Fender Bullet

[truetone6]

I got this last week. It's a Fender Bullet made around 1981. The most intesting thing about this guitar is the one piece scratch plate/bridge. It's made of aluminum with a white powder coating. I think they used pickups left over from the Mustang which Fender had discontinued around 1980.

 

 

 

[bonzoboy]

It's funny but as much as they were low budget beginner guitars like their Duo-Sonic,Musicmaster,Bronco and Mustang predecessors they sounded and played surprisingly well,all in all they were pretty decent little guitars.You got yourself a pretty funky little guitar there.

[LHW]

Ya know, if you placed them in a different order, it'd kinda look like an amoeba changing form.

 

I know...I'm weird.

 

Very cool find, though. Congrats! :)

[Bender 4 Life]

I had a Bullet bass in the late '80s....not a bad instrument at all.

 

groovy "lil red geetar" you have......

[Zeppelinguy]

I love the bridge on that thing. Simple, no nonsense.

[krock]

I got this last week. It's a Fender Bullet made around 1981. The most intesting thing about this guitar is the one piece scratch plate/bridge. It's made of aluminum with a white powder coating. I think they used pickups left over from the Mustang which Fender had discontinued around 1980.

 

 

 

Whats the fender on the far right? Ive never seen one like that before

[pfox14]

I am surprised that the plastic pickguard material is strong enough to use as the bridge anchor. Hope it holds up to the wear & tear of playing it.

[dem00n]

I am surprised that the plastic pickguard material is strong enough to use as the bridge anchor. Hope it holds up to the wear & tear of playing it.

I thought the whole pickguard was made of aluminum?

[RowdyMoon]

Very cool.....I remember a friend of mine had bought one brand new back in the early 80's...ah reminds me of my yute.

[KL]

I had one exactly the same as that bought it new in 1981. It's long gone now, but it was a good guitar.

 

I thought the whole pickguard was made of aluminum?

 

You are correct the pickguard was metal.

[pippy]

Whats the fender on the far right? Ive never seen one like that before

Fender 'Swinger' (I had a black one for twenty-odd years). There's a very interesting story to that model.

 

P.

[pippy]

Ya know, if you placed them in a different order, it'd kinda look like an amoeba changing form.

LP; Bullet; Swinger; Squier; Rick.?

 

I'm weird too....

 

P.

[bonzoboy]

@ Krock-The guitar on the far right is a bit of an anomaly among all Fender guitars.It had 3 model names during its 3 year production from '69-'72.It was made from leftover bodies of Broncos,Musicmasters etc. The names it was given were: 1. Musiclander 2. Arrow 3. Swinger all were single pickup and came only in red,white or blue and just had the Fender logo on the pointed headstock.

[truetone6]

@ Krock-The guitar on the far right is a bit of an anomaly among all Fender guitars.It had 3 model names during its 3 year production from '69-'72.It was made from leftover bodies of Broncos,Musicmasters etc. The names it was given were: 1. Musiclander 2. Arrow 3. Swinger all were single pickup and came only in red,white or blue and just had the Fender logo on the pointed headstock.

 

Thanks for the posts! Yes Fender made these guitars from parts left over from other models that had been discontinued. The body is a reshaped Bass V and the neck is 22.5 Mustang Neck.the pickup and electronic are old Musicmaster parts (pot codes are from '66).

 

 

 

 

[bonzoboy]

That's strange I got my info from the 2012 Vintage Guitar Guide and it said that theguitars were made from '69-'72 but that's clearly a '66 .The liklihood of a neck sitting around that long without being mated to a body certainly seems remote-strange indeed.

[truetone6]

That's strange I got my info from the 2012 Vintage Guitar Guide and it said that theguitars were made from '69-'72 but that's clearly a '66 .The liklihood of a neck sitting around that long without being mated to a body certainly seems remote-strange indeed.

 

Below is some information I copied and condensed from various books about Fender and some internet blogs:

 

The Swinger was devised by Virgilio "Babe" Simoni who was the head of Fender's blank, body and sanding department. According to Simoni, only 250 to 300 Swingers were ever built and the Swinger was never featured in Fender's literature. Simoni also created the Maverick/Custom guitars. Simoni estimated production to be around 600 to 800 completed Maverick/Customs.

 

Even though people like to point out the Swinger and Customs as atrocities of the CBS era,Simoni was a longtime Fender employee. He started working at Fender in 1953(his father also worked there) and had a hand in the creation of just about every guitar they made. Working with Roger Rossmeisl in The CBS era Babe was instrumental in creating the Telecaster Thinline. When Leo Fender and George Fullerton founded MusicMan, Simoni jumped ship to join them.

 

Below is a Fender Custom and a Fender Maverick. Both were made with parts left over from the Fender XII. The Maverick used both bodies and necks from the Fender 12. the Custom was made after they had run out of Fender XII necks and had new necks made specifically for this model. See the article "Spring Cleaning" in Premier Guitar Magazine for more info.

 

 

[pippy]

That's strange I got my info from the 2012 Vintage Guitar Guide and it said that theguitars were made from '69-'72 but that's clearly a '66 .The liklihood of a neck sitting around that long without being mated to a body certainly seems remote-strange indeed.

There is a lot of false info about these guitars.

 

Mine was serial number 271415 and had a neck which had a date stamp of "9 Jan 67 A" (I kept a potographic record of my guitars at this point). And I can assure you it was absolutely, certainly, without a hint of doubt, (and I don't care a flying-stuff what the 2012 Vintage Guitar Guide says) black!

 

Even the much talked about model names - I'd heard them called all three names you mention - seems to be nonsense. They were, AFAIK now(!) - only ever badged 'Swinger'. The others; 'Musiclander' and 'Arrow' have never (again, AFAIK now) been seen on official documentation.

 

The 'Swinger' name was only ever applied as a sticker which was literally just stuck on the peghead after the neck had been finished. It is for this reason that it is supposed many have no name at all. They had either fallen - or been pulled - off. Mine didn't have one and it was only about 10 years old when I bought her.

 

P.

[Gaolee]

Fender weirdness is right on par with Gibson weirdness, sometimes. The whole Bullet line is part of the weirdness. Oddities always get my attention and I'm in the process of resurrecting a 1980s Squier Bullet, most likely made in Korea. It is back routed, has a bridge humbucker, two single coils a the mid and neck positions, a Strat tremolo and headstock shape, and a Telecaster meets ES137 shaped body with a very pointy cutout. The body is made of at least nine luan veneers and resonates forever, even though it is plywood. I say resurrecting it instead of restoring it, because it had been disassembled for most likely fifteen years when I got it, the wiring was all cut up, and the body was rattle-canned very poorly, so restoration isn't worthwhile. But, it was cheap, and it got me looking at early Fender and Squier Bullets in a very different way. They are far better guitars than the more recent versions, and I have come to really like them a whole lot.

[truetone6]

Fender weirdness is right on par with Gibson weirdness, sometimes. The whole Bullet line is part of the weirdness. Oddities always get my attention and I'm in the process of resurrecting a 1980s Squier Bullet, most likely made in Korea. It is back routed, has a bridge humbucker, two single coils a the mid and neck positions, a Strat tremolo and headstock shape, and a Telecaster meets ES137 shaped body with a very pointy cutout. The body is made of at least nine luan veneers and resonates forever, even though it is plywood. I say resurrecting it instead of restoring it, because it had been disassembled for most likely fifteen years when I got it, the wiring was all cut up, and the body was rattle-canned very poorly, so restoration isn't worthwhile. But, it was cheap, and it got me looking at early Fender and Squier Bullets in a very different way. They are far better guitars than the more recent versions, and I have come to really like them a whole lot.

 

I have a black Squier Bullet made in Korea in 1987. It's got Fender stamped bridge saddles and fender branded tuners.It's a nice guitar with a great neck.

 

 

[NightTimeConcealmentX91]

comment deleted

[KL]

That's strange I got my info from the 2012 Vintage Guitar Guide and it said that theguitars were made from '69-'72 but that's clearly a '66 .The liklihood of a neck sitting around that long without being mated to a body certainly seems remote-strange indeed.

 

It was fairly common around that time for necks to be waiting around for quite a while as they were made in batches. For example the vast majority of Fender Electric XII's have a 1966 neck stamp. There are quite a lot with 1965 necks too and the 65 necks are different as they have a wider nut and kluson tuners ( and I think they are the nicest ones to play). Then they narrowed the nut a little and made most of the necks for guitars manufactured between 1966 and 1969. The serial numbers don't always help either as they were on the neck plate, and they apparently just had a big bin of neck plates at the factory so the serial numbers are a bit random.

Some of the very early Electric XII's had L serial numbers. The necks from 65 to 66 were unbound with dot inlays. Then they were bound with dot inlays, and finally bound with block inlays from 1967 onwards. The combination of dot inlays on a bound neck is very rare I have only seen it once. Even though this was the progression in the Fender catalogs there are necks with block inlays with a 66 neck stamp and various other anomalies.

 

I think the reason the neck dates are often the same (66) over several years of construction (66-70) in the case of the Electric XII is that the guitar did not sell very well and so they probably overestimated how many to make.