an unsung offset.....the Bass V.....with no "I"

[jrkirkish]

The neck pocket on my swinger is about 1/8th of an inch wider than the neck. Though the neck pocket is exactly the same size as a musicmaster/mustang pocket.

I doubt Fender would fill the V neck pocket and re-route it for a MM/'stang neck. That would just be too much hassle. Remember that the Swinger was a solution to a problem of unused bass V bodies. Fender created the Swinger to get rid of unused V bodies as cheaply as possible. It just wouldn't make financial sense to put all the work of filling & rerouting into the V bodies.

[bassVIst]

then it that makes it seem all the more unlikely that V bodies were converted to Swingers

i'm looking at The Vintage Guitar Calendar cover from 2002
where a Swinger is pictured with a Strat,  P,  VI and a Jazzmaster
there's no way on earth that body is anywhere near as long as any of the basses
which the V is considerably taller
looks shorter than the strat even

now i know they Swinger body is cut down, so it's possible for them to have taken a few inches off the butt end of a V body

and i'm only making assumptions about the neck heel on a V being much wider

i've got a photo of a V neck pocket
i'll post it when i get off work...

[DarrelT]

This is not exact, but I scaled and tried to line up the two and got this...

[fullerplast]

If you matched up the end of the neck pockets (which presumably would stay the same), the body mismatch would be even worse. Even the lower horn, which should theoretically be untouched is different.

Yet jkirkish's original still has the split pup route... it is confusing. It's hard to believe they made out of two different bodies, and/or that they would go through alot of trouble to make them (given the idea was to disquise and dispose of surplus parts).

A mystery for sure!   ???

[SPudnik]

The whole thing screams, "WEIRD"

[IPLAYLOUD]

http://www.hadton.com/offsets/fender_swinger/

This will help.
Pic #13 shows under the guard.
This shows that the entire pocket of the Bass V was taken away for the new pocket.
Compare with that great double-exposure shot and it all works out.

This Swinger is in Purpleburst. Could be one-of-a-kind.

[bassVIst]

all it shows is that it has a V pickup rout in it...
maybe they were trying to use up those pickups with Mustang bodies


i'm still up in the air about it

still leaning away from the V to Swinger idea...
especially after that overlay shot

how about a Musicmaster/Swinger overlay??

[DB]

i'm still up in the air about it

how about a Musicmaster/Swinger overlay??

I'm with you.  I can't imagine filling in a neck pocket.  And if you line up the neck pockets it doesn't look like it works.  Seems more likely they routed for both pickups and used what they had. 

DB

[StevenO]

It's possible that they made the swingers out of the bass v's.
The split pickup placement is in the same position on the swinger as it is on the swinger/bass v picture.
Eh.

[DarrelT]

The smoking gun...

[DarrelT]

Scroll down to read the description of a stripped Swinger... 
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/archiv ... 87490.html

[flatfiver]

To me, it looks like there would have been enough room to completely remove the Bass V neck pocket, and cut the Swinger neck pocket below it.  Maybe the bass side of the Bass V neck pocket was left intact, but the treble side looks like it could have been completely cut away.  Does that make any sense?

Why the hell do these things have those weird friggin' pickup routes in the middle?!?

[flatfiver]

Just read the entirety of the link you posted, Darrel:

"At the neck pocket, there was a small amount of filler in the outer bass-side corner where the old pocket (much wider of course) had just intruded into the shape, despite the cutaways being deepened and the guitar neck being set much further back."

That's more or less what I was thinking.