Fender Custom Shop 2026 Time Machine 1966 Telecaster Deluxe Closet Classic Bleached 3-Tone Sunburst

Since 1987, the Fender Custom Shop—affectionately known at CME as “The Dream Factory”—has grown to a band of over 50 veteran guitar artisans who take Leo Fender’s legacy to its utmost heights by bringing dream guitars and basses to life.

Taking an amp builder’s sensibility to instrument design, Leo Fender’s modular approach emphasized swappable components. This foundational design philosophy portended a future that we now inhabit, in which it’s not only easy to replace individual parts and maintain the longevity of each instrument—but, players also have the ability to customize every component of an instrument, giving them innumerable options when dreaming up their ideal guitar.

Here at Chicago Music Exchange, we’ve collaborated with the best minds at Fender to build the best instruments from top to bottom, tirelessly going over each spec to ensure that we offer you the best of what Fender has to offer—from neck shaping and fretwork to finishing and aging.

As a result of our ongoing collaboration, the instrument you see here is, of course, much more than the sum of its parts. Imbued with history, alive with the spirit and devotion of those who crafted it, this Fender Custom Shop creation is brimming with intangible, electrifying elements, that add new dimensions to every playing experience.

Deluxe Closet Classic is a house favorite here at CME. It shows its age like a fine wine, built for those who want to more clearly feel the life of the instrument, but without all those forced dings and dents. Maintaining many of the subtleties of a traditional Closet Classic such as less brilliance to the finish, slight discoloration of plastics, and mild oxidation of metal parts, this aging package adds notably more extensive and lush finish checking that you will see and feel throughout. (*Note. Our photographs sometimes do not capture finish checking as well as we’d like, so please get in touch with us for an in-hand description and additional photographs.)

General

Body

Neck

Electronics

Hardware