1966 Daphne Blue Fender Duo-Sonic II.

This 12 inch wide and 1 1/2 thick 'custom-color' guitar weighs just  7.20 lbs. and has a nut width of just under 1 5/8 inches and a 'full' scale length of 24 inches and a medium-thin neck profile. Solid alder asymmetrical double-cutaway 'slab' body. One-piece maple neck with Brazilian rosewood "veneer" fretboard with 21 original medium frets and pearloid dot position markers. Individual 'two-line' Kluson Deluxe tuners with white plastic oval buttons with "D-169400 / PATENT NO." inside. Headstock with "Fender" in gold with black trim and beneath that "Duo-Sonic II / Pat 2,573,254  2,960,900  3,143,028". Four-bolt 'F' style neckplate with serial number "132190" stamped between the top two screws. Single 'butterfly' string tree. Two plain-top black bakelite covered single-coil pickups with gray bottoms and balanced outputs of 5.70k and 5.41k (dated on underside in pencil "5-4-66"). The neck is stamped in black "9 APR 66A". Three layer mother of pearl over black/white plastic pickguard with twelve screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) plus two three-way pickup selector switches. Black plastic control knobs with seven sides and white line marker. The potentiometers are both stamped "304 6618" (Stackpole, May 1966). Combined bridge/tailpiece with three adjustable 'threaded' saddles. This guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition. The Daphne Blue color is very bright and just shows the slightest amount of mild discoloration on the edges. There is some very minor finish checking on the back and a few very small surface marks / indentations, the most noticeable being on the top just to the bass side of the tremolo assembly (the size of a match-head). Housed in the original Fender gray hardshell case with black leather ends and red plush lining (8.75).

In late 1964 both models moved to second generation, coinciding with the introduction of the Mustang. The "II" designation was then added to the DuoSonic and MusicMaster names. These models are more like the Mustang (except the Mustang has a vibrato), than the original DuoSonic/MusicMaster models. The differences in the new generation were in the body shape, pickguard, and electronics. It was available with either a 22.5" or 24" scale, but is most often found with the longer scale. The 24" scale Duo-Sonic II, Musicmaster II, and Mustang of the September 1965 to October 1966 period are sometimes found with a slab rosewood fingerboard, usually of Indian rosewood. Some Fender experts speculate that the slab board necks were leftovers from 1962 Jaguars. This is not correct as the dot spacing, peghead shape, and type of rosewood on a 1962 jaguar neck is different than these 9/65 to 10/66 necks. Mostly likely, since Fender was backordered on these guitars, slab boards were used because the manufacturing process was quicker for this style of fingerboard (a veneer fingerboard requires another manufacturing step).