A proper Esquire: one pickup, one volume, one tone, and nowhere to hide. The pickup is a custom hand-wound 20k unit, which is a substantially hotter winding than a vintage-spec bridge pickup and is what gives an Esquire enough weight to carry a whole song on its own.

What makes this one worth a second look is the Eldred Esquire capacitor on a push-push volume pot. Push it and a capacitor comes into circuit; leave it and you have the straight pickup. That is a second voice out of a one-pickup guitar without adding a switch to the control plate or a second pickup to the body.

The body carries hand-painted nose art on the lower bout: a cartoon pig in a biplane inside two arcs reading ELI'S MILE HIGH CLUB and BOOZE - BLUES - MURDER. That is the Oakland blues bar and its own slogan, painted on in the style of a bomber crew's artwork, and it is small enough that most people will not notice it until the guitar is in their hands.

Alder body in white with a black pickguard. Maple neck in the "Dull V" at .950" first fret and .980" at the twelfth, 25.5" scale, 6105 fretwire, brass side dots, Bi-Flex butt-adjust truss rod. Volume and a greasebucket tone control.

SPECIFICATIONS

BODY
Model: Custom Esquire
Body: Alder
Finish: White
Pickguard: Black

NECK
Neck: Maple, "Dull V" profile
Neck Profile: .950" at the 1st fret, .980" at the 12th
Scale Length: 25.5"
Frets: 6105 fretwire
Side Dots: Brass
Truss Rod: Bi-Flex, butt adjust

ELECTRONICS
Pickup: Custom hand-wound 20k Esquire
Controls: Volume, Greasebucket tone
Switching: Eldred Esquire capacitor on a push-push volume pot