1974 Fender Telecaster Thinline Natural, Very Good, Original Hard, $1.00

Fender’s “Thinline” version of the popular Telecaster model was designed by Roger Rossmeisl and debuted in 1968. After a short time routing the body under the pickguard (called the “Smuggler’s Tele”),Rossmeisl decided instead to chamber the body and added an attractive F hole route in the bass side lower bout. The Thinline was updated to its second version in 1972 with two Seth Lover designed “Wide Range Humbucker” pickups, innovative bullet style truss rod adjustable at the top of the neck, and a 3 bolt neck joint.

This 1974 Fender Telecaster has just emerged from a small collection and is ready to play. We were told that it was bought new and sold about a decade ago to the collector after the original owner ran into some money troubles. The guitar is original except for the tuners which appear to be the sealed back style found on Telecaster Deluxe models and one bridge pickup coil personally rewound and reinstalled by Lindy Fralin. Lindy’s work resulted in a perfect coil match and he nailed the intended output of 10.5k ohms. At some point, the original owner glued the neck into the pocket so we removed the glue and cleaned the pocket. The original owner signed his name and included some of his favorite alternate tunings inside the F hole likely to protect against theft. The neck is straight and the frets are typical for 70s lacquer fretboard (feels like less meat on the frets compared to an unlacquered fretboard). Still, it’s in good playing condition and ready stage, studio, or collection.