This one starts life as something already quite special and then goes slightly off-script in the best possible way. A Fender Japan JV 50s Modified Telecaster, built in 2022 to celebrate 40 years of Fender Japan — a series that deliberately nods back to the legendary early JV instruments that made guitar nerds weak at the knees in the first place. In other words, Fender Japan took their own history seriously… and then we decided to have a bit of fun with it.
 
The body has been fully refinished in Olympic White nitro, because if you’re going to do a Tele tribute you might as well do it properly. The finish has been aged just enough to look like it’s lived a little, without trying too hard to convince anyone it survived the Eisenhower administration. The neck has received the same full nitro refin treatment — a soft V maple neck with worn nitro on the back that feels instantly broken-in. No sticky gloss, no awkward adjustment period, just that familiar “oh, this feels right” moment the second you pick it up.
 
Spec-wise this thing quietly ticks every box you actually care about. A generous 43.2 mm nut width, proper soft V profile, modern 9.5" radius, and rolled fretboard edges make it feel like shaking a hand of a long lost friend. Fresh 21 vintage frets mean it plays like a new guitar pretending to be an old one. The gold anodised guard leans hard into late-’50s Jazzmaster swagger, while the Pat Pend bridge with compensated brass saddles keeps everything perfectly in tune — because romance is nice, but intonation is nicer.
 
Electronics are where it stops pretending to be polite. The Fender Japan AlNiCo V vintage-style single coils deliver all the Tele DNA: bite, snap, and that slightly cheeky midrange that makes a Tele cut through anything. But the wiring has clearly been hanging around with interesting people. The 4-way switch adds the glorious in-series position — basically turning the pickups into a surprise humbucker when you need it — and the push-pull tone pot throws them out of phase, producing that wonderfully nasal, wiry tone that sounds like it’s trying to start an argument with your amp.
 
Hardware is solid, practical and quietly excellent. Original Gotoh vintage-style locking tuners, basswood body keeping the weight at a comfortable 3.3 kg, and factory routing all intact. The wear you see is intentional, purely cosmetic, and part of the nitro finish character — no structural issues, no drama, no hidden skeletons.
 
So what you end up with is a JV Tele that looks like it stepped out of 1957 but behaves like it’s from the future. Classic attitude, clever wiring, broken-in feel, and just enough mischief under the hood to keep things interesting.
 
In other words: a Telecaster that knows the rules very well… and occasionally ignores them.
 
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 24h courier, 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 if you are in the EU as we might be able to deliver in person