My new sweatheart! Here we have a 1953 Fender Esquire that has had a tough life, but is now lookin’ better than ever! Below is an in depth description.

Body – Tadeo Gomez dated 5-4-53. Professionally refinished and aged to match the aging on the neck with nitro using era correct practices / materials. Neck pickup cavity routing for humbucker / extra jack has been professionally filled and re-routed to factory spec. All original factory body codes and dates present and untouched. Body retains original contours and shape.

Neck – Tadeo Gomez dated 5-2-53. Previous brown stain removed to show a majority of the original finish to be gone as well, both on the fingerboard and back of the neck. The neck was not touched up, refinished, or oversprayed in anyway. Original decal is in tact. At one point had an extra string tree as well as string break bar which both have been removed. The neck measures .84 70 inch at the first fret .97 30 inch at 12th fret. 1 5/8 nut width. Feels as though previous owner took a little off the girth out of the neck on the front, but not on the back. Back of the neck has it’s original shape and contour. Refretted at some point in it’s life with larger frets. Very, very minor fret wear. Guitar plays great all up and down the neck.

Parts – Pickup, bridge, saddles, knobs, control plate, string tree, neck plate, strap buttons, switch / switch tip, tone pot, 2 of the 3 caps, and jack are all original. Treble side of the ashtray bridge has been slightly ground down which player’s often did for comfort. Pickguard is a Riggio relic, tuners are non original Kluson deluxe. Volume pot replaced with modern CTS and one of the 3 caps replaced with 60s NOS cap.

Electronics – Pickup professionally rewound by Jason Lollar. Jack, tone pot, switch, and 2 of the 3 caps are original. Volume pot replaced with modern CTS, non original cap is a 60s NOS.

Pickup Reading – Original pickup reads 6.74K.

Tone – Subjective. My personal thoughts are that it sounds absolutely fantastic. Nice and punchy with plenty of Tele spank. More versatile than you would assume with only one pickup. It does not have too much of the microphonic features these early Blackguards generally have, which some people like and some don’t. In no way does it sound anemic or toneless.

Playability – Set up with Daddario 11-49s. Plays great all up and down the neck and is very resonant. Neck is very comfortable and feels like / is an old worn down Tele neck.

Overall thoughts – This one has had a rough life, but given a little love and a makeover it makes an excellent player grade Esquire that plays, sounds, and now looks the part of a real deal early 50s Fender instrument. With current Masterbuilt Teles selling new for $5,000 why not spend a little more for the real thing.

Price – The most comparable example I was able to find was another 1953 on eBay with it’s finish stripped, non original guard, repro case, and some changed parts. Starting bid of $1 and ended at $9,100 plus shipping. 2013 book value is $23,000 – $18,000 high to low. The rule of thumb used to be refin knocks the value right in half. That said, we have recently sold refins (61 Jazzmaster, 64 Strat) for better than half without much trouble, so who knows where or if that 50% rule stands. This one is priced respectfully at less than half the low end of blue-book.