Fender Electric Violin (1970), made in Fullerton, California, sunburst finish, maple body and neck, ebony fingerboard, original black hard shell case.



One of the absolute rarest 1950's Fender creations was the Electric Violin, a pet project for Leo himself but a commercial non-starter built only in extremely small numbers. Originally designed for Bob Wills' Western swing band (of which Leo himself was a big fan) for whatever reason the violin never caught on with Fender customers despite being a very good design. By the late '50s it disappeared without a trace.

At the end of the 1960s CBS/Fender unexpectedly revived the design with some changes, and it was prominently featured in early '70s Fender literature. Once again it attracted little interest although the electric viol in general was having a bit of a moment at the time, featured prominently in groups including the United States of America, It's A Beautiful Day, The Velvet Underground, Fairport Convention and with diverse players like Papa John Creach, "Sugarcane" Harris, Gatemouth Brown and Jean-Luc Ponty. Despite this the Fender instrument attracted little attention and was once again deleted from the company lineup.

This 1970 version is generally similar to Leo's original design, the main difference being a center-routed violin-like headstock in place of the original single-sided "Fender-y" version. The detachable maple neck has a traditional ebony fingerboard; the 1950s version used maple like a Fender guitar. The small vaguely viol-shaped body is hollow but the top is closed with no soundholes, dressed up in a dark sunburst finish.

Leo's proprietary pickup is mounted under a conventional violin bridge, which transfers vibration to a metal plate sensed by a coil underneath, a system not unlike the earlier 1930s National Vio-Lectric design. The two small knobs for tone and volume are mounted to an oblong black anodized metal plate on the treble side of the top, with the jack similarly mounted on the bass side. The stamped metal tailpiece has four fine tuners and a small impressed Fender logo, the only branding on the instrument. While very obscure even to most players and collectors this is a good sounding electric fiddle, and a cool piece of Fender history.

Overall Length is 24 3/4 in. (62.9 cm.), 8 in. (20.3 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 1/2 in. (3.8 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 12 1/2 in. (318 mm.).

This violin remains structurally fine and all original but showing cosmetic wear and tear. The heavy CBS-era Polyester finish has some checking and several noticeable chips to the topcoat, most heavily around the neck pocket (likely from someone removing the neck) and a few on the body and headstock edges. There is an area on the back where the finish has puckered a bit but it is not flaking off.

The neck finish has worn in that odd way characteristic of this exact time in Fender history. Around 1969-70 the CBS finishing department sprayed color coats over a clear poly base, so when the outer layers wear down it exposes a hard clear undercoat. This can be seen on the back of the neck where the player's hand wore the color coat clean through. The back of the neck also has some chipping with some odd straight lines across the middle. Apart from these finish flaws the instrument plays and sounds as intended, a functional if forgotten piece of the Fender legacy. It rests in the original red-lined shaped black Tolex HSC, which is solid with some damage to the outer covering. Overall Excellent - Condition.