Katana

In 1985, some 20 years after CBS purchased Fender, they sold the company to an investor group led by William Schultz, president of Fender Musical Instruments. Not long after the sale, certain Fender dealers began to pressure the company to build an oddly shaped instrument to compete with the weird body shapes of guitars that were in fashion at the time. The result was the Katana, which was designed by Fender marketing director Dan Smith in 1985. It had a maple set neck with a bound rosewood fingerboard, offset triangle markers, a 24-3/4″ scale length with 22 frets, an arrow-shaped headstock, and a neck that matched the color of the body. There were a pair of full-size coverless humbucking pickups, master volume and master tone control, a 3-way selector switch, and a 2-pivot bridge/vibrato tailpiece. While the dealers were happy, players resisted the unconventional styling, and the Katana only lasted until 1986 in the Fender catalog.