The New Fender Swinger Guitar

New Fender
 Swinger

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the creation of Fender’s Swinger model, Fender Japan is reissuing two versions of this rare instrument. The announcement was made in November of this year.

Though the guitar is set with a suggested retail price of $999 USD or 103,500 Yen. They are only available in Japan. The only place I have found them available is on eBay, and the price ranges from approximately $1200 to $2500.

1969 Fender Swinger

In 1969 Fender offered The Swinger for sale as a student instrument.  An estimated 250 to 300 guitars were produced in 1969. Due to the instruments scarcity, the price of an vintage Swinger now ranges from $4000 to $6000 USD. The original instrument was produced by Fender/CBS for only one year.

The original Fender Swinger was built from left-over Fender parts and created in by Fender's then  product manager “Babe” Simoni.

Babe Somoni - NAMM Interview

In 1953 George Fullerton hired a 16 year old kid named Virgilio “Babe” Simoni to work at Fender doing janitorial work. Simoni was promoted and took on other jobs.  Fast forward a dozen years and he rose through the ranks to become the companies stringed instruments product manager.

In 1965 when CBS took over, Simoni stayed on. The new bosses gave him instructions to find something profitable to do with leftover parts.

Although Simoni was not a designer,  he was skilled in shaping bodies, necks. and do routing work. He came up with two very unique guitars. One of them was the Fender Swinger.  The other was The Fender Maverick.

1967 Fender Bass V

He fashioned the Swinger from leftover Musicmaster/Duo-Sonic short-scale necks, and Fender Bass V bodies.

1958 Fender Musicmaster

Babe had workers saw a curve section into the bottom end of the body and then the sawed off a portion of the upper horn.

'69 Swinger Headstock

He also had them cut the end of the headstock on the the  22 1/2” Musicmaster necks into a sharp point.

1969 Fender Swinger

The guitars utilized left over 1969 pick guards that had been cut out to allow space for the metal control panel.

The Swinger came with a single slanted neck pickup. If you looked under the pickguard, you could see the routing for the unique Bass V pickups.

Bass V body cut to be a Swinger

The 3 section bridge/saddles were the same ones used on Musicmasters and Duo-Sonics that were made during the 1964-1969 era.

1969 Fender Swinger Guitars

Swinger bodies were offered in various colours, including Olympic White, Daphne Blue, Dakota Red, Black, Lake Placid Blue, and Candy Apple Red. The tuning keys had white plastic buttons and the Fender logo decal (in black font) was put on the headstock.

1969 Fender Swinger Headstocks

On some models to the right of the Fender logo was “Swinger” in a similar black script decal. However most of the guitars deleted the instruments name, hence the name "Fender Arrow". Historically, the guitars are called Swingers, Arrows, and Musiclanders.

??? 1956 Musiclander ???

I have yet to see a 1969 Fender Musiclander, though there was one offered as a "1956" prototype on eBay. This guitar has a single coil Strat pickup in the bridge position. The parts are possibly off of a 1956 Musicmaster, but in my opinion, it is a 'parts' guitar.

I have seen some Japanese made Japanese Musiclanders that were made decades later. These later instruments came with two Statocaster pickups, and two Mustang type switches directly above the pickups.

Though the Swinger was an inexpensive 3/4 sized guitar at the time it was offered to the public, its scarcity has made this guitar very collectible, and pricey.

The original models came with only one pickups. I have not run across a twin pickup model. Fender used the same pickups found on the Fender Musicmaster, and Duo-Sonic student guitars.

2019 Fender Swinger

The new Fender Swingers feature a 24” short-scale neck with a rosewood fretboard that have 22 frets, and twin pickups. The tuning machines on the new models are made of metal, while the vintage guitars had plastic buttons topping the Kluson open tuners.

The headstock is the same pointy shape of the vintage model, and the Fender logo is painted on the headstock, but the “Swinger” logo is a decal. This was the same method used on the vintage Swinger guitar.

2019 Fender Swinger

The bridge on the new Swinger is very similar to the vintage model, which used left over bridges from Musicmaster, and Duo-Sonic guitars.

The reissue was headed up by Japanese guitarist Yoshio Nomura, who chose five colors for the new model: Black, Burgundy Mist Metallic, Dakota Red, Olympic White and Sonic Blue.

2019 Limited Edition Swinger

Most of the run of the Swinger will be the two pickup models, but there is also a limited edition single pickup model that resembles the vintage model. There will not be many of these Swingers made, and it looks like they’ll only be available for the Japanese market.

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©UniqueGuitar Publications (text only) 2019