Difference between Tele and 2-pickup Esquire?

[Telephonist]

Ok, this might be a real rookie question, but I never could figure out what´s the difference between a normal Tele and a 2-pickup Esquire.

Please don´t stone me for this question!

Thanks Daniel

[Telemarkman]

Is there a difference? Wiring maybe?

The original 1950's 2-pickup Esquires (pine, black) soon became the Broadcaster (ash, blonde) and eventually the Telecaster.

But maybe you're asking about the current Esquires/Teles?

[Mark Davis]

NO difference except the headstock decal.

[Mark Davis]

Spring 1950 to late summer 1950 Esquire Introduction specs:

1 or 2 pickups, but the one pickup "Single Esquire" appeared first, followed by the two pickup "Double Esquire".
Black laminated Pine body on first few Single Esquire examples, then changed to butterscotch blond on an Ash body during the summer of 1950.
Maple one piece neck with no truss rod on early examples, but a truss rod appeared on some late summer 1950 Esquires.
Serial number on bridge plate (earliest documented number 0013).
Steel bridge saddles on non-truss rod models, or brass on later models.
Steel brige pickup grounding plate with two wire notches in the pickup's black base.
Silver or gold "spaghetti" Fender peghead logo with black trim.
No string tree.
White pickguard on black Equires, black vulcanized fiber (often called "bakelite") pickguard (clear coated with lacquer) on blond bodies.
Round Dakaware switch tip with "Pat Pend".
Often the rear string ferrels are not aligned.
Some models use a maple plug (instead of walnut) on the peghead for the truss rod.
Peghead truss rod plug is more rounded.
Body date in neck pocket, usually no neck date.
Knurled chrome plated brass knobs with a semi-flat top.
Two patent number 3-way switch CRL 1452 (2291516, 2291517).
Stackpole pots (manufacturer number 304).
Blend control pickup wiring (no tone control).
All screws have slot heads (including the truss rod adjuster).
Brown rectangle Cornell Dubilier paper tone capacitor and brown tube paper tone caps used, plus a single carbon resistor (on two pickup models).
Kluson Deluxe tuners with "Kluson Deluxe" in a single vertical line (aka "single line"), no second hole on side of gear shell (for the tuner peg), "pat. appld." on side bottom side of gear shell and "pat appld 2356766" on tuner bottom.
Milled chrome plated brass jack cup with ribbing on sides to hold jack inside the body hole - no other attachment method used.
A guess is that about 60 pre-1951 Esquires were made.
Fall 1950 discontinued and replaced by the Broadcaster. No Esquires made from late September 1950 to January 1951.
January 1951 Esquire re-introduction specs (same specs as above, except):

Single pickup (though a dual pickup 1/51 Esquire has been seen).
Butterscotch Blond finish on ash body.
Round button string tree.
Brass bridge saddles.
Brass brige pickup grounding plate.
Single flat pole pickup in treble position.
Silver or gold (but most were gold) Fender "spaghetti" peghead logo with black trim.
Lead pickup wrapped with white string, and then the pickup is potted in wax (often making the white string look black).
Kluson Deluxe tuners with NO "Kluson Deluxe" in a single vertical line (aka "no line"), no second hole on side of gear shell (for the tuner peg), NO "pat. appl" on side bottom side of gear shell (moved to underside of tuner base).
"D" stamp often seen in the neck pocket and/or neck heel of 1951 to 1954 Esquires.

[boris bubbanov]

Originally Posted by Mark Davis

NO difference except the headstock decal.

+1

I sincerely feel like what happened was, necks for "Esquires" were made and then there seemed to be more need for a supply of the two pickup guitars. Fewer non Esquire necks were made because they didn't even know at one point what to call those. Broadcasters? Telecasters? Something else? Or put an Esquire decal on it and ship the sucker.

So oftentimes what we now know as one of those others got shipped with an Esquire decal on it. In a manner of speaking Teles were once called Esquires as well as those other names or no-names.


+++

I kinda wish FMIC CS had not started up this mess again. My way of looking at these guitars, as nice as they are, they're MULES. And they reopen the door to still another wave of people putting neck pickups in existing Esquires. I want to be able to give people a ration when they do that; the last thing we need is fewer true Esquires.

[Rusty356]

Originally Posted by Telephonist

Ok, this might be a real rookie question, but I never could figure out what´s the difference between a normal Tele and a 2-pickup Esquire.

Please don´t stone me for this question!

Thanks Daniel

Looks like I'm late to the party .... but better late than never, eh?
Back in the day, I owned a double pick-up Esquire. When I purchased my Double Esquire in 1966 from a music store in Winchester, VA, I thought it was just an early bstrd Telecaster. Later on, I thought it was a Nocaster, since there was no "Telecaster" decal under the "FENDER" logo. I have since learned that the used guitar I bought for $125.00 ($75.00 plus my 1964 FENDER Mustang trade-in) was definitely a Double Esquire.

Here are the differences between the Telecaster and my Double Esquire:

1.) My Double Esquire body was about 1/4" thinner than any of the Telecasters bodies I have ever seen.

2.) My Double Esquire body was made out of solid 1.5" thick pine planks, with different width boards glued together to make up the total width, but no top, side or back veneer (lamination). Pine is a very light-weight wood compared to the solid Ash bodies used for the early Telecasters. This, coupled with the fact that the Double Esquire was a 1/4" thinner guitar than a traditional Telecaster, made it an extremely light-weight axe. If you were doing 50 minute sets with 10 minute breaks for four hours, two or three times a week (not including rehearsal time) the Double Esquire made any other guitar out there feel like you were strapping on a Sherman Tank in comparison.

3.) My Double Esquire was finished in a chalky-white blonde stain (instead of the traditional butterscotch Telecaster stain). Since Pine is a closed-grain softwood and doesn't accept stain nearly as well as Ash or any other hardwood, the blonde stain took on an opaque quality with very little wood grain showing through.

4.) A serial number may have been on my Double Esquire's bridge plate, but I never noticed one (just Pat. Pending). No serial numbers were stamped on the neck plate like a Telecaster.

5.) My Double Esquire head stock logo read: "FENDER" .... and that's it. No "Esquire" designation.

6.) My Double Esquire pick guard was white. All of the original Telecasters (I've seen) have black pick guards.

7.) My Double Esquire had a plain Maple neck with no truss rod or stripe like the early Telecasters.

8.) My Double Esquire came with a standard Fender tweed case instead of the legendary Fender "Thermometer" case.

Being the genius that I was, I sold my Double Esquire in the early 70's for $175.00 ... and made a $50.00 profit. (ugh)

[Telemarkman]

Welcome to the TDPRI, Rusty356!

You're probably the first member of this forum who's had one of those early 2-pickup Esquires. Today they would be enormously valuable.

It's a well known fact that those early pine bodies were thinner than the later ash bodies though, both the single- and double-pickup versions.

It's also common knowledge that the earliest Esquires/Broadcasters had no truss rod.

Interesting is the white blond finish, as the known examples were painted black with a white pickguard (at least the one pictured in one of my books).

The double-pickup Esquire was only the second link in the Tele chain (except for the two prototypes), and as such a guitar still in progression.

[julesyoung]

great thread , building an esquire partscaster next week , single pick up , black with white guard , heavy relic
pics will be posted
jules

[Joefish]

Welcome Rusty!

Thank you for the great post.

[silenus]

Thanks for posting those wiring pics
I've been looking for this scheme for a while...

[EsquireOK]

Originally Posted by Mark Davis

Spring 1950 to late summer 1950 Esquire Introduction specs:

1 or 2 pickups, but the one pickup "Single Esquire" appeared first, followed by the two pickup "Double Esquire".
Black laminated Pine body on first few Single Esquire examples, then changed to butterscotch blond on an Ash body during the summer of 1950.
Maple one piece neck with no truss rod on early examples, but a truss rod appeared on some late summer 1950 Esquires.
Serial number on bridge plate (earliest documented number 0013).
Steel bridge saddles on non-truss rod models, or brass on later models.
Steel brige pickup grounding plate with two wire notches in the pickup's black base.
Silver or gold "spaghetti" Fender peghead logo with black trim.
No string tree.
White pickguard on black Equires, black vulcanized fiber (often called "bakelite") pickguard (clear coated with lacquer) on blond bodies.
Round Dakaware switch tip with "Pat Pend".
Often the rear string ferrels are not aligned.
Some models use a maple plug (instead of walnut) on the peghead for the truss rod.
Peghead truss rod plug is more rounded.
Body date in neck pocket, usually no neck date.
Knurled chrome plated brass knobs with a semi-flat top.
Two patent number 3-way switch CRL 1452 (2291516, 2291517).
Stackpole pots (manufacturer number 304).
Blend control pickup wiring (no tone control).
All screws have slot heads (including the truss rod adjuster).
Brown rectangle Cornell Dubilier paper tone capacitor and brown tube paper tone caps used, plus a single carbon resistor (on two pickup models).
Kluson Deluxe tuners with "Kluson Deluxe" in a single vertical line (aka "single line"), no second hole on side of gear shell (for the tuner peg), "pat. appld." on side bottom side of gear shell and "pat appld 2356766" on tuner bottom.
Milled chrome plated brass jack cup with ribbing on sides to hold jack inside the body hole - no other attachment method used.
A guess is that about 60 pre-1951 Esquires were made.
Fall 1950 discontinued and replaced by the Broadcaster. No Esquires made from late September 1950 to January 1951.
January 1951 Esquire re-introduction specs (same specs as above, except):

Single pickup (though a dual pickup 1/51 Esquire has been seen).
Butterscotch Blond finish on ash body.
Round button string tree.
Brass bridge saddles.
Brass brige pickup grounding plate.
Single flat pole pickup in treble position.
Silver or gold (but most were gold) Fender "spaghetti" peghead logo with black trim.
Lead pickup wrapped with white string, and then the pickup is potted in wax (often making the white string look black).
Kluson Deluxe tuners with NO "Kluson Deluxe" in a single vertical line (aka "no line"), no second hole on side of gear shell (for the tuner peg), NO "pat. appl" on side bottom side of gear shell (moved to underside of tuner base).
"D" stamp often seen in the neck pocket and/or neck heel of 1951 to 1954 Esquires.

These are not your words. Source: http://home.provide.net/~cfh/fender2.html#esquire. You can't just copy and paste something someone else researched and wrote, and present it as your own original content. That is real low.

[dogfootblues]

Is that last post serious or are you guys joking around?

[telex76]

Originally Posted by EsquireOK

These are not your words. Source: http://home.provide.net/~cfh/fender2.html#esquire. You can't just copy and paste something someone else researched and wrote, and present it as your own original content. That is real low.

Those are the specs. They don't change depending on who looked them up.

[Telemarkman]

Originally Posted by telex76

Those are the specs. They don't change depending on who looked them up.

Right!

I don't think anyone here has linked/referred to that site more often than Mark - except maybe myself.


Edit: wrong spelling.

[boris bubbanov]

Originally Posted by EsquireOK

These are not your words. Source: http://home.provide.net/~cfh/fender2.html#esquire. You can't just copy and paste something someone else researched and wrote, and present it as your own original content. That is real low.

Yeah, real "low" that he does me a favor and puts the information right in front of me, where and when I need it.

Low? I beg your pardon?

Also, please bear in mind how often we're asked the same stock questions, over and over. We're trying to help people quickly and thoroughly, not looking for credit, for goodness sake!

[Major Gruber]

Just to summarize : Leo Fender made the Esquire first, then wanted to make a two pickup guitars, he added one pickup to the Esquire, built a very few of those, and found a different name for the two pickups one (Broadcaster and later Telecaster). You've got all the details about that in the other answers.
But then, just a thought : as every Esquire has a normal Telecaster body with routing for the neck pickup, every Esquire can become a two pickups Esquire without any other modification than adding a pu.

[tpaul]

It's about the same as the difference between D# and Eb

[superbadj]

I think that dude has slapped Mark on the hand before for that same thing.

Lighten up, Francis. Mark gives a hell of a lot of great info to the site. And nobody thinks he typed that from memory.

[EsquireOK]

The point is being missed entirely. There's nothing wrong with copying and pasting it. But you can't just post it as your own words, which is what that fellow does repeatedly. You have to credit it to the person who created it. It's theft/plagiarism, which is very low. All it takes is a simple link.

[Chautauqua]

Originally Posted by EsquireOK

The point is being missed entirely. There's nothing wrong with copying and pasting it. But you can't just post it as your own words, which is what that fellow does repeatedly. You have to credit it to the person who created it. It's theft/plagiarism, which is very low. All it takes is a simple link.

No, you don't HAVE a point... It should be a crime to be this stupid and histrionic.

Calling it "theft" or "plagiarism" is so over the top it's just rediculous. Nobody paid him nor did he gain anything from posting the words. "theft" and "Plagirism" require purpose and intent not to mention some sort of gain to be had from comitting such a "crime". He smply answered the question in a timely mannor. Rather then cluttering up a thread or steering it off course like yourself, he actually HELPED.

Tell you what, call the cops, report this "theft" and see when they get back to you. "OK"??? Oh and please feel free to hold your breath while you wait.