This Fender Custom Shop 51 Nocaster Heavy Relic in Faded Nocaster Blonde weighs 7 lbs 9 oz. Notable specs include a lightweight Swamp Ash Body, one-piece U Shaped quarter-sawn maple neck, and a pair of hand-wound pickups.
This Heavy Relic Telecaster features all the wear and tear you'd expect to see on someone's well-traveled #1. The body features dings, dents, wear spots, belt buckle rash, and weather checking. The back of the neck is stripped of lacquer for a smooth, fast, and dry feeling. While the fingerboard also shows wear spots just like you'd expect to see on a real VIntage Tele with a maple neck.
The body is made from Swamp Ash. This tonewood is synonymous with the early 1950s guitar from Fender. It is bright, open, and airy sounding with a string acoustic Kerrang that rings out with brilliance. A Swamp Ash body combined with a one-piece maple neck, and brass saddles is a recipe for success. If you play clean and want that Clean-Country spank, squawk, and sweetness, then no other combo will do the trick!
The neck is made from quarter-sawn maple and carved into a Nocaster U Shape. Using quarter-sawn woods increases stability which is just what you want on any guitar. This is a big neck from nut to butt. It measures in at .968" at the 1st fret and then 1.004" at the 12th. The fingerboard radius is 9.5" and 21 Narrow Tall 6105 Frets are installed. Classic Fender Scale Length of 25.5" and a nut width of 1.650" provide you with a familiar feel.
The pickups are one of our favorite combos. First of all, both pickups are hand-wound at the Fender Custom Shop. The neck pickup is a Texas Special but when wound by hand, this pickup increases in clarity, dynamic response, and it plays incredibly well with the volume and tone controls. The bridge pickup is a hand-wound Nocaster which absolutely nails the tone of the era. Barking, biting, snarling, this bridge pickup is too die for! With both pickups combined, we get a rich, acoustic-like tone, that offers the perfect balance between these 2 drastically different-sounding pickups.
The Music Gallery has been a Fender Custom Shop dealer since its formation in 1987. We keep a bevy of Fender Custom Shop instruments in stock at all times. Whether you're looking for a Stratocaster, Telecaster, Precision Bass, Jazz Basses, Jaguar, or Jazzmaster, we can help you design or find the special instrument you're looking for!
