1991 Fender Micawber Telecaster TL52-65SPL BLD Review

Hello!

The Fender Telecaster has been around for 60 years, but I still think of it as the ultimate electric guitar, and if I could only have one guitar it would have to be a Telecaster. Of course I have a few guitars, but there is no good reason for me to have more than one Tele, and the one I have chosen to keep is this 1991 Fender Telecaster TL52-65SPL BLD. This is a guitar that was made by Fender’s Japanese subsidiary, and it is a copy of Keith Richard’s iconic Micawber guitar.

If you are not familiar with Keith’s guitar, it is a truly a one-of-a-kind, and mysteries about what parts were used to build it. It started out as a 1952 to 1954 (nobody is really sure of the year) butterscotch Fender Telecaster, and it has been routed at the neck for a humbucker, which is generally held to be a Gibson PAF. The pickup is installed backwards so that the pole pieces are closer to the bridge. The bridge pickup is from a Fender lap steel with only two mounting holes for the screws. I think he uses the stock 3-way switch configuration.

The bridge on Mr. Richard’s guitar is a six-saddle solid brass unit, probably from an old Schecter. The low E-string is left off, so the saddle has been taken off too. He tunes it to open G with 0.011, 0.015, 0.018, 0.030 and 0.042 gauge strings. The tuners have been replaced as well.

Supposedly he named his guitar after a character from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield (the one that ended up in a debtor’s prison), believe it or not. Anyway, it seems like everybody out there has tried to build one of these, and the specs for them are all over the place, which seems like a good place to start talking about my guitar.

This one was built by the Fender Japan Custom Shop in 1991, as model TL52-65SPL BLD, so they chose to base their Micawber on a 1952 Telecaster spec. It has a white ash body with a light butterscotch blonde finish that allows the grain to show through. It has darkened over the last 21 years and gotten some bumps and bruises so it has a nice vintage vibe to it. It has a simple single-ply flat black pickguard.

They did not go for the early 1950s V profile, but rather with a chunky C profile neck with a 1950’s type spaghetti logo on the headstock. This one shows some honest wear to the fretboard, but there are still a few years left in the original frets. They chose to install Gotoh sealed back tuners, which work very well, but I am not sure how they match up with what is on the original guitar.

The bridge is machined from a block of brass, with six solid brass saddles (one more than Keith’s). Of course, it makes a noticeable difference in the tone of the guitar. I was told that Gotoh makes this bridge, and I think you can buy one if you want to build your own tribute guitar.

The pickups are a Fender Dragster humbucker at the neck and a traditional vintage single coil at the bridge. I went ahead and turned the neck pickup around so the pole pieces are closer to the bridge; there was plenty of wire to do this without any problems. I would really like to try out a PAF re-issue to see how it changes to tone on this beast.

Fender’s Japanese subsidiary has a legendary quality reputation. This one has been played for a few decades, so the finish has dulled but it is still a solidly built guitar that will be around for another twenty years. It is awfully heavy for a Telecaster, coming in at around 9 ½ pounds, which makes it heavier than my Les Paul (amazingly enough).

It came to me with 0.009s, and it just did not sound right. I now have it set up in normal tuning with 0.010 Slinkies and it sounds and plays marvelously. The neck humbucker really provides a lot more body to the tone, but as I said earlier I would really like to see how a PAF sounds in this thing.

These were never imported to the US, so if you want one like this you will have to find one from a Japanese seller on eBay, or build your own.

Mahalo!