Fender has announced a trio of signature releases for Jack White, including an amp and two guitars, with White bringing a score of fresh ideas to the table.

The Signature Jack White Collection comprises of a Pano Verb amplifier, a TripleCaster Telecaster, and White’s take on Fender’s innovative Acoustasonic electro-acoustic, called the TripleSonic.

Fender has vowed to bottle the “raw energy and punk rock ethos” that defines White’s career with the collection, which has seen him chalk up 12 Grammy wins and write the most Googled guitar riff ever in Seven Nation Army.

“We found the best of the old, with the best of the new, and mixed innovation with the history of Fender to do something that we think Leo Fender would have been very proud of if he was alive today,” says White.

Adding bursts of yellow to the classic Fender amp visage, the Fender Jack White Pano Verb amp was inspired by White’s vintage Vibrasonic and Vibroverb amps. Crafted in Fender’s Corona, CA factory, its stock features are bolstered by an enhanced stereo reverb and tremolo effects, and is the result of five years of hard work.

By placing the reverb after the pre-amp, White says “it's just beautiful how much energy it has, and the decay goes on forever.” Moreover, there are dedicated Treble and Bass controls for the reverb for personalizing its character as the guitarist goes above and beyond with the combo amp's offerings.

Underneath its silver grill is a unique pairing of 10” and 15” speakers. As White explains, by double mic’ing the amp “you get the deep bassier crunch on the 15”, and you get brighter, glassier tones on the 10”. Your stereo image is just outstanding.”

He adds that the reverb’s Split/Full switch “will blow your mind,” as it allows players to send the reverb through both speakers or just the smaller 10” speaker.

Elsewhere, a drive knob has been installed to boost guitars without distorting while a Middle dial, not always present in Fender amps, stands as another important addition for White.

The amp also boasts the first harmonic tremolo that Fender has done since the early '60s, drawing inspiration from White's '61 Vibrasonic. It comes with Stereo and Mono modes, with the Stereo mode offering a little delay between the two speakers for a “swampy” back and forth between them.

“This was me shooting for the moon of what the ultimate Fender amplifier could be for something really beautiful and unique that Fender's never done before,” White enthuses.

The TripleCaster, White's take on the beloved Telecaster, has received a host of mods. Stocked with a Bigsby vibrato and a trilogy of custom pickups – a Jack White humbucker, Jack White JW-90 single-coil, and Jack White CuNiFe Wide-Range humbucker – it’s full of personal flourishes.

There’s also a Hipshot Xtender DropTuner to quickly change from standard to drop D tunings, a killswitch, and a banjo-style armrest. It’s finished in a sleek Piano Black and its hardware is white.

Following on from Finneas’ signature Acoustasonic models, White’s TripleSonic continues the black and white aesthetic of his TripleCaster with a Satin top and Arctic White touches across its body and soft V-profile neck.

There’s an eye-catching white pickguard and a three-way pickup switch for different tonal voicings curated by the White Stripes man.

“Jack is regarded as a true visionary in the music world, and it has been an incredible journey working with him on developing these products,” says Fender’s Justin Norvell. “The guitars and amplifier reflect his innovative spirit and distinctive sound, and we can't wait for musicians everywhere to experience the unique blend of craftsmanship and creativity that they bring.”

The Jack White Pano Verb amp ($2,999), TripleCaster ($2,999), and TripleSonic Acoustasonic ($2,499) are all available now.

Head to Fender for the full scoop.

A recently resurfaced interview has detailed how Leo Fender wanted to work with Les Paul long before Gibson was convinced of his electric guitar concept. 

The Les Paul may have gone on to become what is arguably Gibson’s most famous and iconic instrument, but there was a brief period where Fender tried to ally with Les Paul himself to develop his solidbody prototype. 

The interview, dating back to 2009 and brought to light by MusicRadar, sees Les Paul explaining how Fender actually saw the value in his vision long before Gibson did. 

Les Paul and Leo Fender were friendly with one another at the time, moving in the same circle of guitar innovators while Les Paul was creating “The Log,” the progenitor to the Les Paul guitar.    

Fender, an astute businessman, smelled an opportunity. 

“At that time Leo wanted me to be partners with him – for it to be the Fender guitar: the Les Paul Fender,” Les Paul explains in the interview. “When he approached me with the idea, he brought over a guitar and he gave it to me and I have it here.”

Although revered in guitar-building circles, Leo Fender wasn’t personally a guitarist, something Les Paul viewed with trepidation. And so, Paul held firm to the hope that Gibson would come around to his concept. 

“I thought, if I'm gonna do this I'm going to go with the biggest company in the world: Gibson,” he said. “Why should I fool around with some guy who is not a musician? I should go to the Gibson people.”

The problem was that ‘Going to the Gibson people’ wasn’t an easy task. Initial conversations didn’t bear fruit. 

Gibson had built its reputation by building mandolins, harp guitars, and other hollow-bodied instruments. It had produced the first ever solidbody electric guitar in 1941, with the ES-150 originally marketed as a Hawaiian guitar, but Les Paul's blueprints weren't proving enough to convince them to sanction his design's production. 

In the end, Leo Fender did play a key role in the Gibson Les Paul’s history, but not how he had hoped. In the fall of 1950, Fender released the Broadcaster, a precursor to the Telecaster. Its success made Gibson reconsider Les Paul’s proposal. 

“The Gibson people turned [The Log] down and they continued to turn it down all the way to 1950,” Paul remembers. “Then in 1950, they called me and say, ‘Would you bring that gadget in?’” 

The first artist-approved production model was delivered in 1951 with the help of Gibson and Ted McCarty. Guitar Player had the honor of pouring over the now-iconic instrument in 2021, before it sold for $930,000 at auction.  

The heavily-modded guitar featured a host of Les Paul-handled DIY jobs. It would go on to change the course of history – for the electric guitar and the Gibson brand – forever. 

Fender’s recently introduced Vintera II series features classic colors, accurately replicated pickups and period-correct neck shapes. Produced in Fender’s Ensenada, Mexico, factory, the line comprises Stratocasters and Telecasters from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s; a ’50s Jazzmaster; ’70s Jaguar and Mustang models and several basses from the same decades. For this review, I received guitars from three consecutive decades — a ’50s Jazzmaster, a ’60s Telecaster and a ’70s Mustang — which were tested with a trio of Fender amps (a Deluxe Reverb, a ’48 Dual Professional and a Tone Master Princeton Reverb) and several grind pedals, including the new UAFX Lion ’68 Super Lead.

’50s Jazzmaster

Introduced in 1958, the Jazzmaster was presented as a flagship model for jazz players, but when that plan didn’t go as expected, it found a foothold in the 1960s surf scene. Decades later, the Jazzmaster attained its rightful place in the Fender hierarchy via alternative, grunge and indie players of the ’80s and ’90s.

The swanky ’50s Jazzmaster that I received for this review looks ever so sharp in its Desert Sand paint and gold anodized pickguard, and it features a tinted maple neck with a late-’50s C shape, a slab rosewood fingerboard with a 25 ½–inch scale, and 21 nicely worked and polished vintage-tall frets. Bolted to an offset-waist alder body with beautifully rounded curves and a comfy ribcage contour, it has an enticing playing feel, with the factory setup providing low action and tuneful intonation.

Equipped with an adjustable bridge and floating trem, the Jazzmaster stayed in tune under moderate vibrato use, and the soft response of the long bar is really nice. The system has a trem-lock feature that will hold the tuning if a string breaks. When this happens, the plate tilts back from the loss of tension. You simply push the trem bar down, slide the switch back and it will hold the plate level so the guitar plays in tune, even with the broken string. An explanation of how the system works can be found here.

The Jazzmaster’s pair of large single-coil pickups are fairly low output, which can be good for pedal users. They’re complemented by an adventurous control scheme consisting of master volume and tone knobs, a three-way toggle for selecting pickups, and, on the upper bout, a slider switch that activates the neck pickup by itself (which sounds a touch darker in this mode) and volume and tone thumbwheels that let you adjust its sound independently of the other controls. Simply put, it functions like a preset for the neck pickup that can be handy for quickly switching between, say, a gnarly bridge-pickup lead tone and a warm rhythm sound.

The Jazzmaster’s tones are crisp and harmonically vibrant, and the sound with both pickups on is great for rhythm playing — clean or distorted — while the rear pickup delivers a killer lead tone through distortion or fuzz pedals. A Jazzmaster has its jangly charms for sure, and those clean sounds are addictive in their own way, but this sexy guitar can sound mighty too, which is why players like J Mascis, Troy Van Leeuwen, Jim Root and many others are fans of the Fender that’s “jazz” in name only.

’60s Telecaster

The popularity of Fender guitars from the 1960s has lifted the prices of vintage models beyond the reach of many players, so it was cool to receive the very affordable Vintera II ’60s Telecaster that arrived here in a Fiesta Red finish, complemented by a three-ply white pickguard and chrome hardware. The bolt-on maple neck has an early ’60s profile that sits nicely in the hand, and the slab rosewood fingerboard features the traditional 25 ½–inch scale and narrowish 7 ¼–inch radius.

Riding atop are 21 vintage-tall frets with well-attended crowns, smooth tips and a gleaming polish. A good factory setup makes for excellent playability, negligible string buzz and sweet intonation along the gloss-finished neck. The strings load through metal ferrules on the back of the instrument, running across an adjustable three-saddle steel bridge on their way over a smoothly finished nut to the vintage-style, ribbed-back tuners, which are the same types that are used on the Jazzmaster.

This guitar felt solid and stayed in tune well during my tests, and despite being a bit on the heavy side, at nearly eight pounds, its acoustic voice sounded resonant and sustaining — characteristics that translated nicely into the amplified realm through my Fender test combos. The bridge pickup is fat sounding and packs a steely top end, and sounded badass through distortion pedals or straight into the ’48 Dual Pro, which enhanced everything with its unique flavor of grind and uncanny responsiveness to the guitar volume control. Switching to both pickups yielded tones that were clear and robust, with a touch of phasey color that’s cool for funk riffing.

All in all, the ’60s Telecaster is a supreme working-musician’s guitar that covers a lot of bases, which is why, more than a half century since its introduction, it’s still so popular and continues to remind us just how far ahead of the curve Leo Fender was in 1950.

’70s Mustang

Famed Mustang players include Adrian Belew, Kurt Cobain and John Frusciante, and the model has remained popular with fans of its compact, offset design ever since it debuted in 1964. The Vintera II ’70s Mustang features a Competition Orange finish with white racing stripes (also available in Competition Burgundy), three-ply pearloid pickguard, large ’70s-style headstock, and “F”-stamped neck plate and tuners with white buttons.

In keeping with its original intent to be a compact student model, the guitar has a smaller-proportioned alder body and a bolt-on maple neck with a 24-inch scale rosewood fingerboard wearing 21 nicely finished vintage-tall frets. The C-shaped neck on my review guitar has exceptionally figured maple and sits well in the hand, offering an easy playing feel with rubbery bendability courtesy of the shorter scale.

The Dynamic Vibrato is a cool feature comprising a wraparound tailpiece that rocks in concert with a six-saddle adjustable bridge when pressing down on the bar. Held in place by a set screw (i.e. it’s not threaded), the bar has a tendency to come loose and can even pop right out if you don’t keep the screw firmly tightened. That aside, the unit allowed for aggressive use while keeping the pitch relatively stable once the strings were stretched out.

The Mustang sports a pair of single-coil pickups with black plastic covers; volume and tone pots with black knobs; and a pair of three-position slide switches to turn the pickups on and off individually, with center being off. The sound is loudest and fullest with both switches set toward the neck, and slightly hollower with a bit less output when both are pointed toward the bridge. Set both switches to the inward or outward positions and the sound is funky and out-of-phase.

The pickups sound good on their own, too — the neck position delivers a clear, girthy tone that’s cool for blues when pushing some grind, and it steers into jazzy territory with the tone knob rolled down a bit. The bridge pickup has good output, and its bright, balanced tone sounded great for lead and rhythm through a cranked amp or distortion pedal, where the Mustang cops an aggressive attitude that’s pretty cool given its sort of toy-like demeanor, compared to full-sized Fenders.

Bottom line, the Vintera II ’70s Mustang is a hip guitar for those who appreciate Fender’s outlier compact models.

Specifications: Vintera II ’50s Jazzmaster

CONTACT fender.com

PRICE $1,249 street. gig bag included

NUT Synthetic bone, 1.650” wide

NECK Maple, late-’50s C profile

FRETBOARD Rosewood, 25 1/2” scale,
7.25” radius

FRETS 21 viintage tall

TUNERS Vintage style

BODY Alder

BRIDGE Vintage-style with adjustable saddles and floating trem

PICKUPS Fender ’50s Jazzmaster single-coils

CONTROLS Master volume and tone, pickup toggle. Thumbwheels for neck volume and tone, slide switch to activate neck pickup only

EXTRAS Available in Desert Sand and Sonic Blue

FACTORY STRINGS Fender 250R .010–.046

WEIGHT 8.4 lbs (as tested)

BUILT Mexico

KUDOS Sounds amazing either clean or
overdriven

CONCERNS None

Specifications: Vintera II ’60s Telecaster

CONTACT fender.com

PRICE $1,149 street, gig bag included

NUT Synthetic bone, 1.650” wide

NECK Maple, early-’60s C profile

FRETBOARD Rosewood, 25 1/2” scale, 7.25” radius

FRETS 21 vintage tall

TUNERS Vintage style

BODY Alder

BRIDGE Three-saddle Vintage-style Tele with slotted steel saddles

PICKUPS Fender ‘60s Tele single-coils, neck and bridge

CONTROLS Master volume and tone, three-way switch

EXTRAS Available in Fiesta Red and Sonic Blue

FACTORY STRINGS Fender 250L, .009–.042

WEIGHT 7.94 lbs (as tested)

BUILT Mexico

KUDOS An affordable vintage-spec Tele with great playability and tones

CONCERNS None

Specifications: Vintera II ’70s Mustang

CONTACT fender.com

PRICE $1,149 street, gig bag included

NUT Synthetic bone, 1.650” wide

NECK Maple, ’70s C profile

FRETBOARD Rosewood, 24” scale,
7.25” radius

FRETS 21 vintage tall

TUNERS Fender Vintage F stamped

BODY Alder

BRIDGE 6-saddle Dynamic Vibrato bridge/tailpiece

PICKUPS Fender ’70s Mustang single-coils

CONTROLS Master volume and tone, two three-way switches

EXTRAS Available in Competition Orange and Competition Burgundy

FACTORY STRINGS Fender 250L, .009–.042

WEIGHT 7.52 lbs (as tested)

BUILT Mexico

KUDOS Cool look. Nice playability and range of tones

CONCERNS Vibrato arm easily comes loose

Leo Fender spent roughly 20 years at the musical instrument company that bears his name. Perhaps it’s due to his storied history there that people often forget he spent another 20 years, from 1971 until his death in 1991, continuing to design guitars suited to the ever-changing needs of contemporary musicians. 

In addition to Music Man, the company he co-founded in 1971, Leo spent much of his final years at G&L, the company he created in 1980 with his former Fender colleague George Fullerton. 

Remarkably, one of G&L’s newest models comes from a design Leo drew up well before the company came into existence. After selling Fender Musical Instruments to CBS in 1965 and launching his consultancy for the company as part of his non-compete agreement, Leo formed CLF Research (for Clarence Leo Fender), an R&D operation into which he poured a ton of new thoughts about guitar design. 

In 1969, he applied much of his latest thinking to a new model he called the Espada, after which he placed the blueprints and R&D materials in his desk drawer. And there they sat for years; his design would never come to fruition in his lifetime. 

Decades later, the folks at G&L discovered the plans in Leo’s old workspace and recognized the opportunity they presented. 

Released in 2019, the G&L Espada featured two split-coil Magnetic Field Design (MFD) pickups, an innovative hum-canceling single-coil unit designed by Leo himself and used on several G&L models since the inception of the brand. 

Now come two new takes on this model: the Espada HH and Espada HH Active. One glance at these new variants reveals that the “HH” stands for dual-humbucker, a pickup complement intended to take the Espada into slightly different tonal territory. 

That aside, both models are very much as Leo sketched out his original design 54 years ago. 

When asked his first thoughts upon discovering the lost design, G&L president Dave McLaren told Guitar Player, “I wondered how such a good-looking design didn’t get produced at some point. It could have been the last ‘Leo Fender’ Fender, or it could have been repurposed into a Music Man or a G&L here at the CLF Research factory on Fender Avenue. 

“Obviously, there would have been technical changes, but the proportions of the body, the curves, the pickguard, the styling were all fantastic. It was waiting patiently for decades, kind of like lost tapes from an artist. It just takes someone else who’s well versed in the artist’s style to complete the song, applying some of the artist’s later musical development to make the song into a cohesive piece.” 

Although it took some creative thought to bring the raw design to fruition, the G&L team saw a natural path from the blueprints to the final realization. 

“The technical aspects of the design were being developed by Leo in 1967 and ’68, although nothing was ready for production,” McLaren explains. “The styling was fully developed by the end of 1969, and I think Leo’s intent was to have a completed Fender model ready for a 1970 launch, but the clock ran out on Leo’s consultancy with CBS/Fender and the project was abandoned.”

In any case, McLaren adds, the concept likely wasn’t well received at CBS, which was then focusing on growing and streamlining production at its big new factory. 

The pieces were all there for G&L, however, and mainly required an update to the breadboard preamp design — Leo’s solution to overcome guitar-cable loading and deliver more clarity and better transients — and the use of a solid, sustain-enhancing bridge that had already become a G&L staple via another of the founder’s later designs. 

The Espada’s body is clearly a descendant of Leo’s seminal Broadcaster and Esquire solidbody designs of 1950, but with more comfortably rounded edges and a rib cage– sparing belly contour. 

The passive and active variations are available in two wood choices, alder and ash, with two finish options for each of those timbers. Our review samples include an alder-bodied Espada HH in Jet Black and an ash Espada HH Active in Cherryburst. 

Thanks to identical ergonomics, both guitars are extremely comfortable on the lap. The rounded edges eliminate the Telecaster’s propensity to cut into a player’s ribcage and forearm — one factor that led to the Stratocaster’s contoured shape — and make for a more huggable playing experience. 

The Espada HHs’ 25 ½–inch-scale necks are made from maple and feature unbound Caribbean rosewood fingerboards with pearloid block inlays. Carved to a medium-C profile, they sport a width of 1 5/8 inches across the nut and are attached with four wood screws rather than the three-screw plate and micro-tilt adjustment Leo Fender pioneered in the earlier days of G&L. 

Vintage-style Kluson Deluxe tuners with slotted SafeTi-Posts grace the six-a-side headstock, while Leo’s own seminal G&L Saddle Lock hardtail bridge anchors things firmly down at the body end. 

The ostensibly Gibson-style, full-size humbuckers are a departure from the circa-’69 Espada design, comprising a G&L AS4255Z and AW4370Z with uncovered zebra coils in the passive model and an AS4255C and AW4368C with chrome covers in the active, all made with alnico magnets. 

Meanwhile, the rest of the electronics and control section retain hefty portions of Leo’s design DNA. 

The preamp in the active version was part of the intention of the original Espada concept, although here it’s G&L’s existing Micro-Preamp fed by a single nine-volt battery rather than the six AA cells of Leo’s design. 

That model includes a three-way toggle switch for selecting passive/ active/active-bright modes (replaced by a two-way kill switch in the passive Espada HH), and both guitars have a second mini-toggle for coil splitting. 

Each guitar also includes a three-way pickup selector positioned toward the front of the scimitar-like control plate.

Rather than one of the configurations more commonly found today, the three knobs deliver volume plus Leo’s Passive Treble and Bass (PTB) circuit, allowing more interactive EQ sculpting than traditional high-pass tone knobs provide.

Both guitars had good setups right out of the gig bags, along with the easy playability G&L is known for. I tested them through a 65amps London head and 2x12 cab, and a tweed Deluxe-style 1x12 combo, using a selection of pedals, and both guitars revealed a versatile character that could easily suit a wide range of gigging needs. 

The passive mode of each can lean a little to the warm and rich side of the sonic spectrum and be a tad boomy with the neck humbucker selected alone. But turn the bass control down 30 percent while leaving the treble up full, and the rhythm position exhibits more bite and clarity. 

From there, the balance between the two is simply outstanding, and a twist of a knob or a flick of a switch takes you from clear and jangly to gutsy, thick and rocking. 

The active and active-bright settings on the Espada HH Active are well specified, as the latter never sounds too bright even with the pickups in single-coil mode and the treble control up full. Instead, it adds extra sparkle and bite that really helps the Espada HH Active come alive. 

As such, this model delivers an enticing blend of classic and modern, and proves itself incredibly versatile. Ultimately, these two new models offer performances very close to a something-for-everyone package. The fact that it all stems from one of the last of Leo’s original Fender designs sure makes for an enticing back story.

For more information contact G&L Guitars

Magic Steel Guitar by the Noel Boggs Quintet has no chest-pumping phrases, no jaw-dropping, lightning-fast virtuosity. That’s not to say Boggs doesn’t speak through his instrument, or that his guitarist Neil LeVang isn’t absolutely superb – but it’s a mature ensemble work and a well-played record featuring exquisite craftsmanship. The goal of these musicians was not to knock us over and kick our asses – it was more their intention to give us a kiss on the forehead. And we can all use a kiss on the forehead now and then. 

Noel Boggs was born in Oklahoma City in 1917 and started playing lap steel while in junior high. Within the short span of three years he joined and toured with the Radio Cowboys, the Western swing group of banjoist Hank Penny. Noel went on to play with Bob Wills and the infamous Spade Cooley, making a historical and significant musical contribution to both artists. Noel was influenced by jazz guitar pioneer Charlie Christian and would woodshed by transcribing Christian’s solos with fellow musicians Cameron Hill and the great Jimmy Wyble. 

His first steel guitar was a Rickenbacker, but while working with Spade Cooley, Noel met Leo Fender. Since Leo valued musicians’ input into his creations, Noel played a role in Fender’s first lap steel, which, as we know, was a prototype for the Telecaster guitar. If you play a Telecaster, Noel Boggs’ long arms reach out to you. 

And if you love steel guitar without a cowboy hat and boots, Magic Steel Guitar is a record I’d recommend. Side one opens with the mid-tempo jazz swing number Little Coquette. Noel plays a phrase that is answered by organist Ivan Ditmar’s B3, while the band, consisting of LeVang and an uncredited drummer, swing elegantly. The classic standard Tenderly follows, with great accompaniment by Paul Smith on piano. Noel plays the melody with a gentle loveliness that sounds almost like a human voice. 

Steel Guitar Rag follows, and while that’s admittedly a “been there done that” track for me, Boggs and company breathe life into this well-trodden standard with clever arrangements and the unlikely addition of bongos. Noel’s single-note lines sing majestically on Beautiful Ohio, and Stealin’ Home is a Boggs original that sounds suspiciously familiar, yet has enough surprises to satisfy. Magic Isle closes side one neatly with a lovely after-hours jazz vibe. 

A perky Caravan opens side two, followed by a swinging Birth of the Blues that has a tasty Neil LeVang guitar break. I need to hear more Neil LeVang. He was a longtime member of the Lawrence Welk Band, and played for everyone from Glen Campbell to Frank Zappa and on TV shows, including The Brady Bunch and The Monkees. I urge you to check out his work. 

Up next, September Song has a haunting feel but is never overly dramatic. It’s followed by Perdido, Paradise Isle and the unlikely showstopper Beer Barrel Polka, which is possibly the most stunning track on this LP. LeVang performs clever counterpoint lines and Boggs lets ’er rip, while the drummer plays an almost militaristic clave feel. The result is an amiably fantastic finale.

Noel Boggs’ Magic Steel Guitar doesn’t try to change the world, and while it’s not a masterpiece, it finds its way to my turntable more often than the heralded works of high art in my collection. I love its easy-going nature, and I feel the camaraderie of musicians who never grandstand but seem to enjoy one another while playing music they love. What’s not to like? It’s nice. And sometimes all I want is nice.  

Back in 2019, G&L unveiled the CLF Research Espada, a unique electric guitar based on a lost design by Leo Fender.

Now, the brand has unveiled two new Espadas, which stay faithful to Fender's vision, with one modern-minded twist – a pair of humbuckers, rather than the original's split-coils.

The Espada HH and Espada HH Active are quite similar, but differentiate in the electronics/controls department. The latter boasts G&L AS4255C and AW4368C 'buckers, with volume, treble, and bass controls, a G&L Micro-Preamp, and a Passive/Active/Active-Bright control.

The former, meanwhile, features AW4470Z and AS4255Z humbuckers and the same volume, treble, and bass controls. The two toggle switches on this six-string, however, serve coil-splitting and killswitch functions.

The two guitars can be differentiated visually by their pickups, which are uncovered on the standard HH, but covered on the HH Active.

Elsewhere, the Espadas both sport a hard-rock maple neck featuring a 9.5”-radius, 25.5” Caribbean rosewood fingerboard with 22 frets and white pearl block inlays. 

Other aspects of the models, though, are finish dependent. Each Espada comes in a quartet of finishes – Jet Black, Vintage White, Cherryburst, and Honeyburst. The former two finishes are accompanied by alder bodies and black pickguards, while the latter two mean ash bodies and parchment pickguards.

Hardware, in turn, is highlighted by a bone nut, Kluson tuners, and a Leo Fender-designed G&L Saddle-Lock bridge.

The G&L Espada HH and Espada HH Active ring up at $2,099 and $2,199, respectively, and are both available for preorder now.  

For more info on the model, visit gandlguitars.com.

It’s often said Marshall stacks were born to fill bigger and bigger venues with enough volume to satisfy thousands of screaming rock and roll fans.

But a couple of years before Jim Marshall lifted Fender’s tweed Bassman schematic to build the JTM45 – and several years before the British amp maker dreamed of doubling it to create a 100-watt amp – Leo Fender and his team in Fullerton, California, were chasing that goal with assistance from one of the most bombastic guitarists of the era: Dick Dale.

In 1959, Dick Dale and his band, the Del-Tones, began cramming some 3,000 stomping teenagers into the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa, California, where they moshed to something that would soon be known nationwide as surf music.

In that era of woefully underpowered P.A. systems, Dale, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 81, needed volume to get the music above the roar of the crowd and to simulate the wild, tumbling, swirling experience of catching a mammoth wave.

He turned to the Fender Showman to get him there.

The Showman quickly went through several transitional iterations in 1960 and ’61 as Leo and Dale worked to build an amp that could stand up to the guitarist’s abuse. In the process, they blew up dozens of test rigs, their underrated speakers or output transformers (OTs) frying under the punishment.

Fender finally achieved a suitable 80-watt OT coupled to a more robust JBL F-Series 12- or 15-inch speaker (with two 15s in the Dual Showman).

Early Showman cabs also used a complex speaker baffle with a tone ring to decouple the speaker from the structure, resulting in increased projection and efficiency.

The archetypal Showman settled in as an 80-watt head (later frequently rated as 100 watts) atop an extension speaker cabinet with a sealed back and the ability to project that power like no production guitar cab built before it. Yeah, it was loud.

The early Showman had a bigger back end fired by four 5881 output tubes. (The 5881 is similar to the 6L6GC, and a direct substitute in most cases.) In addition, the amps had a preamp stage for each of its two channels that was similar to that of the rest of Fender’s medium-sized tan and blond Tolex combos and heads of the era.

Each channel had volume, treble and bass controls, with speed and intensity on the vibrato channel, and a shared presence control.

The vibrato effect in these amps was something special, too. Unlike the amplitude-modulated (i.e., volume-fluctuating) tremolo in many tube amps, which Fender errantly called “vibrato,” the Showman had a complicated harmonic-vibrato circuit that achieved something much closer to actual pitch-modulating vibrato. It took a full two-and-a-half preamp tubes to achieve, but it produced a luscious sound that approximated a rotary speaker vibrato or even a lush, watery phaser.

Given its power and headroom, and the firm, efficient JBL speakers coupled to it, the Showman delivered a tight, muscular, meaty breed of surf-toned twang from Dale’s Stratocaster. It quickly became popular with other professional performers who needed mega headroom from their instruments when performing in large venues.

That said, even when cranked up, the Showman’s delectably thick, juicy overdrive exhibits punch and clarity amid the maelstrom. It’s a fearsome experience, and one that every guitarist should enjoy at least once.

The Showman head’s overwhelming power and the weight and size of the cabs (the 2x15 Dual Showman cab in particular) caused them to fall out of favor in later decades, when guitarists could rarely open up such firepower onstage.

As a result, many have languished in basements and garages. These are still superb vintage amps, however, which deliver a massive jolt of that legendary early to mid-’60s Fender tone, at volumes capable of being heard over any drummer, or even 3,000 screaming surf fans.

Essential Ingredients

• Four 5881 output tubes
• Four 7025 and two 12AT7 preamp tubes
• Two channels 
• Solid-state rectification
• 80 watts
• One or two 12- or 15-inch JBL F-Series speakers
• Closed-back extension cabinet with tone-ring baffle
• Complicated tube-driven harmonic vibrato

Seeking to refine its vintage roster by offering models that embody the coolest and most interesting aspects of various production years, Fender recently launched a new line of guitars called American Vintage II, which comprises five Telecasters, three Stratocasters, a Jazzmaster, a Jazz Bass and two Precision Basses.

They were chosen from years spanning 1951 to 1977, with a primary focus on getting the details correct for any given year that Fender produced these instruments.

“The idea was to go back to the original recipes and make sure we’re adhering to them,” says Justin Norvell, executive vice president of Fender products. “Because even if we’re doing guitars with stainless frets and compound-radius necks, there’s always that baseline of the vintage stuff.

“Over the many iterations of vintage reissues we’ve done, even our most recent American Original series was more of a ‘greatest-hits’ type of package. People look at a vintage Strat or Tele or P-Bass or J-Bass and think they’re all very similar, but they were changing constantly – like every six months for the first 15 or 20 years.

"So, just like in 1954 a Strat was ash, had a U neck and beveled pole pieces, by 1957 it had a V neck and an alder body, and by ’59 it had a rosewood board.

“We had a lot of people clamoring for a return to year-specific reissues. What they really like is vintage correctness, and a greatest-hits package isn’t accomplishing that.”

To give GP a taste of how the new line manifests on the Tele side, Fender sent an American Vintage II 1951 Telecaster and a 1975 Telecaster Deluxe, which present the opposite extremes of a group that also includes the American Vintage II 1963 Telecaster, 1977 Telecaster Custom and 1972 Telecaster Thinline.

“These guitars show such a wide range of what the Telecaster is and can be,” Norvell explains. “With the ’51 and ’63, you have brass saddles versus steel saddles, Alnico III versus Alnico V for the pickups, and a round lam fingerboard with a rosewood option in ’63.

“They even used mahogany on the Trans-Red model that was only offered in ’63 and ’64, and it was the last year of clay dots in ’63. So they’re very different instruments.

“And then you get into the ’70s models, when Roger Rossmeisl [designer of the Coronado, Tele Thinline and Wildwood models, among others] was in the picture, and Seth Lover did these pickups with CuNiFe magnets [an alloy of copper, nickel and iron].

“So for the ’75 Tele Deluxe, we got people to make CuNiFe again, and Tim Shaw [Fender’s chief engineer] worked to recreate the Seth Lover Wide-Range humbucker pickups.”

The American Vintage II ’51 Tele is a beautifully rendered version of the first model to wear the Telecaster name. It’s finished in sweet-looking Butterscotch Blonde nitrocellulose lacquer that shows off the grain of the woods, especially the wavy figuring in the solid ash body.

Its one-piece maple neck has a Thick U shape, a 25 ½-inch scale and 7 ¼-inch radius, black dots and 21 well-finished Vintage Tall frets. The bridge has three brass saddles, and the pickups are a Pure Vintage ’51 Tele set with non-staggered poles on the bridge unit.

There’s a three-way blade switch and the controls are volume and tone. Cloth covered wire in black, yellow and white is used for the internal connections and slot-head screws secure all of the components, including the black phenolic pickguard, vintage-style tuners and four-bolt neck, which has a plain chromed plate.

The guitar arrived in a tweed hardshell case and was well set up, with easy action and excellent intonation. I took it on a three-set gig that evening and didn’t change it the entire time. This one is on the light side at 6.9 pounds, and the beefy U-shaped neck is very comfortable.

The fret ends are smooth and the bone nut is rounded on the ends, making for a fine playing axe that sounded terrific though a Fender Deluxe Reverb, with distortion pedals from Fulltone and MXR to provide different levels of grind.

The clean tones are richly detailed, and both the neck pickup and the neck/bridge combo delivered excellent dirty rhythm tones when gained up.

For lead, the bridge pickup sounded great with the tone knob rolled down a little to tame the bite, and even at loud stage volume, pickup squeal wasn’t an issue, although it was easy to get controllable feedback by moving closer to the amp.

The Vintage II ’51 Tele makes you appreciate how right Leo Fender got it, and this guitar is as versatile today for just about anything you throw at it.

The Fender American Vintage II 1975 Telecaster Deluxe is an entirely different animal that reveals its CBS-era origins with an alder body with a belly cut and a gloss polyurethane finish that’s available in Black, Mocha and 3-Color Sunburst.

The one-piece maple neck (also finished in gloss urethane) has a Medium C shape and is topped with a maple fingerboard carrying 21 jumbo frets and black dots. As per vintage spec, it has a three-bolt neck plate and a Micro-Tilt mechanism for adjusting the neck angle.

The Strat-style headstock features 2-Pin Modern tuners, a bullet-style truss-rod adjuster and “suntan” coloration on the facing. At the opposite end, strings load through the back and run across a hardtail bridge with stainless-steel block saddles.

The big thing here is the pickups: two Pure Vintage CuNiFe Wide-Range humbuckers, which are, by design, the thing that takes this guitar far afield from standard Tele realm.

As to the properties of CuNiFe, Norvell says “It’s weak and soft and it’s not optimal to work with. These pickups aren’t high-powered, but they’re super musical and very clean. They have a voice that’s somewhere in between a Gretsch pickup and a P-90.

"It’s not a typical humbucker, because the weaker magnets kind of round off and glass up the tone in a unique way. Twenty years ago, CuNiFe was thought of as a CBS-era thing that was not of the ‘golden age,’ but there are a lot of people that really love the sound of them. It’s become something that’s been reappraised in the guitar community.”

The Vintage II ’75 Tele Deluxe is a great player thanks to its slender neck and a sweet factory setup that provides low, buzz-free action and musical-sounding intonation.

Sonic girth is the name of the game here, and this guitar delivered a warm, sweetly crisp sound on the neck position. It’s clear and prismatic in the middle setting, where you can easily shape the response with the dual volume and tone controls that are slung on the elongated three-ply pickguard.

The bridge pickup is bright and smooth, and it sounded great played cleanly though a low-gain amp like the Deluxe Reverb, or with drive added via pedals or a high-gain channel such as on a Blackstar St. James 6L6 combo.

The Wide-Range pickups were originally voiced to be a little brighter than Gibson humbuckers, but they still retain plenty of meatiness and give the Tele Deluxe its own sound.

Players like Chris Shiflett, John 5 and James Iha are Tele Deluxe users, and it’s easy to see why they choose this model from Fender’s CBS era, where the Tele was pushed in new directions partly because people weren’t so vintage focused at the time.

“I think stuff that’s cool on the ’70s guitars is like Wine as color option, which was big in the ’70s,” Norvell says. “The reason we picked a ’77 Tele Custom instead of a ’72 is because we liked the vintage-accurate colors of ’77 better.

“You’ll also see on the ’70s guitars where the headstock has the suntan color because it’s a lacquer finish that darkens, and the neck is urethane and doesn’t discolor. Whatever people think of it, that’s how they age, so we build them just as they were.”

Visit Fender for more information.

On this day, in 1909, Clarence Leonadis Fender – better known as Leo Fender – was born in California.

A naturally inquisitive child, he was always on the lookout for things to repair and showed a strong interest in music, becoming a competent saxophone player in his teens.

Leo’s fascination with electronics arose while he was a teenager and he soon began building and repairing radios.

In the late ‘30s, the enterprising young man set up his own business in Fullerton, CA: the Fender Radio Repair Service.

Business was good in the radio repair business and Leo’s shop became a hangout for local musicians who would often ask him to repair their electric lap steels and tube amplifiers.

In the early ‘40s, a multi-talented musician by the name of Doc Kaufmann dropped by to have his amp repaired and the two struck up a close working relationship.

Launching the K&F (Kaufmann and Fender) company in 1945, the pair set about manufacturing their own brand of lap steels and amps.

However, by the following year, Kaufmann amicably bowed out of the business. Around the same time, sales exec Don Randall came on board while aiming to take the fledgling instrument building firm to the next level.

From this point forward, Leo’s products were branded Fender. Built from 1946, the seminal ‘woodie’ amplifiers and lap steels bear the familiar model names Princeton and Deluxe.

Within a few years, the Fender operation had grown significantly and Leo turned his attention to designing his own version of an electric Spanish model.

The popularity of electric Spanish guitars boomed in the post-war period and in 1949 he began to develop what would eventually become the Esquire.

Regarded as the first mass produced solidbody electric guitar, the Esquire was released in spring 1950.

It was joined by the dual pickup Broadcaster later that year (renamed the Telecaster in 1951.)

Leo was known to work closely with local musicians when developing new instruments, doing his utmost to get it right from the beginning.

Suffice to say, those original designs still prove popular today.

And in this fascinating interview, guitarist Bill Carson (1926-2007) explains how he helped Leo design his next great feat: the Stratocaster.

Evolving from the Tele, the Strat’s body contours and tremolo were its USP, as declared on the headstock decals that read, “original contour body” and “with synchronized tremolo.”

“Originally it was called Carson’s Guitar,” reveals the western swing legend. “I wanted something more than the Broadcaster (later called a Telecaster.)

“It had some things that didn't appeal to me, and I sawed it up considerably and it became even uglier than what it was.”

As one of the world’s most famous guitarists, George Harrison was on the receiving end of some stunning and groundbreaking guitars, including a prototype Rickenbacker 360/12 12-string, in 1964, and a prototype Fender Rosewood Telecaster, in 1969.

But as astute Beatles fans learned in recent years, in 1967 Harrison became the recipient of an unusual prototype fretless electric guitar built by the short-lived U.S. Bartell company.

How the guitar came to be, and how Harrison came to own it, are among the subjects explored by British author Paul Brett in his recently published groundbreaking tome, Finding Fretless: The Story of George Harrison’s Mad Guitar (This Day in Music Books).

Brett’s interest in the guitar was spurred when his friend, veteran jazz-fusion guitarist Ray Russell, posted a cryptic message to his Facebook page to mark the Beatle’s birthday on February 25, 2019, accompanied by a photo of a fretless guitar.

“He took a little post on Facebook and said, ‘I’m remembering George today. He gave me this old guitar. I don’t know much about it,’” Brett recalls. “That just triggered my interest. It was a Bartell. I’d never heard of it.”

Russell’s post sent Brett on a journey to learn more about both Harrison’s guitar and the Bartell brand, whose venture into fretless guitars in the 1960s is among the guitar world’s most unusual evolutionary branches.

At the heart of the story is Paul Barth, one of guitar’s unsung heroes. “People don’t talk much about Paul Barth,” Brett says, “but he was really one of the founding fathers of the electric guitar.”

Barth’s introduction to the guitar industry came in the early 1920s, when he went to work for his uncle John Dopyera, inventor of the resonator guitar, at the National String Instrument Corporation. By the 1930s, Barth was working with George Beauchamp at Rickenbacker, collaborating with him on the Frying Pan electric and Beauchamp’s design for a guitar pickup.

In the early 1950s, he helped Leo Fender set up his Santa Ana assembly line and built many of the woodworking jigs from which necks and bodies were shaped for Stratocaster, Jazzmaster and Jaguar model guitars.

His work even extended to Semie Moseley at Mosrite as well as Magnatone and Hohner.

He launched his own Barth guitar brand in 1956, and in 1964 the Bartell company was created by owner and company president Ted Eugene Peckels and Barth, who served as director and head of design. The Bartell name was derived by combining Barth’s and Peckels’ surnames.

It was Tom Mitchell, a paint finisher at Bartell – he went on to create Mitchell Amplifiers – who suggested the company make a fretless guitar, around 1966 or 1967.

“Ted Peckels said, ‘That’ll never take off,’” Brett relates. “But Paul Barth, being a designer and inventor, said, ‘Yeah, let’s give it a go and see what happens.’”

A few prototypes were made, including two for Jimi Hendrix and one that Frank Zappa acquired in 1973 from a Guitar Center in California. How Harrison came to own one required some serious sleuthing on Brett’s part.

A vital lead came from his friend Richard Bennett, a guitarist with plays with Neil Diamond and Mark Knopfler, who owned a Bartell as his first guitar.

Bennett related a story about Al Casey, the owner of Al Casey’s Music Room retail outlet in Hollywood, sending a Bartell fretless to Harrison when the Beatle was staying at 1567 Blue Jay Way in Los Angeles in 1967.

The home is famous as the place where Harrison wrote “Blue Jay Way,” the haunting track from 1967’s Magical Mystery Tour, while waiting for the arrival of Beatles press officer Derek Taylor, who’d lost his way in the fog.

While browsing the internet hoping to find a photo of the Beatles with the fretless guitar, Brett entered “Al Casey Bartell fretless” into a search engine and was rewarded with a vintage print ad for Al Casey’s Music Room.

“You must have heard about them by now, so come on in and see the Bartell fretless guitars and fretless basses,” went the ad copy. Below the call to action was a cryptic parenthetical: “George Harrison got the first guitar, maybe if you hurry you can get the second one.”

The ad ran in The Los Angeles Free Press from the first week of September 1967, lending support to Bennett’s story.

Brett then learned that on August 3, while in Hollywood, Harrison and Beatles assistant Neil Aspinall attended a recording session where guitarist Mike Deasy was playing one of Bartell’s prototype hollow-bodied fretless guitars.

Harrison spoke with Deasy about the instrument for 20 or 30 minutes before leaving. Afterward, Aspinall reportedly ordered a fretless guitar from Al Casey.

It’s certain that the Bartell fretless made it to Abbey Road Studio. The guitar is documented in Beatles history through British DJ Kenny Everett’s recorded interview with John Lennon.

Their chat took place at Abbey Road Studio on June 6, 1968, shortly after the Beatles began recording the White Album. Lennon is playing the guitar, which can be heard on the recording. “What kind of guitar is that?” Everett asks at one point. “Very strange looking.” Replies Lennon, “A fretless guitar.”

“We know it was the Bartell, ’cause it’s the only one they had,” Brett says. From talking with others who knew Harrison, he learned that Lennon was more intrigued by the guitar than Harrison was. “He was more likely to pick it up and mess around with it when they were looking for a particular sound or effect.”

But was the fretless guitar ever used on a recording by the Beatles?

No documentation exists to support the notion, but Brett and others familiar with the tonal character of the instrument are convinced it appears on two White Album tracks: “Happiness Is a Warm Gun,” where Brett believes it was used to perform the rubbery descending lick that precedes the lyric “I need a fix ’cause I’m going down”; and “Helter Skelter,” where it would have been used along with other guitars.

Brett says the sound of a fretless guitar is present and more apparent on the second take of “Helter Skelter,” a version clocking in at 12 minutes and 54 seconds, some four and a half minutes of which appear on Anthology 3.

“The suggestion is that it may have been used on others, mainly for overdubs, not as the lead guitar or the main instrument,” he says. “But you can certainly pick it out, because it is so unique.”

Brett points to an absence of the bright tone that comes from the strings vibrating against a metal fret. “I think George called it ‘fret sparkle,’” he says. Likewise, slides and bends sound different due to the absence of frets.

Brett also notes the microtonal characteristics of intonation that come from imperfect fretboard fingering. “The fact that it was a hollowbody guitar as well adds a bit to [the distinctive sound],” he says. “And I’m hearing the pickups – they weren’t great for volume as such.”

Though his research had proved where and how Harrison received the guitar, Brett was frustrated that he could find no photo of the instrument among pictures of the Beatles. But eventually his painstaking efforts paid off.

“It took me months of searching through tens of thousands of photos,” he says. “And there we had it: George Harrison at home with his collection of guitars.” The photo, taken some time in the 1970s, shows Harrison in a room at his Friar Park estate surrounded by mostly acoustic guitars. “And there it is right at the back next to him,” Brett reveals.

Harrison gifted the guitar to his friend Russell in 1985. In March 2020, it was featured on Antiques Roadshow, where it was valued at £400,000. Under the circumstances, Russell was unprepared to own and maintain an instrument of such value.

On October 13, 2020, this least-famous Beatles guitar went on Bonhams’ auction block, where it fetched a more conservative, but no less impressive, bid of £190,000 – roughly a quarter of a million dollars.

Brett’s dogged efforts have helped unearth yet another piece of Beatles history, but what tends to get overshadowed in the story is how Finding Fretless shines light on a previously unexplored tract in guitar history through research and stories about Barth, Bartell and other fretless guitars and their owners.

For his contributions, Brett has been nominated by the Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards (ARSC) to receive its 2022 award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research.

NAMM has also asked him to contribute to its oral history program when he’s in Anaheim for the annual musical instrument show next month.

“We’re hoping to have a reunion of Bartell while we’re there,” Brett says, “and give Paul Barth some of the recognition he deserves.”

Order Finding Fretless: The Story of George Harrison’s Mad Guitar by Paul Brett here.

Dark, handsome, and understated, the Fender Rosewood Telecaster has much in common with George Harrison.

Custom-built for the guitarist in 1968 by Fender craftsmen Roger Rossmeisl and Philip Kubicki, it suited him down to the ground, although it was high on the roof of the Beatles’ Apple Corps headquarters in London that this unique Tele design was unveiled, at the band’s final public performance on January 30, 1969.

The origin of the Fender Rosewood Telecaster likely stems from a meeting at Apple Corp in 1968 set up by Don Randall, Leo Fender’s original business partner and head of the company’s sales division.

Keenly aware of the importance of product placement, and having courted the Beatles for some time, Randall visited the band’s Savile Row HQ, where he met with John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Paul McCartney.

“Don began supplying the Beatles with Fender equipment immediately following the meeting,” explains Martin Kelly, guitar historian and co-author of The Golden Age of Fender: 1946-1970.

“During the recording sessions for the White Album, he had already gifted the band a left-handed Jazz Bass for Paul, a right-handed Bass VI that both John and George used, and blackface Deluxe and Twin Reverb amps.

“By the time the recordings that would become Let It Be began in January 1969, the group had been kitted out with brand-new ‘drip edge’ silverface Twin Reverbs, a Bassman amp with a 2x15 cabinet, a Fender Rhodes electric piano and George’s Rosewood Telecaster.

“You can see all this wonderful new gear, complete with hang tags, in The Beatles: Get Back. By this time, Fender had really made their move on the band and were becoming a big part of the Beatles’ sound.

“It’s scary to think that the rehearsals for Let It Be began just six weeks after the White Album had been released. In the meantime, Harrison had visited Bob Dylan and the Band in Woodstock, where he enjoyed a carefree, relaxed atmosphere. Suddenly he’s back in the Beatles fold, and the atmosphere is very different indeed.

“But in the midst of it all, this new Fender gear – including the Rosewood Telecaster – has turned up.”

Created by Rossmeisl and Kubicki, the new design appeared at a time when Fender was experimenting heavily with the Telecaster form.

“The Rosewood Telecaster was introduced at the start of a new experimental phase for the Tele,” Kelly confirms. “The first time Fender had experimented with the design was in 1959 with the introduction of the edge-bound Telecaster Custom.

“Next came the Blue Flower and Paisley Red Telecasters in 1968, along with the Rosewood Telecaster and the Thinline. The early ’70s ushered in both the Custom [a second version released in 1972] and the Deluxe [released in 1973].

“In terms of pickups and electronics, the Rosewood Telecaster is completely standard, as per a regular Tele, with two single-coil pickups and simple volume and tone controls. As with the [original] Telecaster Thinline, Rossmeisl wasn’t messing too much with convention.” (The Telecaster Thinline changed to a dual Wide Range humbucker design later, in 1971.)

However, when it comes to tonewood, the Rosewood Telecaster was a radical departure from the standard Telecaster’s traditional maple neck/ash body construction.

“The first Rosewood Tele was constructed from four pieces of rosewood glued together – two on the top and two on the bottom,” Kelly explains. “Harrison's prototype guitar was made from four bits of rosewood, whereas production examples seem mostly to be made using a solid slab of rosewood on the back and a solid slab on the front. All Rosewood Teles feature a thin layer of maple sandwiched in the center of the body.

“George’s guitar was chambered – perhaps more so than production models – to alleviate weight. Rosewood is a dense wood, and production Rosewood Teles can often be very heavy, even though they’re chambered. They vary a lot in terms of weight, but I’m reliably told George’s guitar is lighter than most production examples.”

Unlike the production models that soon followed, Harrison’s prototype guitar was built using a rosewood neck with a glued-on rosewood fingerboard. Using this method of construction, the truss rod is placed into the front of the neck prior to the board being attached.

This differs from Fender’s original practice of making Teles with a one-piece fretted neck, where the truss rod is inserted into a channel in the back. Consequently, the tell-tale “skunk stripe” on the rear and the peghead plug on the front of the fretted neck are absent from his guitar.

“It’s interesting, because this was the first time Fender had returned to the skunk stripe on Telecasters since the ’50s,” Kelly points out. “They weren’t making any other guitars that way at the time, and you’ll notice a maple [peghead] plug and skunk stripe running down the back of the neck on all production Rosewood Teles.

“The prototype has a satin finish and a pre-CBS decal, but production guitars feature glossy poly finishes and transition decals. I imagine they used a thick transition logo because they wanted it to stand out. If they’d used a contemporary black CBS logo, it wouldn’t have shown up against the dark rosewood. (Fender started using solid black peghead logo decals in 1967.)

“While interviewing Phil Kubicki for my Fender book, I asked why he fitted a pre-CBS decal to George’s prototype, and he told me, ‘Martin, I didn’t care what type of decal I used. I just reached for whatever was on my desk and whatever was closest to hand. I was not thinking about whether the main factory had switched to a different type of decal; it just said ‘Fender,’ and that was all it needed to say.’”

Interestingly, a Rosewood Stratocaster intended for (though never received by) Jimi Hendrix was made alongside Harrison’s guitar. This prototype Strat also features a pre-CBS “spaghetti” logo.

“Phil Kubicki was Roger Rossmeisl’s assistant in the R&D shop, and they made two Strats and two Teles,” Kelly reveals. “I believe they knew the Tele was going to the Beatles, and that the Strat was intended for Jimi Hendrix. Phil told me he knew who they were making them for and there was a sense of urgency to get the Tele ready first.

“This instruction likely came following Don Randall’s meeting with the Beatles at Savile Row, and I guess he had told Rossmeisl, ‘We’re sending the Beatles some stuff. Can you get the Rosewood Telecaster ready first?’

“Roger and Phil constructed two necks and two bodies, but they only finished one of each guitar. Kubicki told me that was their standard procedure. They’d make two, just in case, and they’d pick the best of both.

“They selected the best neck and the best body to make George’s guitar, and Phil told me he spent some time getting the satin finish just right by gradually working through grades of wet and dry to bring it to a certain type of sheen. He said it was at Roger Rossmeisl’s request that the guitar was finished that way.”

Having worked hard to get the Rosewood Telecaster completed, Fender flew the guitar over the pond (it had its own seat on the aircraft), and it was soon in Harrison’s hands.

“The Rosewood Tele prototype was sent over in late ’68, and George was seen playing it in January ’69. But in a pre-internet world, Fender didn’t have any immediate photographic evidence. In fact, Phil Kubicki didn’t know George Harrison had used his guitar until he saw the rooftop film over a year later! That was the first time he knew it had actually been used.”

Nevertheless, within months of being created, the Rosewood Telecaster had popped up on Fender price lists. However, with a distinct lack of accompanying information, it was something of a mystery for customers, not to mention a relatively expensive option.

“The Rosewood Tele first appeared on price sheets in May 1969, costing $375,” Kelly says. “Versus a regular rosewood ’board Tele at $269.50, it was over a hundred dollars more. A maple cap Tele was $279.50 [$10 more for a maple cap was standard then]. The edge-bound Telecaster Custom and Paisley Red/Blue Flower Teles were $299.50. So the Rosewood Telecaster was far and away the most expensive at $375.

“The Rosewood Telecaster was on price sheets from May 1969 until April 1970, when it disappeared. It was dropped having never appeared in a single advert or catalog; it only ever showed up on price sheets. Who would even know what that was, or how to order it if they’ve never seen one in the flesh?

“The price list doesn’t describe much; it just says ‘Telecaster, (Dual Pickups) Rosewood.’ So people wouldn’t have known what they were ordering. It was a fleeting idea that was never publicized by Fender at the time.

“I guess the Fender sales team thought, The Beatles have taken one; let’s build a few, put it on price sheets, and then see what happens. But there was never any imagery of it provided by Fender. Perhaps they were just testing the water to see if the Beatles would really endorse it. The film Let It Be premiered in May 1970, just as the guitar was dropped and the Beatles split.

“The Rosewood Telecaster remained off Fender price lists throughout 1971 but reappeared in February 1972 marked ‘new,’ as if they’d never made it before, more than likely the result of demand created by the film.

“It was now $399.50 and on the same price list, a regular rosewood ’board Tele is $283, and a regular Tele with a maple cap [fretboard] is $295. By January 1973, it had disappeared into obscurity once again!”

In 1986, the Rosewood Telecaster briefly reappeared on Fender price lists as part of the Limited Edition Series. Made in Japan, these guitars were initially priced $699 and have garnered a reputation over the years for being reliable, high-quality instruments.

“The mid-’80s Japanese reissues were quite accurate to the original production models,” Kelly confirms.

Japanese-made Rosewood Telecasters were also offered in the ’90s in Fender’s Reissue Series, while the Custom Shop has revisited the design on several occasions over the years, launching the Rosewood Telecaster in 2007 to commemorate their 20th anniversary.

Sporting the George Harrison–style specs of satin finish, a rosewood fretboard, no skunk stripe/plug and a pre-CBS decal, this run of instruments is easily identifiable by a neck plate that reads “Limited Release” alongside the Custom Shop logo and serial number.

“My late friend Alan Rogan [Pete Townshend’s guitar tech and guitar expert/ collector] had an early Custom Shop example with the George Harrison–style satin finish, rosewood ’board, and pre-CBS decal,” Kelly recalls. “That was a fantastic guitar!”

In more recent years, Fender Custom Shop releases that feature the George Harrison-esque specs also include the 2013 Closet Classic Rosewood Telecaster (the neck plate reads “Limited Edition”) and the 2016 Paul Waller Master Built George Harrison Rosewood Telecaster (with a “GH”-prefixed number inscribed on the back of headstock).

In 2017, Fender launched a limited run of 1,000 George Harrison Rosewood Telecasters. As you would expect, these guitars feature the prototype-style specs, and they are set apart by a neckplate marked with an Om symbol and Harrison’s signature.

With 2021’s The Beatles: Get Back documentary series creating a renewed interest in arguably Fender’s most iconic prototype guitar, the George Harrison Rosewood Telecaster was re-released this year.

As per the 2017 iteration, Fender’s latest Rosewood Tele offering sports the Om/signature neckplate and features a chambered body, 9 ½-inch radius fingerboard and 1964-style pickups. Priced at $2,899.99, the guitar is touted as a “limited edition tribute.”

“The current Fender George Harrison Rosewood Telecaster looks impressive,” Kelly remarks. “Overall, I think the design was a nice, subtle rework of the regular Tele, and George Harrison put it to phenomenal use.

“Rosewood Telecasters definitely have their own sound. To my ears, they sound springy. Because rosewood is so dense, it adds a bounce to the sound. They have a thicker, deeper, darker twang. I think the chambering affects things too; they have a different acoustic resonance. I’d be keen to know why Harrison’s is lighter than other Rosewood Teles. Perhaps because it’s more extensively chambered?”

Be it the prototype or production-style design, Fender’s Rosewood Telecaster reissues collectively outnumber the late ’60s/early ’70s models by a long way. Educated guesses put shipping figures of the original runs in the low hundreds.

“Original ’69-’72-era Rosewood Teles are few and far between, and I’d be surprised if more than 250 to 300 were made,” Kelly states. “There were other quirky Fender models, like the Swinger, that were never advertised by the company.

“Weirdly though, they did a fair amount for the Custom – the cut-down hockey-stick headstock ‘bits-er’ guitar that appeared in the 1970 catalog and period ads. Maybe Fender was backing the wrong horse!”

Martin Kelly is the co-author of The Golden Age of Fender: 1946-1970 (Cassell Illustrated). His latest book, Rickenbacker Guitars: Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fireglo, is available via Phantom Books.

Guitar Player thanks ATB Guitars in the U.K. for showing us the Fender Rosewood Telecaster featured here.

Hailed as the King of the Surf Guitar, Dick Dale was an avid surfer, whose musical expression was informed by the roil and tumble of the experience.

“Surf music is a heavy machine-gun staccato picking style to represent the power of Mother Nature, of our earth, of our ocean,” he told The New York Times in 1994.

Anyone who saw him perform or heard his hits “Let’s Go Trippin’”, “Jungle Fever,” or “Miserlou” will know how fully he succeeded in the effort.

Dale was pummeling his Stratocaster with his band the Del-Tones to crowds of 2,000 to 3,000 surfer-stomping teens in 1961 and ’62 when he found his existing Fender amps imploding under the pressure.

Fender had unveiled its Showman head and cab in 1960, but Dale called Leo to tell him he needed a sturdier rig for his electric guitar.

Fender installed a bigger output transformer often known as “the Dick Dale OT” and then conscribed the guitarist to blow through a hundred or so speakers until the custom-made JBL D130F 15-inch finally proved capable of surviving the 85-watt maelstrom (which peaked at well over 100 watts).

Partnered with a hulking 2x15 extension cab as the Dual Showman, the big-stage rig had finally arrived, and Dick Dale knew exactly what to do with it.

Buy Surfer's Choice by Dick Dale and His Del-Tones here.

This is a 1958 Fender Precision Bass. It has a white transparent blond finish over an ash body with a solid maple neck. It comes with its original tweed case and a matching 1958 Fender Bassman amplifier – both in impeccable condition.

This bass has a gold anodized pickguard, which Leo Fender started using in 1954 on special orders. They thought a metallic pickguard had good shielding properties, but the 60-cycle hum continued to be a problem.

In ’59, the [gold anodized] pickguard was replaced by the more familiar tortoiseshell [cellulose nitrate] ’guard and rosewood ’boards became standard.

In the late '50s, a variety of custom colors were available, but the regular Precision Bass finish was sunburst, moving from a two- to three-tone sunburst in February 1958.

This beautiful guitar has had two owners before me, both of whom are still alive. The instrument was originally purchased in Vermont. And it has virtually no wear at all. The case and the amp, too – they have barely a scuff.

The headstock and neck are completely straight, and it’s never needed any fret-dressing or filing. A lot of the time on these instruments the headstock will lean [forwards] because of the tension on the neck over the years. But this P-Bass has been stored properly.

It even has the original Fender flat-wound strings that it was shipped with. Suffice to say it’s in virtually ‘as new’ condition.  

The original receipt shows it was bought along with the [narrow panel 50-watt/4x10 tweed] ’58 Bassman from the same store. It was a ‘swimming supply and music store’. Back in the day, travelling salesmen would walk into stores and ask, ‘Would you be interested in selling Fender instruments?’ That’s kind of how things happened back then.

I’m not really old enough to remember stores like that, but I’ve seen many receipts over the years that had a mixture of different types of businesses under one roof, like furniture stores that also sold Gibson instruments, for example.  

The blond/ash body, maple neck and gold anodized ’guard spec P-Basses are kind of the Holy Grail pieces for some people. As are the Stratocasters. In fact, I recently sold a blond ’56 with a black anodized pickguard.

The [1957] prototype Jazzmaster was a Desert Sand finish with a black anodized pickguard. And I personally own an early ’59 Stratocaster with an anodized ’guard and Fullerton Red finish – the predecessor to Fiesta Red.

It’s very Pee Wee Crayton-looking. His was also Fullerton Red, although people often call it Fiesta Red. ’59 was the year Fender transitioned to Fiesta Red.  

This P-Bass is one of the scarce colored ones you’ll see from the era. Blond Fender guitars have an ash body, even after they switched to using alder in ’56, because the grain just looks so much better.

And with the gold ’guard it’s a super, super look, although I love them with tortoiseshell ’guards, too.

Blond is such a great color. There’s something specific about ’57 and early ’58 blond finishes; it’s a very white blond and very translucent looking.

If you look at, say, an earlier Blackguard, it’ll probably have much more of a honeyed color, and if you look at a ’59, they have much more white in the color and are less translucent. On this guitar, you can see the ash grain as if you’re looking through a slightly foggy window.

It made sense for Fender to move the P-Bass design away from the original slab-body ‘Telecaster’ bass to the Stratocaster-style contoured body [in 1954].

The Stratocaster was very popular in the late 50s – way more popular than the Tele. When the P-Bass changed again in ’57 [to also include a Strat-style headstock] it was because of the Stratocaster.

Similarly, the Jazz Bass [released in 1960] exists because the Jazzmaster’s offset body design was such a huge hit after it came out in ’58. By 1960, that was their number one-selling electric guitar, so they figured their next bass should mimic the look of the Jazzmaster.

Fender basses kind of followed that logic. Then, of course, the offset VI came out in ’61, followed by the Jaguar in ’62.  

I think the P-Bass is the quintessential rock ’n’ roll bass. The split-pickup design was a really interesting thing to do at the time [from 1957]: the location of the pickup on the body and the way it accentuates the bass in the lower two strings, while the coil for the higher two strings that sits further back towards the bridge gives it its unique voicing.

They even carried that split-pickup design on to the Electric XII model [released in 1965].  

The Jazz Bass pickups maybe do more tricks, but the P-Bass is often the instrument of choice for the person who wants that real thump and bottom-end.

That’s what makes the Precision Bass special for so many.

Vintage guitar veteran David Davidson owns Well Strung Guitars in Farmingdale, New York.

info@wellstrungguitars.com / 001 (516) 221- 0563

Bill Carson [1926-2007] was a well-renowned guitarist who helped design the Stratocaster alongside Leo Fender. He was particularly involved with the guitar’s body contouring.

And this is a very special electric guitar. It’s one of the first slab- ’boards and one of the first Fiesta Red Strats Fender produced. It also has gold hardware and comes with handwritten letters from Bill Carson. He hand-shaped the neck himself and his name is written in block letters on the heel – they didn’t want it to get mixed up with the other necks in the factory.

Fiesta Red was a big color in the U.K. because of the Hank Marvin connection, and this is one of the early salmon-y looking Fiesta Red guitars.

Before Fiesta Red, red Fender custom color guitars were generally Fullerton Red, which is a different color. Unfortunately, Bill didn’t really take to the color as he thought it was too feminine for his liking.

This guitar was fitted with gold hardware throughout, including the truss rod nut and backplate screws. The gold ashtray bridge cover is in the original ‘burnt orange’-lined brown Fender case along with the two letters written by Bill Carson on Fender-headed paper dated February 1996.

The first letter reads: “Per our conversation, my inspection of the Fiesta Red Strat during the January ’96 NAMM show, this assembly definitely proved to me it was originally an instrument I put together for myself… The extra-skinny neck was from my own hand-sanding to fit my particular playing style… I believe the instrument was given to Neil Levang for TV reasons and TV exposure.” (Neil Levang [1932-2015] was a Fender endorsee and famously played guitar on The Lawrence Welk Show.)

The follow-up letter reads: “I thought you might find it interesting to know that this one was in a batch of our first attempt to do rosewood fretboards. That was another reason I didn’t particularly like the guitar. I’ve always preferred maple necks with a lacquer finish.”

The neck is exceptionally thin. I spent a bit of time playing it and I thought I’d hate it, but after the first few minutes I said, “Wow! This is really quite comfortable.”

You get to play some intricate chords that way. Because it’s a ’59 it doesn’t have a neck date, but if it was a later heel-stamped guitar [from ’62 onwards] I would think it would have been marked as an ‘A’ neck. The nut is very narrow. ‘B’ is the common [1 5/8 inch] nut width.

I’ve had about half a dozen wider [1 ¾ inch] ‘C’ necks in my life, and I’ve seen thinner [1 ½ inch] ‘A’ necks on a couple of Stratocasters before. They did offer an ‘A’ neck in the catalogue with a smaller nut width, but barely anyone ordered it.

Red Fender guitars from the ‘50s are probably not Fiesta Red; Fullerton Red was the color before [it]. It was named Fullerton Red because of George Fullerton and is more orange-looking than Fiesta Red.

When I met Bill Carson years ago, he told me [Fender] mixed every batch of Fiesta Red in-house. It was basically white paint with red added, but only half a drop would make a tremendous difference to the end result. It varied greatly, as we all know.

Fiesta can be all over the place. Eventually, they added more red to the mix. From ’59 to ’63, Fiesta Red was a pinker, more salmon-like color. By ’64 it’s a completely different color to how it looked between ’59 and ’63.

Before Fiesta Red, Fender had the Fullerton Red and they also used Roman Red, which is a little deeper looking. There is some overlap as they occasionally used Roman Red up until at least ’62 on guitars they sent out as Dakota Red. But it’s plain as day which one’s which because there’s a huge difference between Roman Red and Dakota Red. Roman is lighter and brighter.

Most of the time, Fiesta Red was shot over a Desert Sand-type of color or white primer. There are also Fiesta Red guitars painted over sunburst finishes – both in the U.S. and the U.K., like the Selmer guitars.

Sometimes, Fiesta Red is shot right over the Fullerplast [grain filler]. I think when production was high, they eliminated a step in order to get the guitars out as quickly as possible. They didn’t always have time to undercoat custom colors.

Occasionally, they didn’t have time to clearcoat the top, either. That’s why you sometimes see Olympic White guitars with no fade to yellow; the clearcoat is what turns yellow, not the color coat.

So not only is this guitar one of the first Fiesta Reds but it’s also one of the very first rosewood-’board Strats. This is truly an amazing guitar with some cool experimental features.

Vintage guitar veteran David Davidson is the owner of Well Strung Guitars in Farmingdale, New York.

For '50s-era guitarists who would soon be playing rock and roll, the Fender Telecaster hit the music industry with the impact of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Leo Fender's so-called "plank" ushered in the era of the commercially successful solidbody – echoing the immense industrial and social impact of Henry Ford's Model T. While Ford was never one of Fender's idols, the car maker bestowed the wonders of the automobile upon the masses by standardizing a sound design, streamlining production techniques, and lowering costs.

Likewise, Fender's "Model T" – initially called the Esquire, then the Broadcaster, and finally the Telecaster – was a powerful, affordable tool that helped a vast community of working guitarists ignite a cultural revolution.

The tumult was so far-reaching that Gibson was compelled to introduce the Les Paul to compete with the Tele – and Leo himself was inspired to develop the Stratocaster in an attempt to make its older sibling obsolete.

These three models are still modern music's most important guitars – and they all have Leo Fender's 1949 "standard guitar" prototype to thank for kick-starting their enduring glory.

THE ARCHTOP ERA

As twilight fell on the Big Band era toward the end of World War II, small combos playing boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues, western swing, and honky-tonk formed throughout the United States.

Many of these outfits embraced the electric guitar because it could give a few players the power of an entire horn section.

Pickup-equipped archtops had reigned in these late-'40s dance bands, but the increasing popularity of roadhouses and dance halls created a growing need for louder, cheaper, and more durable axes.

Players also needed faster necks and better intonation to play what the country boys called "take-off lead guitar," and Rickenbacker Bakelites and other '30s-era solidbodies failed to deliver.

Custom-made solidbodies such as Merle Travis' Bigsby – as well as kitchen-table contraptions like Les Paul's "Log" – pointed in the right direction, but were beyond the means of the average player.

The demand for better electric guitars was as obvious as their reality was elusive.

ENTER LEO FENDER

Fender recognized the vast potential for an electric guitar that was easy to hold, easy to tune, and easy to play.

He also recognized that players needed guitars that would not feed back at dance hall volumes like the typical archtop. (Many guitarists had to stuff rags into their elegantly crafted guitars to stop the howling.)

In addition, Fender sought a tone that would command attention on the bandstand and cut through the noise in a bar.

By 1949, he had conceptualized the perfect tone – a clear, bell-like sound with distinct highs and lows, but devoid of muddled midrange frequencies that Fender considered "fluff" – and began working in earnest on what would become the first Telecaster at the Fender factory in Fullerton, California.

Although he never admitted it, Fender seemed to base his practical design on the Rickenbacker Bakelite. One of the Rickenbacker's strong points – a detachable neck that made it easy to make and service – was not lost on Fender, who was a master at improving already established designs. (He once said, "It isn't a radically different thing that becomes a success; it is the thing that offers an improvement on an already proven item.")

Not surprisingly, his first prototype was a single-pickup guitar with a detachable hard rock maple neck and a pine body painted white. The seeds of revolution were sown.

THE ESQUIRE

Don Randall, who managed Fender's distributor, the Radio & Television Equipment Company, recognized the commercial possibilities of the new design and made plans to introduce the instrument as the Esquire Model. (Although Randall – the company's de facto namesmith – gave the Esquire its moniker, Fender supported the name, saying that it "sounded regal and implied a certain distinction above other guitars.")

In April 1950, Radio-Tel started promoting the Esquire – the first Fender 6-string officially introduced to the public. The company prepared its Catalog No. 2, picturing a black single-pickup Esquire with a tweed form-fit case.

Another picture showed Jimmy Wyble of Spade Cooley's band holding a blonde Esquire. These debut models, with a planned retail price of $139.95, exhibited the utilitarian shape of thousands of Fender guitars to come.

"The Esquire guitar features a new style of construction which vastly improves the useability of this type of instrument," Randall wrote. The claim was further embellished by stating that the guitar could be played "at extreme volume," and that the fast neck was an aid to easy fretting.

Randall added, "The neck is also replaceable and can be changed by the owner in approximately ten minutes time. This feature eliminates costly repairs and refretting."

Fender believed that the neck was strong enough to resist warping without a trussrod. If a neck did warp, he planned to mail the customer a new one in a shipping tube.

Unfortunately, the necks didn't turn out to be as tough as Fender claimed. Randall reported that the necks on his samples had warped badly while traveling to the 1950 summer trade shows, and asked that the new guitars be outfitted with reinforced necks.

Initially, Fender had been contentious about the extra effort it would take to design and manufacture reinforced necks, but then a test guitar in his lab suffered the same problem.

Faced with mounting evidence that his guitar truly needed a reinforced neck, Fender bought a routing plate to install trussrods on October 3, 1950.

Randall's primary marketing ploy was to establish the Esquire in music instruction studios, reasoning that the affordable, practical guitar would be a hot commodity in those circles. In addition, a healthy response for the one-pickup version would prime the market for the more expensive two-pickup model that Fender already had in mind.

In fact, Fender's choice of a 3-position lever switch – which allowed three distinct guitar tones – probably coincided with his plans to add a rhythm pickup.

Fortunately, the Esquire's body design easily lent itself to both one- and two-pickup configurations. Ultimately, all production models had cavities routed for two pickups because Fender wanted players to have the option of adding a pickup in the future. (The one-pickup models hid an empty cavity under the pickguard.)

The two-pickup Esquires were manufactured with the second (rhythm) pickup positioned under the strings near the end of the fingerboard. Fender shielded the rhythm pickup with a metal cover to cut high harmonics and to emphasize fundamental tones.

A handy blend control knob mixed the rhythm pickup signal with that of the lead pickup when the pickup selector was in its lead position.

Putting the selector in the middle position activated the rhythm pickup alone.

In the forward position, the rhythm pickup was also selected, but along with a capacitor that rolled off high frequencies. (Fender called this sound "deep rhythm," and reasoned that guitarists could use the position to play bass lines.)

Dual-pickup Fender guitars featured these same electronics until 1952.

Although the single-pickup guitars used capacitors to mimic the mellow sound of a rhythm pickup, the real thing sounded better. Jimmy Bryant, who epitomized the new wave of postwar electric-guitar wizards, liked the jazzier sound of the dual-pickup guitar, as did Fender himself.

THE BROADCASTER

The factory finally went into full production in late October or early November 1950, and the name Randall chose for the dual-pickup guitar was "Broadcaster."

Musical Merchandise magazine carried the first announcement for the Broadcaster in February 1951 with a full-page insert that described it in detail. The guitar had what Randall called a "Modern cut-away body" and a "Modern styled head." And what player could resist the "Adjustable solo-lead pickup" that was "completely adjustable for tone-balance by means of three elevating screws"?

Finally, the industry had an up-to-date production solidbody. (Fender sold 87 Broadcasters on the guitar's initial release in January 1951.) Many people took note – including Gretsch, who claimed the Broadcaster name infringed on the company's trademark "Broadkaster." Faced with this fact, Randall wrote a letter to his salespeople on February 21, advising them that Radio-Tel was abandoning the Broadcaster name and requesting suggestions for a new one.

On February 24, Randall, who had some good ideas of his own, announced that the Broadcaster was renamed the "Telecaster."

The Broadcaster-to-Telecaster name change cost Radio-Tel hundreds of dollars and derailed the initial marketing effort. Brochures and envelope inserts were destroyed, and some unlucky worker had to clip the word "Broadcaster" from hundreds of headstock decals with a pair of scissors.

For several months, the new twin-pickup guitars sported nothing but the word "Fender." Years later, collectors would coin the term "No-caster" for these early-to-mid-'51 guitars.

TELE TWEAKS

In 1952, Fender replaced the Telecaster's blend control circuit with a conventional tone control.

Now the switch's rear position selected the lead pickup, the middle position selected the rhythm pickup, and the front position delivered the "deep rhythm" sound.

Teles were equipped this way until the mid-'60s, when the modern switch setup was introduced: the middle position selected both pickups, the front position selected the rhythm pickup, and the rear position selected the lead pickup.

One drawback of the 1952 to mid-'60s wiring is obvious today: The wiring made a two-pickup combination impossible unless the player delicately positioned the spring-loaded switch between settings.

However, once players learned this trick, they received a tonal surprise: Different models produced different dual-pickup sounds, depending on the rhythm pickup's magnetic polarity.

The "between" setting – which helped define the mystique of vintage Telecasters – could offer the robust tone provided by both pickups or produce a snarly growl similar to the Stratocaster's half-switch sound. (James Burton, playing his '53 Telecaster, exploited this unique tone on Ricky Nelson's "Travelin' Man.")

However, it was the Tele's lead pickup that captured the hearts of most players.

Early "level-pole" units offered outstanding tone with significant bass content and non-offensive highs (although manufacturing inconsistencies caused a small number of these pickups to produce an out-of-balance, bass-heavy low-E sound).

In mid-1955, Fender staggered the polepiece heights as he had on Strat pickups. The results were mixed. The volume balance from string to string was better, but the Tele's overall sound was harsher.

In 1953, the factory began notching the two outer brass bridge pieces under the low E and high E, which allowed a lower adjustment for these strings. By 1954, Telecasters employed steel bridges again, but they were rounded and made from a smaller-diameter stock than the 1950 bridges.

By 1958, the bridge pieces were changed yet again to a threaded stock with less mass, and the factory stopped putting the strings through the body.

In 1959, Fender introduced the Telecaster Custom and Esquire Custom, fancy versions of the originals with white binding that helped protect the edges from wear. These guitars had Jazzmaster-like rosewood fingerboards, which looked more traditional and wore better than one-piece maple necks.

Some early-'60s, pre-CBS Custom Telecasters had necks capped with maple fingerboards made in the same manner as the necks capped with rosewood. However, at no time during the pre-CBS years did Fender regularly produce Customs with the older-style maple neck. (The only exceptions may have been unlikely special orders.)

While the standard Telecasters and Esquires came with blonde finishes, the Customs were offered with sunburst finishes. A few even had more expensive custom colors.

THE PLAYER'S PERSPECTIVE

In the early 1950s, a broad spectrum of Tele players established themselves in combos – even young blues guitar legend-to-be B.B. King spanked the plank.

With its versatile sound, ease of playing, and reasonable cost, what better guitar to yellow with perspiration and cigarette smoke?

Most serious students could afford the $189.50 price, ensuring a new guitar generation would grow up on Fenders. Still, most players preferred top-of-the-line instruments, and almost all professional jazz guitar and pop players employed something other than a Fender.

And after Fender introduced the Stratocaster in '54, the Tele wasn't even Fender's top-of-the-line ax.

Then an interesting thing happened. By the late '50s, the Telecaster was becoming an integral part of the session player's arsenal.

California-based guitarist Howard Roberts endorsed Gibson and Epiphone but also played an old Telecaster on countless rock sessions, as did Tommy Tedesco. These players knew what models recorded best and pleased record producers.

The Telecaster and its solidbody cohorts produced the teenage sound that proclaimed a guitar generation gap: old versus new, jazz and pop conformity versus rock rebellion.

At the same time, the Tele was heard increasingly on pure country recordings, treading in the big-box domain of Chet Atkins and Hank Garland (who sounded anything but twangy).

As the '60s unfolded and rock guitar playing matured, the Telecaster's role, onstage and off, solidified. While the guitar played a small part in the rise and fall of instrumental rock and surf music, Steve Cropper played one with Booker T. and the MGs, as did the Ventures' Nokie Edwards.

James Burton and Tele moved from Ricky Nelson's band to TV's Shindogs, all the while chalking up hours as L.A.'s premier session stylist in rock and country.

Much of the British Invasion had the look of Rickenbackers and Gretsches, but Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck recorded many of their milestone sides with the Yardbirds on a Telecaster and Esquire, respectively.

Mike Bloomfield chose a Tele for his highly influential mid-'60s work with Paul Butterfield and Bob Dylan, and Jimmy Page played one on Led Zeppelin's first album and on the solo of "Stairway to Heaven."

As Roy Buchanan told Guitar Player in '76, "The Telecaster sounded a lot like a steel, and I liked that tone. I like the old Teles because of the wood, the way the pickups are wound, the capacitors, and the whole works."

THE TELE LEGACY

By the late '60s, it was clear the Telecaster had shaken the foundations of the music industry. The Tele – and the host of solidbody models introduced as a result of its success – changed the way the world heard, played, and composed music.

Ironically, Leo Fender, who worked incessantly after '51 developing new models such as the Strat, Jazzmaster, and Jaguar (and then, in the '70s and '80s, formulating Music Man and G&L; models), had a very hard time topping what he accomplished in his first go-round.

"Everyone thought his first guitar was his best, but no one would tell him that," said longtime friend and pioneering electric stylist Alvino Rey in the '80s.

The Tele was Leo Fender's Model T, but, unlike the old Fords, it didn't go away.

For thousands of guitarists, the Telecaster is still state of the art – an enduring battle ax for rock, country, or anything amplified.

• Upgrade your Tele tone with the best Telecaster pickups

When I was a kid, my first feeling of ‘I really need to own one of those electric guitars!’ was when I looked at a photo of a Stratocaster. It was sexy and curvy, and the itch was beyond control. I thought, ‘That’s what I want to hold.’

Fender just hit it out of the park when they made the first Strat. Sonically, I’ve always liked ’54 and ’55 Strats the most. I love the sound of ash-body Strats and I’ve found the heavier, thicker necks provide more sustain.

For some guys, like Eric Johnson, ’54 is the year. One good thing about vintage guitars is that they’re all snowflakes – each one is special and different. You have to find the one that scratches the itch, man! It’s all about the quest.

Even though the ’54 Strat is a wonderful instrument out of the box, things are a little more refined a few years down the line in ’57. It’s a bit like the Tele: by the time you get to ’53, it’s more refined and consistent.

There are three Stratocaster years that seem to always stick out: ’54 (because it’s the first year), ’57 and ’62.

I love the ’57 V-neck. Fender used ’57 as their flagship maple-neck reissue Strat in the early '80s, alongside the reissue rosewood-’board ’62. They weren’t perfect, but the ’57 and ’62 reissues were far superior to the regular Stratocasters they were making at the time. They were the foundation of what kept Fender in business.

’57 Strats represent a perfect storm. By then, Fender had started to phase out the Bakelite parts and they had switched to using alder [from mid-’56], which was cheaper, more plentiful and lighter.

’57 sunbursts have one of the sweeter looks. There’s a beautiful burnt amber tone to them that I like. If they needed to cover something up, they might blow a little more around the edge, but by then Fender had gotten to a point where they were able to get the lacquer really thin.

If you look at a ’54, the paint is thicker on the body and neck. Also, the ’54 neck profile is fuller with more of a U shape, which was a bit of a hindrance for some players.

I’ve seen V-necks as early as ’55, albeit with a subtler, softer V, but by late ’56 they really started getting that harder V-neck shape into play. The V neck tended to be very pronounced in early 1957, and by late 1957 they had changed to the more standard C shape you see on a ’58.

A lot of people really love the ’56/’57 V neck because you can place your thumb below or above it – it gives you that center point for hand positioning that a lot of pros really like. 

The maple V neck is something that really stuck for Clapton, as per his famed guitars Brownie and Blackie. When an artist is using a tool, they might want to make that tool their own, and he really did like the feel of a V neck.

The Stratocaster has a great woody tone, especially that neck pickup. Due to the Strat’s design, you can find those sweet in-between spots and get an out-of-phase tone.

Clapton popularized that sound early on – that’s why everyone rushed to get five-way switches installed – and then Fender themselves eventually changed the switch [in 1977].

In the early days, Fender would give guitars to local musicians to play and give feedback on directly. It was a case of, ‘What would you change? Is the neck too big or too small? Is the belly cut deep enough? Is the arm cut deep enough?’ Back then, Fender were always looking for improvements.

There was fierce competition between Gibson and Fender. Unfortunately, Gibsons were sometimes seen as old man’s guitars, while Fenders were seen as toys, and that was probably something Leo Fender didn’t like. He was constantly tinkering, so he fancied the guitars up while trying to get the perfect look.

I believe Leo thought a three-tone sunburst would be fancy – like putting binding on Custom Esquire and Tele bodies, or on Jaguar and Jazzmaster necks later on – but a lot things went wrong with the finish when they went to the three-tone sunburst in ’58. I think they had it right in ’57.

These guitars are really special and were made at a very specific time in American history. Most of the people who built these guitars in the 50s were part of that generation who put the same effort into their jobs as they did during World War II.

People were happier because they had more free time and they went to work with a little more optimism. They enjoyed their jobs and took a lot of pride in their workmanship.

It’s important to keep educating the younger generations about what a wonderful time this was in American guitar making.

David Davidson owns Well Strung Guitars in Farmingdale, New York.

Since its Acquisition by Ernie Ball in 1984, Music Man has released an impressive number of star-endorsed models and attained a firm standing among the ranks of highly regarded, U.S.-made electric guitars.

Such was the intention of the company when it was founded in the 1970s, even if it didn’t entirely go that way at first. Details of Music Man’s early history, including ownership, design credits and who made what, remain confusing to many, and have occasionally been misrepresented over the years, but it’s not too hard to untangle the basic threads of how this groundbreaking Sabre I guitar came to be, well before Ernie Ball was in the picture.

When discussing Music Man’s early history, what grabs most guitar fanatics’ attention is Leo Fender’s involvement. In fact, the origins of the workshop that built these guitars goes back even further than the founding of Music Man, and dates directly to Leo’s stealthy post-Fender endeavors.

After selling the Fender Electric Instrument Co. to CBS at the end of ’64 and turning over the keys in early ’65, Leo was bound to a 10-year noncompete clause. But if he couldn’t manufacture and sell his own competing products, there was nothing wrong with developing ideas for future use, so in 1966 he founded CLF Research (for Clarence Leo Fender) for just that purpose.

In 1971, Fender’s former associates Tom Walker and Forrest White founded Tri-Sonic, which, after briefly operating as Musitek, changed its name to Music Man In 1974. That same year, the first Music Man amplifiers hit the market, and in 1975, with the expiration of his restrictions from the CBS deal, Leo came onboard as president.

While Walker’s branch of the operation was responsible for the amplifiers from the mid to late ’70s, CLF made the guitars. The StingRay guitar and bass were introduced in 1976, and the Sabre followed another year or so after.

The two six-string guitars grabbed some attention when they hit the market, but the uptake among professional musicians wasn’t much to write home about. The StingRay bass – whether by fluke or by intention – seemed to have been perfectly conceived for emerging sounds of the day and was an overnight success.

Legend has it Leo was designing his guitars and basses to be brighter and brighter through the ’60s and ’70s, largely because he was becoming hard of hearing. As a result, some players found the instruments a little harsh and shrill, but the StingRay bass landed just in time to ride the wave of bright, snappy slap-bass styles prominent in funk and disco of the era, and it became a latter-day classic as a result.

Music Man electric guitars and basses were arguably better made than the Fenders of the mid to late ’70s, and this perception of quality – and of being “Leo Fender’s latest creations” – helped propel them in the market. Music Man released the original Sabre I and Sabre II models around late 1977 and offered them until 1980 or so.

Other than the clearly Fender-derived body and headstock shapes, CLF engineering touchstones are seen in the three-bolt neck attachment with hex-key tilt adjustment point, and the “bullet” truss-rod adjustment nut at the headstock end. These had already become the calling cards of the less-loved Fender Stratocasters of the ’70s, but Leo was sticking with their veracity from a design standpoint, and they arguably made more sense on entirely new makes and models.

Otherwise, major innovations were found in the dual humbucking pickups; an onboard preamp that offered independent active bass, treble and volume controls, a bright switch, a phase switch, and a low-impedance output; and a patented new bridge design with a sustain-enhancing brass base and individually adjustable saddles.

The pickups were narrower than traditional Gibson humbuckers to allow more picking room, and the neck and bridge units were made different lengths to position the pole pieces more precisely beneath the strings. All that, and the Sabre came in two models, although only the necks were different: the I, seen here, had jumbo frets and a 12-inch fingerboard radius for contemporary rock players, and the II had narrower frets and a 7.5-inch radius “for comfortable, untiring, country-style fingering,” as the ads of the day stated.

Notable early Music Man guitarists are thin on the ground compared to the stars – including Pino Palladino, Flea, Cliff Williams and Kim Deal – who played the StingRay bass. German guitarist Carl Carlton played a StingRay guitar with Vitesse in the late ’70s before joining Mink DeVille and, later, Carl Palmer and Eric Burdon and the Animals. Alex Weir wielded white- and natural-finished Sabre I examples with the Brothers Johnson in the ’70s and then with Stop Making Sense-era Talking Heads, as seen in the Jonathan Demme-directed 1984 concert film of the same name.

If you lay your hands on a late-’70s Sabre, be aware that the active electronics and powerful, bright-leaning humbuckers can lead to harsh sounds when used injudiciously. But when used right, those same features allow everything from snappy funk and jangle for rhythm work to warm, rich, meaty girth for rock chunk and solos. It’s a powerful sound sculptor, and needs to be treated as such.

Leo Fender severed his Music Man connections around 1980 or so, and shortly after co-founded G&L with George Fullerton. Still keen on many of the design ideas he’d brought to the Music Man guitars, he ported several signature touches over to the early G&L efforts. Check out an early G&L F-100, for example, and you’ll find similar humbucking pickups, nearly identical active electronics, and the Leo-certified three-bolt neck attachment and “bullet” truss-rod nut.

String-and-accessories maker Ernie Ball took over Music Man in 1984 and spearheaded changes that helped the company live up to its potential. The amps were dropped, but a new guitar and bass lineup, improved quality control and a long list of star endorsements – including Edward Van Halen, Steve Morse, Keith Richards, Albert Lee, Steve Lukather and many others – were added, helping to ensure Music Man’s place in the pantheon of pro-grade electric-guitar makers.

“I don’t come on stage to pose and play some pyrotechnic scales. It’s to kick some serious ass. I rip my guts out when I play. My fingers hurt so bad when I’m pulling on the strings, but I do it because that’s where the sound comes from. No pain, no gain.”

So proclaimed Dick Dale (1937-2019), best known as the King of the Surf Guitar and, alternately, the Father of Heavy Metal.

When Dale was in his teens, his family had moved to El Segundo, California, and at the age of 17 he took up surfing. By then, he had settled on the electric guitar as the instrument with which he’d build his career.

A lefty, he slung a right-handed gold Stratocaster (dubbed the Beast) that he played flipped over, with the low strings on the bottom. This unusual approach led to him at times playing with his fingers reaching over, rather than under, the fretboard.

In 1958, backed by his band, the Del-Tones, Dale began to release vocal-led singles on his own Deltone label. Stylistically similar to popular teen music of the time, the records made little impact. It wasn’t until he released his guitar-instrumental debut, “Let’s Go Trippin’,” that Dale found chart success.

The song is widely considered the first surf-rock instrumental and is credited with launching the early 1960s surf-rock music craze.

But it was Dale’s 1962 single “Misirlou” that put him and his guitar sound on the map. His unorthodox take-no-prisoners style of performing incorporated rapid-fire alternate-picking, often on the low strings. Amplified and treated with heavy reverb, the technique would become not only his signature sound but also the defining sound of surf rock.

The surprise success of his 1962 debut album, Surfer’s Choice, led to a contract with Capitol Records in 1963. Dale’s influence on rock and roll came to the forefront that year, undoubtedly inspiring such classics as the Surfaris’ “Wipe Out,” the Chantays’ “Pipeline” and the surf instrumentals of the Ventures.

The Beach Boys, who had opened for Dale when they were still unknown, covered both “Misirlou” and “Let’s Go Trippin’” on their Surfin’ U.S.A. album in 1963, with 16-year-old Carl Wilson replicating Dale’s blistering guitar leads.

Although Dick Dale never became a household name, he’s an acknowledged influence on the likes of Eddie Van Halen, Johnny Ramone and Jack White, and is revered in guitar circles for his pioneering work with Leo Fender on the Stratocaster guitar and Dual Showman amplifier.

In 2017, GP had the opportunity to speak with Dale. In this interview, the man himself has the final word about his remarkable journey

How did you first meet Leo Fender?

It was out in California in 1955. I was only 18, Leo took a liking to me and became like a second father. He was a very quiet man. He was really a genius, an Einstein, but he was very unpretentious and also didn’t like gimmicks. He hated stereo.

At that time, the Stratocaster was only about one year old. I told him, “I’m a surfer. I got no money, but I can help you with the guitar,” and he said, “Okay, take this guitar, beat it to death, and then tell me what you think of it.” So I became the testing machine, not only for the Strat but for other instruments he was working on.

What was the local music scene like when you started performing?

There was a place called the Rendezvous Ballroom in Orange County. The first night I played there, it was just 17 surfer friends of mine in a hall that held 4,000 people. After a while, through word of mouth, I started filling the place. People used to line up on the sidewalks to try to get in. Leo would say to me, “Why do you have to play so loud?” and I’d say, “Well, when the first 500 people come in, their bodies start soaking up the sound.”

Also, don’t forget, besides only using little amps without any microphones in front of them, there were no real stage monitors in those days. So the first time Leo came to see me play, after standing in the middle of 4,000 people, he finally said, “Dick, now I understand what you’ve been trying to tell me. Back to the drawing board!”

That’s when you and Leo started working on something that radically changed the way rock guitarists could be heard.

Yes. Together we created the very first transformers that went up to 100 watts, peaking at 180 watts. It was like going from a Volkswagen to a Testarossa. [This ultimately led to the creation of the Fender Dual Showman.]

Before that, transformers in those days only favored either the highs, middles or lows. This was the first time we made one that could reproduce all three.

The steel-guitar ace Freddie Tavares was also a big help to what you and Leo were creating. He had a hand in the Stratocaster and Bassman amp designs.

Freddie was a popular Hawaiian steel guitar player who recorded some of the most famous Hawaiian songs. Leo hired him to take all the bugs out of the Telecaster, and while I was helping to perfect the Strat, I put in the Dick Dale five-position switch. [Dale, along with Buddy Guy and Otis Rush, was an early proponent of using the in-between switch settings of the Stratocaster’s three-position pickup selector. The company didn’t actually place the five-position switch on the model until 1977.]

And you and Leo also increased the thickness of the Strat.

Yes, because we figured out, the thicker the wood, the fatter the sound. If you could put strings and a pickup on a telephone pole, you’d have the purest sound in the world. Also, most guitarists back then were playing on light-gauge strings, so they could bend them, like James Burton was doing.

But you never relied on them.

No, and I was using .016-, .018-, .020-, .039-, .049- and .060-gauge strings. The thicker the string, the fatter the sound. So it was a culmination of the transformer to the speaker to the new three-feet-high [speaker] cabinets we made, plus the thickness of the guitar and strings, that gave me that big fat sound that replicated the sound of Gene Krupa’s drums.

Then, I just imitated the sounds of my lions, my tigers, all my jaguars, hawks, eagles… When my lions would roar, I would just imitate that on my strings.

You were probably the first rock guitarist to use a lot of volume onstage.

People like Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly were playing through little tiny amps. Link Wray wasn’t playing loud. He didn’t have the power. Duane Eddy didn’t have the power. None of these people played loud. So who created the Dual Showman amp? Dick Dale. That’s history. When I would be playing fairs, the Ventures would open for me, and they asked me to promote their Mosrite guitars.

How did your trademark reverb sound come about?

I was singing Hank Williams songs in a rockabilly style, and my voice did not have a natural vibrato. I needed something to sustain my voice like a piano, which is my favorite instrument. So Leo and I made all kinds of things, like [tape delays], but nothing worked.

Then after two weeks, I wondered what it would sound like if I plugged my guitar into the tank, and that’s how it started.

What happened was, I had a Hammond organ in the house, and there was a button that [was labeled] Hammond Reverb. I took the organ apart, gave that part to Leo, and said, “Leo, this is it!” We made a separate tank with three tubes in it, and when I plugged in my Shure [Model 55] dynamic birdcage microphone, which was the same as Frank Sinatra used, I sounded just like Dean Martin.

When did you start recording with reverb?

The surfing sound of Dick Dale in the beginning, was a heavy, machine-gun, staccato sound, which had no reverb till we stole the idea from the Hammond. My first album, Surfer’s Choice, which sold over 80,000 copies – that would be like 4 million today – had absolutely no reverb on it. Period. The heavy pounding you heard was from the heavy-gauge guitar strings.

Les Paul, of course, was Leo’s main competitor, but I understand it was really a friendly rivalry.

Les actually gave Leo a great help, a push, the whole works. Les and I were great friends. We used to play the big guitar conventions. He and Mary Ford made beautiful music together, and like Leo, he was a creator and an innovator of music, but his music was never really an influence on me.

Click here to purchase Surfer's Choice and discover more from the late, great man's catalog.

Blues guitar great Walter Trout – a veteran of Canned Heat and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and the author of an impressive catalog of stellar blues-rock records on his own – has owned quite a few guitars in his time, but the Strat generally remains his weapon of choice. 

Trout elaborated on why the none-more-iconic solidbody was his favorite in a recent interview with Guitarist, where he was asked: "Are there any common design features in electric guitars that are an instant turn-off for you when you’re auditioning potential guitars?" In response, Trout said:

“Let me tell you one thing about the Strat that I think Leo got perfect and no-one has made it any better… One of the problems I had when I was playing a Les Paul or a 335 was I tended to change the volume all the time and I changed the pickups all the time, too. 

“I’d be playing and if I wanted to change the pickup I’d have to reach up to the top of the guitar to the pickup switch then I had to go down to the volume buttons and goof with them and it was a lot of work. It required me to stop playing for a second. 

“One of the things that Leo Fender got perfect, and I realized it the first time I played a Stratocaster, is that you can control all of it with your pinkie without ever stopping playing. I can switch pickups, I can move the tone control, I can turn the volume up and down and I don’t have to quit playing. It’s all right there within reach of my little finger. I really think he got it perfect and I don’t think it can be improved upon.”

Back in August, Trout released his 27th solo album, Ordinary Madness. Recorded days before the United States' COVID-19 shutdown, it features his band – Michael Leasure on drums, Johnny Griparic on bass and Teddy ‘Zig Zag’ Andreadis on keys – plus special guests Skip Edwards, Drake ‘Munkihaid’ Shining and Anthony Grisham.

To pick up a copy of the album, step right this way.