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.

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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.

Related posts:

1. Fender Jaguar
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