Fender Duo-Sonic II Solid Body Electric Guitar (1966)
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Item # 10874
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Fender Duo-Sonic II Model Solid Body Electric Guitar (1966), made in Fullerton, California, serial # 149020, Daphne Blue lacquer finish, alder body, maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, original grey hard shell case.
This very clean Fender Duo-Sonic II was assembled just about two years after the model was redesigned in mid-1964 with components interchangeable with the new Mustang. THAT guitar took off to become one of the most popular electrics of the 1960's, possibly the most successful student solidbody ever made. By contrast the Duo-Sonic seemed to fade away, even though it was at that point the same instrument, just without a vibrato. It just goes to show how much a snazzy name and a whammy bar mattered to "the kids" in the mid-60's!
This beautiful baby blue-finished 1966 Duo-sonic is trimmed with a pearl celluloid pickguard and black pickup covers and switches. This was one of three spiffy color schemes offered, and we think the most attractive! The neck has the longer of two scale lengths offered, 24" (shared with most examples of the Mustang) which most players find friendlier than the very short 22 1/2" scale the Duo-sonic started out with in 1957. The neck is date-stamped to July 1966, just about a year and a half into the CBS era. The pots are marked to the 18th week of 1966. The switches for the two pickups offer interesting in/out of phase sonic options, identical to the Mustang.
Something of a forgotten model by the guitar-boom mid-'60's, the Duo-Sonic sold just under 3,000 units in 1966 but was completely eclipsed in by the Mustang which sold nearly 18,000 units that year alone. With its non-vibrato string-through bridge, the Duo-Sonic II is a more solid-feeling instrument than the floating-bridge tremolo-equipped Mustang it shares all other features with. It is often found to hold tuning more steadfastly, especially under a hard strummer's attack. Overall this is a truly superb example of the delightful little Duo-Sonic II, one of the cleanest we have seen and a fine-playing, light, handy little guitar.
Overall length is 39 7/8 in. (101.3 cm.), 12 1/4 in. (31.1 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 1/2 in. (3.8 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 24 in. (610 mm.). Width of nut is 1 5/8 in. (41 mm.).
This is a very nice Duo-Sonic overall, showing just some very minor wear and remaining all original and unaltered. Overall the finish is only minimally worn; the top has one noticeable small ding and there are some small marks scattered about but really no major wear, and the beautiful blue color has hardly faded at all. The back of the neck has hardly any wear, even on the fingerboard edges. The pearloid pickguard has some typical shrinkage but no broken or cracked corners.
The original frets show some light wear in the lower positions but are still quite playable, with just some minor divoting mostly under the unwound strings to the rosewood fingerboard. This is a fine sounding and playing Duo-Sonic, a guitar one writer once described as "the obscure .22 Magnum Derringer of the Fender line". Brought in by the original owner's family, it remains pretty much untouched since the 1960's complete in the original HSC. This shows some minor external wear but all three latches still work fine, fairly unusual 55+ years on. Overall Excellent + Condition.
This very clean Fender Duo-Sonic II was assembled just about two years after the model was redesigned in mid-1964 with components interchangeable with the new Mustang. THAT guitar took off to become one of the most popular electrics of the 1960's, possibly the most successful student solidbody ever made. By contrast the Duo-Sonic seemed to fade away, even though it was at that point the same instrument, just without a vibrato. It just goes to show how much a snazzy name and a whammy bar mattered to "the kids" in the mid-60's!
This beautiful baby blue-finished 1966 Duo-sonic is trimmed with a pearl celluloid pickguard and black pickup covers and switches. This was one of three spiffy color schemes offered, and we think the most attractive! The neck has the longer of two scale lengths offered, 24" (shared with most examples of the Mustang) which most players find friendlier than the very short 22 1/2" scale the Duo-sonic started out with in 1957. The neck is date-stamped to July 1966, just about a year and a half into the CBS era. The pots are marked to the 18th week of 1966. The switches for the two pickups offer interesting in/out of phase sonic options, identical to the Mustang.
Something of a forgotten model by the guitar-boom mid-'60's, the Duo-Sonic sold just under 3,000 units in 1966 but was completely eclipsed in by the Mustang which sold nearly 18,000 units that year alone. With its non-vibrato string-through bridge, the Duo-Sonic II is a more solid-feeling instrument than the floating-bridge tremolo-equipped Mustang it shares all other features with. It is often found to hold tuning more steadfastly, especially under a hard strummer's attack. Overall this is a truly superb example of the delightful little Duo-Sonic II, one of the cleanest we have seen and a fine-playing, light, handy little guitar.
Overall length is 39 7/8 in. (101.3 cm.), 12 1/4 in. (31.1 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 1/2 in. (3.8 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 24 in. (610 mm.). Width of nut is 1 5/8 in. (41 mm.).
This is a very nice Duo-Sonic overall, showing just some very minor wear and remaining all original and unaltered. Overall the finish is only minimally worn; the top has one noticeable small ding and there are some small marks scattered about but really no major wear, and the beautiful blue color has hardly faded at all. The back of the neck has hardly any wear, even on the fingerboard edges. The pearloid pickguard has some typical shrinkage but no broken or cracked corners.
The original frets show some light wear in the lower positions but are still quite playable, with just some minor divoting mostly under the unwound strings to the rosewood fingerboard. This is a fine sounding and playing Duo-Sonic, a guitar one writer once described as "the obscure .22 Magnum Derringer of the Fender line". Brought in by the original owner's family, it remains pretty much untouched since the 1960's complete in the original HSC. This shows some minor external wear but all three latches still work fine, fairly unusual 55+ years on. Overall Excellent + Condition.