Throwing back 5 years to being quarantined down in the basement during the pandemic with my 1968 Tele and a wall of amplifiers.
Hard to believe I actually *wanted* to leave...what was I thinking?!? 😂
Dreams do sometimes come true!*
1969 Fender Thinline Tele
I have always loved the original version (1968-71) of the Thinline Telecaster, and always dreamed of owning one of my own. But even when I saw my very first one for sale at a local guitar shop about 15 years ago, they were a little too pricey for my meager means at the time. 😭
Fast forward to last year, and my means have not improved a hell of a lot...but I was super fortunate to find this one, from a friend, for a price I could (just!) afford. 😉
*but not very often, so don't get excited!
Q: When is a Telecaster not a Tele? A: When it was made in mid-1951
1951 "Nocaster", photographed with the assistance of @michaelsegui at the 2024 Union Sound "Grand Day Out", organized by @dlott65 and hosted by @chriswstringer8.
TinnitusTuesday?
1963 Fender Princeton 1964 Fender Bassman 1969 Fender Telecaster Thinline
The Tele is a more recent addition to the collection, but I have had the twin tuxedos for a number of years.
I got the the Princeton for about half the market price because it is a player - it belonged to a gigging musician who changed the speaker and siliconed down all the components in the chassis for some reason (does it actually help in any way??). Luckily my amp tech @marshalllespaulfan was able to clean all the gunk out and restored to its original, slicone-free state, and it does sound excellent!
The Bassman lost all it's value when I spraypainted my logo on the grill cloth.😉
The strap was made by my friend @tomsvintagestraps, in the beautiful city of Strasbourg, famous for its gothic cathedral and, more recently, for being the guitar strap capital of Europe!
2020 Fender Custom Shop '68 mahogany Thinline Telecaster.
You may have noticed that even though I bought myself a real 1969 thinline last year, I still haven't been able to sell this one. And that's because it's extremely special to me!
This guitar started out as an invite from my friends at @sherwoodmusickw to sit down with them one day over lunch and spec out a few of the guitars for their next Custom Shop order. I got to "design" one guitar by myself...and this was it. I had always wanted a first year 1968 Thinline, and so I built one! I never intended to buy it for myself (it was just supposed to go into the store's stock) but when it arrived it was so beautiful I fell instantly in love with it and took it home! 😉
My 2014 PazCaster.
I assembled this guitar from a @maverick_guitar surf green thinline body, @lollarpickupsuk pickups, Fender hardware @allpartsmusic neck, custom pinstriping by @michaelsegui and a pinup decal of @thefugitive1984 that I made myself, because every guitar deserves a sexy pinup decal!
The strap was made in France, by my pal @tomsvintagestraps
Outtakes from today's Instagram reel.
Spaghetti for breakfast? Why not! 🍝It's a very special #TeleTuesday with this lovely 1965 #Fender #Telecaster in original blonde finish and pre-CBS style spaghetti logo decal.
Photographed at dlott65 & chriswstringer8 's #UnionSound23 guitar meetup.
A bit premature for #TeleTuesday, but I just couldn't wait another whole day to show you guys this one. Thanks to my friend @stevemaricguitars it's my first NEW VINTAGE GUITAR DAY in about 5 years!!!
Welcome to the DeeBeeUs™ family, 1969 #Fender#Telecaster#Thinline!
I have always wanted a late 60s Thinline (I even went so far as to buy a Custom Shop Reissue back in 2020) and I even remember looking at (and photographing!) this actual guitar when it was for sale at @capsulemusic back in ~2018, just before Steve bought it, and thinking "man, it's nice...but I just can't afford it"!
Fast forward 5 years and I still never thought I'd be able to afford a real one (I mean if you have you seen the asking prices on these lately, they are roughly double what I paid for my Custom Shop Reissue...which was NOT cheap itself!), but Steve gave me one hell of a deal, and made it super easy for me to acquire, and one more dream guitar of mine has been added to the collection. Thanks again Steve!
Of course now I have to sell something from my collection to help pay for it! 😂 Hmm, maybe that Custom Shop Reissue Thinline... 🤔
Pictured here with my 1970 #Marshall#Model2022, because these two were made within a year of each other and sound so good together. 🤘🔥🎸
This is @tomgibson3783's homemade '68 replica #Paisley#Partscaster with body (and neck) by @greatlakescustomcolour.
1968 #Fender#Telecaster with 1959 #FenderPrinceton. '68 was a terrible year for the world...but still a decent one for guitars!
If I am not mistaken, 1968 was the last year Fender used nitrocellulose lacquer on their guitars, and also the last year they used cloth-insulated wiring. This shift from "traditional" to "cost-effective, and durable" materials means that '68, for me, is kind of the symbolic dividing line between the "old" (or original) way of building Fender guitars and the "new" (CBS-style, mass production and profit-oriented) way of building Fender guitars. Earlier in my life I would have pegged that transition at 1966 when they gave the Stratocaster the big headstock, or possibly when the headstock decals changed to the more visible black CBS decals. But nowadays I think those changes were probably more cosmetic, whereas the shift from nitro to poly actually could have effected the the way guitar sounds and feels.
Of course it's probably all academic, gear-snob, B.S. anyway. If the guitar sounds good who cares when it was made? 😉
I'm not going to lie: this creation, handmade by @tomgibson3783 and @natesleather basically takes pictures of itself. I don't even have to try and it looks amazing. PS: check out the back (photo 2), and some detail shots (photos 3 and 4). Just incredible leather work by Nate. #tele #teletuesday #telecaster #guitarphotography #vintageguitar #guitar #guitars #guitarra #electricguitar #guitarre #chitarra #handmadeguitar #handtooledleather #leatherwork #art #artsandcrafts #leatherartwork
1968 #Telecaster headstock (recto and verso shots). Frankly, I can't be arsed to do BOTH a #MacroMonday AND #TeleTuesday post, so I am combining them. I give you the very first ever "TacroMuesday"! No? OK, how about "MeleTuenday"? 🤔 One note on the headstock decal: look at the edge of the "...der" in #Fender in the first shot. From this angle, you can clearly see that the gold edge around the letters is raised slightly. The decals of this era were not just flat, the actually have an embossed edge thanks to the silk screening process. This is just one more example of how reissues consistently fail to precisely reproduce the originals...I have yet to see a reissue of a late 60s Tele with anything other than a completely flat decal...even the Custom Shop reissues, which you would expect to be more accurate. But maybe I just haven't seen a "good" reissue yet - let me know if your late 60s reissue Tele has an embossed decal and I will unreservedly withdraw this scathing critique of reissue quality! 😉 #tele #fendertelecaster #guitarphotography #vintageguitar #fenderguitar #guitar #guitars #guitarra #electricguitar #vintagefender #guitarre #chitarra #macro #guitarmacro #macrophotography
And here is the second, but no less spectacular, guitar on loan from the Gibson/Segui Guitar Collective: @michaelsegui's handmade, TK-equipped, Bigsby-esque flame-topped birdseye-necked beauty with handtooled leather pick guard. A lot of work went into this one by multiple craftspeople in two countries, and partially thanks to the pandemic and the closed border between the USA and Canada it was literally years in the making. Inspired by some suggestions from @jarsh_alexander six years ago, the body is super light chambered Engleman spruce with a curly maple top made by @tomgibson3783 , and finished in hand rubbed sunburst and bound by @hooperguitars. The neck is birdseye maple made by @judgewolfeguitars using wood from Tom's family farm in Eastern Canada. The tooled leather pickguard is by @natesleather. Cast Aluminum Replica pickup and #bakelite armrest by @tksmithguitar with True vibrato by @bigsby and super comfy Duane Eddy arm by Duane Eddy arm by @duaneeddyofficial More detail shots of this beauty will follow... #telecaster #paulbigsby #bigsby #bigsbytelecaster #bigsbyvibrato #choppedb5 #bigsbyb5 #tksmith #tksmithguitar #tksmithpickups #tksmithequipped #slotheadscrewsforthetone #leatherpickguard #tele #teletuesday #telecaster #handtooledleather #duaneeddy #duaneeddyarm
I have always wanted to see what you'd look like in leather...🔥😍
This is @tomgibson3783's homemade partscaster. Sometimes, the best guitars are the ones you make yourself...and then have your friends customize for you by covering them in hand-tooled leather...and then those friends also make you a custom handmade leather strap with your name on it! When I say it's homemade, I mean Tom *made* the body himself from 100+ year old pine, and loaded it with @donmarepickups. The intricately tooled leather covering and custom strap by @natesleather.
This is one of two guitars currently on loan from the Gibson/Segui Guitar Collective, and it REALLY makes me want to get back into building my own guitars again!
#tele #telecaster #teletuesday #partscaster #luthier #handmadeguitar #leather #guitarphotography #vintageguitar #guitar #guitars #guitarra #electricguitar #guitarre #chitarra