Fender Custom Shop 2024 Collection Time Machine 1963 Telecaster Relic Aged Lake Placid Blue

The 1963 Telecaster Relic from the 2024 Collection Time Machine focuses on a phase when the Telecaster had already noticeably evolved from its early '50s versions. The Fender Custom Shop captures that character here with a two-piece alder body, a rift-sawn maple neck, and a round-lam AAA rosewood fingerboard. Rather than highlighting individual vintage features in isolation, the effect comes from their interplay: the 60 Style Oval "C" neck profile, vintage clay dots, the early-60s neck construction, and classic Telecaster hardware combine to form a consistently historically oriented foundation.

Time Machine With a Distinct Pickup Combination

Electrically, this Telecaster also goes beyond a purely schematic reproduction. A hand-wound Fender Custom Shop Twisted Tele neck single-coil sits at the neck, while a hand-wound Original Blackguard Tele single-coil works at the bridge. This brings two established Custom Shop pickup concepts together in one instrument. The combination is completed by a Modern Tele wiring with a Greasebucket tone circuit. The classic Telecaster control logic remains intact, while the electronics deliberately deviate from a strictly historical wiring.

Relic and Nitrocellulose as Part of the Concept

The relic finish based on nitrocellulose on this instrument is not only part of its outward appearance but integral to the entire Time Machine idea. Tuners, bridge, controls, and the three-ply pickguard all reflect the aged orientation. The Fender '58-'63 Telecaster bridge with three saddles and string-through-body construction fits exactly into the model's period reference. This makes the guitar feel not like a modern Telecaster with retrofitted vintage details, but like a self-contained interpretation of the early 1960s.

Fender Custom Shop and the 1963 Telecaster

Within the Fender Custom Shop, the Time Machine Collection stands for instruments whose historical orientation is worked out down to neck shape, hardware, electronics, and finish. On this 1963 Telecaster that is particularly evident in the rift-sawn maple neck with a round-lam rosewood fingerboard and the combination of Twisted Tele and Original Blackguard pickups. This very mix of period-correct construction and deliberately chosen Custom Shop components gives the model its own identity within the Telecaster family.