1968 Fender Telecaster White

To hear some of the Fender aficionados tell it, you would think that the CBS suits walked into Fullerton in January of 1965 and immediately destroyed all of Leo's work. They eventually made quite a mess of everything but it wasn't on day one. Nor was it day two or day three. They really didn't mess too much with the design of the guitars, just the execution and early on it was pretty small stuff. The Telecaster escaped a lot of CBS's "make it cheaper and make more money" approach to guitar making probably because it was so basic to begin with. This is a 68 and, yes, it has those crappy "F" tuners and I think the finish on this one is poly (on the body anyway). So, it has some CBS fingerprints on it but over all, it's still sounds and plays like a Telecaster should. And with pre CBS Tele prices barreling upward, maybe it's time to drop the prejudice toward CBS Fenders and look at the instruments themselves. This Tele is white although you would never know it unless you look under the guard. It has yellowed to what looks, essentially, like a blonde Tele that is opaque rather than see through. Everything is original. The neck appears to be lacquered with nitro although much of the finish has been removed from the back of the neck.
Plays great, sounds like a Telecaster and is late enough to have the more useful later circuit-you know, the one that actually has the ability to have both pickups on at the same time. very clean original case.