A Near Mint Early Sunburst Telecaster Thinline

A fabulous early 1969 example of one of the early versions of Fender's hollow body thinline Telecaster, with serial number "277822." It weighs just 6.20 lbs. and has a "B" neck nut width of 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Hollow ash body and one-piece fretted maple 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. Four-bolt neck plate with large Fender "F" logo and serial number above it. Individual Fender "F" tuners with octagonal metal buttons. Two hot single-coil pickups (one plain metal-cover pickup with visible height-adjustment screws at neck and one black six-polepiece pickup angled in bridgeplate) with outputs of 6.49k and 6.08k. Original pearloid ("mother-of-toilet seat") over black and white plastic pickguard with eleven screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) plus three-way selector switch, all on pickguard. Chrome knobs with flat tops and knurled sides. Side-mounted jack socket. Combined Telecaster three-saddle bridge/tailpiece. There are a few small indentations on the back of the guitar and an absolute minimal amount of belt buckle scarring, otherwise this guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition, totally unfaded. The pots are dated "137 66 34" ("137"=CTS pots and "1966"=the 34th week of 1966) and the bridge pickup is the light-gray bottom type used between 1965 and 1969. The end of the neck is stamped in green "3 53 003 B," followed by an indecipherable mark, which is very often the case with late sixties Fenders. Housed in the original Fender black hardshell case with reddish orange plush lining (9.25).

"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). This guitar is almost mint and has the original "ashtray"