Fender American Vintage love

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EOengineer

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I was rearranging my music storage room yesterday and was reminded how awesome my vintage spec fenders are.

Anybody else love these guitars? Post ‘em up!

Here are a few of mine.

2017 AV-52 - I tend to prefer to build my own teles, but I bough this off the rack after trying 5-6 in a GC when I wondered into the store as they were receiving a new shipment loaded with them. It’s crazy light, has a big fat 50s neck, and sounds like a tele should.
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2011 AVRI 62 reissue - an impossibly sleek 60s Strat vibe that’s starting to pick up some dings and play wear.
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2012 FSR 54 reissue thin skin - this one is a limited run with a 9.5 radius and custom shop fat 50s from the factory.

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Very nice! Love all of these.
I only have 1 tele at the moment, a '95 MIJ anniversary model with mostly vintage specs except for the modern bridge. Decently thick neck and feels like a D shape. I'm working on a partscaster tele and should wrap it up this week.
 
FuzzyAce said:
Very nice! Love all of these.
I only have 1 tele at the moment, a '95 MIJ anniversary model with mostly vintage specs except for the modern bridge. Decently thick neck and feels like a D shape. I'm working on a partscaster tele and should wrap it up this week.
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I LOVE the MIJ stuff. Can’t wait to see the partscaster. What specs are you targeting?

DrewJD82 said:
Damn, I LOVE the grain that ‘54 reissue!
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The grain sold the guitar. That swamp ash is HEAVY, which put it outside my spec preferences but I couldn’t pass up all that figuring. Luckily it sounds and plays awesome too.
 
Japan home market 54 reissue
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USA 54 pickups and plastic parts this was a limited 60th anniversary Japanese only guitar. I sold it because I can’t do 7.25 and tiny frets. Also it is so perfect that I didn’t want to change it. I built this instead;
IMG_1374.jpeg
 
EOengineer said:
Can’t wait to see the partscaster. What specs are you targeting?
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The only vintage aspects are the body, tuners and bridge really. Gotoh aged, as well as rest of the hardware.
Fender Olympic white body, 60's style. I had to rout out for a mini HB in the neck position.
Warmoth Boatneck, 1 pc maple, evo 6100, 22 frets. I did a satin lacquer finish over the neck, and then scotched it after I was happy with the # of coats. So it will have a slightly worn in feel and patina, but not all chipped up and overly aged.
Dimarzio PG13 mini hum, and Super Distortion S in the bridge. Adding a bass cut mini switch between volume and tone knobs. It'll be able to rock hard but also have some nice clean tones.

I LOVE the MIJ stuff.
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Here's my '95 MIJ @EOengineer :

95-tele.png
 
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Eagle said:
Japan home market 54 reissue
View attachment 8580
View attachment 8581View attachment 8582
USA 54 pickups and plastic parts this was a limited 60th anniversary Japanese only guitar. I sold it because I can’t do 7.25 and tiny frets. Also it is so perfect that I didn’t want to change it. I built this instead;
View attachment 8584
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The MIJ 54 looks KILLER. I’ll have to keep an eye out for one of these as I’m starting to come around to accept I might have a thing for 7.25 and vintage frets. I like feeling the wood under the strings.

That built looks great. The aging white finish with the gold pickguard is nice.

FuzzyAce said:
The only vintage aspects are the body, tuners and bridge really. Gotoh aged, as well as rest of the hardware.
Fender Olympic white body, 60's style. I had to rout out for a mini HB in the neck position.
Warmoth Boatneck, 1 pc maple, evo 6100, 22 frets. I did a satin lacquer finish over the neck, and then scotched it after I was happy with the # of coats. So it will have a slightly worn in feel and patina, but not all chipped up and overly aged.
Dimarzio PG13 mini hum, and Super Distortion S in the bridge. Adding a bass cut mini switch between volume and tone knobs. It'll be able to rock hard but also have some nice clean tones.
Click to expand...
Yeah sounds like it’s a good one. I use the Gotoh in-tune bridge and saddles on all my tele builds and they work well.

I hope the mini hum works well for you. My number 1 started with a SD firebird pickup in the neck. I actually quite liked it on its own but missed the single coil neck tone which I use a lot. I kept the pickup when I pulled it and am hoping to put it in another tele later - maybe something with a short bridge and a firebird in the bridge too.
 
EOengineer said:
I hope the mini hum works well for you. My number 1 started with a SD firebird pickup in the neck. I actually quite liked it on its own but missed the single coil neck tone which I use a lot. I kept the pickup when I pulled it and am hoping to put it in another tele later - maybe something with a short bridge and a firebird in the bridge too.
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I did at one point have the PG13s in my current #1 strat. Sounded great but I decided to save them for another project. I'm mainly a single coil neck pickup kinda player, and more often the noise cancelling variety. Only 2 have a full HB in the neck. So just trying to mix it up and diversify my guitars a bit more. The PG13 is slightly warmer, nice midrange with a smooth top end. I think with my tele project it should match well. And having a bass cut switch will help if things get a little tubby.
 
FuzzyAce said:
The only vintage aspects are the body, tuners and bridge really. Gotoh aged, as well as rest of the hardware.
Fender Olympic white body, 60's style. I had to rout out for a mini HB in the neck position.
Warmoth Boatneck, 1 pc maple, evo 6100, 22 frets. I did a satin lacquer finish over the neck, and then scotched it after I was happy with the # of coats. So it will have a slightly worn in feel and patina, but not all chipped up and overly aged.
Dimarzio PG13 mini hum, and Super Distortion S in the bridge. Adding a bass cut mini switch between volume and tone knobs. It'll be able to rock hard but also have some nice clean tones.



Here's my '95 MIJ @EOengineer :

View attachment 8586
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Oh that’s killer with the matching headstock. Beautiful guitar!

spawnofthesith said:
AV thinskin '55 tele

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Those 55 thin skins are one of the best Fender factory guitars IMO. The necks are incredible…I think fairly similar to the American Original 50s necks IIRC.

The SG though…wow. Is that the current SG Special offering because maybe I need to give those a second look because I love Gibsons with P90s. Kind of a random question, but do you happen to know what the pot values are for volume and tone on your SG?
 
EOengineer said:
Oh that’s killer with the matching headstock. Beautiful guitar!


Those 55 thin skins are one of the best Fender factory guitars IMO. The necks are incredible…I think fairly similar to the American Original 50s necks IIRC.

The SG though…wow. Is that the current SG Special offering because maybe I need to give those a second look because I love Gibsons with P90s. Kind of a random question, but do you happen to know what the pot values are for volume and tone on your SG?
Click to expand...

Took me a minute to adjust to how big the neck is but I definitely love it now lol

I think they discontinued the Pelham blue finish last year but you can still get P90 loaded specials. I have no idea about the pot values unfortunately
 
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