Fender Custom Shop Wildwood 10 Ultra-Light 1959 Telecaster – Heavy Relic

Ultra-Light and Ultra-Mighty

Wildwoodians, we are pleased to present the latest exciting entry in our Wildwood 10 line: the Ultra-Light series. Wildwood and our good friends at the Fender Custom Shop have a long and storied history of collaboration, and together we've tried to evolve and grow upon Fender's classic designs without compromising Fender's inimitable mojo and tone. Our Wildwood 10 series was an attempt to marry modern handfeel with vintage vibe, and it has been a runaway success. But, the fine folks at Fender are never content to rest on their laurels, so we put our heads together to figure out a way to make solid-body guitars lighter without chambering them. This was easier said than done, because our Wildwood 10s are already made from premium lightweight ash and alder.

So, the builders at Fender started experimenting with different tonewoods. Eventually, they tried building a guitar out of a wood called paulownia. Paulownia is a wood native to Asia and Europe that migrated over to America in 1844, and it was named to honor the queen consort of the Netherlands, Anna Pavlovna of Russia. For centuries, Chinese luthiers have built a wide variety of zither- and lute-like instruments (the guqin, guzheng, pipa, koto, and gayageum) using paulownia as a soundboard. These ancient builders chose their material well, because paulownia has an incredibly high strength-to-weight ratio, and it is supremely resonant. Because of this, the Fender Custom Shop team thought it might be a winner, and they made us a couple of Paulownia Wildwood 10s.

When we saw the first one arrived, it was so light that we were a little worried there was no guitar in the case after we unboxed it! Once we popped the latches, it was love at first sight. Appearance-wise, it's quite similar to ash, so it gave off classic vibes before anyone even played a note. And goodness gracious, great balls of fire, was it ever light! If you threw it up into the air, you could be forgiven for worrying that it might never come down. But, the real magic came when we plugged in. From the very first strum, we were astonished at its sonic power.

The Power of Paulownia

Paulownia is a different animal than alder or ash, but it is equally inspiring. When you play a guitar made out of paulownia, several things jump out at you immediately: huge acoustic resonance, supreme responsiveness, superb touch-sensitivity, and hi-fi articulation. When we evaluate electric guitars at Wildwood, we always play them acoustically first, because we realized long ago that when an electric guitar sounds good with no electricity, it will sound excellent once you take your amp off standby. Paulownia definitely excels in this regard, and its harmonic fullness is immediately apparent from the first unamplified strum.

When you do plug in, paulownia's voice is quite impressive. These Ultra-Light Wildwood 10s have excellent overtone presence, superb clarity and transparency in the midrange, full bass response, and gorgeous sweet, singing high-end. But, their most impressive quality is their expressiveness. They respond to the player's input beautifully with a wonderfully articulate attack that captures all the nuances and subtleties of your technique. And, because they have a wide dynamic range, you can manipulate their tone with your hands quite easily. In a sense, they feel almost like extensions of your fingers. Needless to say, the Ultra-Light Wildwood 10s are a lot of fun to play, because they inspire you to dig deep and play as expressively as you can!

A Note About Sustainability

As a bonus to its spectacular sonic strengths, paulownia is also quite sustainable. It grows almost as fast as bamboo, it's remarkably easy to care for, and it is ready for harvest after less than a decade; in other words, it is a textbook renewable resource. And, after the tree falls, it regrows itself from its existing root system, which mitigates many of the erosion concerns that arise from logging practices. Paulownia is a dynamite tonewood, and it's also very friendly to this big ball of dirt and water that we're hurtling through space together on.

The Perfect 10

Years ago, we approached our friends at the Fender Custom Shop with a proposal: would they build us guitars that combined the mojo of a true-to-vintage reissue with modern handfeel and comfy modern ergonomics? They were enthused about the idea, and the Wildwood 10 was born. Thanks to the Custom Shop’s incredible craftsmanship and artistry, these guitars look gorgeous, sound killer, and play like butter.

Each of these Custom Shop creations features a thin fifties-style nitrocellulose finish, which allows the voice of the resonant hand-selected tonewoods to shine through. They also have hand-wound Custom Shop pickups that are sure to inspire you to reach new heights on your sonic journey. Wildwood 10s feel great in your hands, too. Their modern 10” radius is suitable for a wide variety of styles and techniques, and their 6105 narrow-tall frets allow you to expend less energy with your left hand, especially when bending strings. To top it all off, they come with a limited edition Dealer Select Wildwood 10 hardshell case and a certificate of authenticity.

Pickup Rundown

Wildwoodians, the Hand-Wound Wildwood 10 Twisted Tele pickups in this guitar are the winners of the most fearsome shootout since the OK Corral! When we were trying to figure out what type of special sauce to put in our Wildwood 10 Tele pickups, the Twisted Tele was an easy choice for a starting point. Standard Twisted Teles have high output for fiery Tele tone, a dash of Strat-y sparkle, and excellent articulation.

That sounded like a good base to work from, so we asked our friends at the Custom Shop to send us some underwound versions with AlNiCo II magnets instead of the standard AlNiCo V, and we asked that Fender’s resident pickup maestro, Josefina Campos, be the one to wind them. They sent us multiple guitars with different output levels, and the whole staff got together to put them through their paces and compare notes. After a delightful Tele-filled afternoon, we reached a rare unanimous consensus, and these pickups emerged bloodstained from the octagon as the winner.

How Do They Sound?

How did these pickups unite the notoriously opinionated Wildwood staff? Well, for starters, the lower output makes them wonderfully touch-sensitive and dynamic, allowing you to alter your tone significantly using just your hands. But, they also have plenty of power because of the nature of the Twisted Tele. They’re also unbelievably articulate, so they have that iconic woody Tele twang and capture every percussive detail of your right-hand attack. The bobbin for the bridge pickup is also shorter and the neck taller, which warms up the bridge and livens up the neck. Speaking of lively, the Wildwood 10 Twisted Teles have a Strat-like sparkliness, and they’re similarly vocal.

As a result, the bridge pickup is punchy and has excellent presence with plenty of jangle, chime, and sparkle. But, it still sounds quite round with no ice-pick frequencies or harshness. The neck pickup is sweet, warm, and vocal, yet it also remains open, lively, and dynamic.

Teles may be simple guitars, but the amazing thing about them is they always fit in no matter what you’re doing musically. In that spirit, we believe the Hand-Wound Wildwood 10 Twisted Tele will allow you to cover just about any musical territory you want to adventure through, and its dynamic, iconic voice will inspire all sorts of musical joy.