Fender Custom Shop Masterbuilt George Harrison Tribute Rosewood Telecaster

Fender Custom Shop Masterbuilt George Harrison Tribute Rosewood Telecaster Overview

Fender Custom Shop Masterbuilt George Harrison Tribute Rosewood Telecaster overview by GAK:

About as iconic an electric guitar as there has ever been! The public debut of Fender's prototype Rosewood Telecaster was what turned out to be the Beatles last ever performance together. Fender had been particularly keen to get George using it in the Beatles upcoming 'Let It Be' film- so much so that they bought a first class seat for it on the plane that flew it over the Atlantic to England from the States!

So, in honour of George Harrison, the Fender Custom Shop has recreated the famous Rosewood Telecaster prototype seen in “Let It Be” with painstakingly detailed precision. Renowned for his masterfully understated, yet always inventive and inspirational guitar playing, Harrison laid the path for subsequent would-be rock guitarists to follow.

At an undisclosed location, Master Builder Paul Waller closely examined Harrison’s unique original instrument to recreate this legendary guitar as accurately as possible. Appearing stock to a casual observer, subtle details set this guitar apart as both a prototype instrument and an exceptional Custom Shop creation. Seductively alluring, with soft, warm look, the body is crafted from four pieces of hand-selected rosewood sandwiching a thin maple veneer, just like the original prototype created by Fender’s Roger Rossmeisl and Phillip Kubicki and gifted to Harrison in 1968. These pieces of rosewood were chosen for their grain pattern, enhancing the already stunning aesthetics of this guitar. The sleek rosewood neck is fashioned from two pieces of rosewood capped with a rosewood fingerboard, just like Harrison’s original, instead of the traditional one-piece construction. The neck’s visible seam line adds to the character of the instrument, marking it as a unique creation. The nut is 1/8” wider than most vintage Telecasters for a unique advantage while playing; the wider string spacing makes it easier to finger chords that ring out loud and clear, with plenty of crisp articulation.

In a subtly distinctive aesthetic touch, the early-‘60s style “spaghetti” logo decal sits atop the finish, instead of the era’s typical “transition” logo underneath the finish. The decal is also placed closer to the nut than is traditional, resulting in a relocated string tree and slightly altered break angle behind the nut. The hardware is as historically accurate as possible; a vintage-style three-saddle bridge, 21 narrow jumbo frets, a bone nut and classic Fender “F”-stamped tuning machines are all present, just as on the original instrument. The pickups were hand wound by none other than famed winder Abigail Ybarra, who broke her 2013 retirement to apply her expertise to this historic recreation’s pickups. Airy and clear-sounding, they make the guitar’s voice come alive with amazingly well-defined note articulation and incredibly reactive, highly dynamic tone.

Paul Waller’s world-class craftsmanship and attention to detail, subtle aesthetic touches and appointments and, of course, the hand wound “Abby” pickups all add up to make the George Harrison Tribute Rosewood Telecaster a once-in-a-lifetime tribute to a truly fabulous instrument that could only come from the Dream Factory—the Fender Custom Shop.

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