A Late Sixties Custom Color Factory Bigsby Telecaster.  (SOLD)

A rare custom color 1969 factory Bigsby Telecaster that weighs 8.30 lbs. and has a nice comfortable nut width of 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Solid alder body and one-piece fretted maple neck (with a skunk stripe) with 21 original medium frets and inlaid black dot position markers. The neck profile is consistently medium-to-thick all the way up the fretboard starting at 0.87 inches at the first fret and gently rising to 0.92 inches at the 12th fret. A typical late sixties neck profile - actually almost identical to that of a Candy Apple Red 1966 'maple-cap' Telecaster that we have in stock. Individual Fender "F" tuners with octagonal metal buttons. Headstock decal with "Fender" logo in black with gold trim, "Telecaster" in black beside it, and two patent numbers "2,573,254" and "3,143,028" beneath "Fender." Single "butterfly" string tree with small nylon spacer. Four-bolt neck plate with large Fender "F" logo and serial number "255487" between the top two screws. One plain metal-cover pickup (at neck) with an output of 6.83k and one black six-polepiece pickup (angled in bridgeplate) with a really hot output of 6.94k. Three-layer (white/black/white) plastic pickguard with eight screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) plus three-way selector switch with black plastic "Top-Hat" tip, all on metal plate adjoining pickguard. Chrome knobs with flat tops and knurled sides. Fender factory 'floating' bridge with six 'ridged' saddles and factory Bigsby tremolo tailpiece. The neck is stamped in black "3 MAY 69B" and the pots are stamped "137 6634" (CTS August 1966). This guitar is in excellent plus (8.75) condition, with a few scratches on the back, some areas of playing wear on the edges of the body and a few small surface chips. The original 'medium' frets show some wear but there is plenty of life left in them and the maple fretboard shows virtually no sign of wear. Overall, this is an excellent example of this rare custom color. Housed in its original Fender black hardshell case with black leather ends and reddish orange plush lining (9.00).

"The Bigsby vibrato tailpiece was first listed as an option in 1967...Guitars with a Bigsby tailpiece feature a six-piece bridge with threaded saddles and a base plate without any marking" (A.R. Duchossoir, The Fender Telecaster, p. 68). Because this guitar has a proper factory Bigsby, the strings don't go through the body, like they do on all Telecasters (except those made in 1958), and there are no ferrules on the back of the guitar.