Fender Vintage Telecaster '68 W/bigsby Tremolo Laminate Maple Fingerboard Blond/

Debuting in 1950 as the Broadcaster, the Telecaster has reigned alongside the Stratocaster as a flagship model of Fender guitars. Not only has Fender produced original models, but various manufacturers have also created inspired models, making it a classic electric guitar model.

This particular guitar was shipped around 1968. It's a popular model packed with rare specifications, including a late-era lacquer finish neck, laminated maple, and an original B-5 tremolo. It's in player's condition, with some parts replacements mainly in the control system.

Body
The overall weight is approximately 3.7kg. The body is made of ash. One of the guitar's appealing features is the optional Bigsby B-5 tremolo unit. The finish used during this period was "Fender Thick-Skin High-Gloss," which uses polyester as a base coat. The regular blonde color has a beautiful, slightly aged look. The guitar shows weather checking commensurate with its age, dents and touch-ups with paint chipping mainly on the body sides, scratches, and tarnishing on the metal parts. However, it retains a nice vintage guitar feel, and the paint has a good sheen, making it in generally good condition. The front pickup area shows a routing and filling marks from a previous humbucker installation. The pickguard has been slightly modified for truss rod access.

Neck
The neck is made of maple, and features a maple fingerboard, a so-called "laminated maple" construction. This is one of the last lacquer-finished neck specifications. While there is weather checking on the headstock top and back, paint chipping on the back of the neck from use, and tarnishing on the metal parts, it is in relatively good condition, similar to the body. The tuners function properly, although there is some slight variation in winding tightness. The frets and nut have been replaced once, and playability is good. The clear coat on the fingerboard and back of the neck has been repainted following the refretting. Headstock thickness: 15.9mm. Nut width: 41.2mm. This guitar features a relatively sturdy neck shape.
The controls are current-wired for pickup mixing, with a 3-way pickup selector (neck/mix/bridge), volume, and tone. The neck pickup is of unknown origin, while the bridge pickup has been replaced with a Seymour Duncan STL-1. Other consumable parts such as the selector switch, potentiometers, and tone capacitor have also been replaced. The pickups don't interfere with the wood's character, and the combination of a laminated maple neck and fingerboard provides a clear attack and excellent responsiveness to picking nuances. Combined with the light response characteristic of a lacquer-finished neck, it delivers a bright, glossy clean tone and a sharp, sustained tone when driven.

Accessories: Later Fender Black Tolex Hard Case
Weight: 3.7kg
Body Material: Ash 3 piece with Fender Bigsby B-5 Tremolo Unit
Neck Material/Scale: Maple 1 piece/648mm (25-1/2 inch)
Fingerboard/Fret Marker/Radius: Maple round laminate/Black dot/184.15mm (7.25 inch)
Nut Width/Fret Size (width): 41.2mm (replaced)/2.5mm (replaced)
Neck Thickness (1F/7F/12F): 22.0mm/23.2mm/23.9mm
Pickup (Neck/Bridge): Unknown TL Model (6.85kΩ)/Seymour Duncan STL-1 (7.1kΩ) (both replaced)
*The DC resistance value of the pickup is measured through the control section.

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