5 inch scale and was made from a single piece of maple. The nut was 1 5/8 inches. The serial number on these guitars is found on the neckplate and there are other identifying marks that distinguish these guitars although these sometimes are controversial.

In 1959, Fender began to phase out the desert sand finish in favor of the more popular sunburst popularized by Strat players like Buddy Holly. This era’s sunburst is often referred to as a ‘maroon burst’ because the center color was a peach shade and the outer fade was a maroon color rather than a dark reddish black found on newer guitars. Another common thing you’ll see in these guitars is that the original body color was painted over as a cost saving move. It isn’t uncommon to find a vintage sunburst Duosonic that has a desert sand paint job underneath. By 1961 the original desert sand color had been completely dropped from the Fender product line.

Another big change in 1959 at Fender was switching from the single piece maple neck to a rosewood slab fretboard glued onto a maple neck. The anodized aluminum Duosonic pickguard was also discontinued in favor of the less expensive single ply white plastic pickguard. In 1961, the nut on the Duosonic was made slighly smaller, dropping it down an 1/8th of a inch to 1 1/2 inches.

In 1963, Leo Fender began negotiations to sell the company to CBS due to health problems. During this time, there was one last pre-CBS purchase change to the Duosonic line. Once again, the public taste had changed and sunburst was out and white was in, probably due to the influence of surf music. During the final pre-CBS years the Duosonic was only available in white. Some production runs during this time featured light brown plastic pickguards rather than white ones.

After the sale of Fender, the Duosonic remained around for a few years and had more drastic changes. I’ll cover these in another article.

Fender Musicmaster

Frank — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 04:09:39 +0000

The Fender Musicmaster was a single pickup companion to the Fender Duosonic. It actually was shipped to stores a few months before the Duo-sonic back in 1956. Word has it that the reason for this was a shortage of pickups and, as a single pickup model, more units of the Musicmaster could be shipped in time for the Christmas buying season. This guitar, along with the Duosonic, was the first guitar of Fender’s student guitar line.

In these years, the body style and other appointments were the same as the Duosonic with the exception of the single pickup based electronics. The body rout on the original Musicmaster would allow it to be converted to a Duosonic if one replaced the pickguard and electronics. This was somewhat like how an Esquire could be converted to a Telecaster with a simple upgrade.

Unlike the Esquire, Fender’s other single pickup model, the Fender Musicmaster had its one single coil pickup in the neck to middle position. This position was kind of limited tonally as you might expect. It lacks the spank of the bridge pickup and the tonality of a neck pickup making it a bit of a compromise.

As with the Duosonic, the Musicmaster originally was equipped with a 22.5 inch scale length neck with 21 frets and a 1 5/8 inch nut. Early models that were made between 1956 to 1959 had a truss rod skunk stripe of walnut down the back of the neck. The neck profile was the standard Fender ‘V’ profile and, as is the case with other Fender guitars of this era, it varied between a soft and hard ‘V’.

Changes to the Musicmaster over the years followed the changes to the Duosonic, both in color and fretboard wood.

In 1964 the Musicmaster II was introduced at the same time as the Duo-Sonic II and Mustang. The red, white and blue colors and the 24 inch scale length along with a restyling of the body were introduced at this time. In 1969, the Duosonic was discontinued. However, the Musicmaster continued to be listed in the Fender product catalog, in both 22.5 inch scale and 24 inch scale models until 1982. Availability of this guitar was limited and it only saw a few actual production runs between 1969 and 1982.

The Musicmaster hasn’t yet been reissued as a direct copy of the vintage guitar. However, a guitar by this name was released in the late 1990’s in the Squier Vista series. This guitar featured a single, splitable, bridge humbucker and it did not have tone control.

Fender Mustang

Frank — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 03:37:23 +0000

The Fender Mustang was introduced in 1964 as part of a redesign of Fender’s student guitar line. The basic idea was to add in things like a tremolo bridge and advanced pickup switching to the revamped Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic. The Mustang was perhaps the most successful of this line, staying in production from 1964 until 1982 and then being reissued early during Fender’s resurgence in the early 1990’s. Originally popular with 60’s surf bands, the guitar remained popular with punk and other alternative rock music styles for decades, reaching its pinnacle when Nirvana guitarist and singer Kurt Cobain selected it as his primary guitar. Also, collectors consider it the most valuable of the short scale Fender guitars.

The Mustang, like the Duosonic II and Musicmaster II, was available in both 22.5 inch and 24 inch scale length necks. Over time, the 24 inch neck became the more popular choice and is the length most commonly found today. The shorter length is considered somewhat of a collectors item.

The Mustang has been available in a wide range of colors over the years including: Sunburst, Candy Apple Red, Sonic Blue, Vintage White, Blonde, Black, Brown, Olympic White, Daphne Blue, Fiesta Red, Lake Placid Blue, Dakota Red, Surf Green, Competition Red, Competition Orange and Competition Blue. This is in contrast to other Fender student guitars that have been issued only with a few basic colors.

Like the Duo-sonic, the Mustang has two single coil pickups and master volume and tone knobs, typically 250K ones. However, the switching system is a bit different. Instead of a single switch, the Mustang has three way (on-off-on) switches for each pickup. The two different on positions select the phase of their pickup which allows the pickups to be either in phase or out of phase with each other. This allows for more tonal variety. Given the generous common body rout, many electronics savvy players opted to make other modifications to this guitars electronics.

The Mustang floating tremolo bridge, called the Fender Dynamic Vibrato, has been a problem child from its inception. Unlike the synchronized tremolo system used on the Stratocaster, the Mustang trem is more difficult to setup and more difficult to use while staying in tune. Some players prefer to lock the bridge down as best they can while others have attempted full replacements. For example, Kurt Cobain used a Gibson style tailpiece on his personal guitars, although Fender did not include this change on production models that are associated with him such as the Jagstang. Other players, however, have gotten used to this trem and, with the help of the short scale length, are able to pull off some really cool surf sounds with it.

In 1968 Fender released the Competition Mustang with a racing stripe paint job including a painted headstock. This modification has proven popular and has been reissued three times, twice in Japan, known as either Made in Japan (MIJ) or Crafted in Japan (CIJ) and once by Fender’s Mexican factory (MIM). According to various sources, very few, if any Competition Mustangs were made in the shorter 22.5 inch scale length. While the shorter length continued to be listed in the Fender catalog for several years, there weren’t any productions runs of it.

Regular Mustangs have also been reissued in various Fender and Squier product lines fairly often since the early 1990’s due to the popularity of the model with alternative rockers. If you’re considering purchasing one, make sure you know what you’re buying because the quality can vary and there are ‘frankenstein’ guitars out there that have been assembled from various parts.

Gibson Melody Maker

Frank — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 03:16:52 +0000

The Gibson Melody Maker, which was introduced in 1959, was Gibson’s answer to the problem of competing against Fender and other guitar companies for the lower end, budget and student, guitar market. Gibson had been primarily known for making higher end guitars, such as the Les Paul and ES semi-hollows. They needed a cheap guitar to round out their product line, a Gibson guitar that just about anyone could afford.

Gibson produced a large number of these guitars and, as you might guess, they were cheap to make. The original body style was a lot like the Les Paul Junior, a single cutaway slab. However, the body used was slightly thinner at 1 3/8 inches. The guitar was front routed with a plastic pickguard holding the pickup and knobs (volume and tone). The common paint job was dark sunburst finish although there is some indications/rumors that custom colors were available during this time.

The original scale length was also like the LP Jr. and regular LP 24 3/4 inches. While this isn’t ’short scale’ they did make a 3/4 scale model, intended primarily for kids, that was a very short 18.5 inches. Other than the scale length being shorter, the rest of the guitar was the same. The neck featured inexpensive dot inlays.

The original Melody Maker had one single coil pickup in the bridge position. This pickup wasn’t a P90, like on the LP Jr., but a cheaper, less powerful, single coil. During the second production year, 1960, a 2 pickup model was added while the pickups were made slightly smaller and less powerful.

Hardware-wise, the Melody Maker had a wraparound tailpiece and standard Gibson tuning pegs. The wraparound tailpiece is notorious for causing intonation problems and was often replaced by experienced players. Also, a version of the Vibrola vibrato/tremolo bridge was available as an extra cost option.

In 1962, when Gibson was revamping their product line, the Melody Maker was changed from the LP Jr. style body to the SG double cutaway style body. It remained available in both 1 and 2 pickup versions and the 3/4 short scale version was also made available in this new design. Also, a new cherry finish was added to the production models at this time, matching the new SG finish.

In 1966, the Melody Maker saw some attempts to upscale it some. The pickup covers and pickguard were switched to the more popular at the time white and fire engine red and pelham blue finishes were made available. Also, a 3 pickup version was introduced that was called the Melody Maker III. In 1967, a 12 string version was made as well. In 1970, a walnut finish was added.

In 1971, the original Melody Maker line ended, being replaced with new SG models.

Between 1977 and 1983, Gibson did a reissue of the SG style double cutaway version of the Melody Maker. This model featured updated hardware, such as the Tune-O-Matic bridge, and a slightly different pickup. A number of punk band guitarists of the day liked this guitar due to its brash tone and it not being like the typical MTV hair metal guitars of the day.

In 1986, Gibson did another Melody Maker reissue, this time with the classic single cutaway body. However, unlike the original, this guitar had a single humbucker, a P94, along with updated hardware. This reissue was discontinued two years later in 1988.

In the 1990’s and 2000’s there have been a couple of guitars based roughly on the Melody Maker although they’ve strayed somewhat from the original. These include the Gibson All American II, which was available in the mid-90’s and the very limited run Les Paul Melody Maker seen in the mid-00’s.

In 2007, we got an actual Melody Maker reissue with something close to the original smaller single coil pickup and the classic wraparound bridge/tailpiece. A 2 pickup version was available for about a year but was discontinued. As of this writing, the single bridge pickup version is available through retail channels.

In 2008, Gibson released a Joan Jett signature model of the Melody Maker. It has a Burstbucker 3 pickup, an ebony fretboard and a double cutaway style body. It has a kill switch in place of the pickup selector.

Other artists known to use the Melody Maker from time to time include Mick Jones of The Clash, Robby Krieger of The Doors, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. The attraction of the Melody Maker is that it has a comfortable feel and is a good way to get a single coil sound without having to switch to a longer scale Fender guitar.

While it’s not technically a short scale guitar, except for the long discontinued 3/4 model, I wanted to include the Melody Maker here for completeness sake. After all, 18.5 inches is one of the shortest production guitars made by one of the major manufacturers.

Fender Duosonic

Frank — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 02:22:25 +0000

The Fender DuoSonic guitar, sometimes spelled with a dash as in Duo-Sonic, was introduced in 1956 as a student guitar. Leo Fender realized that the price of the Telecaster and Stratocaster guitars were too expensive for many new guitarists. Also, the 25.5 inch scale neck was too large for small hands. Therefore the Duosonic’s neck was made at the 22.5 inch scale length while using the new stylish, double cutaway, body similar to the Strat.

The Duo-sonic has been available in both 22.5 and 24 inch scale necks. The Duosonic II, released in 1964 and discontinued in 1969, had a 24 inch neck although an optional 22.5 inch neck was available some years. This neck length is quite rare in the Duosonic II era and has better than average collector value. With the arrival of grunge music in the early 1990’s Fender reissued the Duosonic in the original 22.5 inch scale length and made this guitar in their new Mexican factory. They also made a Squier line as well that you could purchase new for under $100 at the time. These reissues were discontinued in early 2000’s. In 2008, Fender did another reissue, a more upscale one, in their Classic Vibe line.

The Duosonic features 2 single coil pickups with a single vertical pickup selector switch on the lower bout, or horn, of the body. The placement of the pickup selector switch makes it difficult to reach while playing, unlike the Stratocaster and Telecaster. Another difference is that the pickups in most models are reverse-wound/reverse-polarity. This means that there is humbucking when both pickups are engaged when the switch is in the middle position. This is by far my most favorite position when playing the Duo-sonic.

The standard tone and volume pots on a Duosonic are 250K. The wiring is rather simple. The only thing that you really want to make sure of is that you use a correct RW/RP pickup so that you get the humbucker effect when the switch is in the middle position. Also, use caution when working with the pickguard on the Duo-sonic. If you try to force things you can easily break the guard.

While there have been many variations of the Duosonic over the years, most models came with a solid plastic cover which covered the pole pieces of the pickup entirely. Some newer models have the pole pieces exposed with a plastic cover, much like a Strat. In fact, Strat pickups will easily fit within the body and pickup cavity of the Duosonic. This gives you a wide variety of pickup sounds to choose from when selecting new pickups for your Duosonic.

The Duosonic’s electronics, along with its short scale length, combine to produce a unique guitar tone. This tone has been used by Jimi Hendrix, especially early in his career when he needed a funky sound while playing backup guitar with the Isley Brothers. Liz Phair found the Duosonic a good fit with her lo-fi rock sound. Slide players like Johnny Winter and Rory Gallagher liked the effect the short scale lent to their playing. David Byrne, like Hendrix, also appreciated the funky tone of the Duosonic. The Duosonic, with its easy playability and comfortable feel for a lead singer, was especially popular with early punk acts like Patti Smith, Richard Lloyd and Tom Verlaine.

The Fender Duosonic hasn’t quite been mainstream but it has a lot of fans, including myself. What do you think about the Duo-sonic? Leave me a comment and let me hear your thoughts on it.