Fender George Harrison Rosewood Telecaster

Fender Custom Shop release the George Harrison Rosewood Telecaster – a very special limited edition replica of the guitar that Fender built specifically for Harrison in 1968. It was the first all-Rosewood guitar ever to be produced by Fender and was used to record “Let it Be” and famously played during the Beatles last live performance on the “Rooftop Concert” in London January 1969…

The Fender George Harrison Rosewood Telecaster has been hand-crafted using the most up-to-date luthier techniques. It has full 1968 specs but is a modern, more accessible and lightweight version of the original Rosewood Telecaster with a chambered body for reduced weight. Distinctive features include a Rosewood neck with a laminated 9.5” radius, Rosewood fingerboard and custom neck plate engraved with an Om symbol. The body is crafted from four pieces of hand-selected Rosewood sandwiching a thin Maple veneer, just like the original prototype created by Fender’s Roger Rossmeisl and Phillip Kubicki and gifted to Harrison in 1968. The pickups are two American Vintage ’64 gray-bottom single-coil Telecaster pickups hand wound by none other than famed winder Abigail Ybarra, who broke her 2013 retirement to apply her expertise to this historic recreation’s pickups.

“This guitar is arguably the most iconic Telecaster in Fender history. It was used during the “Let it Be” recording sessions and the final Beatles performance on the rooftop. So, we spec out the guitar – take it all apart and we measure everything to find out all the little things that make it tick and to set aside all the rumours and heresay about what the guitar used to be, what it was and how it was made. We had to answer all those questions. The challenge is to find a wood that looks like the original wood – and that’s a huge challenge. We ordered enough for 300 guitars just so we could sort the material to find all the pieces that we’d need. It’s actually a four-piece Rosewood body with a Maple seam that holds the sandwich together. Then it’s a two-piece, late 60’s style neck and fingerboard with a round lam and it’s all 1968 specs on this guitar as it was when it was made. I asked Abigail Ybarra is she would come out of retirement and spin me some pickups for this project so they’re all hand-signed and dated by Abi. It’s in the detail, that’s where we really excel in the Custom Shop – dissecting everything, every detail and making it perfect. The whole project has been based on making the guitar look and feel, play and sound how it would have the day that George got it. That’s what everyone wants – the George Tele – and this is it.” – Paul Waller, Master Builder – Fender Custom Shop