Nash Guitars '52 Relic Telecaster

This just might be the one I wish I had back the most. If you are reading this you may well be aware of who Bill Nash is and what he does. If not, there is a fantastic story about him in The Fretboard Journal this past year and you can catch up with those of us “in the know.” I really have no idea how I first heard about him and his relic guitars, but I did know right away that I wanted one. The ’52 Telecaster copies really caught my eye and when this one came up for sale on eBay I just had to have it. It turned out to be the exact guitar featured on the NashGuitars.com website and I was able to get it for a steal.

A guy had bought it and basically hung it on the wall and never played it. Of course, you’d never know anyway because Nash guitars are relic’d to the point of looking like they’ve been played in a roadhouse eight nights a week for the last 50 years. In fact, some of Bill’s guitars go a little too far for my my taste...some just look dirty and banged up with a screwdriver...especially the more recent guitars he's been putting out. But most of them look darn cool and authentic. More importantly, they play like a guitar that has been broken in and set up perfectly and not like something that just came off the assembly line in Ensenada, Mexico. Not that those are bad guitars...I have a sweet MIM Tele Custom that I like a lot. But, the Nash felt like 50 years of soul.

The guy that had it on eBay listed it for $1200. I broke eBay rules and sent him a message saying I’d give him $1000 right away and, since it was just before Christmas, he’d have some extra cash for the holidays. He took the deal and boy was I happy. I have to admit that a couple of years later when I sold it, it went almost immediately for the $1800 Buy It Now price I put on it. Rarely does a Nash not sell for it’s Buy It Now price, but not usually that high. This was a great looking guitar. Since I wasn’t in a band for the entire time I owned the guitar it was mostly relegated to recording and living room jam sessions. I did get to play it out live twice and both times it got a ton of attention. If you CLICK HERE and head over to my MySpace page you’ll hear me playing it and my good friend Dave taking some leads on it too.

As you’ll read time and time again on this site, the reason I sold it (and it was a hard decision to sell) was to finance the purchase of something else...in this case a black lacquer Ehlers jumbo acoustic that just plain has the best bass of any acoustic I’ve played...ever. The Nash was without a doubt the coolest, best sounding, most comfortable Telecaster I’ve ever played.

Man, I wish I had that one back.