Just like Eric's Mando-Caster!

This 10-inch-wide electric mandolin weighs just 2.90 lbs. and has a nut width of just under 1 3/16 inches and a scale length of 13 3/4 inches. Solid ash body, one-piece deep "V"-shape maple neck, and maple fretboard with 24 frets and black dot position markers. "Butterfly" string tree guide on 1st and 2nd strings. Headstock decal with "Fender" spaghetti logo in gold with black trim. "No-name" Kluson Deluxe strip tuners with white plastic oval buttons (buttons replaced). Four-bolt neck plate with serial number ("01331") between the top two screws. One oblong single-coil four-pole pickup with transparent reddish-brown plastic cover and an output of 5.32k. Anodized aluminium pickguard. Two controls (one volume, one tone) and jack socket, all on lower treble side of the pickguard. Telecaster-type chrome knobs with flat tops and knurled sides. Combined "micro-adjustable" two-saddle bridge/tailpiece. With the original chrome bridge cover. The neck is dated: "12-56," the pickup cavity is dated: "12-56," and the pots are dated: "304645" (November 1956). This instrument has had one owner for the past twenty years -- he replaced the plastic tuner buttons due to "shrunken button" syndrome. Otherwise this instrument is in near mint (9.25) and totally original condition. Housed in the original Fender "tweed" hardshell case with red plush lining (9.25). Together with the two original keys, in the original brown envelope, and the original hang tag.

The electric Fender Mandolin was manufactured from 1956-1976, but with the original specifications from 1956-1958 only.

"Fender looked back to a traditional instrument for its other new model for 1956 [in addition to the Duo-Sonic and the Musicmaster]: the electric Fender Mandolin. It sold for $169.50, with a Fender-style double-cutaway solid body and four strings rather than the regular mandolin's eight (in four pairs). Perhaps surprisingly, the Mandolin lasted in the line until the mid 1970s" (Tony Bacon, 50 Years of Fender, p. 22).

Eric Clapton owned a similar Mandolin (July 1957) which he bought for collecting purposes. It appeared as Lot 70 in his auction of June 24th, 2004. It was estimated at $4,000 - $6,000...and fetched $11,950! EC's had considerable wear on the fretboard and also on the anodized pickguard (to the treble side of the pickup)

Fender introduced the solidbody electric mandolin in 1956. They were used extensively by the western swing bands of the era including Billy Gray's band who endorsed the instruments of Fender. By 1976 they were discontinued from the Fender product line. Today's collectors of Fenders endearingly refer to them as Mando-casters.