The ultra rare Fender Telescope guitar

[HemiBeers]

A one of a kind Fender Telescope for auction...

 

https://www.biddergy.com/Listing/Details/157651917/Fender-Telescope-Guitar

 

Obviously a Telecaster, being auctioned by a local auction house. I'm not shilling for the seller and I probably won't bid, but the pickups and the finish have me intrigued. So what kind of pickups do you think this has? I don't remember seeing hot pickups in a stock tele before. The finish looks pretty nice, well beyond a Squire or even a MIM tele. They have the serial number covered with a sticker so difficult to trace. The sticker says US made...but again with no serial number that's a gamble.

 

This auction was for a county sheriff's seized assets. It's difficult to test do to their policies. I might keep an eye on it and snag it if it's going stupid cheap. Obviously the auction house has no clue.

[treeduck]

[Maverick]

It's interesting because the controls are backwards. Normally, the pickup selector would on the right, and volume and tone knobs on the left. Some Tele players would reverse this, and re-wire the knobs so the volume knob was all the way to the right to make it easy to do volume swells with the pinky of your picking hand.

[HemiBeers]

After closer inspection, and duck's post, I'm thinking this is a home made fake. The Fender logo on the headstock is crooked and out of place. It also appears that there is no serial number in the middle of the back on the headstock, which is where fender places their serial numbers. The nice finish and hot pickups had me going.

 

Black tuners as well (not chrome)...that neck is really showing it's true colors.

 

Nevermind. I don't really like Tele's anyway.

Edited July 19, 2020 by HemiBeers

[HemiBeers]

It's interesting because the controls are backwards. Normally, the pickup selector would on the right, and volume and tone knobs on the left. Some Tele players would reverse this, and re-wire the knobs so the volume knob was all the way to the right to make it easy to do volume swells with the pinky of your picking hand.

 

Unless they just flipped the knobs and switch. Isn't that cavity all routed out so they could easily flip the plate?

 

Maybe we should change this thread to 'real or fake?' and post instruments to see if when can figure them out.

Edited July 19, 2020 by HemiBeers

[Maverick]

It's interesting because the controls are backwards. Normally, the pickup selector would on the right, and volume and tone knobs on the left. Some Tele players would reverse this, and re-wire the knobs so the volume knob was all the way to the right to make it easy to do volume swells with the pinky of your picking hand.

 

Unless they just flipped the knobs and switch. Isn't that cavity all routed out so they could easily flip the plate?

 

Maybe we should change this thread to 'real or fake?' and post instruments to see if when can figure them out.

 

I have a MIM Telecaster, and the control cavity is not routed for easy flipping. Hence, I did not flip mine.

 

The Fender and Telecaster decals here are really problematic. They should be inline with the direction of the strings, and the Fender one clearly is not. Plus, there is no indication as to whether the guitar is made in America or Mexico. And like you pointed out, there is no serial number, either. I don't even know if it is worth $150. It depends on what pickups are in it. Might not even be worth that.

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

It's interesting because the controls are backwards. Normally, the pickup selector would on the right, and volume and tone knobs on the left. Some Tele players would reverse this, and re-wire the knobs so the volume knob was all the way to the right to make it easy to do volume swells with the pinky of your picking hand.

 

Unless they just flipped the knobs and switch. Isn't that cavity all routed out so they could easily flip the plate?

 

Maybe we should change this thread to 'real or fake?' and post instruments to see if when can figure them out.

 

I have a MIM Telecaster, and the control cavity is not routed for easy flipping. Hence, I did not flip mine.

 

The Fender and Telecaster decals here are really problematic. They should be inline with the direction of the strings, and the Fender one clearly is not. Plus, there is no indication as to whether the guitar is made in America or Mexico. And like you pointed out, there is no serial number, either. I don't even know if it is worth $150. It depends on what pickups are in it. Might not even be worth that.

 

My MIM Tele came with the reversed control layout (volume knob by pinky) from the factory. It's a something-or-other special edition and that's how they came, and the bottom of the control cavity is routed a little deeper where the switch is, meaning I can't just rewire and flip because the switch would bottom out on the other end. I don't want to switch it -- I like the volume where it is -- but switching it would be a project

[HemiBeers]

I don't have the time to go to the auction house and really examine this before the Tuesday auction. While they might let me noodle around with it unplugged, I highly doubt they'll let me bring my amp in. It really tells 2 stories...the finish on the body looks quite nice, nicer than a home builder would put effort into, and the gold hardware adds a high-end touch. But that neck has all kinds of questions. If you look on the bar code sticker on back of the headstock, it's printed with 'serial # none'. If it's a replacement neck, there should be the serial # somewhere on the body. But no time to examine it. I'll keep tabs on it and post the sale price.

[HemiBeers]

This went for $595 which is WAY over I would have bid. Auction fever baby. You can save some bucks with Biddergy, but mostly it's people getting carried away and bidding too much.

 

I could walk into Guitar Center and have my pick of the litter Telecaster and know that it's all original.

Edited July 22, 2020 by HemiBeers