Rare high-end 52 Telecasters
(made for Japanese market)
True to the classic original that revolutionized the electric guitar.
Get the Fender Vintage '52 Telecaster and you'll be using it at most of your gigs. All original specs are adhered to in this faithful reissue, including neck shape, fingerboard radius, hardware, pickups, and electronics.
Fender Vintage Series '52 Telecaster Features:
■ Premium ash body
■ Tinted maple neck
■ Original Tele bridge
■ Two American Vintage Tele pickups with vintage pickup switching
■ Cloth-wrapped wire
These are TL52-90's, the very top end of Telecaster production models intended for the Japanese market. It was made by Fender Japan in 1991. It is marked "Made in Japan" indicating that it was made at the legendary Fujigen factory. These are extremely rare, especially in the US. The TL52-90 is an exact replica of the legendary 1952 Blackguard Telecaster, although it has the usual slimmer neck that you find on Fender Japan models.
It features an ash body. It is on the light side. The body is marked "A" indicating premium wood. The finish is all nitro. The pickups are Fender USA "vintage" pickups.
Amazing guitars. As clean as you will find for 18 years old - close to mint!!
One interesting feature is the bridge plate. It does not match any description you will find of what an MIJ Tele bridge plate should look like. Rather, it appears to be a USA part - probably an overrun from the early USA Vintage series. Those bridge plates had a serial number - with no letter prefix - and a dimple just under the number. The purpose of the dimple was to distinguish the reissues from the actual 1952 guitars. Knowledgeable people have told me the bridge must be non-original. But in fact it is original. I have the warranty card that matches the number on the bridge plate.
The "90" in "TL52-90" means that the original price when new in 1991 was 90,000 yen.
Converting that to dollars, that is almost $1,500.-!!!
