2005 Fender Custom Zebra Telecaster

This guitar is without a doubt, one of the most stunning guitars I have ever owned. I have to hand it to Norm from Norman’s Rare Guitars, he knows which rare Fender’s to re-create! So yes, this guitar visually was based on a 1960’s Stratocaster that was equally as stunning. And the best part? It was a John English Masterbuilt!

I saw this guitar along with a matching Stratocaster that he had made as well, (Replicating that original 60s guitar) for sale on the Norman’s Rare Guitars website and fell in love with it. I almost bought the matching Stratocaster, but hesitated for some reason. However, I did grab this magnificent Telecaster (one of two available) for around US$7,500 and had it sent to me here in Australia.

Being a John English Masterbuilt guitar, it played extremely well, the neck was perfect! My only real complaint was the Fender Decal did not seem like it was attached that well. The combination of the Zebra wood on the body and the dark rosewood neck was simply stunning to look at so the decal issue was easily overlooked.

Word spread about this guitar and next thing I knew I had a gentleman named Jeremy who lived down the road from me, pay me a visit to look at it. He too fell in love with it and I let the guitar go for around AUD$14,000. To this day I regret doing so.