Fender Custom Shop Limited Edition ’50 Esquire Heavy Relic, Aged Nocaster Blonde Fender Custom Shop

From the Fender Custom Shop comes another stellar sample of top-shelf, vintage inspired goodness. This Fender Custom Shop ’50 Esquire Heavy Relic is a Limited-Edition model finished in the fabled Aged Nocaster Blonde. The 2-piece ash body is sorted for lightweight, and combined with the simple, single-pickup config, allows this guitar to come in at a feathery 6 pounds, 15 ounces.  The nitrocellulose lacquer is applied extremely thin, and then relic’d to perfection in the Custom Shop. This Equire features arm-wear down to the wood, fading seamlessly into undercoat and then to topcoat. Nicks and dings are heavy throughout, with serious buckle-rash on the back. The edges around the body are chipped and worn to the wood as you would see on a Tele leaned on amps and bumped and bruised on stage for the past 70+ years. 

The rift-sawn maple neck sports the meaty 1950 Blackguard neck profile which starts out at 9.25″ thick at the 1st fret and bumps all the way up to a full 1″ at the 12th. This is a holy grail profile for fans of the bigger necks. A nice touch from the Custom Shop that you would not have seen in 1950 is the compound radius on this guitar. It starts at the round, vintage-correct, 7.25″ and flattens out to the more modern 9.50″ radius as you move up the neck. Great for round chord shaping in 1st position but allowing choke free bends up top with lower action. The heavy relic treatment continues on the neck with finger wear to the wood in all the right places on the fretboard and bare wood on the back of the neck from the 1st to the 12th. The transition from bare wood to finish on the back is completely seamless like a well-worn vintage guitar.

Central to the design, this Fender Custom Shop ’50 Esquire features a single pickup in the bridge. The hand-wound 50/51 Blackguard Tele single-coil is controlled by a 3-way switch, volume, and a tone. The “Full Throttle” wiring is simple and purposeful, allowing all the right sounds to come from the simple configuration. 

• Position 1: Straight to the jack, bypassing volume and tone controls
• Position 2: Incorporates volume control, bypasses tone control
• Position 3: Standard volume and tone controls in the mix

Ships complete in a Fender Custom Shop tweed hardshell case with COA and case candy. 

• Flash Coat Nitrocellulose Lacquer
• 7.25″-9.50″ Compound Fingerboard Radius
• “Full Throttle” Esquire Wiring
• Lightweight Ash Body
• Rift-Sawn Maple Neck
• 1950 Blackguard Neck Profile