Our Tribute to Muddy Waters
Weighs 7.9 lbs
Hand Built in San Diego County by Del Mar Lutherie

Condition: This guitar is new.

Includes our Professional 66 Point Inspection and Set Up - $100 Value

See below for details



Available Cases: 

• Gig bag, $49
• Fender premium heavy duty gig bag, $99
• Fender molded hard shell case, $149
• Fender premium hard shell case, made in USA by G&G, black, $239
• This guitar will ship without a case or bag, unless you add one to your order

Description: In 1957, Muddy Waters bought a new Fender Telecaster. If you're a Tele aficionado, you know that 1957 Telecasters were white blonde and had maple fretboards. Muddy replaced the neck with one from a 1961 "Telecaster Custom" with a rosewood fingerboard, and had the body re-painted candy apple red. Muddy replaced the chrome knobs with a pair of 1-10 skirted knobs from a Fender amp, and added screws to secure the pickguard real good. Nicknamed “The Hoss,” this Tele remained Muddy’s #1 for the rest of his career. Fender made their Muddy Waters Artist Series Signature Telecaster from 2002-2008. This was a bitchin' guitar, but they are getting hard to find, and when they do pop up, they're expensive.

Made in USA:  We wanted to make a guitar as a tribute to Muddy, and make it accessible to his fans. The guitar you see in this listing is the result. We built it by hand in our San Diego, California shop. So it is made in USA. All parts are new and of excellent quality. We've made over 100 custom guitars, and our clients have been extremely pleased. Check out our reviews on the second to last slide. We think we nailed the vibe. It looks, plays and sounds awesome. This Hoss rocks! Almost all guitars, even those from the Gibson and Fender custom shops, have parts sourced from all over the world. That's a fact of our global economy. This guitar is no different. When we build guitars, we are always asking how we can give our customers the most bang for their buck, so we source high value parts that meet the specs we are after. We are more concerned with quality and value then where the part comes from.

Neck: Fender has two versions of the neck we wanted. One made in Mexico and one in USA. Both are made by CNC machines and both are of excellent quality. Since we've found no appreciable difference in quality, but one costs twice as much, we went for the more affordable version, so we could pass the savings to our customers. The neck we used is a Fender Classic Series 1960's Tele neck with rosewood fretboard. It's built to 1960's specs, just like the one on Muddy's guitar. We polished the frets and checked them for level. We also rounded over the fingerboard to give it a more played in feel. It feels and plays awesome and looks the part!

Body: The body is the same as what we use in our DML line of T-style guitars. It's made from alder and milled by a CNC machine to precise tolerances to match the dimensions of a vintage 1962 Fender Telecaster. The finish is applied in a professional paint shop, and hand buffed to provide a professional quality finish. The Candy Apple Metallic looks amazing.

Hardware: We use only top quality parts. Many are Genuine Fender. See specs list below for a run down.

Pickups:  The great tone comes from a set of vintage style Tele pickups with Alnico 5 magnets. These pickups are the same as we used in our DML brand T-style guitars, which are of excellent quality. Our clients love them because they sound great! And they nail the Tele Twang we were after. 

Luthier's assessment and measurements:

• Weight: 7.6 lbs
• Nut Width: 1.67"
• Neck width at 12th Fret: 2.02"
• Neck thickness at 1st fret: 0.84"
• Neck thickness at 12th fret: 0.90"
• Action (high e): 0.050"
• Action (low E): 0.060"
• Neck pickup DCR: 7.5k Ohms
• Bridge pickup DCR: 6.3k Ohms

Features and Specs: 

• Model: Muddy Waters Tribute Telecaster
• Body shape: Tele
• Body type: Solid
• Body wood: Alder
• Body finish: Gloss urethane
• Body color: Candy apple red metallic
• Neck: Fender Classic Series 1960's Telecaster
• Neck wood: Maple
• Neck finish: Gloss urethane
• Neck shape: "C" profile
• Neck joint: Bolt-on
• Scale: 25.5"
• Fingerboard Radius: 7.25"
• Fingerboard Material: Pau ferro
• Fingerboard Inlays: White dots
• Number of Frets: 21
• Truss Rod: Vintage-style, slotted nut, adjust at heel
• Nut Material: Synthetic bone 
• Neck pickup: DML Alnico single coil
• Bridge pickup: DML Alnico single coil
• Controls: Volume, tone
• Knobs: Fender skirted amp knobs, 1-10
• Switch: Fender, 3-way blade
• Control plate: Fender chrome
• Pots: Fender/CTS, 250k audio taper
• Tone cap: Metalized film, 0.047 uF
• Output jack: Switchcraft
• Jack cup: Recessed, chrome plated
• Bridge: Fender three-saddle ash-tray bridge
• Saddles: Compensated brass
• Tuners: Fender vintage-style slotted
• String ferrules: Fender
• Hardware: Chrome

About Del Mar Lutherie: We’re a small shop in San Diego County, California. We build electric guitars, hand-wired tube amps, and do mods and setups.  We also buy and sell vintage and used gear.  Our owner is a guitar enthusiast, wood worker and professional engineer by training. We’re part of the local guitar community (Fender, Taylor, Carvin/Kiesel).   We're not open to the public, but we do welcome clients by appointment. 

Why buy from us?  Our customers have peace of mind knowing they are buying from a highly rated professional shop.  We've been doing this type of work since 1999 and have thousands of happy customers.  We pride ourselves in providing best-in-class personalized service for each of our clients. We are a Reverb Preferred Seller, and our approval rating is close to 100%.

Dr. T’s Professional Inspection and Setup: You may find a similar guitar at a lower price, but ours may still be the better value as we include our professional inspection and setup. This service costs from $80 to $150 at most shops. With over 25 years in the industry, we’re convinced that a good setup is the single most important investment to improve the playability and sound of your guitar.  Here’s what in entails. We inspect the guitar and address issues. Next, we remove the strings and tighten and set the drag on the tuners. We inspect the frets, find any high spots, then level, crown and polish. We clean and oil the fingerboard, restring, tune to pitch and set the neck relief, action and intonation. We then play each fret and check for fret buzz and fret-outs during bends, and we fine-tune as required.  Next, we test the electronics, clean and tighten pots and jacks and balance the pickups.  Occasionally, we find a fault with the electronics, so we dig in and diagnose and repair that.  Once the electronics are tip top, we play the guitar to make sure everything is just right.  Finally, we clean and polish the guitar, then slacken the stings to get it ready for shipping.

String Gauges and Settings:   We do our setups using common string gauges and settings, which we've found work well for most players. For electrics, we use 9-42 gauge strings for Fender (25.5") scale guitars and 10-46 for Gibson (24.75") scale guitars.  We set action to 0.050 on the high e side and 0.060 on the low E side. This action is fairly low and allows for easy fretting without buzzing or sacrificing tone. If you have special preferences, please let us know, and we will do our best to accommodate you.

Light Gauge Strings: We recommend light gauge strings on electrics, which makes fretting and bending easier. And if you want more volume, just turn up your amp. I don’t know anyone who thinks Tony Iommi or Billy Gibbons have thin tone - Tony uses 8’s and Billy uses 7’s. If you use 10’s you might consider 9’s, or if you use 9’s try 8’s. It will take a little time to get used to, but you’ll be surprised at how much easier your guitar is to play… and if you turn up your amp a little, you won’t be sacrificing volume or tone.

Fine Tuning Adjustments:  Your guitar will be playing and sounding wonderful when we finish our setup. However, occasionally minor adjustments will be needed after shipping due to changes in temperature and/or humidity, rough handling or other unfavorable conditions. Since we have no control over this, we cannot cover the cost of these adjustments. However, if your guitar was mishandled during shipping, please let us know, so we can see if a shipping claim is in order. Sometimes it’s possible to get you a partial refund to help cover issues if we can show that they were caused by shipping.

Condition Ratings: We do our best to be consistent with Reverb’s condition rating system.  Please keep in mind that Reverb’s descriptions are very general and can be open to interpretation. The guitar you get will be the one shown in the photos, and if it has any major flaws or defects, we will point them out in the listing.  Our guitars rated below “Mint” will have signs of use and cosmetic imperfections, including minor dings, dents and swirl marks, which might only be visible upon close inspection. If you are sensitive to minor cosmetic defects, please let us know, and we can provide you with close-up photos.  We do not accept returns nor give partial refunds if you receive your guitar and believe that it should have been rated lower.  We’ve sold thousands of guitars, and almost without exception, our clients have not had issues with our ratings.  This tells us that we are doing a great job with our condition ratings.  

Standard of Care: We strive to meet our clients’ expectations, and we want you to be happy with your purchase.  Guitars develop wear with use and it’s widely accepted that honest wear adds character and shows that the guitar has been played and loved. Our used and vintage guitars will have signs of use. Our Del Mar Lutherie brand guitars are hand-built and will have artifacts that some people might view as "imperfections".  If you want a guitar in “perfect” or “flawless” condition, we advise you to buy new from an authorized dealer or buy locally so you can inspect it in person. We do not guarantee that our guitars will be cosmetically flawless, and we don’t accept returns or give partial refunds due to cosmetic imperfections.

Specs: We list specs as a courtesy. Some specs are measured by our techs. Others are taken from the manufacturer's data. Manufacturers change specs all the time, and their listed specs may not be 100% accurate. Also, some used guitars have mods that may not be apparent upon visual inspection. The guitar you will get is the one shown in the photos. If there are any "deal breaker" specs that you must have, please let us know so we can double check for you before your purchase.

Videos: We often provide YouTube links to provide our clients with more information. These videos will be of a similar make and model which is representative of the guitar in our listing. 

Shipping: We ship guitars via UPS ground. The fee shown includes shipping within the contiguous USA with insurance. It also includes packaging materials and our time to pack up and drop off at UPS.  For guitars, shipping costs are controlled by box size and insurance is based on value. Your guitar will ship without a case, unless one is described as included in the listing or you add one to your order. If you decline to add a case, we will pack your guitar well with bubble wrap and other padding and ship it in a sturdy guitar box. However, if you want your guitar to have even better protection, we encourage you to add a hard case to your order. See below for details.

Cases: Some guitars we buy come with cases and some don't.  Some clients want cases, and some have so many they don't want more.  To offer flexibility, we make cases optional.  This allows us to pass on some savings to those who don't want cases and to offer several case types to our clients who do want them.  If you want a case, please let us know.  There are many benefits when you buy a case from us; we have good prices, we make sure your guitar fits, we offer free shipping on the case (when combined with a guitar) and we ship your guitar inside the case for better protection. Each year, we see a small number of guitars arrive with damage caused by mishandling during shipping. However, when shipped inside a hard case, the incidence of damage is almost zero. See the top of the listing or inquire for options.

Delivery Time: We do our best to get your guitar setup, boxed and shipped as soon as possible. However, sometimes this can take a few days depending on our workload and other factors. Once UPS receives your guitar, they will estimate a delivery date, which you can access via Reverb. UPS will typically deliver your guitar within 2 to 7 business days after they receive it, depending on your distance from Southern California. If you're in a hurry, please let us know and we’ll do our best to accommodate you, or at least we can advise you of the estimated wait, so you can decide if you need to make other arrangements.

Damage Claims: Although rare, guitars sometimes are damaged during shipping. If you receive a guitar that is damaged, please let us know immediately so we can open a claim.

Returns and Canceled Orders:  We are a small business and can’t afford to offer free returns like the big guys. There is a lot of time, effort and cost involved with processing your order, pulling your guitar from inventory, setting it up, packing and shipping it. Please make sure you want the guitar before you commit to buy. If we agree to a return or to cancel your order, you will be responsible for shipping costs (both ways) and a restocking fee to cover our time.

Trades:   We are a professional guitar business. Anything we take on trade, we resell. Due to shipping costs and transaction fees, we only do trades in person. To make sense for us, we can only offer wholesale value, which is typically 40% to 60% of what it would sell for on Reverb. This is usually as good or better than Guitar Center.  If you’re OK with this, please send current photos of the actual gear you have for trade. We need brand, model, year, and condition. Note any mods, repairs or other issues. If your guitar includes a hard case or gig bag, send photos of that as well.