Pickups: Stock Fender pickups (Alnico 5)

Neck: 1 Piece Maple

Body: 2 Piece Swamp Ash

Nut Material: Bone

Bridge: Stock Fender

Colour: Butterscotch Blonde

Country of Origin: USA

Weight: 3.80kg / 8.38 lbs

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Truth be told - to me, this one has a lot of mojo going for it. Neck pickup is probably one of the sweetest I've ever heard. Bridge pickup is a dream to play early Page solos on. The last "luthier" I sent it to did not do such a great job doing a fret level without a proper fret crowning. The relief on this the neck is also a little more than I would prefer. I've since DIY recrowned and polished the frets, and reset the neck relief. I still plan to take it to a professional one day to at least set it right, then I can just do the maintenance from then on.

 

This is the first 7.25' radius guitar that I got, and at the time I thought that it was normal that big bends will fret out. To a certain extent, this is true - however having now played well set up instruments with the same radius, I am confident that this guitar can play a whole lot better with a proper set up. 

 

I like vintage frets on Fenders and prefer them over jumbo frets. When it is time for a refret, I may opt for tall, vintage frets in stainless steel. That may make it even brighter than it already is but I think in this case it may be worth it since it will last a lot longer.

 

The nut also needs to be replaced. The current one has slots that are way too big, and with a refret the nut will need to be replaced as the strings will be sitting too low for the new frets.

 

The neck shape is a lot skinnier than the other 52 Teles that I've played over the years. I think the correct neck shape in 1952 would have probably been the thicker style, which I prefer these days. 

 

Fender in the 90s...I don't know what the general quality of the guitars that they were producing in that era was, but every year will have its good and bad examples. I am very happy with this guitar even when it's not playing as well as it used to and am unlikely to ever get sell it, but I will detail the issues with my guitar that may irk others wanting to buy the same type of instrument:

 

Neck pocket fit: Not as tight as the other Fender type instruments that I have. There is a slight but visible gap on one side of the neck when it is in the pocket. 

 

Finish: It's thick. Also, these instruments had a few coats of nitro over poly (and were sold as nitro finished), hence you will never get the same wear that you see on vintage teles. Whether or not this affects tone is for you to decide, I am of the personal opinion that a finish would have to be extremely thick for it to affect the tone...and I can only say that anecdotally. I do know that this particular guitar still sings. 

 

UPDATE 03/01/2017

Finally managed to spend some time with this guitar over the holidays. I had purchased a set of Sliders pickups to install into it, and since I was getting into it I thought I would give it a once over in terms of set up. 

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Neck adjustment, removed the tone bleed capacitor and replaced the other capacitor with a NOS 60s one that was included in the Sliders purchase, cut a new bone nut for it and placed the action slightly higher than what it was. 

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It plays much better now. 

 

Jobs/upgrades to be done:

Refret in the near future (tall and thin frets)

 

Upgrades already done:

NOS John E Fast capacitor

Sliders T-Style 50s pickup set

Bone Nut