The History of the Telecaster Thinline - Ask Zac 137

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The Telecaster Thinline story begins with Fender's engineers experimenting with the removal of wood under the pickguard to lighten the weight of heavy ash bodies. They found that the weight loss was insignificant, so Fender's engineers set out to make an entirely new model. The resulting Telecaster Thinline was a standard Telecaster, with a partially hollowed-out body, and a stylized Pearloid pickguard released in 1968. To spruce up the model in late 1971, the model was completely revamped with a new bridge, pickguard, Wide Range humbuckers, Bullet Truss Rod, and Micro-Tilt neck adjustment. In this episode, we will detail the differences between the standard Telecaster, and the version I & II Thinline models. We will also look at the important differences that Seth Lover engineered into his 50s Gibson PAF humbucker model, and the 70s Wide Range he later designed for Fender.