FACTOIDS & TRIVIA

The Fender Telecaster was the second electric Spanish guitar model released by Fender in 1950. It was essentially a two pickup version of Fender’s first solid body electric, the Esquire. Originally called the Broadcaster, Fender changed the model name to Telecaster by March 1951 in order to avoid a law suit by Gretsch which used the name Broadkaster for a line of drums. Until a new name could be found, for a short time (late 1950 to early 1951) Fender simply clipped the Broadcaster name off of the decal before it was applied to the headstock. These are known as “Nocasters” by collectors. The Telecaster underwent several changes over the years. These included a string-through-bridge (1958-59), switch to rosewood fingerboard (1959), reversion back to a string-through-body (1960), optional maple cap neck (1967), reversion back to an all maple neck (1969), and change of electronic layout (1967). The Telecaster pictured here has a the optional maple cap neck and the post-1967 electronics. This guitar's finish had been stripped by a previous owner and was refinished in a blonde color more typical of an early '60s Telecaster.

 Body: Solid, 1-piece ash

 Finish: Blonde

 Neck: 1-piece maple, bolt-on

 Fingerboard: Maple (veneer); black plastic dot markers

 Number of Frets: 21

 Pickguard: White/black/white plastic laminate

 Bridge: Fender steel; chrome

 Nut: Plastic

 Tuners: Fender, enclosed, chrome

 Pickups: Two, Fender single coil

 Controls: Master tone, master volume, 3-way pickup selector

 Scale Length: 25 1/2 inches

 Neck Width at Nut: 1 5/8 inches

 Body Width at Lower Bout: 12 5/8 inches

 Body Depth: 1 1/2 inches

 Weight: 6.7 lb