I bought a 73 fender tele custom today and I'm having trouble dating it and what is original and not. I'll start with the neck pickup hum bucker. It appears to be original the number is hard to read it looks like 3197 but can't be sure. The bridge pickup has a black bottom with no numbers that i can see. It looks old but I thought fender single coil bridge pickups had either a grey bottom or a copper bottom. There is no date on the butt of the neck just numbers 303 3633 and it has the letters DAVI on the back where it sits on the body. The body in the neck pocket on the side it says PEDRO and a small round stamp with what looks like the number 27 but can't make out the rest. I can't make out the pot dates to small. The 2 volume pots look original but the tone pots don't. Bot tone pots say DI MARZIO I can see the numbers 58391 but can't make out the rest. The bridge and ashtray look original. The guitar was converted to a 4 bolt neck in the 70s so I was told and the original neck plate is included with the numbers 534427 which dated to 74. Can anyone help me out here with all these questions even tho vague. Thanks for any help. Sorry I put this under stratocaster topics.

Hi Markr1,

You might want to try your post at the Telecaster part of the forum (link below), this part is for Stratocaster. Probably more Tele-heads over there. And pictures usually are a big help when asking for identification of parts.

http://www.fender.com/community/forums/viewforum.php?f=7

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

Thanks, I posted it in this one by accident. I can't get good closeups with my camera.

The pics won't need to be real closeup, besides, some of us can't see very well anyway.

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

ANYTHING tele, go here.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/index.php

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

I'll try and get some pics uploaded this weekend. Thanks.