Fender swingers
The Swinger (also: Musiclander or Arrow ) is an electric guitar that was manufactured by the US company Fender in 1969 .
history
After company founder Leo Fender sold his company to the media group CBS in 1965 , the new managers tried to increase sales and profits. One way was to process excess parts from overproduction into new models. With the Swinger, which was also unofficially known as the Musiclander or Arrow , the body of the hapless bass guitar Fender Bass V was combined with excess necks and other parts of the entry-level models Mustang and Musicmaster (produced from 1956). In order to give the model an independent appearance, the body was given an arched cutout, while the head plate was pointed in the shape of an arrow. In addition to the oval cutout for the single coil pickup, invisible under the pickguard, there was another unused cutout in the body that was originally intended for the Fender Bass V pickup.
Little is known about production times and numbers, especially since the CBS swingers were only reluctantly advertised when they were released. As an affordable entry-level guitar, it received little attention from musicians, whereas collectors have discovered the swingers as a rare curiosity in the Fender range.
construction
The Swinger follows the basic construction principle of the Fender company: A maple neck is screwed onto a solid ash body . The tuning machines are in a line on the upper side of the asymmetrical headstock. The only pickup is mounted on a plastic pickguard, which is located under the strings on the body. The neck of the swinger has a rosewood fingerboard, in which only 21 frets are embedded because of the short 22.5 inch scale length . The pointed headstock was rarely printed with the model name Swinger, most instruments only showed the Fender logo.
The electronics consist of a single single coil pickup from the Musicmaster production, which is managed by a Mustang volume and tone control.
The Fender Swingers in Music
As an inexpensive entry-level instrument with a short neck and only a limited range of sounds due to the individual pickup, only a few professional musicians played the swingers live or in the studio. The instrument was u. a. Used by Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads at concerts and in the film Stop Making Sense . The swinger is sometimes also used by alternative rock musicians such as Ben Kweller .
literature
- Tony Bacon: guitars. All models and manufacturers . Zsolnay, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-552-05073-6
Web links
- Musicians on the Fender Swingers
- Fender Japan with photos of the dismantled body with additional milling