An Exceptionally Fine and Very Early Maple-Cap Pink Paisley Telecaster

1968 Fender Telecaster (Pink Paisley) Maple-Cap

This very early 'maple-cap' neck Paisley Telecaster weighs just 7.90 lbs. Solid alder body with the original Paisley finish. One-piece maple neck with a nut width of just under 1 5/8 inches, a scale length of 25 1/2 inches, and a wonderful medium-to-thick profile. Maple-cap fretboard with twenty-one original medium frets and black dot position markers. Headstock with CBS 'black' logo with "Fender" in black with gold trim, "Telecaster" in black, and two patent numbers "2,573,254" and "3,143,028" beneath. Single butterfly string tree with metal spacer. Individual Fender "F" tuners with octagonal metal buttons. Four-bolt neckplate with Fender backward "F" logo and serial number "240491" between the top two screws. The neck is stamped "3 AUG 68B" One plain metal-cover pickup at neck with an output of 7.85k and one black six staggered polepiece pickup angled in bridge-plate with an output of 5.19k. Clear plastic pickguard (6mm. thick) with eight screws and 'sprayed' pink area on the underside of the aperture for the neck pickup. Two controls (one volume, one tone) plus three-way selector switch, all on metal plate adjoining pickguard. The wiring is of the earlier cloth type. The potentiometers are stamped "304 6612" (Stackpole March 1966). Chrome knobs with almost flat tops and knurled sides. Fender combined bridge and tailpiece with three individually adjustable grooved steel saddles. There is some fine finish checking on the body and a few light cracks in the polyester clear-coat - but there is none of the dreaded and unfortunately very common heavy cracking and peeling of the Paisley 'paper' under the clear-coat. There are a few small marks/indentations on the sides of the body - the color of which transcends from pink to an almost silver. There is the bare minimum of playing wear to the first five frets only and there is virtually no playing wear to the maple-cap fretboard. There is some varnish loss on the treble side of the back of the neck extending from the second to the eleventh fret. This guitar has been played - but obviously by a rhythm player only. An exceptional example of this very rare "Paisley" Telecaster in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition. Complete with the original bridge cover and an original sixties guitar cord. Also included is an original 1968, forty-eight-page Fender 'Teen Fair Edition' catalog, an original October 1968, twelve-page Fender price list (showing the Paisley Telecaster @ $279.50 + $57.50 for the case), an original 1969 forty-eight page 'Fender lovin' care' color catalog, and some original Fender strings in their envelopes. Also included is an original 1968 "Fender lovin' care", 2 1/4 inch button. Housed in its original Fender three-latch, rectangular black hardshell case with reddish orange plush lining and black leather ends (8.75). This actual guitar is recorded in Werners List: "240491  Aug 68  Tele  Paisley".

In early 1969 the original style one-piece Maple Neck was reissued as an option on Telecasters and Esquires in lieu of the 2-piece neck with a separate maple cap." (Duchossoir. The Fender Telecaster, p.50).

"Out of the psychedelic era came the paisley finish, which is actually adhesive-backed paper oversprayed with a polyester clear coat" (George Gruhn and Walter Carter, Electric Guitars and Basses, p. 147).