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musical instrument details
Fender 1968 Telecaster Electric Guitar
Estimated price for orientation: 3 600 $
Category: Electric Guitar
Class:
Description Exact Year: 1968 Dexterity: Right-Handed Brand: Fender String Configuration: 6 String Model: Fender Telecaster 1968 Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
This 1968 Fender Telecaster definitely has the vintage Fender Mojo. It sounds unbelievably good and has great action. Everything from the pots to the tuners work well and it even comes with the original case which is in great shape and a factory installed Bigbsy. This telecaster is priced well below the other vintage telecasters on ebay for a few reasons even though in most cases it is in better cosmetic condition. This is not a collector's guitar it is a player's guitar. When I got the guitar, a humbucking pickup had been installed. So, the pickguard was ruined and the body had been cut to accommodate the pickup and the neck pickup was long gone. I spoke to several different luthiers on how best to restore the body. Everyone of them told me to leave it alone. I thought for sure they were going to say it needed a block of ash custom cut to fill the cavity. To a person, they all said it will not affect the sound. And, you know, they are absolutely right. One luthier told me this his stage stratocaster was the best strat he had ever heard. Upon removing the pick guard after years of playing it, he found a cavity where a humbucking pickup had been installed. He had never known it. He never looked back. He even wondered if it made his strat sound better. So, I left it alone. I replaced the pickguard with a Fender Pure Vintage Pickguard that is period correct. The next challenge I had was finding a working neck pickup which proved impossible. So I bought a dead 1968 pickup and sent it to Tom Brantly, who, incidentally, rewinds Getty Lee's pickups. Tom wound the pickup with the same wire Fender used in 1968 and with the same number of turns. Here is what Tom did (from an email he sent me): I softened the lacquer on the original coil and peeled it down 100-200-300-500 turns and could not find a break in the exterior.
I broke the coil down and found the oxidation you see in the photo. This killed it from the inside. I broke the bobbin down, removed the rust and old lacquer, re-lacquered, and rewound with 7800 turns of 43 gauge plain enamel wire. The coil was then repotted in lacquer as per original. It reads out at 7.6k. Upon receiving the pick up back from Tom, I had a luthier install the neck pick up and set the guitar up. I brought the finished guitar to someone I know that has great Fender ears and he told me it was the best sounding telecaster he had ever played. I think so too. As you can see from the pictures this guitar is in great shape. There is some body oxidation where you would expect to see it, some slight belt buckle worming that does not go through the finish, a small worn through area on the maple neck on the sixth fret between the g and d string and few chips and honest player wear which I have shown in the photographs. All-in-all the guitar is in great condition. Only the player would know what lies beneath the pick guard. Certainly no one looking at it would could guess. Even those in a club listening to this telecaster won't even care if they did know because it is all about the sound. If you can accept the idea that this telecaster is not 100% original and want to save a few thousand dollars compared to a Telecaster that is and yet have that vintage sound, than this telecaster should be yours. After all, it is about the sound.
Description
| Exact Year: | 1968 | Dexterity: | Right-Handed |
| Brand: | Fender | String Configuration: | 6 String |
| Model: | Fender Telecaster 1968 | Country/Region of Manufacture: | United States |
This 1968 Fender Telecaster definitely has the vintage Fender Mojo. It sounds unbelievably good and has great action. Everything from the pots to the tuners work well and it even comes with the original case which is in great shape and a factory installed Bigbsy. This telecaster is priced well below the other vintage telecasters on ebay for a few reasons even though in most cases it is in better cosmetic condition. This is not a collector's guitar it is a player's guitar. When I got the guitar, a humbucking pickup had been installed. So, the pickguard was ruined and the body had been cut to accommodate the pickup and the neck pickup was long gone. I spoke to several different luthiers on how best to restore the body. Everyone of them told me to leave it alone. I thought for sure they were going to say it needed a block of ash custom cut to fill the cavity. To a person, they all said it will not affect the sound. And, you know, they are absolutely right. One luthier told me this his stage stratocaster was the best strat he had ever heard. Upon removing the pick guard after years of playing it, he found a cavity where a humbucking pickup had been installed. He had never known it. He never looked back. He even wondered if it made his strat sound better. So, I left it alone. I replaced the pickguard with a Fender Pure Vintage Pickguard that is period correct. The next challenge I had was finding a working neck pickup which proved impossible. So I bought a dead 1968 pickup and sent it to Tom Brantly, who, incidentally, rewinds Getty Lee's pickups. Tom wound the pickup with the same wire Fender used in 1968 and with the same number of turns. Here is what Tom did (from an email he sent me): I softened the lacquer on the original coil and peeled it down 100-200-300-500 turns and could not find a break in the exterior.
I broke the coil down and found the oxidation you see in the photo. This killed it from the inside. I broke the bobbin down, removed the rust and old lacquer, re-lacquered, and rewound with 7800 turns of 43 gauge plain enamel wire. The coil was then repotted in lacquer as per original. It reads out at 7.6k. Upon receiving the pick up back from Tom, I had a luthier install the neck pick up and set the guitar up. I brought the finished guitar to someone I know that has great Fender ears and he told me it was the best sounding telecaster he had ever played. I think so too. As you can see from the pictures this guitar is in great shape. There is some body oxidation where you would expect to see it, some slight belt buckle worming that does not go through the finish, a small worn through area on the maple neck on the sixth fret between the g and d string and few chips and honest player wear which I have shown in the photographs. All-in-all the guitar is in great condition. Only the player would know what lies beneath the pick guard. Certainly no one looking at it would could guess. Even those in a club listening to this telecaster won't even care if they did know because it is all about the sound. If you can accept the idea that this telecaster is not 100% original and want to save a few thousand dollars compared to a Telecaster that is and yet have that vintage sound, than this telecaster should be yours. After all, it is about the sound.
I broke the coil down and found the oxidation you see in the photo. This killed it from the inside. I broke the bobbin down, removed the rust and old lacquer, re-lacquered, and rewound with 7800 turns of 43 gauge plain enamel wire. The coil was then repotted in lacquer as per original. It reads out at 7.6k. Upon receiving the pick up back from Tom, I had a luthier install the neck pick up and set the guitar up. I brought the finished guitar to someone I know that has great Fender ears and he told me it was the best sounding telecaster he had ever played. I think so too. As you can see from the pictures this guitar is in great shape. There is some body oxidation where you would expect to see it, some slight belt buckle worming that does not go through the finish, a small worn through area on the maple neck on the sixth fret between the g and d string and few chips and honest player wear which I have shown in the photographs. All-in-all the guitar is in great condition. Only the player would know what lies beneath the pick guard. Certainly no one looking at it would could guess. Even those in a club listening to this telecaster won't even care if they did know because it is all about the sound. If you can accept the idea that this telecaster is not 100% original and want to save a few thousand dollars compared to a Telecaster that is and yet have that vintage sound, than this telecaster should be yours. After all, it is about the sound.