"Probably Harder to Find than a Needle in a Haystack"
A Totally Original 1960 Left-Handed Fender 'Mandocaster'


This super-rare left-handed Fender electric mandolin weighs just 3.40 lbs. and has a nut width of just under 1 3/16 inches and a scale length of 13 3/4 inches. Ten-inch-wide solid alder body. One-piece maple neck with a medium profile, and slab Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 24 original thin frets and clay dot position markers. Single "butterfly" string tree on 1st and 2nd strings. Headstock decal with Fender "spaghetti" logo in gold with black trim. "Original Contour Body Pat. Pend." decal on the ball end of the headstock. Closed-back "single-line" Kluson Deluxe strip tuners with white plastic oval buttons. Four-bolt neck plate with serial number ("01681") between the top two screws. One oblong 'black-bottom' single-coil pickup with transparent reddish-brown plastic cover and four concealed polepieces with an output of 5.09k. Celluloid tortoiseshell over three-layer (white/black/white) plastic pickguard with nine screws. 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" (threaded) two-saddle bridge/tailpiece. The neck is dated in pencil "4/60" and the pickup cavity is dated in pencil "5-60". There is also a small piece of tape on the underside of the pickguard with "LH # / 375". The potentiometers are stamped "137 947" & "137 600X (last number obscured by solder) CTS, November 1959 & Jan-Mar 1960. This instrument is in exceptionally fine and totally original (9.00) condition. The early two-tone sunburst finish shows really well. The back of the body has a couple of very small surface marks and there are two areas of light abrasion , one on the treble-side and one on the bass side of the body. Housed in the 0riginal Fender 'tweed' hardshell case with tan leather ends and red plush lining (9.25).

This is the first left-handed Electric Mandolin that we have ever seen… there could only have been a handful of these ever produced. Introduced in 1956, Fender Electric Mandolins 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.

"First introduced in spring 1956, the Electric Mandolin looks like a mini Stratocaster. This is were it derives its value. As an instrument, it has limited usability because it has only four strings and a solid body instead of the usual eight strings for a mandolin. Oblong pickup with reddish brown cover, no visible poles, "Fender" decal with no other markings. These Mandocasters were probably made in batches, so often the body and neck dates can be up to a year or more apart. Also features like an Ash body can be seen as late as 1959, even Fender stopped using Ash on sunburst instruments in mid-1956. The first years of Fender Electric Mandolin production (1956, 1957) used a slab body style, much like a Telecaster. This changed in 1958 to a more Stratocaster style body with contours. Sunburst was the standard finish, though Blond is also seen. Custom color Fender Mandocasters also exist. The Mandocaster also used a metal anodized gold pickguard until mid-1959, like the pre-1959 Precision Bass. Usually they are strung with .008, .012, .019w and .028w strings, and tuned like a mandolin [G D A E]" (http://www.provide.net/~cfh/mando.html).

"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).

When introduced in 1956, Fender electric mandolins were used extensively by 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 Mandocasters.