£60 - How COOL is this Telecaster / Esquire

RevMatt · October 2022

So, long story short... I 'saved' this guitar from a junk shop. It was very tatty and unplayable with a dreadful set up, rusty strings etc. you know the score.

My plan was to simply set it up with a full fret dress, general clean and new strings, but one thing led to another.

After I'd stripped it all down and got to work on the neck (including a full fret level, reprofile and polish, and then a light sand to the back of the neck with multiple applications of Monty's Relicwax) I then decided the guitar deserved more...

I decided a simple Esquire type set up could be cool (especially as the neck pick up was damaged), so cut a new scrtachplace and in keeping with a hotrod approach I cut the original control plate down and just retained a single volume control. In the meantime I decided to try my hand at painting - not done this before so wasn't expecting perfect results (and I was right)... basically I took the shine off the original paint, and then filled some of the worst dings, along with filling the control cavity, before applying primer and 'Renault Extreme Blue' (very rock n roll) paint, and finally several coats of lacquer.

Finally, everything was re-assembled and set up. Admittedly, the finish is could be better - still some dings, and inconsistently applied colour and lacquer, plus the filled cavity is still visible, but from a short distance it looks very cool!

More importantly it plays very well, and the neck and fret work feel excellent. Tonally, it's a very simple guitar with the expected Tele brightness from it's lone bridge pickup. The volume control is logarithmic so for much of the sweep you just notice a tiny bit being rolled off the brightness and then once down to about 3 it starts to affect the volume. It offers a bright and twangy clean sound that responds well to a bit of light drive. Hi gain brings on the feedback but you can just about tame it with the volume and by rolling back the treble a bit on your amp.

Price - now £100, now £60...
So, here it is now for sale - £130 goes some way towards what it cost me in parts and time, although the bulk of the time was just for fun!

Postage? I can box it to post, but would prefer collection (Nottingham) in person as this is a tricky one to describe and very much in the eye of the beholder!

Included: I'll through in a black webbing strap, a spare Tele bridge (in case you fancy a 3 saddle version) and also the neck pickup and original scratchplate in case the 'esquire' isn't for you.

More pictures are here: https://imgur.com/a/CTGDWo1
And I'll try to get some better ones in natural light!

Not sure if this link will work, but it if does, here's a video: https://fb.watch/g5Cw-G6Quc/