Telecaster with orginal Joe Barden pickups

[ottarfelix]

I bought my Fender Tele ´52 reissue at the old American Guitar Center in Maryland in the late 80´s. It was announced, in the shop´s brochure, as Fender Telecaster with "original Joe Barden pickups". Does it mean that Fender made the guitar orignally with those pickups? The Pat. Pend. Nr. is 11506. Is there anyone out there who knows some more about the orgins of my Tele? What year it was made and what pickup set, if other, was orginally
mounted?

[johnnylaw]

That guitar did not come from Fender with the Bardens; they are a retrofit.

Joe Barden refined his twin-blade design with input from Danny Gatton. Once R&D was out of the way, they were offered retail (early nineties, perhaps?). They are fine pickups, and worth keeping in my opinion.

Joe Barden stopped production for a spell, and subsequently re-entered the market with a second generation of production. These pickups, though marketed as identical to the "originals", are somehow considered different from the earlier ones (whose prices and mystique spiked during those dry years when Bardens were not built at all).