Fender Performer

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The Fender Performer was designed for high-performance guitarist in the mid 1980s. The Performer was only made for one year (1986), and was assembled in Japan. It was introduced in the middle business crisis at CBS and was discontinued after only one year, however, in recent years it's reputation as a fine, versatile rock instrument has risen. The Performer was also made as an electric bass.

The unusual body and headstock shapes have been rumored to have originated in the shape of the scrap wood leftover from making Japanese Stratocasters. The body is small with a deep double cutaway. The tuning machines are found on the upper edge of the triangular headstock. The fretboard is two octaves and features a locking nut and jumbo frets. The bridge is a floating tremolo.

The two pickups are custom humbuckers which sit at an angle as in the case of a Stratocaster or Telecaster bridge pickup. It appears that the coils are offset to keep the magnets in line with the strings, although they are behind plastic so it is difficult to tell. The guitar features a volume knob, a tone knob, a pickup selector switch (neck/both/bridge) and, most importantly, a coil tap switch which disables one coil of each humbucker, resulting in a guitar with two single-coil pickups. This is perhaps the guitar's most famous and useful feature, as it can produce heavy, fat humbucker sounds as well as crisp, sharp, Strat-like tones.