Speaking of other features, Duo-Sonic HS has a durable alder body with the scale length of 24 inches. It was my first experience of a real Fender. The price is relatively affordable, and I can assure you, this puppy is worth every penny. The Best of Both Worlds: The Acoustic Electric Guitar, Best Basses: The Grooviest & the Funkiest, Guitar Accessories or How to Access Your Success, The Ultimate (But Not Fully Comprehensive) Guide to Guitar Strings, A Guide to Unique Sounds or Simply Best Guitar Pedals, The Hidden Treasure of Bottom-end – The Best Bass Pedals. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. The Fender Duo Sonic HS is one of those guitars that is lightweight, compatible with all styles of music, and easy to rock with. The three-ply white/black/white scratchplate also plays host to a chrome-tipped three-position pickup selector switch and knurled (aka easy-grip) volume and tone knobs servicing two pickups, a neck single coil plus a bridge humbucker - something original SS-format Duo-Sonics could only dream of. The original mouse that roared, the Duo-Sonic is a short-scale student model that has become highly prized for its excellent playability and tone. There was a problem. It was marketed as a student guitar and won the hearts of many players. Before we get to our Fender Duo-Sonic Electric Guitar review, I have to just mention that this was actually the first Fender guitar I came across. Click here to view more from Best Electric Guitars Under 500. Receive mail from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors? These cookies do not store any personal information. Tuning machines are strong and sturdy – the tune the strings easily and hold them in perfect shape for a long time. Bath The neck on the guitar is nice and smooth and it is very responsive to your touch. Dropping the scale length from the 648mm (25.5 inches) found on Fender's Strat and Tele models doesn't just make the Duo-Sonic's strings a bit easier to bend. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. You might not be willing to go back in time and explore the models that were created long ago, but the chances are all those new guitars are affected by the past. The most interesting part of the hardware has to be the six-saddle hardtail bridge, which directs the strings through the body. We've encountered guitars at more than twice the price that don't play anywhere near as well as this thing does. It’s easy to take this feature for granted, but let’s not forget that we don’t encounter it even in some high-end models. The Duo-Sonic had been out of the Fender lineup for several years, but newly reintroduced model is closest in overall spirit to the early Sixties version of the Duo-Sonic, featuring a plastic pickguard (but in three-ply mint green), smaller “pre-CBS”-style headstock, chrome-plated knurled flat-top master volume and master tone knobs, three-position pickup selector toggle switch and Duo-Sonic single-coil … Plus, the neck pickup warms things up perfectly for clean or dirty blues lead (blues-rockers Rory Gallagher and Johnny Winter owned Duo-Sonics, after all) or jazz chords. History is the essential part of humankind, but so it is for instruments as well. You have entered an incorrect email address! While original Duo-Sonics came with three-saddle bridges, the HS has a six-saddle hardtail with through-body stringing for better intonation and action adjustment. But I can see many of you complaining about it. guitaramplifierblueprinting.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Kurt liked to modify his guitars, hence his humbucker-boosted short-scale 'signature' Jag-Stang, Mustang and Jaguar models. While the small headstock has a glossy look, the back of the neck is coated in a satin finish to prevent even the sweatiest of hands from getting stuck. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Alongside with modern guitars, the majority of the […] The single-coil pickup is significantly quieter than humbucker. So, the Duo-Sonic HS is pretty close to what Kurt was into. Versatile tones. The Mexican-made Offset Series HS version is based on the '64 Duo-Sonic II, which was basically a hardtail version of the then-new vibrato-toting Mustang model. While Jimi Hendrix played a Duo-Sonic early in his career, it was Nirvana's Kurt Cobain that sparked the huge interest in Fender student models when he thrashed his way through a bunch of vintage Mustangs in the early 90s. So, while this guitar's pickups sound fat, there's maximum note separation, no matter how thick the filth is. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. It enhances the sustain, while enabling you to modify the intonation of each string individually. In 1956 before receiving a slight makeover in '59 school who had brought over... The Duo-Sonic is an easy guitar to play – they are crispy, clear punchy... The features a long time major fan of Fender you... Volume 0 History. 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