Richie Sambora's Unique Telecaster Thinline Bajo Sexto

An exceptional and near mint example of one of the very first Fender Custom Shop Bajo Sexto Telecasters built by master luthier Fred Stuart and possibly the only one ever made with a thinline semi-hollow body. This Baritone guitar weighs just 7.20 lbs. and has a nut width of just under 1 11/16 inches and an extended scale length of 30 1/4 inches. Hollow ash body and one-piece maple neck with slab rosewood fretboard with 24 frets and pearloid dot position markers. Headstock decal with "Fender" logo in black with gold trim, and "TELECASTER" in black in bold lettering beside it, with "BAJO SEXTO" beneath it. Single "butterfly" string tree. Individual Kluson "no-line" tuners with oval metal buttons. Four-bolt neck plate with serial number "V049304" between the top two screws. Two hot pickups (single-coil neck pickup encased in metal shell and single-coil staggered pole bridge pickup) with outputs of 7.13k and 6.62k. Original three-layer "pearloid" ("mother-of-toilet-seat") over black and white plastic pickguard. Two controls (one volume, one tone) plus three-way "top-hat" selector switch. Chrome knobs with flat tops and knurled sides. Combination Telecaster three-saddle bridge/tailpiece, with through-body stringing and "FENDER/PAT.NO./DES.164227/2,573,254" on the base plate. One tiny surface chip on the side near the jack-input ia all that prevents this guitar from being totally mint. The neck is dated in pencil "F.S. 10-90" and the neck pocket is stamped "JUN 28 1990". The potentiometers are stamped "019064" (May 1990). Housed in its original Fender black hardshell case with black plush lining (9.00). Richie Sambora has inscribed the guitar in black marker "Richie / Sambora "05" / Used on Keep the Faith / Crossroads & These Days / Albums .. ....."

This Baritone guitar was undoubtedly a specially ordered 'Prototype' and was made by Fred Stuart of the Fender Custom Shop in October 1990. According to Tony Bacon's book Six Decades of the Fender Telecaster, p.125, the Bajo Sexto Telecaster was produced by the Fender Custom Shop between 1992 and 1998 and had a "Slab single-cutaway body; sunburst or blond" with a "Fretted maple neck" and a "Five-screw black plastic pickguard". There is no mention of any 'Thinline' version ever having been made, nor any version with a Slab-Rosewood fretboard. The only three examples of any Bajo Sexto that we can locate in the Fender Custom Shop Guitar Gallery book are 1. A Danny Gatton Doubleneck built by Alan Hamel and Fred Stuart (with maple fretboards); 2. A Gene Parsons Double Bender Telecaster (also built by Alan Hamel and Fred Stuart and with maple fretboards); and 3. A Checkerboard Bajo Sexto Telecaster built by Fred Stuart (with a maple fretboard) , which is owned by Rick Nielsen. Richie's guitar was made by Fred Stuart two years before the Custom Shop offered this very rare instrument.

We have spoken to Fred Stuart who has confirmed that this guitar was indeed specially made for Richie Sambora in October 1990 and that it was one of the very first Bajo Sexto's ever built.

"The history of the Bajo Sexto is not exactly clear, but by some historian's account, the instrument was first brought to Mexico by the Spaniards. Others say it evolved from the 12-string guitar, emerging sometime late in the 19th century as native to the bajio region of Jalisco, Mexico.

In the early development of conjunto music, the Bajo was used mainly as a bass instrument in conjunction with the bass chord elements of the accordion. But later, with the addition of bass and drums in modern conjunto groups, the Bajo players were free to expand on its primary use as a rhythm instrument and played as a solo, melody-line instrument…

According to Reyes Accordions.com (http://www.reyesaccordions.com/Macias.htm) "The Steel-stringed Bajo is tuned an octave below a standard guitar, and the last two strings are tuned up a half-step: E, A, D, G, C, F, low to high, with each course tuned in octaves. This gives it a rich tone and a loud, resonant quality." However Richie Sambora had this guitar set-up somewhat differently…This Bajo Sexto is tuned A, D, G, C, E, A as per a small label inside the case which also shows an alternate tuning of C, F, A#, D#, G, C. (The strings used are 66, 56, 46, 36, 22 & 16).