Every now and then Fender comes up with a special edition that makes you wonder why they didn't just make it part of the regular catalogue. This is one of those.

The American Vintage Reissue ’52 Telecaster Special was a relatively short-lived model, produced between 1998 and 2001. Essentially, Fender took the familiar AVRI ’52 recipe, selected some particularly nice ash for the body and added gold hardware. Not exactly a radical departure from the original Telecaster formula, but then nobody ever accused a Telecaster of needing much improvement. Sometimes a little gold is all it takes.

This is a 2001 example in its original two-tone Sunburst nitrocellulose finish, with a lovely honey-amber maple neck and enough natural lacquer checking and ageing to make it look like it's been around the block a few times. The body is swamp ash with the correct original single-coil routing, and weighs a very respectable 3.7kg. There's plenty of genuine finish wear, edge wear and dings across the body, all purely cosmetic. No structural issues, no drama, just a rather handsome old Telecaster getting on with life.

The neck is a proper U-shape maple affair, finished in glossy amber nitro with plenty of clear-coat crackling. It's pencil dated 28.11.2000 at the heel and stamped Jan 17 2001. The 7.25" radius maple fingerboard carries 21 vintage frets with minimal wear, and the measurements are 22.2mm at the first fret and 23.6mm at the twelfth, with a 42.4mm bone nut. The vintage-style slotted tuners have developed a nicely worn finish, while the whole neck has that lovely old Fender look and feel. Big maple neck, slightly battered lacquer, no unnecessary complications.

The gold-finished Fender Pat Pending bridge with brass saddles is the obvious star of the show. It's a proper piece of Telecaster hardware, complete with the original gold ashtray cover, and looks particularly good against the Sunburst finish. The original Fender American Vintage ’52 single-coils are still doing their thing, connected through the original wiring with CTS pots, an Oak three-way switch and Switchcraft jack. The tone capacitor has been upgraded to a ceramic type, but otherwise it's a very straightforward setup. Plug in, turn up, play Telecaster. You know the drill.

The black one-ply pickguard currently fitted gives it a slightly more understated look, but the original white pickguard will be supplied with the guitar. So you can have it looking a little more traditional whenever the mood takes you. Or not. We're not here to tell you how to live.

And the accessories are rather special in their own right. It comes with its original Fender USA G&G brown tolex hardcase with yellow plush interior, plus the original case candy: 1950s-style Fender leather strap, gold ashtray cover, serial-numbered hang-tag, manual, polishing cloth and even the case keys. Somebody clearly kept the receipts, or at least had the good sense not to throw everything into a drawer and forget about it.

So, a rare special edition from a very short production run, with specially selected ash, original nitro finish, gold hardware, original pickups and wiring, and all the original accessories. Basically an AVRI ’52 Telecaster that got dressed up for a night out and never quite went back to normal.

They only made these for a few years. Which is a shame, really. Gold looks rather good on a Telecaster.

This instrument received a full professional setup with deep body clean, neck deep clean and full electronics check. Restringed with D'addario 10-46 nickel-plated steel strings.

This guitar will be shipped around UK with Parcelforce and UPS couriers, safely packed into a sturdy guitar cardboard box. 24h courier service provided to UK customers. We also ship to USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and many other places, but at the moment we don't ship to EU or Northern Ireland - but please drop us a message to discuss this.