1970/80’s Fender Telecaster.
From the start I’d like to state that I do not believe this to be a genuine Fender Telecaster.
I received this as part of a deal I did on some other guitars, and have spent several days trying to find out what it actually is!
Body – the lacquer finish is what I believe Fender described as burgundy mist. The guitar has been clearly used a lot and bears a myriad of chips around the edges of the guitar. The wood is dense, and a 3 piece construction.
The scratch plate was made out of a Rolling Stones Vinyl LP. I’ve replaced this with a more standard 3 ply (B/W/B) scratch plate, but will throw the Vinyl one for fun!
The body is of a “String through body” construction. Combine both the weight and construction and this results in a guitar with excellent sustain. Strap buttons are typical Fender Standard buttons.
The “ashtray” bridge is a Fender badged 6 saddle construction (1980’s feature). This allows for excellent adjustment of string height and intonation.
Neck – usually Fender have a date stamp on the end of the neck – this has gone. It’s a 9.5” radius (Typically 1980’s and thereafter) one piece maple neck construction, no scarf joints as found on some cheap copies. The 21 (70’s feature – changed to 22 in the 80’s) frets are in excellent condition, showing little/no wear, and the fret ends have all been rounded, making this very comfortable to play. Again – cheap copies often have sharp fret ends, so that’s a plus for this guitar. One cause of concern is that the Fender logo appears to be a waterslide decal, typical of a “rebadged guitar.” The lacquer shows some signs of wear in the open and 5 – 7th fret positions. This has exposed a lighter shade of lacquer underneath. Which raises the question has the neck been refinished with a more vintage looking lacquer – this could explain the loss of date numbers and replaced decal.
The Machine Heads are a high quality Sperzel locking tuners, with staggered height posts – which accounts for the String tree having been moved.
Neck joint has a 4 point Fender badge and serial number. The serial number suggests that this is a 1970’s Fender USA
Electronics – The neck pickup appears the be a Seymour Duncan pickup (I think!) – the sound is full and sonically rich, the bridge pickup looks to be a Standard Fender pickup, with the copper base plate and cloth covered wiring. The sound from this pickup is the usual “Quacky” sound found and loved by Telecaster players – Brilliant! A 3 way pickup selector allows choice of neck, neck+bridge, bridge. 24mm CTS volume and tone pots with Sprague orange drop capacitors. The wiring is quite idiosyncratic in that the pots have AEG quick release wiring connectors – clearly someone who liked to swap in and out components set this up. It works, so I see no good reason to alter it.
So what’s the result.
- Telecaster badged neck (1970’s) with correct headstock shape.
- Upgraded tuners.
- Many definitely original Fender Parts.
- Good quality crackle free electronics.
I’ve had Squire and MIM telecasters in the past, and this knocks the spots off them, but as I cannot guarantee that this is a genuine Fender, it seems only fair to price it at the same level as a MIM tele.
