Fender Nashville Telecaster MIJ 1996 50th Anniversary

1996 Fender Japan 50th Anniversary Nashville Telecaster — Player, Fully Rewired, Boutique Pickups

Asking $850 (gig bag included) — will consider reasonable offers

Let's get the ugly part out of the way first: this guitar is beat up. And I don't mena "curated relic" beat up. This thing is for real beat up. Because for about five years I played the hell out of it. Gigs, practices, van rides, questionable decisions. Then it hung on the wall of my studio for the next eight years, looking tired but at peace. I got a software job, had 2 kids, and just don't have the time to play as much as I used to. And this guitar isn't a pretty looking museum piece. It's not meant to be hung on a wall. It deserves to be played. It needs an owner that is ready and willing to continue the beatings and play this thing!

The bones: 1996 Fender Japan 50th Anniversary Nashville Telecaster. The internet (by that I mean AI... sorry!) says this guitar was built at the Fuji-Gen Gakki factory to mark Fender's 50th birthday. And for those that don't know, the "Nashville" moniker refers to the pickup layout - a Tele bridge pickup plus two Strat-style single coils. It's a configuration that session players in Music City were doing to their own Teles before Fender made it official. And I say two "Strat-style single coils", but technically the bridge pickup is a mini-humbucker. More on that in a moment. Three pickups, 5-way switching, and much more tonal range than a standard Tele. I bought this guitar back in 2012 from a used seller called "Sheltons Guitars" which specialized in Japanese Fenders. The majority of the blemishes were already on the guitar when I bought it back in 2012, and I of course proceeded to blemish it even further.

I also change a lot. Here's what's not stock anymore :

• Bridge Pickup: Seymour Duncan ST59-1 "Little '59". A humbucker crammed into a single-coil-sized shell, snarls more than a stock Tele bridge.
• Middle Pickup: Seymour Duncan SSL-5 Custom Staggered Single-Coil. It's hot, quacky, and gives that classic strat sound in the in-between switch positions.
• Neck Pickup: DiMarzio DP417 Area T. My preferred pickup on this thing. The quintessential warm and round tele neck tone.
• Complete rewire and new electronics. Japanese craftsmanship was fantastic in this era, but the electronics were rough when I got this thing. So I had it all cleaned up and redone.
• New 5-way selector and new tone/volume knobs. The old ones had gone scratchy and unreliable. Crackling pots are not a tone anyone chases.
• 2-position DPDT mini switch. Added to the electronics plate between the volume and tone knob. Used to flip the bridge pickup between series and parallel, adding a whole extra flavor beyond what the 5-way alone gives you.

Basically, someone already did the fun, mildly obsessive, moderately expensive mod work for you. All you have to do is plug in and enjoy the results.

Condition: Player grade, full stop. Finish wear, dings, general evidence of a life lived hard for half a decade. Structurally and electronically it's completely solid. Everything works, everything reads clean, nothing rattles or buzzes that shouldn't. I genuinely love the neck on this thing. The radius gives you enough beef to grab, but the fretboard is surprisingly fast. If you can get past the busted looks, this thing really does play super well. If you closed your eyes and played it and heard it before you saw it, you'd think it was a much more expensive and impressive instrument!

Included: Gig bag. This is the gig bag that came with it when I bought it. It's... fine. It's a gig bag.

Why I'm selling: No dramatic reason. I just don't have much time to play, and don't reach for it anymore, and it deserves to be reached for. Somebody out there wants exactly this: a well-worn, well-modded Fender Japan Tele with boutique pickups and real wiring work already done, at a fraction of what it'd cost to build from scratch. That somebody should not be me anymore. Like a classic dad who barely plays anymore, I bought an Am Pro II strat, and that's all I play these days. Work on computer all day, put kids to bed, drink 3 beers, pick up strat and run lame pentatonic riffs for 30 minutes. Go to bed, repeat tomorrow. 22 year old me would hate what I've become....

Holler at me if you have any questions. I tried to take a lot of pics, but if you want anything specific just reach out, and I'll do my best to oblige.