Rare "Maple Cap" Telecaster with Factory Bigsby

This 12 3/4-inch-wide Telecaster weighs 8.40 lbs. and has a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Solid alder body, maple neck, and maple-cap fretboard with 21 frets and black dot position markers. Individual Fender "F" tuners with octagonal metal buttons. Headstock decal with "Fender" logo in black with gold trim, "Telecaster" in black beside it, and two patent numbers beneath it. Single "butterfly" string tree with nylon spacer. Four-bolt neck plate with backward Fender "F" logo and serial number ("226191") above it. One plain metal-cover pickup at neck with an output of 6.65k and one black six-polepiece pickup angled in bridgeplate with an output of 6.15k. Three-layer (white/black/white) plastic pickguard. Two controls (one volume, one tone) plus three-way selector switch, all on metal plate adjoining pickguard. Chrome knobs with flat tops and knurled sides. Fender six-piece bridge with threaded saddles, the base plate without any markings, and factory Bigsby vibrato tailpiece with a Fender backward "F" logo. With the original bridge cover. The neck is dated: "3 OCT 68 B" and the pots are dated: "304 66 17." The absolute bare minimum of button scratching, some rubbing on the bottom of the bass bout and on the bottom treble corner of the guitar near the jack hole, a few marks on the side of the guitar, and a couple of tiny little dings. There is very little wear to the neck, only minor wear to the frets, and the fretboard is nice and clean with only a couple of tiny little marks. A wonderful and totally original example of this extremely rare guitar. Housed in the original Fender black hardshell case, with a "tail" on the plastic Fender logo on the exterior of the case and with dark orange plush lining (9.00).

"The Bigsby vibrato tailpiece was first listed as an option in 1967...Guitars with a Bigsby tailpiece feature a six-piece bridge with threaded saddles and a base plate without any marking" (A.R. Duchossoir, The Fender Telecaster, p. 68). Because this guitar has a proper factory Bigsby, the strings don't go through the body, like they do on all Telecasters (except those made in 1958), and there are no ferrules on the back of the guitar.