A Near Mint 1968 Maple-Cap Telecaster Thinline

An exceptional and near mint example of one of the earliest versions of Fender's hollow body thinline Telecaster, This amazing guitar weighs just 7.30 lbs. and has a hollow ash body with single 'f' sound hole on bass side of top. One-piece maple neck with a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches, a scale length of 25 1/2 inches and a wonderful medium-to-thick profile. 'Maple-cap' fretboard with 21 original medium frets and black dot position markers. Headstock decal with "Fender" logo in black with gold trim, two patent numbers in black below it "Pat. 2,573,254  3,143,028", and "Telecaster" in bold black lettering beside it. 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 "151489" between the top two screws. Two hot pickups (single-coil neck pickup encased in metal shell and single-coil staggered pole bridge pickup) with outputs of 6.09k and 6.20k. Original "pearloid" ("mother-of-toilet-seat") over white and black 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 DEC 68B" on the end, "029" on the bottom, and the neck pocket has a red number "2." The pots are dated "304 66 17" (Stackpole April 1966). 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 original bridge cover ("ashtray"). Housed in its original Fender three-latch, rectangular black hardshell case with reddish orange plush lining (9.00).

In late 1968, Fender introduced the Telecaster Thinline. Much like Gibson's 335, the Thinline has a solid center with hollow "wings" and a single "F" hole. Apparently Fender’s supply of lightweight ash was drying up. Fender looked for ways to use readily available, but heavier grades of ash for the Telecaster. Their solution was to hollow out portions of the body to reduce weight. The body was routed from the back on each side of pickup assembly creating hollow "wings". A thin back panel was then glued on the back. A new style pearloid pickguard was used too. When it was introduced in late 1968, the Telecaster Thinline was offered with either a natural finished ash or mahogany body. In 1969, a three tone sunburst finish was also offered as an option. Also in 1969 the maple cap fingerboard gave way to a one piece maple neck with the back "skunk stripe". Finally in late-1971, the Telecaster Thinline was outfitted with a pair of Fender’s new humbucking pickups and it remained unchanged in the Fender line until it was discontinued in 1980.

"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).