The Fender Katana is an

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

built by Fender. It was designed by marketing director Dan Smith in 1985. The Katana was designed to compete with the unconventionally-shaped guitars of the era, such as the

Jackson Randy Rhoads The Jackson Rhoads is a model of electric guitar, originally commissioned by guitarist Randy Rhoads and produced by Jackson Guitars. Origin The Concorde Randy Rhoads' first Jackson prototype was the white, pinstriped, asymmetrical Flying ...

, and to satisfy Fender dealers who were suffering from the competition those instruments offered. The Katana did not sell as well as Fender hoped, and it was discontinued in 1986 before being reissued as a Masterbuilt Custom Shop model as part of the Prestige collection three decades later. The Katana has a maple glued-in neck with bound rosewood fingerboard, offset triangle markers, a 629mm (24.75") scale with 22 frets, a truss rod adjuster at the headstock end. It features a string clamp, an arrow-head-shape headstock and a neck that matches the body color. The guitar has a pair of open-coil

humbucking pickup A humbucking pickup, humbucker, or double coil, is a type of guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out the noisy interference picked up by coil pickups. In addition to electric guitar pickups, humbucking coils are sometimes used in ...

s with black bobbins, master volume/TBX tone controls and a 3-way pickup selector, all on body, and a side-mounted jack socket. It also has a 2-point System I locking vibrato unit. A less expensive

Squier Squier is an American brand of electric guitars owned by Fender. The former manufacturing company, established as "V. C. Squier Company" was founded in 1890 by Victor Carroll Squier in Battle Creek, Michigan, producing strings for violins, ban ...

version of the Katana - much more commonly available in the used market - was also made, with a single

, a bolt-on short scale neck, vintage-style 6-screw tremolo bridge and a single volume control. It was also available as a bass model with a split-coil P-Bass

humbucker A humbucking pickup, humbucker, or double coil, is a type of guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out the noisy interference picked up by coil pickups. In addition to electric guitar pickups, humbucking coils are sometimes used in ...

, 4-saddle bridge and a medium 32"-inch scale maple neck with a 20-fret rosewood fretboard.

External links

Fender Katana
at TheGuitarCollection.org

Katana A is a Japanese sword characterized by a curved, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands. Developed later than the '' tachi'', it was used by samurai in feudal Japan and worn with the edge f ...

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