Fender American Special Telecaster in 2 exclusive colors

Today is the Fourth of July, so I figured it would be appropriate to show off some cool American guitars.

What we have here is a lovely pair of Fender American Special Telecasters. However, they're even more special than usual because these are CME exclusive colors.

But it gets even better. The two special colors don't have any additional cost over non-exclusive color models.

The two special colors are Daphne Blue and Shell Pink. All-maple neck only.

There is also one other special CME exclusive color for this guitar. Black. You can get it with white guard or black guard. And you can't go wrong with a basic black Fender electric. It's a good looking black, as it's non-metallic and the brass saddles give it a piano-like appearance. Very nice look overall.

Specs

All Fender American Special Telecasters have the same specs:

• Alder body with gloss polyurethane finish
• Modern "C" shape neck with satin urethane finish on the back, 9.5" radius fingerboard and 22 jumbo frets
• Texas Special Single-Coil pickups
• Greasebucket tone circuit (when tone knob is rolled down, treble is removed without adding bass)
• "Barrel" (meaning round as opposed to "top hat" which is squared off) style pickup selector switch tip
• Knurled dome control knobs

Dare to go pink?

Shell pink was originally a color made by DuPont that the DeSoto car brand used on their automobiles. For those that like exact specifics, the paint number was 2371.

This is the original color sheet (Shell Pink is near the bottom):

This is a color that basically screams "I'm from the '50s." It's a color meant to evoke a sense a freedom and fun in an elegant way. All you have to do is take a look at a DeSoto in Shell Pink and you'll get the idea.

DeSoto cars in Shell Pink were two-tone finishes, so the Fender Telecaster with a Shell Pink finish and white pick guard does achieve the two-tone look quite well.

The thing to know about this color is that photos never do it justice. It always looks better in real life. The temperature of the color is an almost-pastel-but-not-quite, and the look of it changes depending on lighting.

Do you lose man points playing a pink guitar? Not with a Shell Pink Telecaster you won't. It's a special color that really works on Fender guitar body shapes.

I'll put it another way. I'd buy one myself if I had the cash for it.

Published 2018 Jul 4