History of The Fender Telecaster

Fender Telecaster-thinline1969

Leo Fender developed the Fender Telecaster sometime during the 1940's in Fullerton, California.

Prior to that, tone was never the main reason why guitarists go for an electric guitar. But when Fender and Doc Kauffman, his partner, started building crude wooden guitars for pickup test rigs in 1943, local guitarists and country players are lining up to borrow that exact instrument for their gigs.

That prompted the guitar’s commercial production in springtime of 1950. The first model was called Esquire and it did sell well. Soon after, the production was stopped for this particular single-pickup model. Instead, the two-pickup model was created in its place. The guitar was then renamed the Broadcaster. However, it was the Telecaster that actually placed the solid-body guitar in circulation. The Fender Telecaster is normally a dual-pickup, solid-body electric guitar. It was fondly called by its moniker, the Tele.

Importance of Solid Body Guitars

The guitar's solid body is what allows the instrument to provide for a clean and amplified tone of the strings. This was actually a momentous improvement as far as the designs of the earlier electric guitar are concerned.

The typical bolt-on neck Telecaster was shaped from a single-piece maple. Unlike traditional designs, it doesn't have a separate fingerboard. Its frets were merely pressed into the surface of the wood directly. Indeed, this was a highly unusual design during that time.

The Telecaster had soon evolved to be an important evolution of electric blues, funk, country, and rock n roll music, as well as other popular forms. The solid construction of the guitar allows users to play the instrument loudly. As such, it can easily be used a band's lead instrument. It also has long sustain features with less feedback. Hollowbodied guitars normally produce feedback, especially at peak volume. It was only during the later times when Jimi Hendrix exploited controlled feedback, along with other rock artists.

Fender Telecaster - The Specs

The Tele has two single-coil pickups that are controlled by two knobs and a 3-way pickup selector switch. One of the two knobs regulates the volume. The second knob controls the master tone that affects both pickups. The electronics of the guitar can easily be accessed for replacement or repair via its control plate that's easily removable. This is actually a big advantage over a guitar’s traditional construction. In a classic setup, the electronics can only be accessed via the soundholes. In hollow-body instruments, this means that the pickguard has to be removed after dismantling the strings.

The Tele bridge contains three saddles that are fully adjustable, each with doubled up strings. The two pickup solid body Telecaster has different variations. The most typical variations are the semi-hollow Thinline, which appeared in 1968-1969, the Custom, which later reinstated the neck single coil-pickup with humbucking pickup, and the two humbucker Deluxe. Both the Deluxe and the Custom are still offered up today.

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