Fender Musicmaster, Desert Sand (1956)

This 1956 Fender Musicmaster is one of the finer student model electrics made during Fender's heyday. With its unique aesthetic of Desert Sand body finish, anodized aluminum gold pickguard, and Maple neck, it's just as attention-grabbing as its older siblings in our book. The short scale, amazing V neck, and lightness of build undoubtedly made it an easy option for the youth of yesteryear. For vintage electric fans, the Musicmaster has remained largely accessible and affordable, especially when compared to the likes of the Jazzmaster, Stratocaster, and Telecaster.

Like many Fender necks from 1956, the profile is considered one of the most popular of any era. It's chunky, yet supremely comfortable and fits right in the hand. The taper is less extreme than later 50s examples and retains much of its shape all the way up the neck.

There's a unique element of this neck, though. Measuring at just about 1 11/16" at the nut, it changes the entire feel of this guitar from a playability standpoint. Now this is well before Fender started standardizing nut widths, so it's likely that it just went through production a little quicker the day it was made. It really opens up the fingerboard, skirting that line between a student guitar and professional-playing instrument. While Musicmaster pickups share some DNA with the Stratocaster pickup, they generally have their own sound. The Bright and clear with a leaner bass response, they excel at providing a focused tone...even in the neck position! This particular guitar, however, has a little extra warmth and fullness, along with an impressive amount of sustain for a short-scale instrument. In all fairness, we do have it strung up with a heavier gauge set of strings that are contributing to the sound, but still!

The wiring harness is original, with original Stackpole pots that date from the 20th week of 1956. The original frets remain and play great. The original Kluson tuners have been re-tipped here in our shop and are working very well. The guitar is accompanied by its original brown hardshell case, which is just about as clean as the guitar itself.

Compact and easy to play, this '56 Musicmaster is a wonderful vintage electric that provides more tone per scale length inch than most other student models out there.