This is exactly the sort of guitar where the age is half the fun: 30 years old, 75 years of Telecaster history behind it, and looking increasingly like it has been quietly getting on with the business of becoming a proper old Fender.

Finished in its original Butterscotch Blonde nitrocellulose lacquer with the obligatory black 1-ply “bakelite” pickguard, this is pretty much the Telecaster blueprint as nature intended. Except nature has spent the last 30 years slowly attacking the lacquer, and frankly, the results are excellent.

The finish has cracked, checked, worn around the edges and picked up plenty of little dings across the body, while the honey-amber neck has developed the sort of clear-coat crackling that makes a new guitar look slightly embarrassed to be in the same room.

The swamp ash body retains its original vintage-correct SS routing and weighs 3.7kg, with the original black 1-ply “bakelite” guard and Fender Pat Pending bridge still in place. The bridge has the serial number stamped into it and retains its brass saddles, while the original Kluson-style slotted tuners have gone nicely into aged nickel territory. Nothing particularly complicated going on here. It's a Telecaster. Two pieces of wood, some metal, a couple of magnets and an unreasonable ability to make you want to buy another amplifier.

The maple neck is a a bit more rare U shape (vast majority of 52RI Teles will have a soft V shape neck), with a 7.25" radius and 21 vintage frets showing minimal wear. Also, unlike most other 52 Teles, this neck is pretty moderate in size - someone at the factory really spend their time making sure this is as comfortable as possible. The neck heel is dated 25 Jun 1996 - on that day no. 1 song in the US Billboard chart was "The Crossroads" by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Screaming Trees released "Dust", their critically acclaimed final studio album.

The neck finish looks like an old painting — lots of checking and ageing, but still plenty of glossy amber lacquer. It has that lovely old-Fender feeling where your hand stops noticing the finish altogether and just gets on with playing.

The one obvious change is under the bonnet. The original pickups have been replaced with Fender Vintage Noiseless units, using enamel-coated magnet wire and flat-pole Alnico II magnets. So you've got the warmer attack and slightly softer midrange of Alnico II, but without the usual Telecaster soundtrack of electrical hum. Very useful if you enjoy recording guitars rather than recording guitars plus the electromagnetic history of your entire neighbourhood.

The wiring is all vintage Tele: CTS solid-shaft pots, true paper-in-oil vintage tone capacitor, CRL three-way switch and Switchcraft jack. No digital nonsense, no Bluetooth, no app. You turn the knob and something happens. Beautiful.

And then there’s the tweed case. Original Fender, orange plush interior, and looking like it has spent the last 30 years being thrown into the back of vans and airplanes. Plenty of outside wear, which is exactly how these cases are supposed to look after three decades. It has probably seen more questionable car journeys than most of us.

There’s no structural damage anywhere — just a lot of honest cosmetic ageing. Edge wear, dings, lacquer checking, faded-looking areas and the general patina you get when a guitar has been allowed to live a life rather than being wrapped in bubbles and stored in a cupboard.

And that's really what makes this one special. A rare early American Vintage Reissue ’52, built in Fender's 50th anniversary year, now sitting here 30 years later in the Telecaster's 75th anniversary year. Original swamp ash body, original neck, original nitro finish, original hardware, original tweed case — with a tasteful pickup upgrade that makes the thing considerably more usable in the modern world.

Thirty years old and still doing exactly what a Telecaster is supposed to do.

It has wrinkles, it has scars and it doesn't care what your other guitars think.

That's a proper 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.