My neighbor's 69(?) Tele --Updated with pics galore!

[garrett]

My family and I moved into a house in February. Been getting to know the neighbors and it turns out the guy behind us is a player who was given this Tele back when he was a kid in the early 80's. Looks like it was played hard before it made it to his hands.

He thought it was a 69, and the six digit 216 serial number seems to confirm. Only obvious non original parts look to be the bridge and one of the strap buttons. The frets are completely shot, it's missing the intonation springs and the wiring is a bit wonky.

It has a veneer maple fret board with no skunk stripe. Parallelogram tuners, top hat, flat top knobs. Based on the exposed wood, I'm guessing it's Olympic White over alder. It's a relic lover's dream with checking and plenty of wear.

He has entrusted me to take it apart and examine it to get more details about it. I'm a couple beers in and nursing a cold so I won't dare touch it tonight. Plan to disassemble and get some good pics tomorrow.

Just thought I'd get the fun started tonight. I'm hoping he'll invest in it to get it playable so I can noodle on it from time to time!

[Stylemaster]

Very cool. I bought my very first Tele new at Manny's in NYC, the summer of '70. It had a black body and and a one-piece maple neck with the skunk stripe but I seem to remember it saying 1969 on the heel of the neck when I took it apart. Man I sure wish I had kept it. I traded it for an SG Special less than a year later. One of my many regrets! It's nice to see what it might look like now judging by what your neighbor's looks like.

[BigD]

Nice I hope it works out for you guys.

[Racer5]

Beat to hell but looks fantastic. With a little love and a new set of frets I bet it would be great!

[blue metalflake]

Looks like a great project - look forward to more pics.

[Omiewise65]

I'm still hoping i can lay my hands on a beauty like this some day .
Nothing has more magic than those old teles ..... nothing's more majestic guitar related .

[Chris H.]

Probably a very early 69 because of the maple cap neck, i think necks changed to one piece with a "skunk stripe" in 69.

[garrett]

Well, I had a blast this morning taking it apart and giving the macro settings on my camera a workout.

It appears to actually be a '68. Neck is stamped 3 JUN 68 B. The 216XXX serial numbers were shown on the Fender site to be 68-69, so that matches up. Pot codes date them to '66, which I read CBS bought a boat load of pots that year and used '66 pots into the 70's.

I don't know how to confirm the body, but it sure looks the part. Only has a squiggle in the neck pocket and the initials R.E. underneath the bridge pickup. Maybe some of the real experts can tell more when they look at the photos.

It had a couple of hidden surprises: firstly, someone disconnected the cover from the neck pickup. The cover is stuck to the pickguard. It has 1MEG pots, which I didn't realize they were using on solid bodies at the time.

Anyway, let the parade of pictures begin! Here's a link to the Photobucket album, but I'll post highlights below.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v6...p/Mike%20Tele/





Look at that fret wear! This one has seen a lot of chords!

[garrett]

Mystery neck pocket squiggle:



You can see where someone cut the tabs off the neck pickup cover:



Tele tan lines:



No markings on the pickup, but you can see one of the tabs from the cover hanging on to a pole piece. The cover ground wire has been clipped.



Electronics look right. 1MEG pots, .05uf tone cap, 0.001uf treble bypass.



Thick baseplate on the bridge pickup. It also has the white wire wrap around the coil



40+ years of mojo in there! Also note the R.E. initials:

[VK7HSE]

I'm very jealous!

Sent from my HTC Desire using TDPRI

[daveandshelle]

I love old stuff like that..have fun..you have a lucky neighbor

[ReaL Madras]

Very nice, what is he planning to do with it once you have dismantled it?

[davec629]

I'm thinking, Hot pink (neck, boy and fingerboard), Humbucking pickups and a Floyd Rose! I know, that's insane but I've seen it happen. Make's a grown man cry. I would love to find something like this.

[TC6969]

I may be wrong (I usually am!), but that fretboard wear looks odd.

Its very uniform ALL the way up the neck.

Most of the ones I've seen have the high register finger wear taper off up top and be more pronounced on the thinner strings.

That not only looks like someone spent an equal amount of time in ALL positions, but the low E got the same use as the high E!

Like I said, I'm no expert and dont even play one on TV, but that wear from fret 17 to 21 has my Spidey sense tingling!

[lewis]

If those frets are ever replaced, make sure the original fretboard finish is kept intact.

[StratBluesRock]

Very cool, that thing has seen a lot of action!

[garrett]

Originally Posted by ReaL Madras

Very nice, what is he planning to do with it once you have dismantled it?

I think he just wants it to be playable. My first instinct is to replace the pots with 250k and the switch (keeping the old ones, of course). If it were mine, I'd probably also stow away the neck pickup cover and wrap some tape around the coil to protect the wires. Also if it were mine, I'd put 6150 fretwire on there and be done with it.

Originally Posted by TC6969

I may be wrong (I usually am!), but that fretboard wear looks odd.

Its very uniform ALL the way up the neck.

Most of the ones I've seen have the high register finger wear taper off up top and be more pronounced on the thinner strings.

That not only looks like someone spent an equal amount of time in ALL positions, but the low E got the same use as the high E!

Like I said, I'm no expert and dont even play one on TV, but that wear from fret 17 to 21 has my Spidey sense tingling!

I don't think that's play wear. In other pics you can see that the play wear is mostly from frets 2-12, especially the cowboy chord area; there are divots worn into the maple. I've seen some vintage guitars with wear at the end of the fretboard, but not as extreme as this. The frets are extremely low, so maybe the strings would rub on the board when it was in the case?

Originally Posted by lewis

If those frets are ever replaced, make sure the original fretboard finish is kept intact.

Absolutely! I don't even want him to clean it! Keep all the mojo intact.

[Fresh]

Very cool find, thanks for sharing
looks like time was not to kind to the fret board, but the body doesn't look too bad to me a true relic, I hope once you get it together again that it makes beautiful music again. I was thinking the same thing about not even cleaning it :)

[Tonemonkey]

Originally Posted by lewis

If those frets are ever replaced, make sure the original fretboard finish is kept intact.

Maybe yes, maybe no ............,

When my 70 was refretted those frets were an SOB to get out - ended up having the neck refinned (oiled) and refretted - its a player though - not intended for show or onward sale.

Plays like it never did ........ awesome, now my #1.

[iandi1505]

I would love to hear some clips once it's up and running. That guitar has one hell of a story.