1983 Squier Japan Telecaster Electric Guitar

This is a consignor's Tele and it's a quite-early Squier SQ-series model. This makes it, essentially, a "Fender Japan" product as the same guitar was sold with a big "Fender" badge in the domestic Japanese market and it was made at FujiGen as well. The neck stamp/scribble dates it to 10-11-83 and that makes perfect sense as the '82 version of this instrument, as I recall, has the "split shaft" Kluson tuners while these have "Fender Japan" sealed units.

Anyhow, this guitar appears to be 100% original except for US '51 Nocaster vintage-reissue pickups under the hood. The originals on these were only so-so while these pickups sound like "the real deal." It's also in pretty good shape, too, save minor dings and scratches around the body edges and a few on the front/back and average usewear on the one-piece maple neck. My photos are a little frustrating in regards to color-balance, but in reality the neck is a nice, mildly-yellowed vintage color.

Work included: a fret level/dress, extra compensation (ground-in) of the straight-barrel saddles for plain-G stringing, general cleaning, and a setup. It's wearing something like 46w-10 gauges, the neck is straight, the truss rod works, and it plays spot-on with 1/16" action overall at the 12th fret. A heavier-handed player might like to jack the E and A strings up just a hair, though.

Specs are: 25 1/2" scale, 1 5/8" nut width, 1 13/13" string spacing at the nut, 2 1/8" spacing at the bridge, 12 3/4" lower bout, 11" upper bout, and 1 3/4" side depth. The neck has a 9.5" radius and a slim-to-medium C shape. It's quite fast and feels remarkably similar to a late-'60s Strat, to be honest.

Materials are: ash (I think) body, one-piece maple neck, medium-sized vintage-style frets, through-body vintage bridge, sealed Fender Japan tuners, 1-ply white pickguard.

Condition notes: as-mentioned dings and scratches along the edges of the guitar and more mild ones on the top/back, but overall fairly clean. There's a scorch mark (cigarette?) at one position on the fretboard and some of the usual maple fretboard distress is evident. The frets are leveled and dressed but have plenty of life left.

It comes with: a gigbag and a box with the original pickups.

The truss rod is accessible at the heel-end of the neck.

The neck pocket is tight and it needs no shims for a proper angle in relation to saddle-height.

Note that I've added extra compensation by way of grinding-back the string break for the low E, G, and B strings so it plays in-tune up the neck. While it doesn't keep the steel 3-barrel setup 100% original, I'd much rather hear in-tune notes when I'm playing...

Here's a close-up of the worst finish dinging/scratching to the edges.