Rose Painted Fender Esquire Guitar

The rose painted Esquire is Sabi Sound’s resident twang monster, but back off the tone control and you can play Americana and Tom Petty all night long.

Specs: Don Mare hand wound Hayride pickup. Reverse control plate with a four way switch that goes from pickup wired directly to the output, to pickup + volume, pickup + volume + tone, and pickup + volume + 0.0047 μF cap (Eldred mod). Strung with 0.09s—the lightest gauge of the herd, perfect for chicken pickin’.

I was born in Norway and lived there for 16 years or so. Rose painting is a traditional Norwegian folk art style. It’s been around for more than 400 years and is typically used to decorate traditional wooden bowls, spoons and furniture. My only electric guitar throughout my teens was a ’77 Fender Stratocaster and I conjured up a rose painted Tele in my mind. Yup, I was already filled with gearlust.

In late 2017 I acquired a rough cut Esquire body made from European beech and asked Don Mare to wind me a Hayride tele bridge pickup. This was gonna be the rose painted guitar!

I found a Norwegian rose painter online whose styled I liked and my mom, who lives in Norway, reached out asking if she’d be up for the task.