If you're thinking about a neck pickup when playing this Esquire through a cranked amp, you're missing the point - this one is all about having fun and simply playing.

If we're honest, it must be incredibly challenging for the folks at the Fender Custom Shop to dream up new ideas. I think we'd all agree that Leo Fender got it right, right off the bat, all the way back in the 1950s. Telecasters, Stratocasters, Jazzmasters, P Basses, Jazz Basses, etc...these are iconic instruments that need nothing, they just work.

We're glad the folks at the FCS continue striving and pushing these designs into new places - take or example, this fantastic LTD "Red Hot" Esquire. This is a thinline style Esquire with a flipped bridge pickup, reversed control plate, Josefina-wound Red Hot bridge pickup, and a 3-way switch that features volume only controls (bridge position), volume and tone (middle position), and a "cocked wah" setting when in the neck position. This is on the 3-way switch to clarify.

We assume you might be thinking, "well, sure, I've seen flipped bridge pickups and control plates...so what?"

We get that, we've seen these specs too - however - it's the way all of these specs roll together that makes this guitar special. Put simply? This guitar is SO much fun to play and sounds incredible. It's alive, loud acoustically, resonant, really easy to play with its compound radius (7 1/4 - 9 1/2"), and the 3-way selector and Josefina Red Hot Tele pickup combo? Chef's kiss.

"But I need a neck pickup." Nah, not on this one. If you're thinking about a neck pickup when playing this Esquire through a cranked amp, you're missing the point - this one is all about having fun and simply playing (see EVH pic). It's early Van Halen. It's a 911 wide open on the highway. It's sexy. It's no frills. It's awesome, and we want it for ourselves. :-)