Fender Carlos Lopez Masterbuilt Nocaster - USA 2019

Appointed to the role of Master Builder in 2019, Carlos spent five years as an apprentice to Todd Krause, Senior Master Builder of the Fender Custom Shop. In his first year as a master builder, Carlos quickly earned a reputation as one of the finest builders to carry on the Fender legacy. This 2019 masterbuilt Fender ‘Nocaster’ is a testament to that.  

The story of the ‘Nocaster’ dates back to 1950, when Fender first began producing what we know today as the Fender Telecaster. At the time this guitar was named the Broadcaster. This led to legal disputes with Gretsch, who had a drumkit of the same name. In 1951, amidst the legal issues, Leo Fender chose to simply cut the name Broadcaster from the headstock decal, leaving just the Fender logo, and model name to speak of. In 1952 the new decals bearing the name ‘Telecaster’ were introduced.

Features:

• Neck: One Piece Maple – U profile 
• Body: 2 piece ash  
• Fingerboard: Maple (9.5″ Radius) 
• No. of Frets: 21 Medium  
• Scale Length: 25.5″ (648 mm) 
• Width Nut: 1.650″ (42 mm) 
• Hardware: Silver 
• Machine Heads: Fender Deluxe Kluson Style 
• Bridge: Fender Pat Pend ashtray with 3 piece brass saddles  
• Pickguard: 1 Ply Bakelite Pickguard 
• Pickups: 2 x Fender Custom Shop Nocaster Pickups 
• Pickup Switching: 3-Position Selector Switch 
• Controls: Master Volume, Master Tone Control 
• Colour: Aged nitro butterscotch finish

The guitar presents as a beautiful, well played instrument. Tremendous attention to detail has been taken to ensure this guitar looks every bit as authentic as a 1951 Fender should look. The checking on the paint, the nitro sinking into the straight grained ash, the light pitting on the hardware are all testament to the Fender master builder Carlos Lopez. The aged butterscotch blonde finish is superb, with just the right amount of translucency to showcase the beautiful ash beneath.  

The neck of this guitar is a big, chunky U shape. Seldom seen on modern fender guitars. The modern ‘one size fits all’ approach to neck size leaves a lot to be desired. This larger neck feels surprisingly comfortable and confidence inspiring in the right hands and is a favourite here at Premier Guitars. Telecasters are favored to be light. The lighter the piece of ash, the more alive and acoustic the instrument. Too light, however and you can run into other issues. A telecaster with a particularly light body can be subject to ‘neck dive’ - where the guitar doesn’t have a balanced neutral position and the player feels they need to hold the neck up to play. This guitar is perfectly balanced and a joy to play.

Comes in its original Fender Custom Shop hard-shell case with all case candy.