Classic to-the-bone Fender: a 1952 blackguard Tele and a ’53 Pro amp.
The Telecaster featured in this article almost didn’t survive 2022. Earlier this year, two brothers with a house-flipping business were clearing a home of debris and getting it ready to renovate. One of the brothers was about to toss a dirty wooden object he had found in a closet into the dumpster. The other brother realized it was an electric guitar. Fortunately, he decided it would be a good idea to have the caseless, dirty, beat-up instrument appraised. By doing this, he saved an original 1952 Fender Telecaster from being destroyed!
The cleaned and detailed headstock of this guitar boasts Kluson tuners and a round string tree.
That 1952 Telecaster has TG-6-6-52 penciled on the end of its neck, indicating employee Tadeo Gomez completed it in June of 1952. The date penciled in the neck pocket area of the body is 6-3-52. The guitar has the classic characteristics of a 1952 Tele, including a transparent butterscotch blonde finish over an ash body, a single-ply black phenolite (also known as Bakelite) pickguard—making it a so-called blackguard Tele, a bridge pickup with level pole pieces (Fender moved to staggered pole pieces during 1955), and a 3-way switch.
The current value for one in excellent all-original condition is $40,000.
At the time this guitar was built, Fender’s wiring scheme activated the bridge pickup in the number 1 position, the neck pickup in number 2, and with the selector all the way up in position 3, the signal runs through a capacitor that adds bass. Remember, back in those days a single guitarist often played bass lines as well as chords, melodies, and solos in many bands. The P bass was introduced only a year before this guitar was made and was a new instrument still trying to find its place in the music world.
This instrument has a through-body bridge, three adjustable bridge pieces, and a pickup that looks like a relic, but sounds like a dream.
The 1-piece maple neck has narrow-spaced position markers at the 12th fret (the dot spacing became wider between 1953 and 1963), a round string tree (which went rectangular in 1956), and Kluson “no brand” tuners. The tuners were stamped with “Kluson Deluxe” in a single line by 1957. The 1952 list price was $189.50. The current value for one in excellent all-original condition is $40,000.
It’s unclear who the “Davis” is that signed this neck pocket in 1952. Famed Fender employee Charlie Davis didn’t start at the Fullerton plant until 1957.
The amp supporting the Tele is a wide-panel Fender Pro from 1953. It’s equipped with a Jensen P15N 15" speaker, dated to the 20th week of 1953, and powered by two 6L6 tubes capable of about 18 to 25 watts of power. Two inputs are controlled by a mic volume knob, and two inputs are controlled by an instrument volume knob. In addition to the on/off switch, this amp is equipped with a standby. The 1953 list price was $199.50. The current value for the amp is $3,500.
Sources for this article include The Blackguard by Nacho Baños, The Pinecaster by Nacho Baños and Lynn Wheelwright, The Fender Telecaster by A.R. Duchossoir, and Fender Amps: The First Fifty Years by John Teagle and John Sprung.Name: Tony Rizzo
Hometown: Minocqua, Wisconsin
Guitar: The Wizard
I call this guitar "The Wizard." The inlays on the neck explain everything. This is a Warmoth bird's-eye maple neck that started its life in 1990. It was part of a kit I was building with a Warmoth quilted-maple body. I had Dave's Guitar Shop in La Crosse, Wisconsin, paint it a purple sunburst with clear center. After assembling the guitar, it just didn't vibe with me. The guitar sat for a few years and was more art than guitar.
One day, an old friend told me about a guy named Chris who was building lutes and doing crazy-cool inlay work. My friend lined up a time for us to visit his workshop, which was full of wood and little pieces of mother-of-pearl and abalone. The lutes he built were out-of-this-world gorgeous, with the most beautiful inlays in the neck, and the backs were beautiful alternating woods.
Chris said, "You should let me inlay a neck for you." My mind went to the Warmoth parts guitar. The next day, I dropped the guitar neck off at his shop. Time went by and I didn't hear anything from Chris, but I just thought, "Oh well, it takes time to inlay a neck." After about a year, I heard he moved away, so I sold the body through Dave's Guitar Shop and cut my losses.
Another year passed, and then I got a phone call. It was Chris! He said he'd moved but he finished my guitar neck and wanted to bring it over. He arrived within the hour. I was totally blown away. The craftsmanship is outstanding: He hand-cut every piece of abalone and mother-of-pearl. If you look close there is no filler. How he did this is way beyond my scope of knowledge. He also refretted the neck so it was ready to go. Now I had one of the most beautiful necks I'd ever seen … but I had sold the body.
I asked Ed Roman in Connecticut to build this neck into a guitar for me. When he received the neck, he was excited. He said it was absolutely stunning—he did not expect this! Ed wanted to use a koa body. I said, "What's that?" Exotic woods were not as common then as they are today. He explained it was from Hawaii and he would send me a few body blanks and I could pick the one I like the best. I received them and picked the one you see here.
Ed asked if he could put the R&L Guitar Works name on it, and he had luthier Barry Lipman build it for me. Ed was big on gold hardware—everything is gold. The bridge and the electronics are all from Paul Reed Smith. They installed a piezo in the bridge, which I believe is from a Parker Fly guitar, and you can run a stereo plug from the guitar and split to two different amps to blend the acoustic with electric.
When I opened the case, I was blown away by the finished guitar. The Wizard traveled on the road with me playing gigs all over Wisconsin for more than a decade. Sidenote: Chris wanted to inlay a dragon in the headstock, made to look like the wizard was firing fireballs at it, but he ran out of time. I have no idea what ever happened to Chris, or if he's still building awesome lutes. My dear friend Ed Roman since passed away, but this beautiful guitar lives on!
After the turn of the 1950s, around the time the Les Paul model was in the early planning stages, Les requested that an instrument be finished all in gold, as a gift for a disabled guitarist. Gibson chose an ES-175 body, and a one-off was made. This gold finish became the standard color for the Les Paul guitar, introduced in 1952. And that striking golden ES-175 became the inspiration for a new two-pickup model that debuted the same year.
This first-year Gibson ES-295 and early Fender Deluxe are part of the original recipe for rock 'n' roll. Elvis Presley's guitarist Scotty Moore bought his 295 in 1953, to replace a Fender Esquire.
Called the ES-295, that guitar was the full-sized hollowbody archtop complement to the solidbody Les Paul model. Is the new Les Paul too radical? Try our ES-295. While the 295 shared the same flashy finish and tailpiece with the Les Paul, it was, of course, still just a fancier two-pickup version of the ES-175. The actual two-pickup ES-175D did not appear until 1953.
A close-up view reveals the usual finish cracking for a model of this vintage, but the pickup housings and pickguard are remarkably intact.
The Gibson catalog's description of the then-new ES-295 stated: "The entire body and neck are finished in gleaming gold lacquer accented with the ivory color of the binding and guardplate." The debut-year ES-295 spotlighted in this column has the standard features for the model, which include that distinctive finish, two single-coil P-90s with cream covers, a 3-way pickup switch, Gibson's usual 4-dial control set, a cream pickguard with a gold floral design, that early Les Paul-style bridge/tailpiece combination, and gold-plated metal parts.
Around the time the Les Paul model was in the early planning stages, Les requested that an instrument be finished all in gold, as a gift for a disabled guitarist.
The bridge, by the way, was created by Paul to increase sustain, although it was a failure on the original generation of solidbody Les Paul guitars, because a design error routed the strings under the bridge instead of over it. They're in the correct place on the highly resonant ES-295. The model's clear, sustaining tone has made it popular with generations of players, from Scotty Moore to Danny Gatton. This ES-295's original price was—get ready for it—$295. The current value for one in excellent, all-original condition is $7,500.
Brand tectonics: Sure, they were competitors, but when it came to establishing the direction of electric guitar, the intersection of Gibson and Fender was transformative.
The amp behind the ES-295 is an early 1953 wide-panel Fender Deluxe 5B3. Two 6V6 power tubes push about 10 watts through the Jensen P12R speaker. The simple controls consist of an on/off knob doubling as a tone dial, a volume knob for the instrument channel, and a volume knob for the microphone channel. The original price was $99.50, while the current value is $3,500.
Sources for this article include Gibson Electrics: The Classic Years by A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Guitars: Ted McCarty's Golden Era: 1948-1966 by Gil Hembree, and Fender Amps: The First Fifty Years by John Teagle and John Sprung.
