Vintage Fender Musicmaster and Duosonic

When one begins to look into vintage Fender student guitars it's best to start at the beginning. In this article we'll take a look at the early years, 1956 through 1964, of the Fender Musicmaster and Duosonic.

It was the spring of 1956 when Fender announced and soon begin distributing a pair of student or entry level guitars. Both models had a 22.5 inch scale with 21 frets which was ideal for a young teen getting their first taste of the brand new sensation, rock 'n roll. The Musicmaster, which has a one single coil pickup, had a list price of $119.50. The 2 pickup Duosonic, sometimes called Duo-Sonic, sported a price tag of $149.50. While this may seem cheap to us today, this would be a whopping $915.77 and $1145.66 respectively when adjusted for inflation in 2007 dollars. We are really living in the golden era of cheap guitars today!

Both of these guitars, the Musicmaster and Duosonic, featured anodized gold finished metal pickguards while the pickups' pole pieces were covered with a white plastic pickup cover. They both had a single volume and tone control and used the knurled chrome knobs like those found on the Telecaster as well as the Precision Bass guitar. The Duosonic also feature a pickup selector switch on the lower bout. They were only offered in one body color, Desert Sand. This color was also used on Fender Lap Steel guitars of the same year. The neck was one piece maple.

In 1959, the Duosonic and Musicmaster underwent another change. Like almost all other members of the Fender guitar line a rosewood slab fingerboard was added to the maple neck. The standard finish was changed slightly to a more tan shade from the more blondish Desert Sand color. The anodized metal pickguard was discarded in favor of a dark brown plastic one while the pickup covers went from white to a cream color.

In 1961, a sunburst color was added to the line while the tan color was phased out. This sunburst color was often referred to as a Maroon Burst or Sienna Burst due to the way this finish looked.

Like other Fender models in 1962, the rosewood slab fretboard was replaced with a less expensive curved rosewood one.

1963 marked another color switch as the sunburst gave way to a plain white finish with a tortoise shell pickguard and white pickup colors.

1964 was a year of big changes for the line of Musicmaster and Duosonic  as the Fender Mustang was added to the product line. To match the Mustang, these guitars were available in Red, White and Blue. The Duosonics pickup selector was switched to a pair of slider switches just like the Mustang. Perhaps the biggest change was that the neck scale went from 22.5 inches to 24 inches. Although the shorter scale length was listed as an option for years afterward examples of the shorter scale neck are very rare. The new models were referred to as the Musicmaster II and Duosonic II.