Here we have a one of a kind, very rare 1966 USA Fender Telecaster in very good condition for its age, it has had a full refret with carefully sourced original style fret wire, and has been fully set up and plays superbly.
The guitar started as a '66 Telecaster and was modded by Legendary British Luthier John Birch. The body had been refinished, along with custom routing for the extra control layout on the pickguard. The bridge has had the usual upgrade common to Tele’s of this age , to a six saddle bridge for improved intonation. Body , neck and pickups all original 1966! 

John Birch was an English luthier mainly known for his electric guitars. His customers included Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath, Brian May of Queen, Manny Charlton of Nazareth, Dave Hill and Jim Lea of Slade, Gerry Shephard of The Glitter Band, Roy Orbison and Nicky Panicci.

The classic Telecaster configured pickups are dated 10.07.66. The control on the pickguard is a treble cut/boost for the neck pickup giving added tonal options, as modded by John Birch.

The neck features all original Kluson tuners, Maple neck with Rosewood fretboard, & original nut, which has been carefully restored to it's prime. As mentioned above this has been refretted by our Guitar Tech and he has done a magnificent job of restoring this rare neck back to how it would of been when it left the Fender factory all those years ago. (original frets included)

Overall we would say that this in excellent condition for its age, 58 years and counting - The tone out of this is insane and ageing like a fine wine, this is a hard one to put down and you'll see why once you get your hands on it!

Grab yourself a piece of Fender History with this one off John Birch special modded vintage guitar.

Complete with non-original Hardcase.

Serial Number:

Neck Plate - 225232
Neck Heel - 3AUG66B

All measurements are done as accurately as possible but must be regarded approximate.

The neck is best described as a Fender slim C shape

NUT 1./12 WIDTH
Width at nut -1.658” (42.12mm)
@1st fret -1.663” (42.26mm)
@5th fret -1.839 (46.71mm)
@12th fret -2.022” (51.36mm)
@21st fret -2.18” (55.39mm)

FRET 1/12 DEPTH
Fret height @1st fret between 41 -43 thou (1.04-1.1 mm)
Fret height @12th fret between 43-48.5 (1.1 -1.23mm)

STRING WIDTH (E to E width measured at string centres)
@Nut -1.36” (34.55mm)
@1st fret -1.404” (35.66mm)
@12th fret -1.762” (44.74mm)

The edges are not sharp but slightly rolled and comfortable. The re-fret was done sympathetically with as close a match to the original fret wire as possible (Jescar 43080) in January 2024.

The fretboard was very lightly sanded to radius mainly to remove ridges and grunge from the fret removal. A precision fret level was done under string tension and set to a nice low action:
6th-59 thou” (1.5mm) 1St -51 thou’ (1.3mm) @the 17th fret

Neck relief -4thou” @the 8th fret, has not changed since Jan 24 - a stable neck.

1st fret Action set at 13 thou” on strings 6, 5, 4 and 12 thou” on strings 1, 2, 3.

The same nut was re-used but a rosewood veneer shim was placed to correct the height for the new frets.

The guitar feels lovely to play and really rings out with good sustain. There is a typical telecaster twang on the bridge pick up and a much more rounded sound for the neck pick up which can be altered subtly with John Birch modded extra tone control.