1957 Fender Esquire RESTORATION - Ask Zac 58

well hello friends and welcome to part
0:49
two
0:50
of the uh 57 esquire this is the rehab
0:54
story so
0:58
i uh just I'm so glad to be able to tell
1:01
this story finally and
1:02
uh and this has just been a lot of fun
1:05
and it's been fun because of the people
1:06
that have helped me out
1:08
and I'm just going to go ahead and thank
1:10
Dan strain
1:11
and Ron Ellis and
1:15
Valerie strain or valocaster as she's
1:18
sometimes called who also did a lot of
1:20
loving work on this guitar
1:22
and uh and nick at joe glazer's shop so
1:25
there were a lot of people
1:27
involved in rehabbing this guitar and
1:31
so that's what this story is so
1:35
while we're thinking about it you know
1:36
if you haven't subscribed then you go
1:38
down in the corner and do that
1:40
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1:41
appreciate you supporting the show by
1:43
either
1:44
uh going to ask zack.com and you can
1:46
pick up a t-shirt
1:47
or you know coffee mug or there's tip
1:50
jar information in the description of
1:51
the video
1:52
all right so i left you
1:55
you know with with the last episode
1:58
telling the story of how
1:59
this guitar was lost in a poker game
2:03
so and of course it had a horrible
2:06
yellow
2:06
painted pick guard on it and it was
2:09
Kyron blue and if you want to see
2:11
the before pictures go to asksack.com
2:13
and i have some articles
2:14
on there that have all sorts of detailed
2:17
photos of the guitar
2:18
taken apart and also the rehab process
2:21
so
2:21
today I'm going to tell the rehab
2:23
process so
2:26
i bought the guitar on Halloween which
2:28
is a Saturday
2:29
uh October 31st on
2:32
2020 and the very next
2:36
day which was a Sunday i uh
2:39
i got the guitar and i went straight to
2:41
Dan strain's house
2:42
danocaster and I've been very fortunate
2:46
to have him as a friend
2:47
uh he's a great friend and a great guy i
2:50
think
2:50
ya'll know him as a you know a great
2:53
guitar builder but he's also a fantastic
2:55
guy
2:56
and and his wife Val too
3:00
and so i went straight down there and
3:02
immediately we uh we started taking the
3:05
guitar apart
3:07
and uh and we cut out
3:10
the sander and we started sanding it
3:13
and Dan said he said
3:17
wouldn't it be cool if it was a
3:18
one-piece body
3:21
and i was like yeah it would be but I'm
3:22
not going to hold my breath already the
3:24
guitar is light i mean the whole guitar
3:26
weighs six and a half pounds all
3:27
together which is light for a for any
3:31
era a telecaster
3:32
you know anything under seven pounds is
3:34
really light so
3:35
uh yeah but so we started sanding on it
3:39
and he let me sand on it and you see in
3:41
you know in the videos on um you know
3:44
that I've made that
3:45
they're on ask zach.com of the uh of the
3:48
rehab process you can see me and you can
3:50
see me wearing my
3:52
Birkenstock sandals and uh so i start
3:55
sanding the finish off and the blue is
3:57
coming off really quick because
3:59
it was it was put on pretty thin and in
4:02
fact you could see grain
4:03
through some of the the blue and
4:06
you know the the blue paint starts
4:08
coming off
4:10
and you start seeing this beautiful
4:11
grain and i keep looking for a seam
4:14
you know as I'm coming across and
4:17
there's not one
4:18
and i get all the way to the end i get
4:20
all the blue
4:21
off and i look it's a one piece
4:24
swamp ash body i was like whoa
4:28
it was just i couldn't believe it and so
4:31
i didn't take
4:32
all the blue off because i was a little
4:34
scared especially going around the edges
4:36
and around the side so uh so you know
4:39
Dan was kind enough to step in
4:41
and and help with that but
4:44
uh it was just awesome and he took
4:47
you know measurements on everything and
4:50
of course it's .91
4:52
at the first fret and uh
4:55
it just has a beautiful wear you know
4:58
here which
4:59
of course the neck is all original um
5:03
now you know beautiful original
5:08
logo on it you know the original you
5:10
know klusen tuners
5:12
that are just you know worn and rusted
5:15
in just the perfect way
5:18
and you can see this great nice you know
5:20
wear on the back of the neck
5:23
uh you can see the uh the neck plate
5:26
here
5:26
with the negative you know with the dash
5:29
in front of it which was kind of
5:30
very indicative of 57 and part of 58
5:34
and even through this blonde you know
5:36
finish you can see
5:38
a lot of grain here and again there's a
5:40
bunch of pictures on my website if you
5:42
want to see you know photos
5:44
so and again we uh we metered the pickup
5:48
and uh yeah it was it was you know had
5:51
no reading
5:52
and uh so he gave me the pickup and he
5:55
said you're probably gonna have to have
5:56
that rewound
5:58
so i was like dang so
6:01
but i knew i was gonna call you know Ron
6:03
Ellis and see what could be done but
6:06
uh yeah after pulling all the blue off
6:08
then it was it was kind of done and
6:10
and Dan said that they were gonna you
6:11
know seal it and then finish it in the
6:13
next
6:14
you know a couple weeks so i took off
6:16
with the pickup
6:17
with this you know bridge pickup and i
6:20
called up Ron Ellis
6:22
and uh and i told him you know that it
6:26
that it had no reading on it and was
6:27
real weak sounding he said
6:30
he said what's happened is he said does
6:32
it have
6:33
rust on the low e pull piece
6:37
i said yeah it does and he said well
6:39
what's happened is
6:40
that you know and this just happens with
6:42
telly's
6:44
is that you know you know the whoever
6:46
was playing the guitar
6:47
sweated into it the sweat you know went
6:50
down and
6:51
onto the low e pole piece and then it
6:53
started forming
6:54
rust and then that rust goes down
6:57
into the windings and eventually
7:01
it uh you know it starts rusting all
7:03
through there and breaking it and
7:05
shorting out
7:06
and basically the pickup had terminal
7:08
cancer
7:09
and so at some point it would completely
7:11
die but at that point it had all these
7:13
shorts in it
7:14
and that's why it wouldn't meter out and
7:16
that's why it sounded the way it did
7:17
and the only way to fix it was to rewind
7:19
it so i was sad about it
7:22
but i knew you know i knew Ron would do
7:24
an amazing job and Ron said he had a
7:26
stash of old
7:28
you know enamel wire that he only used
7:30
you know for uh for old rewinds
7:32
and uh so so Ron Ellis uh
7:36
you know first he had to completely
7:38
clean all the rust off
7:40
and then dip it in lacquer and then he
7:42
rewound it and he put the you know the
7:44
cloth
7:45
uh you know the kind of twine around it
7:47
and
7:48
uh and he did an amazing job and uh yeah
7:52
so thank you
7:52
to Ron Ellis so then the pickup came
7:56
back
7:57
so that was you know that was that was
7:58
part of it
8:00
and uh also just mention real quick you
8:03
know this
8:03
this is a this is a Ron Ellis tall neck
8:06
pickup which apparently was uh
8:10
you know originally when you know
8:12
because Ron had worked with Alan Hamill
8:13
Alan Hamill had
8:15
had worked um you know on this design
8:17
but this was something where
8:19
Ron had done some more tweaking to it
8:20
and that's why he called it the new tall
8:22
which is more strategy sounding yeah and
8:25
i like that i like a clear sounding
8:27
neck pickup so then we had the neck
8:30
so it had the original frets in there
8:34
and they were pretty worn down now the
8:36
guys at guitar gallery
8:37
galleria no guitar gallery down in
8:41
Tuscaloosa Alabama they had done a good
8:43
job of setting up the guitar with the
8:44
way it was but
8:46
you know i knew you know it was going to
8:48
need new frets
8:50
to really play its best so
8:53
i took it down to a glazer's joe glazer
8:56
shop
8:56
and nick down there did a refret and
8:59
these frets
9:00
are um 95 wide by 47
9:04
tall and that's the standard fret that
9:08
uh that's what i have like on my 67 tele
9:11
it's what's on my dano casters it's kind
9:13
of like a 60 i said
9:14
it's kind of like 6105s that are a
9:16
little bit shorter and i like that you
9:18
know because i like
9:19
i like a bigger fret than a vintage fret
9:21
but i don't like some you know super
9:22
tall
9:23
fret because i think it kind of messes
9:24
with the uh it messes with the tuning
9:27
and the intonation when you have the
9:28
frets and you have to
9:29
push down that hard so nick there
9:34
did a amazing job on refretting it and
9:37
uh
9:38
joe glazer commented on the neck that uh
9:41
he said so many of these are back bowed
9:44
or twisted and most time you can't do a
9:47
whole lot with them
9:49
because the wood's so old and it's kind
9:51
of been a neck for so long that it
9:53
sometimes doesn't really want to
9:56
straighten out sometimes the truss rods
9:57
won't do anything on them
9:59
so it was very lucky in that this had
10:01
very minimal
10:03
funny spots on it and uh so
10:06
it was a a good neck so that was that
10:10
was the neck
10:11
then we had the uh you know the body
10:14
so so Dan did a a
10:18
you know a sealer coat and
10:21
uh and then then did a Val
10:25
vallo caster did some grain filling on
10:27
here
10:29
and then they put uh then they started
10:32
putting the you know the color on there
10:34
and i wanted it to be the white you know
10:36
the white blonde
10:37
i always liked that color um now i know
10:40
you know Vince gill's guitars earlier
10:42
but his was kind of that white blonde
10:45
look and then even redd Volkart had a 58
10:48
esquire
10:49
that you know was was kind of this white
10:51
blonde look and i
10:52
and also i remember even seeing like
10:54
john Hyatt play in the 80s
10:56
you know on Austin city limits and he
10:58
had a he had an old esquire that was
11:00
this color and i just loved the white
11:02
guard look so
11:04
i had originally thought about going
11:06
black on this guitar but
11:07
again when i saw that it was a one-piece
11:10
body
11:11
and and the beautiful grain on it almost
11:13
felt bad pop
11:14
pop about putting the white blonde on
11:17
there but i think it turned out great
11:18
and he really
11:19
let a lot of the uh the grain you know
11:21
come through
11:24
so Dan you know did the uh you know he
11:28
painted it up
11:29
and uh and then he did the the aging on
11:33
the body
11:34
so that it would match up with the neck
11:36
but he didn't want to go too far
11:37
so he kind of you know he was you know
11:40
somewhat conservative in his
11:42
in his aging which i appreciated because
11:45
you know you can always get more aging
11:46
on the on the body
11:48
but uh i think it matches up real well
11:51
you know with the all original neck
11:54
so and then i i made the decision to go
11:57
you know to make it a telly and have a
11:59
neck pick up
12:00
and that was you know one because the
12:02
original esquire guard was basically
12:04
destroyed
12:05
we uh we tried a bunch of solvents and
12:08
wet sanding on it and
12:09
just couldn't get all the paint off of
12:11
it and
12:12
it was already this era guard can be
12:14
really thin
12:16
and it was it was just getting to where
12:18
it was so flexible
12:20
and it was already warped and such and
12:22
so finally we just kind of gave up on it
12:24
and i kind of wanted to do a neck pickup
12:26
anyway
12:27
and uh so yes so we
12:30
put up put a neck pickup on here and
12:33
these are the original saddles
12:35
which amazingly are in tune
12:39
so these the the screws aren't bent or
12:41
anything but the intonation is fantastic
12:43
on this thing
12:44
I'm just kind of amazed uh
12:47
again the original selector switch had
12:50
to be taken out because it was just it
12:52
was intermittent
12:53
and we tried cleaning it up the original
12:55
pots were great
12:56
um we used one of the
12:59
on an esquire it has three of the caps
13:03
that are used in a normal
13:04
you know telecaster wiring so one of
13:07
them had been replaced with a black
13:09
spray like a black beauty cap like out
13:12
of a Gibson
13:13
but the other two were original and so
13:15
we just picked the one of those that
13:18
you know metered out best and just you
13:21
know wired it up as a tele
13:22
so regular you know 250k pots and the
13:26
and the old cap and just a new you know
13:30
selector switch
13:31
and then of course this is the original
13:33
pickup that's been rewound and this is
13:35
the
13:35
Ron Ellis and i have to say I'm just
13:38
you know blown away by the way
13:42
you know this guitar came together
13:46
and uh and just the sound of it uh
13:49
you know I've come to find out that i
13:51
really like
13:52
uh the this kind of slightly stacked
13:55
where it's just the raised
13:56
d and g kind of the first version of the
13:58
stagger
13:59
and steel saddles and maple necks it's
14:03
just a it's a great combination i know a
14:05
lot of people
14:06
you know get crazy about black guards
14:08
but and black guards are great
14:10
but this is another really cool era of
14:13
telecaster
14:14
you know the white guards with the steel
14:16
saddles and either flat pull pickups or
14:18
with the raised
14:19
d and g strings are really really cool
14:22
guitars that are a little more
14:24
twangy and they're a little more bitey
14:26
so here I'll play a
14:28
touch on the old uh my old 59 Harvard
14:31
which
14:32
this is a fun you know combination of
14:34
the 57
14:35
esquire with a uh 59 Harvard
14:39
you know you have the uh you know what i
14:42
was playing actually on the other video
14:43
i kind of played a version of of
14:45
hideaway yeah
14:58
[Music]
15:10
so
15:11
[Music]
15:16
nice you know both pickup sound
15:38
do
15:40
[Music]
15:42
and of course the neck which i was using
15:43
at the at the beginning for this type of
15:48
[Music]
15:52
thing
15:55
[Music]
16:06
boom
16:09
and just even without verb or delay or
16:12
anything i mean I'm just playing
16:13
straight into the old amp
16:14
uh it just has a really neat sound it's
16:17
not a huge sound
16:18
but it's a really cool focused sound
16:21
so very happy to have this guitar
16:25
um yeah i think something i alluded to
16:28
in the last episode
16:30
was um so i had to part with a number of
16:34
things to get this guitar
16:36
so uh yeah again like i said last
16:39
episode you know i kind of
16:40
uh my wife and i talked about it and she
16:42
said well as long as you can sell the
16:44
stuff to pay for it you can get it
16:45
well to get a guitar like this wouldn't
16:48
like i could just sell
16:49
one or two things so i ended up selling
16:53
two of my dano casters i sold my
16:54
danocaster blackguard
16:56
and my danocaster strat and i sold the
16:59
jv
16:59
the Japanese vintage bound tele and also
17:03
i sold one of my den
17:04
one of my uh deluxe reverbs i sold the
17:06
67
17:08
and so i still have the 65 but uh
17:11
when i uh i told a friend of mine that i
17:13
had sold one of my deluxes
17:15
he said you really put a ring on on the
17:18
finger
17:18
on this guitar didn't you and i said
17:20
yeah that really is a commitment when i
17:22
get rid of a blackface deluxe reverb
17:24
so again i still have one but i don't
17:27
have two anymore
17:28
so yeah so there were sacrifices made
17:30
you know three guitars and an amp
17:32
had to be uh sold to to get this guitar
17:36
but I'm very
17:37
happy with it and uh yeah yeah I've
17:40
always you know wanted to have a
17:42
you know pre-cvs telly and uh
17:46
you know kind of you know i said in my
17:48
my vintage video
17:49
there's something about the old wood
17:51
there's something about how hard these
17:53
necks get and they're almost like you
17:56
know fossilized wood
17:57
and they just have a lot of a lot of
18:00
ping to them and uh
18:01
yeah love it all right guys i hope
18:04
you've enjoyed this
18:05
you know we're talking about the uh
18:09
you know the rehabbing of this guitar
18:11
and again thanks to
18:12
Dan and Val and Ron Ellis and
18:15
nick over at glazers for the amazing
18:17
work they did on this
18:19
killer killer killer guitar alright guys
18:22
hope you have a great week see you next
18:24
time bye-bye