You can’t look away can you? 1966 Fender Telecaster in Blonde.

Towards the end of the 1950’s, Leo Feneder started noticing that the one piece maple necks on his guitars didn’t seem to wear well making them look untidy, especially when his guitars appeared on the television. So, in 1959, rosewood was introduced into the construction of all Fender necks. This practice continued until CBS took over where the option of a maple capped neck was offered from early 1965, to be officially introduced in 1967 as a production feature. This makes this guitar a very special prospect indeed.

What we have here is first rate example of Leo’s vision. The finish has yellowed a little when compared to what you see under the pickguard but has remained vibrant with only a handful of chips around the edge of the body. The back has survived incredibly well with no signs of use.

The maple capped neck is in great shape. The fretboard is free of any wear with the back having worn comfortably without discolouration as can happen. The frets are a little worn but still have plenty of life left in them. Possibly the only negative about the neck is that the original decal is mostly missing. This is an unfortunate result of the combination of applying the decal over the lacquer and more than likely the over enthuastic application of guitar polish by a previous owner attempting to look after his new pride and joy?

The pick guard is still flat and has only shows minute signs of shrinkage. The chrome plating on the hardware still holds its sheen with no sign of coming away. The electronics are correct and there is no sign that the solder joint have been touched. The guitar still retains its original wiring so the neck position of the selector switch still has the capacitor in line for the infamous ‘woof tone’.

The guitar comes with its correct black Tolex hardshell case.

This guitar certainly defines twang. The combination of ash and maple in the construction married to the mid-60’s pickups makes for a bright and responsive combination. The ‘woof tone’ setting will not be to everyone’s taste, although here it does have a certain musicality about it that doesn’t make it entirely useless. If approached with a bass players mentality, this setting becomes quite interesting. The middle position is great for a smoother sound whilst the bridge pickup lifts us into twang-heaven. All the bite without getting too brittle, there is no way this guitar wouldn’t cut effortlessly through a mix.

We most definitely love these mid-60s white guard Teles, with this one being one of the nicest and also the lightest we’ve seen in a while. The icing on the cake must be the maple capped neck, a fairly rare sight during this time.

You need this guitar….! And judging by the amount of interest we receive in fine examples of transitional Teles like this one, you will be paying into 5 figures if you wait until next year to get one.