Custom Shop's Fred Stuart on His Founders Design Project Herringbone Tele

In celebration of the Fender Custom Shop's 30th anniversary, eight of the original master builders came together to design their dream guitars for the Founders Design Project.

And for Fred Stuart, one of those eight visionary luthiers, the inspiration for his featured Herringbone Telecaster dated back many years before the Custom Shop was founded in 1987.

"My personal preference in music lends towards acoustic music," he said. "It's inspired by design motifs of early 20th enttury acoustic guitars. It's just kind of an electric guitars iwth a lot of acoustic gutiar features."

Stuart has played in bluegrass bands over the years, so he wanted to recall a pre-World War II Martin Herringbone D28 guitar. As such, he chose a two-piece roasted ash '52 Telecaster body and a Bear Claw Sitka Spruce top with a white herringbone-purfled binding.

Other features include an original Fred Stuart design single-ply Tortoiseshell pickguard and Fred Stuart’s Custom Blackguard Telecaster single-coil bridge and neck pickups.

Get a closer look at Stuart's Herringbone Telecaster in the video above.