Fender has cooked up an exquisite signature Telecaster for country superstar John Osborne, that comes fresh out the factory with what we would really have to describe as a Custom Shop modded vibe.
It has got the Road Worn nitro finish to make it look like it’s done some hard miles on the road. It has the oversized black custom pickguard to protect it from… Well, you name it; this is the kind of thing we might call a double-guard but it extends to about two-thirds of the top of the guitar.
Then you have the custom-wound electric guitar pickups, a pair of custom-voiced single coils at the neck and bridge positions, the neck shape that is inspired by his 1968 original, and taking the cake for any Nashville twangster, there is a B-bender installed too.
This B-bender is Fender's take on the design, and lets players pull those faux pedal steel bends with just a casual movement of the shoulder. The action on that B-bender system can be configured to suit player preference.
Of course, this is a country player’s signature guitar, the kind that’ll work gangbusters with a Deluxe Reverb and a compressor pedal. But it looks like it could be a serious blues guitar, a rock ’n’ roll machine, a jazz guitar, and you could play metal on it if you really wanted to.
“There are a lot of amazing guitars in this world, but none are as versatile as the Telecaster,” says Osborne. “It just works with every song, works with every genre; I want someone to pick it up and take this instrument that I’ve played for so long, and blaze their own trail with it.”
Osbourne’s Tele has a solid alder body, finished in Olympic White, with a bolt-on maple neck with a maple cap fingerboard (as opposed to the neck and fingerboard comprised of a single piece of maple) with a 7.25” radius. There are F-stamped tuners and a vintage ashtray-style bridge with three compensated brass saddles.
Max Gutnik, Fender’s chief product officer, says they started with Osborne’s 1968 model as an inspiration, then worked out how to make this an electric guitar that would resonate with a wider demographic of players.
“Working with John Osborne was really about honouring the way he plays and finding a way to bring that into a guitar other players could connect with,” says Gutnik. “We began with his original ’68 Tele and collaborated closely with him to shape a signature model that feels true to who he is as a player. From the B-string bender to the road-worn feel, it’s unmistakably John’s guitar, but it’s built to inspire anyone who wants to explore that sound and make it their own.”
The John Osborne Telecaster is available now, priced £1,899/$2,199, including a vintage-style hardshell guitar case. For more details, head over to Fender.
