The Fender Prodigy is a discontinued model of

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 gui ...

produced by Fender from 1991 to 1993. It is one of Fender's attempts to compete with the

superstrat Superstrat is a name for an electric guitar design that resembles a Fender Stratocaster but with differences that clearly distinguish it from a standard Stratocaster, usually to cater to a different playing style. Differences typically include m ...

-style guitars produced by

Ibanez is a Japanese guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki. Based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in import guitar sales in the United States and Europe, as ...

Jackson Jackson may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Q ...

Charvel Charvel is a brand of electric guitars founded in the 1970s by Wayne Charvel in Azusa, California and originally headquartered in Glendora, California. Since 2002, Charvel has been under the ownership of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. H ...

Carvin Corporation Carvin Corporation is a family-owned San Diego, California, manufacturer of guitar amplifiers and audio equipment. The company is known for its early work using plastics in the 1940s, making electric guitars from Resinox. History Founded ...

and

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...

. Since the Prodigy series was discontinued after about two and half years of production without a clear reason, it is considered one of Fender's rare models because of its limited production. Fender also produced a Prodigy Bass based on the Precision Bass Plus Deluxe featuring a P/J pickup layout (''P'' as in

Fender Precision Bass The Fender Precision Bass (often shortened to "P-Bass") is a model of electric bass guitar manufactured by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. In its standard, post-1957 configuration, the Precision Bass is a solid body, four-stringed instrum ...

and ''J'' as in

Fender Jazz Bass The Fender Jazz Bass (often shortened to ''J-Bass'') is the second model of Bass guitar, electric bass created by Leo Fender. It is distinct from the Fender Precision Bass, Precision Bass in that its tone is brighter and richer in the midrange a ...

), 2-band active circuitry and a "fine-tuner" Schaller Elite bridge assembly.

Design

The Prodigy series featured two single coil pickups and one

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 d ...

at the bridge position (sometimes referred to as a ''Fat Strat'' configuration). The body shape was similar to that of the

Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuously ...

; however, it featured an offset body with sharper body edges. The Prodigy was relatively different from the

Fender HM Strat The Fender HM Strat was an electric guitar produced by Fender Musical Instruments from 1988 until 1992. A relatively radical departure from Leo Fender's classic Stratocaster design, it was Fender's answer to Superstrats produced by manufacturers ...

since it used

Leo Fender Clarence Leonidas Fender (August 10, 1909 – March 21, 1991) was an American inventor known for designing the Fender Stratocaster. He also founded the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. In January 1965, he sold Fender to CBS, and later foun ...

's classic

Synchronized tremolo A vibrato system on a guitar is a mechanical device used to temporarily change the pitch of the strings. Instruments without a vibrato have other bridge and tailpiece systems. They add vibrato to the sound by changing the tension of the strin ...

system. The Prodigy II was introduced in 1992 which reprised the

Kahler Kahler may refer to: Places *Kahler, Luxembourg, a small town in the commune of Garnich *Kahler Asten, a German mountain range Other uses *Kahler (surname) *Kahler's disease, a cancer otherwise known as ''multiple myeloma'' *Kahler Tremolo System, ...

locking tremolo and nut system from the HM Strat; this model also featured Fender/ Schaller tuners and black hardware. The prodigy neck featured 22 frets and a 12" radius maple or rosewood

fretboard The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments) is an important component of most stringed instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating s ...

. Its

headstock A headstock or peghead is part of a guitar or similar stringed instruments such as a lute, mandolin, banjo, ukulele and others of the lute lineage. The main function of a headstock is to house the pegs or mechanism that holds the strings at the ...

was strongly reminiscent of the Stratocaster headstock, but slightly taller and narrower. Prodigy electronics also differed from the Stratocaster in that the Prodigy featured a single volume and only a single tone control. Traditional Stratocasters have a single volume, but have one tone control for the neck and middle pickup and one tone control for the bridge pickup. Stratocasters also have a rout on the face of the guitar for a somewhat large, angled output jack; this is missing from the Prodigy. Instead, it uses a third hole in the

pickguard A pickguard (also known more correctly as scratchplate) is a piece of plastic or other (often laminated) material that is placed on the body of a guitar, mandolin or similar plucked string instrument. The main purpose of the pickguard is to prot ...

(which would be used for the second tone knob on a Stratocaster) as the mounting position for the output jack.

Origin

While Tony Bacon's book ''50 Years of Fender'' mentions the Prodigy as being "among the first Fender guitars to receive attention at the company's new factory in Ensenada, Mexico", the headstock is imprinted with "Made in U.S.A."
''50 years of Fender'' by Tony Bacon, Paul Day, page 100. Sources at Fender attribute the majority of manufacture to the

Corona, California Corona (Spanish for "Crown") is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 157,136, up from 152,374 at the 2010 census. The cities of Norco and Riverside lie to the north and north ...

plant. prodigy1.jpg, A black 1992 Fender Prodigy.

References

{{Fender guitars

Prodigy Prodigy, Prodigies or The Prodigy may refer to: * Child prodigy, a child who produces meaningful output to the level of an adult expert performer ** Chess prodigy, a child who can beat experienced adult players at chess Arts, entertainment, and ...

Musical instruments invented in the 1990s