One of the First Maple-Cap Tele Thinlines

An exceptional and near mint example of one of the earliest versions of Fender's hollow body thinline Telecaster, with serial number "242243." This guitar weighs just 6.70 lbs. and has a nut width of 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Hollow ash body and rare maple-cap neck with 21 frets and black dot position markers. Headstock decal with "Fender" logo in black with gold trim, with two patent numbers in black below it ("PAT. 2,573,254 3,143,028"), and "TELECASTER" in black in bold lettering beside it (without "Thinline" on headstock). Single "butterfly" string tree. Individual Fender "F" closed-back tuners with octagonal metal buttons. Four-bolt neck plate with large Fender "F" logo and serial number above it. Two hot pickups (single-coil neck pickup encased in metal shell and single-coil staggered pole bridge pickup) with outputs of 6.59k and 5.94k. Original "pearloid" ("mother-of-toilet-seat") over white/black/white plastic pickguard. Two controls (one volume, one tone) plus three-way selector switch, all on pickguard. Chrome knobs with flat tops and knurled sides. Combination Telecaster three-saddle bridge/tailpiece, with "FENDER/PAT.NO./DES.164227/2,573,254" on the base plate. The neck is stamped "3 AUG 68B" on the end, "378" on the bottom, and the neck pocket has a red number "3." The pots are dated "304 66 17" (Stackpole April 1966). Two small wear spots at the second fret, a minuscule amount of finish checking to the back of the neck, and one tiny crack in the pickguard by the screw at the treble side of the neck (due to natural shrinkage), are all that prevent this guitar from being totally mint. Complete with the original matching serial number hang tag (with original price of $393.97 plus a huge $50 for the case!), and the original bridge cover ("ashtray"). Housed in its original Fender black hardshell case with reddish orange plush lining (9.00).

"Introduced in 1968, this model was an attempt by Fender to reduce the weight of the solid Telecaster by hollowing out sections of the body -- and the guitar even included a token f-hole as a visual clue to its semi-solid status. The Thinline at first retained the standard Tele pickup layout, but with a restyled pickguard" (Tony Bacon and Paul Day, The Fender Book, p. 47).

The Telecaster Thinline was "basically a Telecaster body with pockets hollowed-out from the rear, including a bigger one opening into the top via an 'f' hole. With the exception of the pickguard shape modified to accomodate [sic] the new semi-acoustic design, the Thinline was otherwise identical to a regular '68 Telecaster in terms of neck, electronics and hardware. But its body was about half the weight of a regular Telecaster. The new variant was first listed in July 1968 for $319.50…To convey the idea of a lighter, almost acoustic guitar, the Thinline was at first released in only natural ash and mahogany finishes with a 2-piece maple neck…By 1969, it also became available with a 3-tone sunburst finish and an optional rosewood-capped neck" (A.R. Duchossoir, The Fender Telecaster, p. 23).