1966 Fender Duo Sonic

Here's a 22.5 inch short scale 1966 Fender Duo Sonic I picked up a while back that looked like it had once belonged to Double Rainbow guy. It was crudely painted in a sort of psychedelic tie dye rainbow design with brushed on acrylic enamel, and had two Jazzmaster pickups stuffed into it's hacked up body and pickguard.

The first things it needed were pickups and a pickguard to give the guitar back it's correct looking proportions. I was able to get a set of MIJ Mustang pickups and vintage '66 Mother of Pearl pickguard quite reasonably and I was ready to begin. Believe it or not, the consensus was still out on whether to keep the finish as is or strip the whole thing.

Well it did look a hell of a lot better but that paint job still had to go. The guitar had also been painted black at some point and I could see that the original Olympic White was still underneath it all. So I thought I would try to get back down to the original finish with some wet sanding. However, when I got down to the black I decided to stop because I really liked the unintentional reliced look.

I also picked up a tan '56 Fender Musicmaster case that fits the guitar perfectly because of the short scale. I'm quite happy with the current over all look, but one day I may still get down to the original Olympic White. 

(UPDATE - August 2016) My daughter has now taken this one on permanent loan. She refuses to play barre chords and loves the 22.5 inch scale so it's a perfect fit. Her only request was that I switch the pickguard to tort.