SOLD - Fender Classic Series 50s Telecaster

thermionic · July 2023

This is a 2001 or 2000 Classic Series 50s Telecaster - ash body in two-tone sunburst with maple neck, 7.25” radius fretboard with vintage style frets. Owned from new, I bought it from Cranes in Cardiff - this was one of two of the same model I tried on the same day in two different shops, and I chose this one because it had a much nicer neck shape than the other one. The feel of the neck is the main reason I’ve kept this guitar for all these years, and it has some nice flame going on. The shape is probably best described as a deep C - it’s 22.9 mm deep at the first fret and 23.9 mm deep at the 12th.

I’ve had several different pickups in this guitar over the years and it currently has the Tex-Mex pickups I swapped out from my recently acquired Road Worn - they sound much better than I expected tbh. I shielded the cavities with copper tape many years ago. The pickguard originally looked too shiny so I took the edge off the gloss with a Scotchbrite pad and T-Cut, and also rounded off the sharp edges with a Dremel (it slipped and left a shallow gouge in a couple of places, one of which is pictured). It’s not a lightweight at a shade under 8.6 lb. No dings or chips, only some minor swirls in the clear coat. The frets are holding up remarkably well for a guitar that’s been played for over 20 years, just the beginnings of some wear on the lowest frets (see photo). I’ve just put on some new D’Addario 10-46 strings, given the truss rod a quarter turn to decrease the relief, and set the action and intonation - I’ve always managed to set it up playing nicely at about 1.75 mm on the low E at the 12th fret.

I’ll be sad to see this guitar go, as I’ve had it so long, but I’ve recently bought a Road Worn and I can’t really justify keeping two ash/maple 50s style Teles.

£550 Now £525 including shipping or £500 picked up from Cardiff, including a more recent Fender gigbag which I acquired at some point and has only been used for storage - I also have the appropriate Fender cardboard box so shipping isn’t a problem (this can be agreed later but I’d guess it would be around £25).

https://i.imgur.com/hqfJui0.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/GRP9uih.jpg

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More photos

After almost a month on ebay, this is now SOLD.