REVIEWED
FENDER 60th
Telecaster Words: Tim Slater
This year (2011) marks the official 60th birthday of the world’s first mass market solid body electric guitar, the Fender Telecaster. Most of you are probably already well aware that the ‘Tele’ had already been available as the Esquire and the Broadcaster since 1950 but in early 1951 Leo Fender decided to change his new guitar’s name from Broadcaster to Telecaster to sidestep a possible copyright infringement with Gretsch over its Broadkaster drum kit! The irony is that Fender now own Gretsch and the Telecaster (which was renamed to reflect the growing popularity of Television in post-war America) has endured as one of the most widely used and popular electric guitars of all time.
Diamond Life
Since the late 1970s Fender has regularly issued special edition models commemorating its achievements and the Tele’s 60th birthday is definitely something worth celebrating. Two versions the 60th Anniversary
60th SRP FENDER
All prices include VAT CONT
ACT
Fender GBI T:
W:
01342 331700
www.fender.com
14 3pickup
Anniversary Telecaster
£1,415.00
Telecaster are currently available: a US Custom Shop model and the more affordable version featured in this review, which is basically a current US Standard Telecaster with a couple of special commemorative bits added on. By itself the modern US Standard Telecaster is a pretty formidable guitar but for an extra fifty quid or so the 60th Anniversary model bears an engraved 60th Anniversary neck plate and a high quality two-piece ash body finished in Fender’s new ‘Thinskin’ nitrocellulose lacquer. As its name suggests the Thinskin finish only uses enough coats of lacquer to seal the grain and apply a nice shiny topcoat, there is no tough polyester undercoat that you find on a modern production Fender. According to Fender the Thinskin finish allows the guitar to resonate more freely than the thicker poly lacquer that it applies to most of its production-based US and Mexican instruments, an interesting claim that will no doubt generate a fair amount of debate amongst Fender buffs. It’s also equally likely that the Thinskin finish – which was developed in Fender’s US Custom shop to help speed up the aging effect – will begin
Happy 60th Birthday to the daddy of all modern electric guitars!
Fender’s groundbreaking solid body electric guitar celebrates its Diamond jubilee.
Anniversary
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