My Swinger, missing the original Candy Apple Red finish. Rubber band because I temporarily put the original pickguard back on to show what it should be like.
![Image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/74/FenderSwinger_01.JPG/450px-FenderSwinger_01.JPG)
I saw it in A1 Music on Oxford Road in Manchester, England in 1974 when I was at University. It was just so unusual - and cheap. They thought it was called an Arrow. The Candy Apple Red finish was chipped and cigarette-burned and it seemed a bit low output. They wanted £80 for it, really cheap for a Fender. I had a Strat (I'd worked in Germany for a couple of months and sold an amp to buy it) that I left as surety and took it home to try. It turned out the pickup was open circuit (there was no cover). I told them I'd buy it if they got the pickup fixed. They got the pickup fixed, overwound to 11.5 Kohms, so I bought it. I stripped the paint off, dug a shallow rout for the pickup in the bridge position and smothered it in wood sealer. The neck varnish was peeling so I peeled that off carefully, losing a fleck of black on the "F" of "Fender", and polyurethaned it. I found a Selmer "croc-skin" short guitar case, probably for a Burns, and adjusted the internal partition to suit the Swinger.
That's pretty much it, except that I cut a pickguard out of black/white/black Traffolite and the knife slipped at one point so it's got a slight wobble in the edge. The original pickguard was just laid in place for that picture. The kids used to use it as a learner guitar but the frets are getting a bit worn and I don't know that they'll stand dressing, so I don't use it as much as I used to. I mentioned it in a guitar shop and the guy got very interested, said it was a Swinger and asked me to email him pictures. I did get a quote to have it refinished a couple of years back but I have an aversion to spending more on the guitar than it cost me.
Interior, including butchery, at
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