Pre-CBS Fender Duosonic

The Fender Duosonic was introduced in the summer of 1956 along with it's single pickup cousin, the Fender Musicmaster. This was during Leo Fender's ownership of the company, prior to him selling it to CBS due to illness in 1964. This era is known as the Pre-CBS period for Fender Guitars and the guitars that were made during this time are known for their high quality.

In spite of it being a short scale student guitar the Duo-sonic was no exception. Like the more expensive Strat and Tele it was made from high quality materials and was subject to the same high quality standards that Leo Fender insisted upon. Unlike many student guitars of the late 1950's and early 1960's you will find that the pre-CBS Fender Duosonics are very well constructed.

The collector value of these guitars was typically very reasonable up until the vintage guitar market went crazy in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Now it is difficult to find a Duosonic at a reasonable price or one that hasn't been parted out to help a scammer build a fake vintage Stratocaster or Telecaster.

The original 1956 Fender Duosonic had a Desert Sand brown finish on an ash slab 3/4 sized body although this was switched to alder in late 1956. An ash Duosonic from 1956 is a rare find indeed.

The pickguard was anodized aluminum on both the Duosonic and Musicmaster during these years. You can find the serial number on the neckplate. The 22.5 inch short scale neck was made from one piece of maple and featured a 1 5/8 inch nut.

In 1959, Fender added a sunburst finish Duosonic to their product line. Some people refer to this as a 'maroon burst' since the center was a yellow/peach shade while the edges faded more toward a maroon color rather than a very dark red or black. As was often the case at the Fender factory, the sunburst was painted over a Desert Sand paint job due to production run changes.

There were two other big changes in 1959. The first was that the single piece maple neck was replaced with a slab rosewood fingerboard glued onto a maple neck. This change was nearly across the board with all Fender guitar models that year. Another big change, probably done as a cost cutting measure, was switching to a single layer white pickguard.

In 1961, the original Desert Sand color was dropped from the Fender line-up, making the guitar only available with the sunburst finish. Also, about this time the nut was reduced 1/8 of an inch to 1 1/2 inches.

In 1963, as Leo Fender was negotiating the sale of the company to CBS, the Duosonic line was changed again. This time the sunburst finish was dropped and the white finish became the only color the guitar was available in. Due to some production variations, some 1963 Fender Duosonics have a brown plastic pickguard.