The Fender Swinger (also known as the Fender Musiclander and Fender Arrow – sometimes the "Swinger" name is missing from the head) was a short-lived electric guitar model released by Fender in 1969, with not many ever made. The Swinger was merely an attempt by CBS (which had bought the company in 1965) to get money out of unused factory stock by combining unused bodies from the failed Fender Bass V with parts from the Fender Musicmaster. Another attempt to use excessive stock was the Fender Custom (aka Fender Maverick). It was marketed as another cheaper, short-scale 'student' type guitar, but never seriously promoted, and low in popularity as a result. It was however used by Tina Weymouth of the Talking Heads in live performances and can be seen in their famous movie Stop Making Sense. It has also been used by Ben Kweller live, and saw the bulk of the guitar work on his most recent self-titled album. Today, a Fender Swinger is a very expensive collectors’ item.
Dating
As the Swinger was built using parts that were "lying around", the individual pieces may be older than the guitar. For example, the neck may be datestamped 1966. As far as is known, all Swingers were assembled in 1969.
External links
- shortscale.org Fender Shortscale discussion forum
