As seen in Guitar Girl Magazine Issue 14 – New York-inspired
Here, we’ll take a closer look at the 70th Anniversary Edition Esquire with its lightweight pine body, punchy tones, and historic accuracy to the original, which was the first Fender solid-body.
This guitar has bite. It’s got that snappy chime that makes you want to play gritty Delta blues, throw on overdrive and delay for rock and roll, or clean it up and do some country chicken pickin’. It’s a fierce replica that really makes you understand the origins of these guitar sounds. Fender has built upon this general model for the past seventy years via the far more famous Telecaster, which came shortly after the Esquire was released. It’s cool to see how straightforward the Esquires were built: one pickup and a three-way switch. The forward/bridge position bypasses the tone control, so it lets all those bright highs shine through. The middle position activates the tone knob so you can tame the sound more and make it less aggressive, and the back/neck position is a preset tone roll-off that gives a darker timbre.
The body is surprisingly light (due to its contemporary roasted treatment), and it has a nitro finish, which will give it more of an aged look as years go by. The U-shaped, lacquer-finished neck with twenty-one vintage tall frets gets a little thick, but it’s still comfortable to play around the twelfth through fifteenth frets, and the fretboard is rolled so that the edges have a nice, smooth feel.
The anniversary model Esquire is sleek, it wails, and it’s a smooth player that’s lightweight, yet solid and sturdy. It’s a worthy tribute to a timeless classic, but keep in mind that this anniversary issue will only be in production in 2020.
Price: $1,999.99
For more info: fender.com