1951 Fender Nocaster (Nacho Refin) #0848
Art.Nr. FE51NOC-0848
1951 Fender Nocaster refinished by Nacho Baños. Early in February of 1951, Fender decided to explore a routing alternative on the Broadcaster body. Some customers had complained about faulty neck pickups, and with the wires coming through the bridge cavity, the guitar needed to be almost completely disassembled just to change the neck pickup. Leo was also trying to figure out how to reduce the assembly cost. So, he added a round (donut) route under the guard on a few Broadcaster bodies (already painted) to allow the neck pickup change without dismantling the bridge while making the wiring assembly more efficient. This is just before he started clipping decals after receiving the infamous Gretsch Telegram dated Feb. 20th. We don’t know how many of these round donut route early February Nocasters were made but we estimate no more than 15-20 guitars, most with bodies dated January 8-9-10 (which are still Broadcaster dates). We know that by February 20th he had already introduced the diagonal route, so it must have been used during just a production week at the factory and used on the very first few Nocasters only. So, if there was ever a transitional guitar between the Broadcaster and the Nocaster, this is it. Nacho told us in 40 years of collecting he has only seen 6 of these examples.
Specs-wise this is basically a Broadcaster body (pre-diagonal route) with all Broadcaster specs (early Feb. 51 date, low serial, tall knobs, early tuners, weight on the heavier high 7lbs side, zinc-plated elevator plate on bridge pickup, beefy neck, all slot head screws, etc…)
The fretboard and headstock face were lightly over-sprayed at the time it was refretted, so the decal is a repro, but most of the original neck finish is still present. Body finish has been carefully restored to original specs and original blend control wiring has been restored. Pickups lightly dipped in wax to avoid excessive microphonic feedback. All parts are original. Comes with new case and original bridge cover.
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