1967 Fender Telecaster - Blonde
As the 1960's came to a close the Telecaster would go through some changes to bring the model in line with other instruments in the Fender range. This is a great example of a late 1967 Fender Telecaster that highlights some of these changes.
The guitar features a maple neck with glued on maple fingerboard with no 'skunk stripe,' a feature officially introduced in 1967 but which was available from 1965. By the autumn of '67 the decal changed from the gold 'transition' Fender headstock logo to a larger bold black decal. The neck dates to September '67, and is in great condition with the previous owner having had the neck refretted with sympathetic fret wire. Likewise the autumn of '67 saw the Telecaster and Stratocaster come into line with the Jaguar and Jazzmaster with Fender changing from Kluson tuners to 'F' stamped tuners.
Blonde was the standard finish for the Telecaster during this period and being a translucent finish Fender would always spray over an ash body. This ash body is a good lightweight example and by '67 Fender were struggling to source lightweight ash for their bodies and even resorted to routing a large area beneath the pickguard creating what are known as 'Smugglers' Telecasters.
In late '67 Fender changed the wiring on Telecasters; from late 1953 to late 1967 the 3-position switch forward position was the neck pickup with a 'dark tone' preset treble cut capacitor (no tone adjustment) the middle switch position was the neck pickup with the tone knob working and the rear switch position was the bridge pickup with no tone control. This wiring used a .05mfd cap soldered between the two pots, and a .1mfd cap between the volume pot's ground and the 3-way switch. Our example has been converted to '68 style traditional wiring with the 0.1mfd capacitor being disconnected but all original components are still present should the need to return the guitar to factory spec arise. Other electronics comprise Stackpole 250k volume and tone potentiometers marked 304-6631 for the 31st week of 1966 with .05mfd and 0.1mfd ceramic capacitors and CRL 1452 switch used circa 65-73. Overall the guitar plays very well and tonally has that magic you can only get from a great vintage Telecaster.
The instrument comes with an earlier period Fender hard case.