Fender Esquire, Blonde (1956)

A one-owner "White Guard" Esquire that combines some of the most desirable features of a "Blackguard" and the later 50s single-cuts.

This 1956 Fender Esquire was recently acquired from the family of its original owner, and stands as one of the cleaner 50s Fenders we've had come through the shop to date. With its Blonde finish, chunky Soft V Maple neck, and 5-hole single ply white pickguard, it represents the very best of the Version 2 Esquire following the historic Blackguard era from 1950-1954.

This particular Esquire spent the majority of its life cased up, with only a few short years having been played, if even that much! The Blonde finish remains essentially unfaded, with very little distinguishable difference between the exposed areas of the body and under the pickguard. The lacquer on the fingerboard is also quite well preserved with just a hint of play wear in the first position. A rather unique feature of this Esquire is the use of a seemingly rare "no stamp" bridge. In our limited but effective research, we've determined that Fender may have had a batch of bridges installed on a handful of Telecasters and Esquires without the 'Pat Pend' stamp. All other examples of this phenomenon are guitars that were date marked in July of 1956, denoting a very narrow window where these were used. The reason is unclear, but nevertheless it's yet another production quirk of the Golden Age period of Fender solidbodies.

The guitar has remained virtually untouched with the exception of an unfortunate removal and discarding of the original pickup. Thankfully, we've sourced a period-correct pickup with its original wind intact, reattaching it to the original wiring harness and circuit. It sounds spectacular! Full, clear, and woody, with a nice sparkle to the overall tone.

The original Esquire circuit is a joy to play with as well - setting up the middle position on the switch allows for use of both volume and tone controls, and then switching into the conventional bridge pickup position bypasses the tone control entirely. Think of it like a Verse-Chorus or Rhythm-Solo toggle - you can preset your base tone with the tone rolled off a bit, then kick things into high gear in the bypassed position for more cut and fundamental kick.