Are These The Best Fender Esquires EVER Made?

Transcription Summary:

Dan Albert of Chicago Music Exchange introduces the 1956 Esquire, the newest Chicago Special Guitar. These special models combine favorite features from different Fender years, specifically 1954-1956, while also incorporating modern playability. The 1954 features include a change to quarter-inch smooth steel saddles, a one-ply white pickguard, and a black top-hat switch tip. In 1955, Fender introduced a stagger-pole pickup with varying heights to compensate for string volume, and these pickups are wound hotter and dipped in shellac for an open, woody tone. Notable changes in 1956 include a pronounced V-shape neck profile (often softening to a "soft V" with age), knurled chrome flat-top knobs, and a redesigned butterfly-style string tree closer to the A tuner, which also led to the decal moving. Though a one-pickup guitar, it utilizes a wiring harness popularized by Mike Eldred of the Fender Custom Shop, offering versatile sounds. The bridge position provides a direct output without tone control for more bite. The next position offers traditional bridge pickup with volume and tone. The "neck pickup position" (without an actual neck pickup) features volume and tone, plus a small capacitor that rolls off high-end and creates a "cocked" sound with heavy mids, making the guitar more useful than a standard Esquire. Chicago Music Exchange has sold several '56s Chicago Special models and has various relic levels and colors in stock, with more on the way, and can take custom orders. The video also briefly showcases a '53 and a '68 vintage Esquire, noting the '68's post-CBS feel and brighter tone.

Full Transcription:
Hey, this is Dan Albert at Chicago Music Exchange, and today I am excited to unveil the newest Chicago Special Guitar, which is the 1956 Esquire. So a lot of what we try to do with Chicago Special is actually just take a lot of our favorite features from different years of Fender. Usually try to keep them pretty close together in terms of time frame and make a model that we are happy to put our name on and very proud of. We also do try to get some modern features in there as well. So not only do you have a guitar that's a nod to some of the best parts of Fender's history, but you also have a guitar that's very playable in 2025, or whenever this video comes out. Now, what I wanted to do with this guitar is combine some of my favorite transitional Esquire features. A lot of those applied to the Telecaster as well, and I specifically wanted to concentrate on 1954 through 1956, because a lot of interesting things happened in that time period. So where we started with this model was in 1954, when the brass saddles that you typically see before then changed to a quarter inch smooth steel saddle. We also had the one-ply bakelite pickguard get changed over to the one-ply white pickguard, and lastly, the black barrel style switch tip changed over to a black top hat.

Next, in 1955, we actually had a stagger pole pickup introduced by Fender. And what that is, basically, is rather than previously, when all the pole pieces were flat on the on the pickup, these are actually at different heights to compensate for the different volumes that strings naturally have. We also wound these pickups a little bit hotter, as would have been the case in '55. So you are going to get more output than you would be used to with one of our Chicago Special flat pole pickups. These are still going to be dipped in shellac rather than wax. We find that that type of potting actually gives a lot more open and airy sound to the guitar, gives a little bit more woof, kind of woody tone, and it's something that we really like here. And '56 saw some pretty exciting changes with the Esquire and the Tele. Most notably, Fender started doing a pretty pronounced V-shape on their necks in that year. A lot of times, as the necks get older and wear down a little bit, that V gets a lot softer. So if you see somebody referred to as a soft V-neck profile, that's a lot of what they're talking about, and this guitar does have a very similar neck to that. What we actually chose though, is we chose a very comfortable neck profile called the Off-Center 11/56V. And so the the largest point on this neck is actually not dead in the center there, it's a little bit off-center, and it fits your hand really, really nicely. Some of the other things that changed in '56 are going to be the knobs changing from a knurled chrome dome top to a knurled chrome flat top knob. And then the string tree changed position and style. So the string tree is now closer to the A tuner, and rather than being the disc shape, it is a butterfly or a dual-wing string tree. And because the string tree moved, the decal actually had to move as well, in in '56. So that's going to be something that you'll see it closer to the end of the neck for this guitar in particular. Obviously, a one-pickup guitar is not supposed to do a whole lot of different sounds, but we picked a wiring harness that was made famous by Mike Eldred from the Fender Custom Shop, and this actually makes this one-pickup guitar incredibly useful in a lot of different situations. So obviously, in this bridge position here, you have your bridge pickup. There is no tone control in this position, so you're actually going to get a little bit more output and a little bit more bite than you would get in the next position, which is going to be your traditional bridge pickup into volume and tone. So very, very familiar for folks. And then the the neck pickup position, although there is no neck pickup, is something that I'm incredibly fond of. Basically, what this does is it is a lot like pickup position two, where you've got your volume and your tone, but it also runs the signal through a very, very small value capacitor that rolls off some of the high-end, and also even gives you kind of like that cocked sound. Get a little bit of heavy mids in there, just something that really, really makes this guitar more useful than a a plain stock Esquire normally would be.

Thank you so much for watching this weekly roundup. We have sold through our first several '56s Chicago Special models. But you can see here, we do have various relic levels and colors still in stock now, and we do have plenty more on the way. If there's anything that you want to see, or you want to order for yourself that we don't have, feel free to just give us a call or a chat, and we'd be happy to put it on order for you. Thanks so much.

Thank you so much for watching this weekly roundup. We have sold through our first several '56s Chicago Special models. But you can see here, we do have various relic levels and colors still in stock now, and we do have plenty more on the way. If there's anything that you want to see, or you want to order for yourself that we don't have, feel free to just give us a call or a chat, and we'd be happy to put it on order for you. Thanks so much.