60th Anniversary Fender Telecaster

I think a Fender guitar made in Mexico in the last 5 years is better than any Fender guitar made in the US 15 years ago.  This Lake Placid Blue Telecaster is proof that US-Mexican relations had been good in the area of collaborative guitar manufacturing.  Any blue guitar is worth looking at so when I saw this used 2011 Tele on Craigslist, I knew it would be a short courtship.  The neck plate on the back states the year of manufacture -- which is 60 years since the introduction of this Fender product in 1951.  Couple the Lake Placid Blue with a fast maple neck and I'm sold.

The third selling feature (of all Teles) is the fact that it doesn't have a tremolo bridge.  I hardly use the whammy bar on all my Strats and quite frankly, I find it visually cluttered.  The pearloid pickguard does add an air of elegance to this piece of functional sculpture.