“This is basically the single-coil equivalent of what Eddie Van Halen did when he wired a humbucker directly to the volume control on his Frankenstein guitar”: Why the Fender Esquire remains a stone-cold classic

Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top smiles as he plays his Daphne Blue Fender Esquire onstage. He wears a wide brimmed hat, sunglasses, and has his trademark beard.

It’s pretty damn cool that the very first commercially produced solidbody electric guitar, the Fender Esquire, can still kick serious butt today; you can’t say that about too many 75-year-olds.

Many guitarists often forget that the Esquire came before the Telecaster and that a two-pickup version of the Esquire, which came a few months after the single-pickup version, was essentially the first Broadcaster/Nocaster/Telecaster. But here I’m just going to focus on the single-pickup version.