Silver Lake Vintage Guitars

1956 Fender Esquire

This is a lovely example of a 1956 Fender Esquire.  This is an all-original guitar with blonde over ash finish and comes complete with its original tweed case.

It is in excellent condition, showing very little fret wear and with only very light fingerboard use. The body is in great shape with minimal body wear.

First introduced in late 1949 the Esquire was Fender’s first solid body guitar. Soon after the Esquire’s appearance on the market Fender added a two pickup model which was marketed under the Broadcaster label. The Broadcaster model name didn't last long as Gretsch had a drum kit called Broadkaster and put Fender under notice of copyright infringement. Fender stopped using the Broadcaster label and for a while just had Fender on the headstock. These guitars became known as “Nocasters " but it was not too long before the name Telecaster was introduced. I wonder if Leo Fender’s previous occupation as a TV repair man had something to do with his choice of name!

The Esquire has a brighter sound than the Telecaster and soon found a home with country music guitar players, which is not surprising when the prototype " plank " was installed with a Fender Champion Lap Steel pickup.