With the snow finally melted away and the warmer sunny
days ahead, thoughts of spring cleaning seem to start
creeping in. Now please keep in mind that not everyone at
Fender in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s had these same ideas.
One of the two guitars that you see here is a clear
result of not throwing anything away. The Electric XII
went into production in 1965. Sales were only so-so,
and it was taken out of production in 1968. When the
unsold Electric XII body and neck blanks started taking up room on the stock shelves, someone at Fender
had the bright idea of modifying these parts and using
them to create a new model.
The Maverick (later renamed the Custom) was introduced in mid 1969. This model used the overstock
Electric XII neck and body blanks. The headstocks had
six of the twelve holes filled. A Maple laminate was
glued to the front and back of the headstock. This work
was only done with the necks on hand. When the stock
of neck blanks was gone, the guitar was renamed the
Custom. New neck blanks were cut and used, but the
stock of Electric XII bodies was still used in production.
The Maverick and Custom bodies also went through considerable work. The twelve individual string holes were
filled with dowels, and the top and back of the body
were also filled with Maple plywood to hide this work.
The back of the bodies were painted solid black and
sported a Sunburst top.
Other leftover parts that were used on the Custom
include the pickups, the pickup selector switch, and
most of the hardware. The vibrato unit came courtesy
of the Mustang. Needless to say, the Custom was discontinued in 1971.
I can only imagine how many man hours and bottles of
glue were used to rebuild these guitars. I also can just picture the size of the wonderful bonfire that the Fender janitorial staff could have had with the wood that was used.
For further information about these guitars, please refer
to The Fender Book by Tony Bacon and Paul Day.
Dave's Guitar Shop
Daves Rogers’ Collection is tended to by
Laun Braithwaite & Tim Mullally
Photos and words by Tim Mullally
Dave’s Collection is on display at:
Dave's Guitar Shop
1227 Third Street South
La Crosse, WI 54601
608-785-7704
davesguitar.com
