Nacho Guitars 2019 Relic Tele 1949 Replica

This guitar is a piece of history that never really existed as a production model. In 1949, a year before the Broadcaster reached the market, Leo Fender built a handful of prototypes in Fullerton. Those instruments were the first of their kind — they defined the idea of a solid-body guitar with a bolt-on neck — and only a few survive anywhere in the world.

If anyone is qualified to recreate one, it's Nacho Baños. The Spaniard wrote The Blackguard Book, the standard work on the early Fender Telecasters and, among collectors, simply the bible. He has handled, measured and documented more original instruments from that period than practically anyone else alive, and that knowledge goes into every guitar he builds.

A 1949 replica is a different proposition from an ordinary recreation. There's no production specification to work from, because there was no production. You have to know the few surviving prototypes, understand their quirks, and grasp why particular details were solved the way they were. That's exactly where Nacho's strength lies.

This is the electric guitar in its original form. These early instruments sound drier, more direct and more percussive than anything that came later. There's no ballast, no softening — just wood, strings and a pickup that reports precisely that. At the bridge, the cracking, wiry twang with an attack that never gets lost in a mix; at the neck, a surprisingly round, warm tone.

The ageing is beyond question, as always with Nacho. It isn't an effect applied on top but the result of a build process aimed at it from the start.

A handmade gem from one of the most sought-after vintage specialists in the world. Versions like this are very hard to come by, as Nacho Guitars mostly build the traditional variants, so Ede had to move quickly to secure it for his Private Stock.