NGD Fender Classic 50's white blonde

[SylvesterFrost]

I had a Classic 50's strat some time ago and it was absolutely fantastic and I fell in love with the soft-V 7.25 neck, so I had to get a telecaster like that someday.
Well, the day has come and I got myself a Classic 50's telecaster in white blonde.
To my surprise, this is a different profile neck than the strat had (its C and yeah, I did not read the specs before pulling the trigger), yet regardless it is a beefy 50's one and still 7.25 which I love.

The sound is great - these pickups are some of the finest I have heard from Fender, particularly the bridge pickup. The Vintera and Player Modified that I had previously do not come even close. I wil not need to mess with these which is nice.

The pickguard - 1ply is the standard one, and as you see in the picture - it is not white anymore. Also the 1 ply pickguards tend to bend overtime and do not sit flush on the guitar which bothers me. The same thing happened to my strat that had 1 ply pickguard.
I have a Japanese Kasuga from the 70's that has a similar colour scheme albeit much older and road worn, so I think I will put a black pick guard on this Fender instead. For now I have put on an 8-hole pickguard as a placeholder, but a proper 5 screw one is coming soon.

Overall - a great instrument for a very reasonable price, especially when used.

 

[Skyhook]

I had a Classic 50's strat some time ago and it was absolutely fantastic and I fell in love with the soft-V 7.25 neck, so I had to get a telecaster like that someday.
Well, the day has come and I got myself a Classic 50's telecaster in white blonde.
To my surprise, this is a different profile neck than the strat had (its C and yeah, I did not read the specs before pulling the trigger), yet regardless it is a beefy 50's one and still 7.25 which I love.

The sound is great - these pickups are some of the finest I have heard from Fender, particularly the bridge pickup. The Vintera and Player Modified that I had previously do not come even close. I wil not need to mess with these which is nice.

The pickguard - 1ply is the standard one, and as you see in the picture - it is not white anymore. Also the 1 ply pickguards tend to bend overtime and do not sit flush on the guitar which bothers me. The same thing happened to my strat that had 1 ply pickguard.
I have a Japanese Kasuga from the 70's that has a similar colour scheme albeit much older and road worn, so I think I will put a black pick guard on this Fender instead. For now I have put on an 8-hole pickguard as a placeholder, but a proper 5 screw one is coming soon.

Overall - a great instrument for a very reasonable price, especially when used.View attachment 1366383View attachment 1366385

Exactly the Telecaster I have!
HNGD!

... although, for my mileage, I wouldn't go blackguard on this thing.

 

[Highway 49]

Very, very nice… I’ve got a Classic 50s Strat too, and I love it.
Not that you’ve asked, but I think a single ply white guard would be the way to go with this

 

[Gladhander]

Wow. White on white looks pretty awesome!

 

[Jazzy-Will]

I've got a 2017 Lacquer white blond. Picked it up for $600 (yes, $600!) a year or so ago with the original tweed case and paperwork. I think it was NOS because it's flawless and the plastic was still on the pickquard. Only change was I had the pickups swapped out to Fender Pure Vintage 51s and got a good setup. The original pickups were just ok. The neck profile and overall weight is very similiar to my 51 AV II. Great guitar.

 

[SylvesterFrost]

Very, very nice… I’ve got a Classic 50s Strat too, and I love it.
Not that you’ve asked, but I think a single ply white guard would be the way to go with this

I appreciate the feedback. You might be right and I might return to the white one after a while. Good thing about these telecasters, you can just swap these pickguards around whenever you choose without any issues, because the pickup is mounted directly on the body.

 

[Telecaster88]

White pickguard on white blonde is one of my favorite schemes. So clean and sweet. Blackguards are cool, but whiteguards are my fave.

 

[Fretting out]

White pickguard on white blonde is one of my favorite schemes. So clean and sweet. Blackguards are cool, but whiteguards are my fave.

View attachment 1366475

Especially single ply

 

[SylvesterFrost]

Yeah, the original one is rather yellow already, not white, which is why I tried the black one

 

[regularslinky]

Nice! I prefer white on white (see profile pic). I love the chunky necks on these things. It was a Classic 50's Esquire that helped me discover my love of the chunk - one of my all-time favorite necks.

 

[brookdalebill]

Classy!

 

[mimmo]

Congratulations!

 

[FendrGuitPlayr]

White pickguard on white blonde is one of my favorite schemes. So clean and sweet. Blackguards are cool, but whiteguards are my fave.

View attachment 1366475

Schweet!

 

[KelvinS1965]

Congratulations; I'm very partial to White Blonde. Mine is the Lacquer version, bought used at about 6 months old, so was in immaculate condition. I'd owned my '57 spec JV Squier Strat since 1982, so by this point I'd worked out that it was also 7.25" radius and vintage frets, so this Tele would feel very familiar. I don't find the neck that fat though, especially having tried some much fatter ones since.

Over the years I've tried different pickguards on it, also a Rosewood neck at one point, plus a much fatter '51 U' MIM neck that ended up on my avatar build.

Not that it's hard to find on line, but here are some pictures of mine with different pickguards and neck for ideas/inspiration:

With Rosewood neck, close to '59 spec (like a budget Jimmy Page mirror Tele), steel saddles at this point:

Just before I put it all back to standard ready to sell (I'm currently spraying another body in White Blonde to transfer the fat neck and bakelite 'guard, etc on to from my avatar Tele). The Rosewood neck ended up on my Cabronita build next to it:

Just hoping I can get a similar quality finish on my new body, so it looks as good as this: I'm only selling it because it's worth much more than my partscaster and I don't need two similar Teles.

 

[bottlenecker]

I've got a 2017 Lacquer white blond. Picked it up for $600 (yes, $600!) a year or so ago with the original tweed case and paperwork. I think it was NOS because it's flawless and the plastic was still on the pickquard. Only change was I had the pickups swapped out to Fender Pure Vintage 51s and got a good setup. The original pickups were just ok. The neck profile and overall weight is very similiar to my 51 AV II. Great guitar.


View attachment 1366461

I have a 2017 lacquer white blonde also, and for $600 I think I'd buy another one.

 

[Reedo]

Congratulations.

 

[Gary in Boston]

I never get tired of that look.................

 

[Jullecaster]

These are seriously great guitars (if you can get on with the vintage frets)!

 

[SylvesterFrost]

These are seriously great guitars (if you can get on with the vintage frets)!

Yeah, this is the one with vintage frets. I love them too

 

[Apollwn]

I've said it many times. Those Classic Series '50s strats and teles were exceptionally good instruments for the money... which I don't think is the case for most Fender models.