Vintage Telecaster Headstock Shapes

[pipthepilot]

Hello Everyone,

I'm in the process of planning my next guitar build, a replica 1968 Thinline Tele. I always create my own templates, even if I'm building a replica, because I enjoy the process of research. It's amazing how much you learn if you create your own drawings, especially if you're as geeky as me with detail and accuracy.

This weekend I've been drawing the headstock shape for my templates. As a starting point, I used my Fender 50s Classic Series Tele Neck to create the original draft. I then compared this to photographs of original 1968 telecasters to identify the differences.

At this stage I would like to say, I understand there's no such thing as a standard telecaster headstock shape, especially for vintage guitars as they were all subtly different. I also realise that it's not always possible to align photographs due to perspective shortening.

That said, I found a lot of differences with my 50s Neck and photographs of vintage guitars so compared it against drawings found online, including ones here, on the Tele forums and Electric Herald. When compared to photographs, none of the drawings I found matched up very well either.

Not trusting the accuracy of other people's drawings, I created my own using know dimensions such as nut width, tuner spacing and 17 degree top angle and reference to over 50 photos of original 1968 teles. To minimise errors due to perspective I only used photos where all 6 tuning posts were top down (not splayed due to perspective) and rejected photos if they didn't line up with the nut and the top angle line.

This was the result of my efforts.


You can see below, the shape is a reasonably good match against many reference photos.


Just for fun, I also created drawings of various headstocks from 1952 to 1973 which have minor differences in the lower curves and top corner.


If anyone has any original Fender drawings or drawings created from genuine vintage guitars I would love to see how close mine are. Or if anyone has any interesting information about Tele headstock shapes I would love to know more.

Thanks,
Philip

 

[Sax-son]

The early Fenders had a skinnier style headstock. A friend of mine had a mid 1950's that had a more bulbous curve and a slightly smaller ball end on it. It was unique, but not completely out of the spectrum of Telecaster headstock designs.

 

[Dukex]

The '62 is the coolest.

Just saying...

 

[Beebe]

Thanks for posting!

It would be interesting to see the various shapes layered on top of each other. Like the drawing floating around that compares the Strat, CBS Strat, and Jazzmaster headstocks (the authenticity of which I'm not aware).

I've never heard of anyone saying a particular Tele headstock shape looks inaccurate... doesn't mean it's not a thing.

If I had to guess I would say the factory sanded down to the final shape by hand.

Maybe they rounded the treble side off by hand on a belt sander similar to the way they contoured strat bodies (as seen at 8:15 here ).

 

[pipthepilot]

Thanks for posting!

It would be interesting to see the various shapes layered on top of each other. Like the drawing floating around that compares the Strat, CBS Strat, and Jazzmaster headstocks (the authenticity of which I'm not aware).

I've never heard of anyone saying a particular Tele headstock shape looks inaccurate... doesn't mean it's not a thing.

If I had to guess I would say the factory sanded down to the final shape by hand.

Maybe they rounded the treble side off by hand on a belt sander similar to the way they contoured strat bodies (as seen at 8:15 here ).

Thanks for posting this, I've seen parts of this before but not the whole video. They would have sanded the necks but the outline shapes are cut with a pin router and steel templates that can be seen at 07:38. I suspect, they would have had multiple templates, each being hand made and slightly different. Over time, they would have probably been damaged and repaired leading to even more variety.

 

[ponycar]

Her are 3 modern shapes. 2020 limited edition chambered, same neck as a pro 2, 70th Esquire, and Musikraft licensed tele. My Warmoth necks have headstocks that are very similar to the Esquire. The Musikraft headstock is shorter than a vintage style in overall length. In addition it is less distance from the nut to the Low E tuner. The pro shape is not nearly as pleasing to my eye as the Esquire. The distance from the high e tuner to the end of the headstock on the pro is shorter than the Esquire to the degree that I don't want to put vintage split post tuners on it as I had intended because the back of the tuning body will almost touch the tip of the headstock.
Lot's of variation. The Musikraft looks awkward next to the Esquire but fine alone.

 

[pipthepilot]

Her are 3 modern shapes. 2020 limited edition chambered, same neck as a pro 2, 70th Esquire, and Musikraft licensed tele. My Warmoth necks have headstocks that are very similar to the Esquire. The Musikraft headstock is shorter than a vintage style in overall length. In addition it is less distance from the nut to the Low E tuner. The pro shape is not nearly as pleasing to my eye as the Esquire. The distance from the high e tuner to the end of the headstock on the pro is shorter than the Esquire to the degree that I don't want to put vintage split post tuners on it as I had intended because the back of the tuning body will almost touch the tip of the headstock.
Lot's of variation. The Musikraft looks awkward next to the Esquire but fine alone.
View attachment 1058527

The Esquire is the nicest shape IMO, and closest to the vintage shape.
There are some discrepancies on the treble side curve and top corner but I suspect thats perspective.

 

[Martian]

I always thought the headstock on George Harrison’s tele here looked weird. Sometimes stranger than others. Maybe the lighting but it struck me the first time I saw it.

 

[pipthepilot]

I always thought the headstock on George Harrison’s tele here looked weird. Sometimes stranger than others. Maybe the lighting but it struck me the first time I saw it. View attachment 1059150

Where was this from? I was aware of his famous rosewood telecaster but I've never seen him with what looks like a blonde tele with maple neck. The headstock does look very strange.

 

[gsh1968]

 

[Martian]

Where was this from? I was aware of his famous rosewood telecaster but I've never seen him with what looks like a blonde tele with maple neck. The headstock does look very strange.

From the video for the song “I Got My Mind Set on You”. I think from the late ‘80’s?

 

[Wound_Up]

No snakehead Tele, no care!

 

[Wound_Up]

I always thought the headstock on George Harrison’s tele here looked weird. Sometimes stranger than others. Maybe the lighting but it struck me the first time I saw it. View attachment 1059150

That's lighting, I believe.

Look here. No weird shape.

 

[Solaris moon]

The '62 is the coolest.

Just saying...

That's funny because they all have the same headstock shape.

Thanks for posting this, I've seen parts of this before but not the whole video. They would have sanded the necks but the outline shapes are cut with a pin router and steel templates that can be seen at 07:38. I suspect, they would have had multiple templates, each being hand made and slightly different. Over time, they would have probably been damaged and repaired leading to even more variety.

Nope! I bought a Fender Telecaster style body from guitar mill but the side jack hole was misaligned. I sent them an email about this. Mario HIMSELF called me and asked about it. I told him that this was horribly misaligned and he said that (xxxx xxxxx) whoever said that they "Wanted to do it the old way - a little loosey goosey" when I talked to him. I was like "NO - they used templates to cut these with and not half assed as it now is!" while he was saying this. I didn't tell him but I'm done buying parts from other suppliers. I'll make my own from now on. This way I'll know who's doing what and where and I can ensure accuracy and quality. The only thing that varied was the hand sanding done along the sides of the headstock edges - not the overall shape while being made at Fender.

Her are 3 modern shapes. 2020 limited edition chambered, same neck as a pro 2, 70th Esquire, and Musikraft licensed tele. My Warmoth necks have headstocks that are very similar to the Esquire. The Musikraft headstock is shorter than a vintage style in overall length. In addition it is less distance from the nut to the Low E tuner. The pro shape is not nearly as pleasing to my eye as the Esquire. The distance from the high e tuner to the end of the headstock on the pro is shorter than the Esquire to the degree that I don't want to put vintage split post tuners on it as I had intended because the back of the tuning body will almost touch the tip of the headstock.
Lot's of variation. The Musikraft looks awkward next to the Esquire but fine alone.
View attachment 1058527

What may be putting your eye off at looking is the colour of the musikraft neck. Without seeing this from the front straight on you can't tell if the two are exactly the same shape. And the Pro with the washers for the modern style machine heads take up a lot of the room on that side of the headstock so it looks like it's smaller than it really is. A lot of what we think we see may not be what is really there sometimes.

 

[pipthepilot]

The only thing that varied was the hand sanding done along the sides of the headstock edges - not the overall shape while being made at Fender.

There is definitely variation that goes beyond just sanding, especially on the upper corner. If it was just variation in sanding, the corner could have a bigger or smaller radius, but there is a difference in the angle of the line from the nut to the corner.

 

[Solaris moon]

Yeah but you're talking from the fifties to the sixties and seventies - a lot of difference between the two happened in that time! The same basic shape but different tooling and owners by the time second shape would've existed.

 

[pipthepilot]

Yeah but you're talking from the fifties to the sixties and seventies - a lot of difference between the two happened in that time! The same basic shape but different tooling and owners by the time second shape would've existed.

If you look at the original post, you can see I'm only talking about 50s and 60s headstock shapes.

 

[Solaris moon]

Yes, but the original shapes were made by the same people on the same template. And if that's what you're looking for then I would use that shape. If you're going for the sixties look then go for that. There's apparently no perfect shape or representation of these other than the originals so look for them and use those shapes for authenticity. You just have to trust your eye in this case as to what you think is best.

 

[Dukex]

The '62 is the coolest.

Just saying...

That's funny because they all have the same headstock shape.

It was a joke because I own a '62 AVRI (see avatar).

But thanks for participating!