It's time to go back to school. You don't need to cover any textbooks though (with the missing pages in them), don't need to sign up for stuff with coach, or Glee Club... or anything else you remember about school. There will also be no short-bus, with someone behind you putting a lugie in your hair. I am going to educate you about spotting fakes... especially with something like a '58 Esquire (my guitar here). We can start with 'What is the correct serial number range for a guitar like this?'. The correct answer (not only in the Fender Guitar book I have, but also here)is in the 25000 to 30000 range, with some "0" and "-" prefixes mixed in. There is also a Fender serial number web page here. Granted, if Leo (or his employees) rarely found a missing plate around the shop (this was very rare) the serial number might be out of this range. Some plates might have serial numbers on both sides too... so don't worry if that is the case with your guitar, it is normal. My guitar is #026330.. so all is cool. (Apparently Leo would make these plates in batches, and they would all be put into a box... so there was little order as to when they were put onto guitars (in each batch). Next lets look at the bridge pickup cavity... it says 6/58 (June 1958)... and the date on the end of the neck is (as you can see) 7/58. This is good, since you don't want these to be more than a couple months apart. It is actually difficult to forge an original 'untouched' Esquire or Tele of this period from parts since the holes are unlikely to ever match up just right... as youcan see here, there is only the correct number of holes in the neck from the screws... five. Why five? One is from when the neck was suspended to be painted. If there were more holes, we might suspect the neck and body were not originally on the same guitar. Finally...let's look at the neck pickup cavity... oops! What is wrong here? This is an Esquire... so there should be no holes here. At some point in time, someone put another pickup here, and (basically) made it into a Tele. This was actually more common than you think. This does effect value. I was at a major Guitar store in Hollywood (Vintage... think Eric shops there...) and they had two 1956 Esquires for sale. One had (like mine) once had an extra pickup added to it. It was then restored again to original condition, with a period pickguard... the price difference between the two (modified and restored vs. unmodified) was 10% (a lot depends on how original the rest of the guitar is, and who restored the wiring). Oh... there's the bell... don't forget to study pages 211 through 315... (didn't you hate it when they gave you lots of reading to do?)
