This vintage 1957 Fender Telecaster in original white Blond finish with white pickguard is simply the finest Fender guitar I've ever had. I'm always a Fender guitar buyer, but I'm especially looking for 1950s and 1960s Telecaster guitars. You can contact me here to sell a Fender guitar. You can read more of the story of this guitar here: 1957 Fender Telecaster from Georgia.
Or you can get help with Fender guitar dating here: How to date Fender guitars.
Check out another 1957 Fender Telecaster here.
This is certainly the nicest preserved 1950s Fender Telecaster I've ever seen in person. How do we date this Fender Telecaster? Let's start with the serial number on the neck plate. We know from this page (Fender Serial Numbers) that 5 digit serials that begin with a "-" symbol come from 1957. We can also see a white Blond finish that fades from translucent to opaque on the edges, grain matching that of an Ash body, a Maple neck and fretboard, and a headstock logo on the top half above the string tree. These features would all support dating the guitar to 1957. We can also see part of the potentiometer code on the tone pot that indicates the 4th week of 1957 (how to date Fender guitars with potentiometer codes). Most of the code is obscured by solder though which is typical.
I originally intended to remove the bolts from the neck to check the pencil date on the heel to help with how to date this Fender guitar. Since the screws were pretty tight and appeared to have never been removed, I decided against it. The neck pitch was perfect so there was really no need to remove it. I was able to access the truss rod nut through the channel underneath the pickguard. I photographed the area because I could see a little bit of the pencil date: "2/5x". Looks like it was signed in pencil in February of 195x (I'm betting 1957).
The tuners on the back of the headstock were the single line Kluson with hollow posts, the typical variety found on Fender electric guitars from about 1956 to the end of 1964. The peghead logo, positioned above the butterfly shaped string tree, the spaghetti logo typical of the late 1950s. The thin white plastic pickguard featured 5 screw holes. It weighed 7lbs even. The neck thickness measured .90" deep at the first fret and .98" deep at the 12th fret. The profile was a soft V shape typical of 1955, 1956, up until late 1957.
This picture shows the body with the pickguard removed. It's helpful to look underneath the pickguard on Fender guitars to check for prior modifications or repairs including routes or evidence of a refinish. We can see two nail holes in this pictures that are filled with the pinkish brown buffing compound sometimes found on 1950s Fender guitar. One nail hole is between the neck heel and the neck pickup on the bass side and one is on the treble horn of the body.
This picture shows the original bridge pickup on the 1957 Fender Telecaster. Fender introduced raised D and G pole pieces in Telecaster pickups in 1955 in an attempt to balance the output of each string. We can also see black flatwork and black twine surrounding the coil. The magnetic polarity of both pickups was south to strings, which makes for a fabulous in phase middle position! The switching is bridge pickup, neck pickup, and neck pickup with low pass filter capacitor. The both on parallel middle position is found between the bridge pickup position and the neck pickup position. It's tons of fun to play with!
