Jeff Beck 1954 Fender Esquire

When Jeff Beck joined The Yardbirds in 1965 he inherited his predecessor, Eric Clapton's Fiesta Red Fender Telecaster. When it came time for the guitarist to purchase and play a guitar of his own, he chose a now iconic 1954 Fender Esquire. 

Fender began manufacturing the Esquire in 1950, with a second run produced from 1951 to 1969. Originally it was called the Broadcaster, but after finding out that Gretsch already produced an instrument, a drum set, by the same name (except spelled Broadkaster), re-dubbed their new guitar the Esquire. As opposed the Telecaster, the Esquire came equipped with only one pickup located in the standard bridge position. The Esquire came equipped with a three-way selector switch, but rather than turning on and off the pickups, it modified the tone of the guitars single pickup. In the bridge position the tone circuit was completely bypassed, in the middle position, the tone control was enabled, and in the traditional neck position, the pickup took on a much bassier tone.

Beck later recalled the circumstances in an interview with Fender about how he acquired his Esquire, "Fender had just started making Teles with rosewood necks, but I wanted one with an original maple neck. Thankfully, we’d gone on tour with The Walker Brothers, and John Maus [The Walker Brothers singer and guitarist] had a maple-neck Tele. He wanted about seventy-five pounds for it, which was only ten pounds cheaper than the new ones in the shops, but he wouldn’t budge. So I dug out the money, bought the guitar from him and I never regretted it.” As to what Beck used the guitar on, he later added, "That maple-neck Esquire was on “I’m A Man,” “Over Under Sideways Down,” “Shapes Of Things,” and numerous others." 

When Jeff received the guitar it had already been a bit battered and worn down. Maus had taken a chisel and cut slight contours into the body to make it a bit more comfortable when set on his knee. It is also presumed that he chiseled out the back as well, as the guitar is quite thin from the side profile. For the most part, Beck left the guitar as-is with only a couple of minor changes, replacing the brass bridge saddles with steel ones, and changing the pick guard out from a white one to a black version. It was a well playing instrument, and the one he would use almost exclusively for the rest of his tenure with the band.

In the end, Jeff Beck would part ways with his beloved Esquire in October of 1974, swapping it out with famed pickup designer, Seymour Duncan. "He [Duncan] snuck into the studio when I was doing Blow by Blow, and he had his eye on it. I don't know what I was doing with it...I think I didn't have it with me, this one [points to Esquire]. He said, 'Do you still have that?' and I said, 'yeah,' and he got out of the case this really heavy body tele, which was made of ash, I think. Nice heavy body, and it had humbuckers that had beautifully adapted to it. [I] plugged it in, and there was the happy medium between the Les Paul and the Fender Tele. You know I thought, 'best of both worlds', and I used that straight away on "Because We Ended as Lovers".

And he said, 'If you think if tomorrow, if you remember, can you bring that up?'. So there's me using his guitar for the session, for that day, and the next day I brought it up, and he said, 'Do you wanna make a swap?'. 'Yeah!" Has this guy lost his nut, because it was a nice guitar that he lent me. Then as he walked out for the last time with it, I went, 'Ugh...bye bye...'. There goes my old workhorse.

Today, Seymour Duncan has lent the Fender Esquire to The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where all can see it, and marvel at one of the most iconic guitars ever played.