Oh, hurt me, look at this guitar. For about 3 more days, you, too, could be the proud owner of this basically new Broadcaster, the guitar that was renamed the Telecaster in 1951 or so after another company (Gretsch) complained about the similarity in name to one of their drum lines.
Minimum bid: $14,999 - beyond expensive, but if you had the cash, honestly, it will do nothing but go up in value. This electric guitar is one of the most important in the Origin of the Species.
drool
Oh, sweet Lord! And I thought I got aroused from that Brittney/Madonna pic!
So what would you guess the reserve is?
While I don’t play guitar, I have always liked the Telecaster design more than the Strat.
WAG: the reserve is probably in the $30-40,000 range.
I don’t mean to nitpick but the guitar was renamed telecaster in 1952. For the year of 1951 there was no name put on the guitar because Leo Fender was too cheap to buy new decals. So Tele’s from 1951 have been nicknamed the “nocaster.”
I’ve played a mint condition Broadcaster, Nocaster, and 1952 telecaster and they are very sweet. Also my dad has a Fender Custom Shop 1951 ‘NoCaster’ reissue. To me it plays almost as well as a real Nocaster and had the Custom Shop one been aged for 50years then it would play equally as well. 
All that said, thats a really nice find on ebay. 
I think you may be a bit high, Mr. Blue Sky. While there is no question that this guitar, as presented, is a top-tier must-have in the pantheon of guitar high spots, I would predict that it will go in the $20 - 25,000 range. I would love to be proven wrong…
WOW!!! That thing looks brand new! “drool” is not exactly the reaction I had…
Feggetaboutit. Rick Nielsen will probably put in a big bid at the last minute anyway.
Shur looks purty, I must say.
Come to think about is, some Rick lyrics might be apropos:
I want you to want me.
I need you to need me.
I’d love you to love me.
Certainly, there’s an awful lot of “collectibility” regarding a Telecaster, or the “Nocaster” as the 1951 model was known. If memory serves me correctly, Leo Fender had to give up the name “Broadcaster” because Zenith Televisions had a patent on the name and they didn’t want to share it - I’m pretty sure it was Zenith.
Anyways, for mine, you realistically could get any Fender up until about 1967 or 1968 and they’re all gonna be wonderful. They changed very little in that time - save for some superior electronics and some extra coil windings on the pickups to improve voltage output.
However, Fender historians will be aware that CBS bought the Fender company outright in mid 1965 - but very few changes were noticible in the first 18 months. By 1967 the first “silverface” amps were appearing, and in 1968, the first Telecaster Thinline - that is, a guitar which is very similar in build to Gibson’s ES335 - of which I own 1968 version of both by the way - well, the Thinline showed up in 1968 because Fender was starting to notice shortages in the world wide supply of ash - and a semi-accoustic version of the Telecast allowed them to use far less ash with a solid maple insert running from the neckjoint through the body.
Personally, apart from the sheer joy of being able to say that you own one of the very, very first Telecasters - in my considered opinion there’s very little musical worth in owning one from 1951 as compared to say, one from 1957. Certainly, Larry Carlton speaks glowingly of his 1951 Tele, but nowadays prefers to use his 1968 ES335 because, in his words, overall it’s a more versatile guitar.
As they say - nothing twangs like a Telecaster, but nothing is as versatile as an ES335.
If I was to get a solid body Fender I’d be happy with a circa '64 era one - it was still made entirely by the original Fender owned company and they had changed very little since their introduction - and yet they’re still manageable to buy cost wise.
Just for your reference, I also own (amongst various vintage amps) a genuine '65 Fender Twin Reverb - the real deal blackface monster. Man, what a tone machine - but shit it’s loud. Ear shatteringly loud.
Boo Boo Foo I am with you on most of what you said, with a few observations:
Broadcasters got renamed to Tele’s because Gretsch had a line of drums called the “Broadkaster” and they complained that the names were too close. (cite: Guitar Player’s Vintage Guitar Gallery magazine).
Solomon7t, of course you are right about the Nocasters of 1951, but I figured that any Doper who was gonna click on this thread would know enough Fender history to know that.
While I agree with BBF’s basic observation that all Fenders up to about 1967 are great (by that time, they used up all the pre-CBS inventory), there are many differences between years - e.g., rosewood vs. maple fingerboards, neck profiles, pickup wiring, etc. So the various models have very different characteristics of sound and playability. Granted, for this eBay listing, it is all about mint collectibility, but if I was going to get a vintage Tele and money was no object, I would want one like this - maple neck, butterscotch finish, etc…
I have two electrics that I play a lot - a Strat and a 335. Love 'em both. I agree that the 335 is amazingly versatile across jazz, rock and blues. The Strat, however, is just as versatile across rock and blues - you play different types of rock and blues on it than you would on a 335, but the Strat more than holds its own. And the Strat sounds great for out-of-phase New Wavey stuff, too. I love my 335, but this whole issue of versatility doesn’t impress me much - it does what it does really well, as does the Strat.
As for Tele’s, you can beat 'em for what they do best…
You could save $15,000 & get one that looks just like a real one:
Item number: 2554230316
" A custom made exact copy of a original 1950 Fender Broadcaster,(not made by fender) featuring a one piece swamp ash body weighing 3.5 pounds"
errr… you can’t beat 'em for what they do best - darn hamsters…
Em, before you all reach for your checkbooks…
The serial number on this guitar is 1239 (looks like that anyway) definitely 1000+. A number that high would date to 1952 at the earliest, by which time Fender had dropped the Broadcaster name. See here for serial number dating.
Here is a genuine 1950 Broadcaster, also initialled by Tadeo Gomez. Its serial number is 580.
There is another one here. No neck date on this one but the body is
dated 22nd November 1950, and the serial number is 636.
Lastly, here is a '51 Nocaster, i.e. post Broadcaster, pre Telecaster. It’s serial number is 950, still lower than the guitar on eBay.
Caveat - dates on Fender instruments are always a bit out - the neck may lie around for a few months before it gets attached to a body (and vice versa) so something with a date of December 1950 might not have been assembled until some time in 1951, and there were always “rogue” numbers which were applied out of sequence but it’s unlikely that they’d be this far out.
And if this is a genuine Broadcaster, why isn’t the seller showing a picture of the headstock so we can see the name?!
I don’t think it’s a complete fake, but it is probably a '52 Tele, with a Broadcaster neck on it…
Indeed you are correct there Wordman! Heavens knows where the Zenith connection came into my brain earlier. I’m normally pretty bloody good with my useless bits of trivia but I have to admit I failed dismally with the Zenith effort. I knew it was a patent sharing matter, but as soon as I started reading your Gretsch story I knew that I was reading the correct story.
Iguana Boy? Very astute observation there. If I was going to buy such a guitar, at the very minimum I’d be contacting the Fender factory with an email showing a link to the ebay auction and hopefully verifying some bonafides on the axe. Those bolt on necks are simply too easy to swap around. And I too have heard the same history on the handwriting serial numbers.
Nice point, Iguana Boy - I definitely was curious as to why, if this is in fact Guitar Porn, why they held off on the (wait for it, here it comes) Money Shot (oooh, sorry, had to stay with the analogy just a bit too long, didn’t I?) of the headstock with the Broadcaster decal…I hadn’t attributed it to nefarious intent, but your serial number knowledge does open up some questions. Interesting.
And Boo Boo Foo? Thanks for the nice words - trivia matters (to those of us who believe that trivia matters, that is…)
Who the heck is this meant for?