Fender 1969 Telecaster Thinline Electric Guitar
Written: Dec 06 '08 (Updated Dec 08 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Comfortable, light weight, well made, a good value
Cons: Pickups are not quite "pro" enough. The finish is too thick for my tastes.
The Bottom Line: My rule is that you can't own too many guitars. You can make these into versatile workhorses and they are tough and inexpensive.
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| garyguitar1117's Full Review: Fender 69 Telecaster Thinline Electric Guitar |
Well I've done it again. My alien hand pulled the trigger on an eBay auction that yielded this cool little guitar. My G.A.S. is incurable. I needed another guitar like I needed another F hole (pun intended). At my advanced age the extremely light weight of this guitar is as important as the tone. After hanging a Les Paul on my neck for 25 years I have been opting for a parakeet instead of an albatross.
The orginal Thinline was designed by Roger Rossmeisl who had worked for Gibson and Rickenbacker and then came to Fender in 1962 to design acoustic guitars and later the Coronado, Montego, and LTD hollowbody electrics. Debuting in July 1968, it was the most expensive Tele at $319.50 while the standard Tele was $229.50.
This is a mahogany bodied Tele that looks as if the back was sliced off then the body was routed with chambers and glued precisely back on. Very nice woodwork, perfect finish but too heavily applied. This guitar is basically a standard Tele with the usual features: maple 21 vintage fretted neck, U-shaped with a 7.25 inch radius, 2 vintage type anilco pickups, 3 way switch, a master tone and volume control, ashtray type bridge withthree saddles. Your basic Fred Flintstone electric guitar but with the hollow chambers and a long F hole. It almost floats, but is balanced--not a bit neck heavy like a couple of Gibson SG's that I've had.
The neck is well done and is large enough to accommodate my large hands and fat fingers. The tonality is definitely affected by the hollow chambers. While not sounding like a 335, it still has a more rounder, woodier fat sound that is interesting because it is unique for those whose ears are tuned enough to discern the difference from a regular Tele. The front pickup was adequate to my ears--fairly vintage sounding, but the rear pickup was a little too much trebley and ice picky unless you rolled the tone back past half way.
To me Fenders are modular guitars and I always love to warm them up a little. Digging through my parts box I found 3 brass bridge saddles that were slanted for better compensation and substantially larger than stock. Also I found a DiMarzio Hot vintage rear Tele pickup that was a humbucker. I installed both of these and really think they made the guitar a little better. I'm going to use it on several jobs to see if the stock neck pickup stays since I have several replacements waiting in the wings. Ditto the tuners, which seem adequate now.
This still retains the Tele "bite" and has a little smoother fat tone with the front pickup, going towards a semi-hollow body sound. The middle position to me is the coolest, especially when comping because there is no mud and individual notes of your chords are clear.
If you have room in your stable for another pony, especially if you like Teles, these are bargains and worth consideration. I bought this one, which is a couple of years old and virtually in new condition, for $350 with a gig bag.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
garyguitar1117
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Member: Gary Huggins
Location: Northeast Texas USA
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 5 members
About Me:
Music is what feelings sound like.
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