Vintage-style Tele with a Modern Twist
The Fender Custom Shop Limited-edition ’61 Telecaster Relic is a beautiful re-creation of a well-played classic that puts the sound, feel, and looks of the '60s at your fingertips. This guitar sports the standard Tele tonewood combo of a resonant 2-piece alder body and a quarter-sawn maple/rosewood neck, outfitted with a beautiful Relic finish for a worn-in feel from day one. A Blackguard pickup in the bridge produces an authentic Tele twang that's modeled after the earliest Telecasters. Meanwhile, a Twisted Tele neck pickup delivers a Stratocaster-style smoothed out, mellow tone — it's all tied together with a Greasebucket circuit for serious tone sculpting. Plus, the modernized narrow-tall frets in a 9.5-inch radius offer a serious playability upgrade, making this Custom Shop Tele the best of both the vintage and modern worlds.
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‘60s Oval “C” profile neck
There’s a reason why the “C” profile neck has served as the standard Fender neck shape for decades — it’s simply a great middle-ground neck style that all types of players have come to love. That being said, the “C” has quite a few minor variations, and if you’re a player that likes a slightly chunkier neck, you’ll love the Fender Custom Shop Limited-edition ’61 Telecaster Relic’s ‘60s Oval “C” profile. This profile offers all the comfort of a standard “C”, but with a greater heft to better fill out your hand. Plus, this vintage-style neck is outfitted with a variety of modern appointments: 21 vintage-tall frets in a modern 9.5-inch radius make anything from open chords to high-register bends a breeze.
Hand-wound Custom Shop pickups
Looking for old-school Tele twang? The ’61 Telecaster Relic’s bridge-position Blackguard pickup offers a stunning recreation of the earliest Tele tones, with unlimited clarity, articulation, and bite on tap. To balance out this powerful pickup, the neck position sports a Twisted Tele pickup for a mellowed-out, Stratty tone. What’s more, the Greasbucket tone circuit is perfect for rolling down the tone without increasing bass frequencies, making the ’61 Telecaster Relic an incredibly versatile addition to your tonal toolbox.
The Relic treatment
Though a relic’d guitar finish is almost as common these days as a flawless factory finish, it was the Fender Custom Shop that pioneered the process — and they know how to do it better than anyone. These days, Fender offers different levels of finish distressing, but one of the original techniques is the Relic, found on this Limited Edition '61 Telecaster Relic. This is an authentic nitrocellulose lacquer finish, which is thinner than today’s polyurethane finishes, allowing the wood to breathe and the tone to bloom. You get a look and feel that’s definitely used, but not abused. Imagine a beloved, decades-old guitar that’s seen its fair share of front-line action, with a played-in feel but perfect fretwork. And like every fine instrument in our Guitar Gallery, it’s been through Sweetwater’s 55-point Inspection and plays splendidly, right out of the box.
Fender Custom Shop Limited-edition ’61 Telecaster Relic Electric Guitar Features:
- Fender Custom Shop Relic finish for a worn-in feel right out of the box
- Resonant and lightweight 2-piece alder body
- Sturdy quarter-sawn maple neck in a comfortable ‘60s Oval “C” shape
- Dark rosewood fingerboard loaded with 21 narrow-tall frets in a 9.5-inch radius
- Hand-wound Custom Shop pickup combo of a twangy Broadcaster-style Blackguard bridge pickup and a mellow Twisted Tele pickup in the neck
- Greasebucket tone circuit allows you to roll down the tone without boosting bass frequencies
- Vintage-style Fender tuners make string changes a breeze
- 3-saddle Barrel bridge for authentic Tele tone
- Medium Tint Nitro Lacquer allows your guitar to continue to age naturally
