FENDER EU MASTER DESIGN ’53 TELECASTER

£3,999

With everyone making Fender clones in small workshops and sheds the world over, it’s easy to forget the huge range and experience offered by Fender’s Custom Shop. To illustrate the diversity, Fender EMEA commissioned seven of the Custom Shop’s Master Builders to conceive their own designs on a specific theme: if you were going to grab a guitar to go to a gig on a Friday night, what would it be? Each of the resulting models is a limited edition of just 20 pieces.

This Paul Waller-designed ’53 Telecaster is a lovely lightweight ash-bodied Tele in a semi-translucent White Blonde Journeyman Relic finish with a deep ’53 soft V neck shape. But the twist lies in its Clapton mid-boost circuit with a volume control that is a centre-notched pot. Above that notch the boost is applied, and to match that power the pickups (HandWound Broadcaster at the bridge and ’51 Nocaster at the neck) are underwound.

A Jekyll and Hyde Telecaster, it feels like a relic from the 50s, but the well-implemented boost takes it so much further: it “runs from Tele-like steeliness through to boosted cocked-wah fatness”, we said, and it’s a welcome reminder that the Fender Custom Shop really can make your dreams a reality. www.fender.com