A Near Mint Original "Maple-Cap" Telecaster!

This 12 3/4-inch-wide Telecaster weighs just 8.00 lbs. and has a nut width of 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Solid ash body, one-piece maple neck with a medium to thick profile, and maple-cap fretboard with 21 frets and black dot position markers. Headstock decal with "Fender" logo in black with gold trim, "Telecaster" in black beside it, and two patent numbers beneath "Fender." Single "butterfly" string tree. Individual Fender "F" tuners with octagonal metal buttons. Four-bolt neck plate with Fender backward "F" logo and serial number ("220580") between the top two screws. One plain metal-cover pickup at neck with an output of 6.97k and one black six-polepiece pickup angled in bridgeplate with an output of 6.01k. Three-layer (white/black/white) plastic pickguard with eight screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) plus three-way pickup selector switch, all on metal plate adjoining pickguard. The potentiometers are stamped "137 6636" (CTS Sept 1966) and "304 6617" (Stackpole April 1966). Chrome knobs with flat tops and knurled sides. Fender combined bridge/tailpiece with three threaded saddles. This guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition and has the original chrome "ashtray" bridge cover and the hang-tag booklet with matching serial number. There is absolutely no belt buckle wear, but there are a couple of tiny little marks on the back of the guitar and a small amount of natural edgewear (from the player's sleeve) on the bottom corner edge of the top of the guitar. There is a small amount of fretboard wear, particularly on the third fret, but very little actual fretwear. This is an exceptional example of this very rare "Maple-Cap" Telecaster, with the rich grain of the ash body showing beautifully through the Blond finish -- just about the cleanest, freshest, mintiest "Maple-Cap" Tele that we have ever seen! Housed in its original Fender black hardshell case with reddish orange plush lining (9.25).

"From 1950 up to mid-1959, Telecaster guitars were exclusively fitted with a fretted one-piece maple neck…without a separate fingerboard. By mid-1959, the original Maple Neck was replaced by a rosewood-capped neck…In January 1967 a maple fingerboard officially became optional on most Fender electrics, but Telecaster guitars with a maple-capped neck were actually available well before 1967, either on a replacement or a custom order basis. The 2-piece maple neck from the 60s is easily distinguished from the original one-piece neck by both the lack of walnut plug above the nut and contrasting stripe (a.k.a. 'skunk stripe') on the back" (A.R. Duchossoir, The Fender Telecaster, p. 50).