2020 marked the 70th anniversary of the Fender Telecaster. Many of us know the story of how the name Telecaster came about. The guitar was originally released in 1950 as the Fender Broadcaster. Gretsch, who was already a very well-established musical instrument company in the 1950s, had a drum kit called the Broadkaster. A gentleman’s agreement between Leo Fender and Fred Gretsch saw Leo change the name of the Fender Broadcaster to the Telecaster in 1952 (with a transitional unnamed “Nocaster” variant appearing in 1951). While being very similar in design between 1950 and 1952, there are a few differences, which are picked up and demonstrated in this beautiful, and highly accurate reproduction of the 1950/51 Broadcaster.  

Presentation 

The magic of the classic translucent blonde finish is that it just looks better with age. The aged nitro finish with subtle checking on this instrument blends nicely with the grain of the light swamp ash body beneath. All hardware is aged nickel and chrome. Nothing is overdone or in any way incohesive and presents as a guitar that has been well cared for for the past 70 years. Regularly instruments of this nature have paint removed from the back of the neck, which is often excessive of the originals. This is not the case with this tele, as the neck has a thin nitro coat with minimal ageing done to it. Leave that to the player! The frets are medium jumbo with 100% life on them. Fit in the neck pocket is nice and snug, contributing to acoustic resonance of the guitar.  

Feel/Sound 

This guitar feels exactly like a telecaster should. Light, bright, and unrelentingly versatile. Many would argue that the tele is the most ‘do it all’ guitar on the market. From traditional country, jazz, rock, punk, even metal guitarists such as John 5 favor the simple slab with strings. This guitar features the sharper edges of a traditional 50s tele. Later iterations of the ‘52 tele often have these corners rounded, which instantly outs them as recreations. The higher output of Broadcaster pickups give them a mid-range push which makes them really great rock guitars, heading a small ways towards p90 tone.  

The guitar comes set up with the original broadcaster wiring. Position 1 – Neck pickup alone with 0.05 μF tone cap engaged and blend option disabled, Position 2 - Neck pickup alone with the blend option disabled and no tone control. Position 3 - Bridge pickup with blend option engaged to allow the neck pickup to be added with no tone control. Case candy includes a whole replacement wiring harness with modern standard Telecaster wiring setup.  

The neck has some heft but nowhere near as chunky as some of the 50s reissue Teles out there. We’ve played a few original blackguard Teles here and their necks are never as chunky as many seem to believe. This neck has a great, very authentic feel. Not too thick. This is a great custom shop Broadcaster, the perfect do it all black guard.

Comes in Fender Moulded HSC without CoA. 

Specs: 

Scale length: 25.5” 

Fretboard Radius: 9.5” 

Action at 1st fret: 0.4mm 

Action at 12th fret: 2.2mm 

Neck depth at 1st fret: 23.7mm 

Neck depth at 12th fret: 25.6mm 

Nut Width: 41.6mm 

12 fret width: 51.6mm 

Neck material: Rift Sawn Maple 

Fretboard inlays: Black dot 

Body: Ash 

Body size at lower bout: 324mm 

Front Pickup: Fender Custom Shop Handwound '50/'51 Blackguard Broadcaster 

Bridge Pickup: Fender Custom Shop Handwound '50/'51 Blackguard Broadcaster 

Tuners: Fender single line 

Pickguard: Bakelite 

Bridge: Traditional ashtray with brass saddles 

Electronics: Broadcaster 

Hardware: Ashtray, replacement wiring harness and control panel 

Case: HSC