A Mint Dakota Red Custom Shop '63 Telecaster

This beautifully crafted instrument from the Custom Shop Time Machine Series is an exact replica, inside and out, of a Telecaster as it would have been in 1963. It weighs 7.80 lbs. and has a nut width of slightly under 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Solid alder body, "C"-shape maple neck, and veneer rosewood fretboard with 21 frets and clay dot position markers. Single "butterfly" string tree. Headstock decal with Fender "spaghetti" logo in silver with black trim and "TELECASTER" in black beneath it. On the back of the headstock is a "Fender® Custom Shop" decal in black. Four-bolt neck plate with serial number ("R16990") between the top two screws. Individual Fender/Gotoh Vintage Style tuners with octagonal metal buttons. Two Vintage '63 Tele single-coil pickups (one plain metal-cover pickup at neck with an output of 6.88k and one black six-polepiece pickup angled in bridgeplate with an output of 6.44k). Three-layer (white/black/white) plastic pickguard with eight screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) with chrome knobs with knurled sides and flat tops and a three-way selector switch with black plastic "Top Hat" switch tip, all on metal plate adjoining pickguard. Original Vintage Style Tele Bridge with three threaded steel saddles and "ash tray" bridge cover. Characteristic of the Time Machine models, this guitar is N.O.S.(New Old Stock). Housed in the original G & G brown hardshell case with imitation leather ends and dark orange plush lining (9.50).

Welcome to the Dream Factory! "It's no wonder that our celebrated Custom Shop is called the ultimate dream factory. Located within the walls of our facility in Corona, California are the finest luthiers, woodworkers and artisans in the world, creating exquisitely hand-crafter musical masterpieces from scratch. Since its inception in 1987, it has grown from just two builders to the more than 50 that we employ today. The Custom Shop does it all, from one-of-a-kind 'art' pieces featuring outrageous inlay, carving and airbrush designs, to Team Built guitars that replicate a vintage Strat® or Tele®, to customised stock instruments with unique finishes, artwork and hardware...By 1995, a fair amount of artists had been asking the Custom Shop to make them a replica of a favourite old guitar or two, usually because the original was much too valuable and precious to risk taking on the road. But then, Keith Richards told the Shop that some replicas made for him for a Stones tour looked too new. 'Bash 'em up a bit and I'll play 'em', suggested Richards. So the Custom Shop set about making a 'distressed' guitar for Mr. Richards, which, when finished, had all the scratches, varnish cracks, "dings" and rusted hardware of a battered old original. Then, J.W Black, a master builder at the Custom Shop, came up with the idea of offering these aged replica guitars as regular catalogue items, and naming them Relics. In 1998, the Custom Shop went to further lengths to reproduce the look and feel of the originals by offering three finish packages: N.O.S. (New Old Stock): As if the guitar was discovered in a warehouse after many years, never played and showing no signs of wear. Closet Classic: As if the guitar had been stashed in a closet. The guitar is worn a bit, yellowed with age; the finish is slightly checked with hairline finish cracks that are typical of an instrument that's been exposed to years of humidity and temperature variations. Relic: Heavily worn-in and showing natural wear and tear of years of heavy use - nicks, scratches, worn finish, rusty hardware and aged plastic parts, making it look, feel and play like it's taken the punishment of many long nightclub hours. By 2000, the Time Machine Series, as it became known as, would include a '64 Jazz Bass®, '51 Nocaster®, '56, '60 and '69 Stratocaster® guitars, and a '63 Telecaster®. Recent additions to the series have been the '59 Esquire®, '60 Tele® Custom, '65 Stratocaster®, and the '55 and '59 Precision® Basses" (Inside the Fender Custom Shop at http://www.fendereurope.com/fenderfiles/InsidetheFenderCustomShop.asp).