Fender Duosonic II

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.

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