An Excellent Refinished "Black Guard" Telecaster

This fifty-two-year-old Butterscotch Blond featherweight beauty weighs just 7.00 lbs. and has a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Solid ash body and fretted maple neck with 21 frets and black dot position markers. Single round string tree. Headstock decal with "Fender" spaghetti logo in silver with black trim and "Telecaster" in black below it. Individual "no-name" Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons. The tuning keys are stamped "235677/PAT. APPLD." on the bottom base. One very hot plain metal-cover "black-bottom" pickup with slot-head adjusting screws (at neck) with an output of 7.19k, and one black six-polepiece "copper-coated metal plate bottom" pickup with staggered polepieces (angled in bridgeplate) with an output of 5.82k. Single-ply black bakelite pickguard with five screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) plus three-way "tone" switch (with slot-head screws) and original Daka Ware black plastic "barrel-like" tip, all on metal plate adjoining pickguard. Shorter chrome knobs with more pronounced domes and heavy knurled sides. Telecaster combined bridge/tailpiece with three (flat-ground on bottom) brass saddles. Serial number ("2187") on the bridge plate beneath the words "FENDER/PAT. PEND." The neck is dated in pencil: "TG 10-58" and the neck pocket is dated in pencil: "TG 7-11-53." The potentiometers are stamped: "304 748" (Stackpole December 1957). The three-way switch is stamped "CRL 1452." In 1958, this guitar went back to the factory, where it was renecked. The original tuners and string tree were fitted to the new neck. Probably at the same time, the bridge pickup was changed, as were the two potentiometers. The body of the guitar has been expertly refinished, not recently, but we would guess within the last ten years. The grain of the ash body shows beautifully through the finish. This guitar is in excellent (8.50) condition. There is a minimal amount of belt buckle scarring on the back and a few marks and some arm wear on the edges, but very little wear on the fretboard. This guitar is a fantastic player -- and a fabulous opportunity to get a "black guard" Tele with a great '58 neck profile for less than a quarter of the price of a prime 1953 "black guard" Telecaster. Housed in a mid to late fifties Fender "tweed" hardshell case with light brown plush lining (8.00).

"Leo Fender's new solidbody was the instrument that we know now as the Fender Telecaster, effectively the world's first commercially successful solidbody electric guitar...The guitar was originally named the Fender Esquire and then the Fender Broadcaster, and it first went into production in 1950. It was a simple, effective instrument. It had a basic, single-cutaway, solid slab of ash for a body, with a screwed-on maple neck. Everything was geared to easy production. It had a slanted pickup mounted into a steel bridge-plate carrying three adjustable bridge-saddles, and the body was finished in a yellowish color known as blond. It was unadorned and like nothing else. It was ahead of its time (Tony Bacon, 50 Years of Fender, p. 10).

"Both the Telecaster and the Esquire kept their basic 1951 appointments until the mid-50s. In retrospect, their most striking features -- at least cosmetically speaking -- are a typical yellowed blonde finish (a.k.a. 'butterscotch' finish) and a black pickguard, hence the often cited notion of early 'black guard' Tellies. The combination of the two actually gives a distinct look to the early 50s models, which are otherwise considered by many as the ultimate classic Telecaster guitar because of their tone...Besides its peculiar hue, the original blonde finish nicely showcases the ash body heavy grain pattern that later whiter finishes would subdue...[1954] marks the beginning of a number of changes in the appointments of Telecaster guitars. By Fall, the bakelite black guard was replaced by a single ply white trim and a few months later steel superseded brass for the bridge saddles. FENDER also changed the finishing process of the blonde finish...The typical 'butterscotch' colour gave way to a creamier shade which would soon evolve into a lighter off-white finish. Finally, 1954 is also the year when the serial number was removed from the bridge plate to be stamped on the neck anchor plate...Beyond these cosmetic features, a more dramatic evolution took place in 1955. The bridge pickup was modified to incorporate staggered pole pieces in place of the flush level-poles of the original design...Finally, the round clubby neck of the post-1950 guitars evolved into pronounced 'V' feel by 1955 and until early 1958 'boat necks' were the rule on most Fender instruments...At the end of 1956, Telecaster guitars no longer looked or even sounded exactly the same as the 1951 models...In the course of 1958, necks gradually changed for a flatter cross section" (A.R. Duchossoir, The Fender Telecaster, p. 16).

"The earliest necks made in 1950 (e.g. Broadcaster) have a pronounced V-shape and their thickness is usually close to one inch. If one takes the 1st and 12th fret as a reference for the cross-section, .95" and 1.00" would be a good average indication for the period. By early 1951, necks became more rounded and less 'Veed' with slight variations in thickness, e.g. .90" and 1.00" on a '52 Telly, but overall kept a similar cross-section until the mid-50's." (A.R. Duchossoir, The Fender Telecaster, p. 53).