Vintage Telecaster Deluxe neck radius

[kalamazoo1]

I have conflicting seen info that says a mid-seventies Telecaster Deluxe will have a 12" radius and other sources saying it is 9.5" - anyone know definitively?
Thanks

 

[msalama]

All the sources I've seen say 12" and my Hecho en México 2010 FSR Roadworn Reissue seems to have that as well.

 

[Tele-friend]

I have conflicting seen info that says a mid-seventies Telecaster Deluxe will have a 12" radius and other sources saying it is 9.5" - anyone know definitively?
Thanks

Yeah I saw claims about 12" and 9.5" as well. Since I have a '74 Fender Deluxe I went to ask what Fender support says. They said it is 7.25" The confusion was even bigger.
Then in a thread I cant find @Nick Fanis showed a book about Fender where it says it is actually 9.5". I made a simple tool myself to end the confusion and now I believe that my guitar has a 9.5".
12" is quite flat and even by looking at the neck it seems it is 9.5" like the rest of my guitars.
Of course that is now different from what @msalama is saying, so I dont know.
All I know is that my '74 has a 9.5" but I cant say for other guitars.

 

[Matthias]

It is 9.5”, at least on my 1973 and according to a few books. The confusion comes from the reissues having 12” radius, I guess to still position them as a flatter option to the standard model. In the 70s it was marketed as ‘flat radius’. The reissues aren’t particularly accurate where the neck is concerned. The nut width and bridge spacing are not accurate (the originals were very narrow) and they used the trapezoid F tuners where the originals used two-prong sealed tuners like on the Starcasters and ‘The Strat’.

 

[msalama]

Not sure whether this snippet is of any use (or true, for that matter) but someone once claimed on this board that Fender's own catalogs stated the radius is 12":

"70's Fender catalogs don't even mention the actual fingerboard radius. They just specify them as "curved" (7.25") or "flat" (12")."

 

[Nick Fanis]

Each and every I have set up had a 9.5" radius.

 

[Tele-friend]

Each and every I have set up had a 12" radius.

Hm... that is a bit confusing. I found the thread where you claim that it is 9.5". There is even a photo of a book about it where it explicitly said that Deluxes from 73 and further had a 9.5" radius. 12" didn't come till 1983.

Here is the original thread:
Thread 'Confirmed' https://www.tdpri.com/threads/confirmed.1084416/

Telecaster Deluxes should have 9.5" radius and medium jumbo frets.

Fender are a joke when they talk about specs.
Especially since almost all their catalogs and sites have huge mistakes...traditionally

Better trust THE real experts
View attachment 911419
View attachment 911420

 

[Nick Fanis]

I found the thread where you claim that it is

Yes I meant 9,5" (fixed it)

 

[adjason]

Hmm I sold my 1975 tele deluxe years ago but if memory serves me right it had a 12 radius but then agai
n I though all of them did....

 

[msalama]

Well, Mr. Duchossoir is quite an authority on everything Telecaster-related, so 9.5" it is.

 

[msalama]

But it's funny how vague they were about the exact radius, saying just that it's "flat". This is from the 1972 catalogue when the guitar debuted:

 

[Tele-friend]

But it's funny how vague they were about the exact radius, saying just that it's "flat". This is from the 1972 catalogue when the guitar debuted:

View attachment 954555

Cool! That is exactly what my Tele would have looked like in '74
Up until then Fender only used 7.25 inch radius. I am guessing that most players didnt even know or cared about that fact, because that was 'the Fender neck' and actually it was the only Fender neck radius.
I guess Fenders way of thinking then later was 9.5 > 7.25, so lets just put 'flat' in here, not to confuse people too much.