And, Fender’s 3⁄4 neck profiles mirrored the chunky V shapes of the Telecaster, Esquire, and Strat of the era, as well as the standard narrow fret wire. Like other Fender necks of the era, the truss rod was installed through a rout in the back of the neck, and a walnut “skunk stripe” filled the channel. To compensate for the first-run missteps, by May, the guitars were being made with the more-familiar ’50s appointments – one-piece, 21-fret, bolt-on maple neck with 221/2″ scale and a nut width of 15/8″. So after the initial run, guards were made of plastic. Pickguards were aluminum, which may have been chosen for its durability, but ironically, the black paint Fender applied did not wear well. Early examples differed in several ways, including having slightly thicker bodies made of ash, and some have areas that were hand-chiseled to fix mistakes in the initial tooling. Sales manager Don Randall chose the name because he thought it “sounded kind of cute” and fit with the Stringmaster and Bandmaster monikers. Production began in April on the single-pickup Musicmaster. Here’s a year-by-year look at their history. Today, collectors are intrigued by these little guitars because they were made with the same care as their siblings even if, compared to the Stratocaster, they were an evolutionary step backward. Leo responded, and the first run of single-pickup Musicmasters was ready in early May of 1956.ĭubbed “3⁄4 instruments,” Musicmasters had much shorter scales and other features to attract a younger, more-frugal student player.
Often forgotten amongst Fender’s many classics, the Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic were conceived to capitalize on teenagers taking up the guitar in droves as Bill Haley and the Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock” rode the Billboard charts for 10 weeks in the summer of 1955.įender’s Sales division was acutely aware that nobody would be using a Champion lap steel to emulate Danny Cedrone’s guitar solo, so it asked president Leo Fender – known for his ability to devise a new product in as little as three months – to round out their Spanish-guitar offering with two beginner models. Close on the heels of the Musicmaster, the Duo-Sonic first appeared in the 1956 dealer spec sheet. 1957 Musicmaster with special-order black finish and a ’58 with anodized pickguard (right). 1958 Duo-Sonic with anodized aluminum pickguard (left).
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