i thought i'd clue you guys in on a nice vintage tele from chrisguitars.com...
1974 Fender Telecaster Deluxe, (front/back), (headstock/neck), (pickups/pot/saddle), (neck cavity/neck), (body). Fairly rare find for me these days and pretty rare in general as they were only made for 10 years ('72 to '81), and were a rather pricey, holding a place at the top of the Tele lineup. This model was yet another attempt to steal some of the Gibson market, thus the un-Fender humbucker pickups. The pickups by the way, were designed by Seth Lover himself, inventor of Gibson's original humbucking pickup. Named "wide-range humbucker", these same pickups were used on the Tele Thinline (2nd ver.), Tele Custom (which used only one of them), and the semi-hollowbody Starcaster. The model looks like a Tele with a Strat neck due to the large headstock but actually it has bigger frets than the Strat, and stock tuners are Schallers which eventually became the stock tuners for the American Standard in the late 80's. The body outline is all Tele, but it's large pickguard, housing dual humbuckers, 4 knobs, and selector switch - as well as the belly cut on the back, were unique for this model. Another unique part is the bridge which is more like a hardtail Strat than the usual Tele "ashtray" bridge. You can see in the pic above, the way the patina has aged to a deeper gold appearance; there is also some removable shielding tape under the pots and switch. The only non-original parts (pickup and knobs): The bridge pickup is from a reissue, although it looks identical with the same logo and screw pattern, and its relic appearance looks just like the original neck pickup; knobs are aged and exact replacements; two of the pots are original '74 - other two are later; and it has a brass nut that was a "must-have" in the late 70's. Worst cosmetic flaws are two touch-ups on the bass side edge (shown here) but the finish is otherwise original with typical finish checking throughout. It has normal fret wear but it sets up with good action so you needn't go out and get a re-fret unless you're particularly finicky about some slight string rattle. Bends very well and notes don't die out on a 2-fret up-bend. The tone is excellent and these guitars have historically be under-rated. Perhaps it's due to the pots, which call for 1M which specs for humbuckers should be 500K. If you're going to be playing it out, we can do that mod before we ship it to you. If you look around at vintage dealers, the average price for a Deluxe is in the low $3K's, with some at $4K and $4500 (Gbase link). This one has a few minor changes, just enough to put it within the price range of a working guitarist, but with an original finish and no extra routes, it's priced to move at $1499. Includes a hardshell case.
