Fender Telecaster


The Fender Telecaster is probably the oldest solid body, wooden guitar that is still in production today.  Launched back in 1950 as the single pickup Fender Esquire and the double pickup model which then went on to become the Fender Broadcaster, the Tele is the guitar that you might most associate with the success of the Fender company over the years.

Now manufactured in Mexico, the Tele is the guitar responsible for the rise to fame of the Fender name and is their first guitar to go into mass production in the 50s.  Brought to life by musicians such as Elvis, George Harrison of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Telecaster has been one of the most influential guitars and sounds of the 20th century.

This guitar was manufactured as an item that would be able to be repaired quickly when broken and therefore all of the components were bolted together and could be disassembled if needed, without breaking the rest of the guitar.

fender telecaster

The Telecaster features a maple fretboard, an ash or alder body and a plastic or Celluloid pick guard.  Two single coil pickups, a three way selector switch for controlling the tone of the sound, a volume and a tone knob.  The Tele is amazingly versatile and produces a wide range of tones and can adapt to any musical style easily.

There have been various variations of the Telecaster throughout the last 50 years.

  • Telecaster Thinline
  • Telecaster Deluxe
  • Telecaster Custom
  • Telecaster Plus
  • Tele Junior

Some of these are very rare as they were only produced in a run of 5o units, so collecting one of these will be owning a real slice of history.



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Fender Telecaster image courtesy of Jorge Correa.

Check out these great books on Fender Guitars.

fender book  fender telecaster book  

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