Can anyone translate this article, please? I'm particularly interested in the appearance of the numbers 300 and 500 - possible quantities? http://www.fender.jp/staff_diary/archiv ... ol1_1.html
The Swinger shown looks like a respray as the brass plate in the pickup cavity has turned black.
My Japanese skills aren´t of the highest level, and it´s a bit rushed and botched (Japanese grammar knows some convoluted grammatical constructions that do not translate well) but here´s my take on the text:
Fender vintage and rare collection Vol. 1
From now on I´ll come to introduce vintage and rare Fender guitars for all you fans of old fenders. For this first time I´ll introduce a guitar which is rare (even) amongst rare guitars, the swinger.
This guitar was produced at the end of the sixties, made by cutting up and altering fender V (5 string bass) bodies, and combining them with mustang necks. At that time fender was under the management of CBS and as a business it came to be so that efficiency was demanded and as a last resort to get rid of the excess stock parts and this was the guitar that was produced by pairing up individual bodies and necks. It is said that the production run was either 300 or 500 but this really isn’t clear and because of the production route (ed: not sure what this exactly refers to) this product even differed in name. (the last part of the sentence is a bit botched, had some grammar problems)
The guitar in the picture is owned by Sony Music Artists’ (SMA) mister Suujii, and has, as a product of that time, a sticker that reads SWINGER on the very unusual headstock. The music shops that stocked from fender (not clear, sorry) and because it is a sticker it is understood that the number of guitars on which this sticker remains is very small. Also, the black colour of the body is unusual, it’s also said that it could be a refined by the music shop it seems improbable that the checking of the finish in its present condition is due to a finishing mistake made by the fender company. Further more, brazilian rosewood was used for the fretboard.
On the year of production of this instrument, parts such as the pots and the neck date to ’66 but it is to be seen that the other methods used are characteristic to ’68-’69, and it’s thought to be assembled around ’69. It can be made out that is a production design of the processing of years of stock materials.
Hope this is interesting to anyone, doesn't really contain any new information or revelations.