Phillip Gajewski

Phil Gajewski is an insurance executive by day and a Fender Custom Shop collector the rest of the time. He lives in Michigan, where he writes about his Fender guitar collection with the same attention to detail he brings to his work — which is to say, obsessively. Błotnik is where that obsession lives.

Phillip Gajewski

Phillip Gajewski

Phil Gajewski is an insurance executive by day and a Fender Custom Shop collector the rest of the time. He lives in Michigan, where he writes about his Fender guitar collection with the same attention to detail he brings to his work.

9 posts

Photo of Fender Custom Shop Wildwood 10 1962 Telecaster Custom "Relic Ready" — Fender Custom Shop Wildwood 10 1962 Telecaster Custom "Relic Ready"

Wildwood 10 Telecaster – Are you Relic Ready?

"Relic Ready" sells you a blank canvas and hands you the brush. Three things ended up aging this guitar, and the owner was the least of them."

Phillip Gajewski • Fender Custom Shop

Photo of Fender Custom Shop Serial Numbers on Neck Plates. — Fender Custom Shop Serial Numbers on Neck Plates.

Decoding Fender Custom Shop Serial Numbers: What They Tell You, and What They Don't

When purchasing a Fender Custom Shop (new or used), how much emphasis should one place on the serial number? Serial numbers on Fender Custom Shop guitars are at best confusing, and at worst misleading. In many instances, the serial number may not really tell an owner much valuable information. There

Phillip Gajewski

Fender Custom Shop 1963 Stratocaster Heavy Relic — Photo of Fender Custom Shop 1963 Stratocaster Heavy Relic

The Unicorn: The Guitar that Shouldn't Exist.

"A Fender Custom Shop '63 wearing a maple fretboard — the one spec a '63 isn't supposed to have. A year of chasing, two misses, and the rule I paid to learn: never balk."

Phillip Gajewski • Collector