I’m obsessed, there’s no better word for it. I’m not much of a Fender Telecaster fan, and I’ve yet to have anyone explain to me how the Esquire model has just one pickup but still needs a three-point selector switch, and these pre-CBS vintage guitars each cost more than the down payment on a good-size house — but hot damn, these Esquires are gorgeous:
The way these finishes have faded/been rubbed down by decades of playing have resulted in this subtle, opaque-on-the-edge to transparent-in-the-center blonde sunburst that just kills me. Unlike the jiveass “relic” overkill that’s been raging through the field since the late ’90s, this ragged effect can’t be simulated — even by an entire platoon of Dremel-wielding goons.