The Fender Swinger was a short-lived electric guitar model released by Fender in 1969, with few made. The Swinger was an attempt by CBS (which had bought the company in 1965) to extract cash from inventory by combining unused bodies from the failed Fender Bass V

Fender Bass V

The original Fender Bass V was a quirky and unusual electric bass guitar model produced by Fender between 1965 and 1970. It was the world's first five string bass guitar, a popular concept today....

 with parts from the Fender Musicmaster

Fender Musicmaster

The Fender Musicmaster is an electric guitar by Fender, and was the first of their 3/4 scale guitars. With a single pickup and no tremolo arm, it was a basic but functional instrument....

. Another use of surplus stock was the Fender Custom

Fender Custom

The Fender Custom was a short-lived model released by the CBS-owned Fender in 1969. Essentially a six-string Fender Electric XII, the Custom was an attempt to sell off unused factory stock instead of simply writing it off. The guitar was made with unused parts from Electric XII guitars, including...

 (aka Fender Maverick). The Swinger was marketed as another cheaper, short-scale 'student' guitar, but never seriously promoted, with resulting low popularity.

It was used by Tina Weymouth

Tina Weymouth

Martina Michèle "Tina" Weymouth is an American musician, best known as a founding member and bassist of the New Wave group Talking Heads and its side project Tom Tom Club .-Profile:Weymouth is of French heritage on her mother's side. Weymouth was a cheerleader in high school...

 of the Talking Heads

Talking Heads

Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...

 in live performances and can be seen in their movie Stop Making Sense

Stop Making Sense

Stop Making Sense is a concert movie featuring Talking Heads live on stage. Directed by Jonathan Demme, it was shot over the course of three nights at Hollywood's Pantages Theater in December 1983, as the group was touring to promote their new album Speaking in Tongues. The movie is notable for...

. It has been used by Ben Kweller

Ben Kweller

Ben Kweller is an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.-Early life:Ben Kweller was born in San Francisco, CA in 1981. In 1982, his family relocated to Emory, Texas, where his father, Howard Kweller, became the town's first doctor. In 1986, the Kwellers moved to a much larger city,...

 live, and saw the bulk of the guitar work on his 2006 self-titled album. Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page

James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...

 can be seen playing a modified Swinger (with a humbucker

Humbucker

A humbucker is a type of electric guitar pickup, first patented by Seth Lover and the Gibson company, that uses two coils, both generating string signal. Humbuckers have higher output than a single coil pickup since both coils are connected in series...

 in the middle position) on the front of a Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...

 live 8-track.

The Fender Swinger has become a vintage guitar

Vintage guitar

A Vintage guitar is an old guitar usually sought after and maintained by avid collectors. Musicians and dealers commonly claim that older guitars have superior craftsmanship to modern mass-produced ones....

 and a collector's

Collecting

The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. Some collectors are generalists, accumulating merchandise, or stamps from all countries of the world...

item.

Dating

As the Swinger was built using parts that were surplus, the individual components may be older than the guitar. For example, the neck may be datestamped 1966. As far as is known, all Swingers were assembled in 1969. There are estimates that only 250 to 300 Swingers were ever produced.

External links

• shortscale.org Fender Shortscale discussion forum
• Fender Swinger article on www.hypercustom.com