1951 Fender Telecaster - Butterscotch Yellow

1951 Fender Telecaster.

Yes, it is shockingly horrific what happened to this guitar. Take a few moments to collect yourself and then read on.

Also, there are some quite valuable parts on here. Black guard parts in general are quite valuable. This is a fairly early one with some rare part sub-varieties such as the broadcaster style bridge pickup. Before emailing me about pricing, please read through this listing to understand my thoughts behind this. If you still have questions or want to discuss it, please do so in a friendly way.

You can also check out the unboxing video. But make sure to read the listing as this describes exactly what you are getting in this sale.

Feel free to contact the shop if you would like an in hand or verbal response/interaction on this guy.

First of all, the good news is that it is a great player in the current condition. Everything has been done to make this a guitar again while still leaving it in its bizarre state—a true grotesque wonder to behold!

Secondly, pretty much anything that you can imagine that could possibly be wrong with an electric guitar has been wrong with this at some point. I will disclose in detail everything that this poor specimen has been subjected to.

But again, it is currently in great playing order and sounds awesome.

The big question I still don’t have a clear answer for is: what do I ask for something like this? I’m putting it out there for a discounted price compared to both original black guards and refinished black guards given all that has been done. Straightforward examples from this year would retail around 75K or so. Those with refinishes or refinish issues would be about half that. I have mine priced at less than a third of a straight one. Again, that’s a pretty big hit, but yes, it’s got mods and condition issues. But it also has valuable parts. If no one wants to buy it for what I have it out that’s OK. I will enjoy having it and watching reactions when I offered to show them my 1951 Telecaster.

Honestly, I do think this wart of a guitar has reached the point where it’s utterly abominable modifications render it as having its own unique appeal as the king of warts.  I do think it has a crazy “what in the world happened here“ factor that is worth something. How much is just not clear to me.  All of you can decide!

Now for the difficult part of explaining what happened to this thing.

At some point, someone hacked off the horns of this guitar. They were probably trying to make it look like a vox teardrop style body. Why they would think that this version of the Vox body looks better than a telecaster. I have no clue. Or perhaps they just wanted a lighter guitar. For those consumed with the weight of vintage instruments, behold the ugly fruit of your preoccupations 😂.  

When they did this, they also filled in the neck pick up cavity and modified the shape of the original pick guard.

The body has been repainted a few times. At some point, it was painted green. It has since been repainted in yellow paint that kind of approximates the color of a butterscotch blonde. I believe this is boat paint based on what the previous owner told me.

The neck has suffered cracks at some point. Thankfully, all those glued up nicely and it is in fully functional condition. The neck did have a modest back bow that could not be corrected except through planing the fret board and refretting it. This has been done and everything is fixed. The fret board was re-sprayed and aged by Joe Riggio.

Amazingly the original bridge and bridge pick up are still intact as are the original pots. The pick up needed to be rewound as you would probably expect, but it is original and quite valuable since it has the steel style bridge plate scene on broadcasters and other early black guards. Keep in mind that even in hacked up condition there is a great deal of value in the parts that remain (original bridge, neck plate, Broadcaster-style bridge pickup, etc). It many ways it would make more sense to part it out but this thing is just too wild for me to do that.

The tuners have been replaced. The neck plate is original. The body was cut such that one corner of where the neck plate screw hole would instert is missing, but the neck plate functions as it should to hold the neck on the body and there are no issues in this regard. It works fine with only three screws but you can install a fourth no problem. The control plate and pots are original, although it had to be rewired. The pots have paint on them. The knobs are from a mustang or similiar. The brass saddles are replaced with threaded saddles from the early 1960s.

It still sports the original decal

Comes in a later thermometer style case.

More photos available if needed.