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Post subject: 1977 fender tele
Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 3:43 am
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Hobbyist
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Hi, I have checked the neck pocket of a 77 tele I am considering buying, the neck pocket is marked in black ink with the name "CHUCK LEV" (some letters at end of LEV are hard to make out) there is also a code, again hard to make out but appears to be 3373 and the letters J.F in pencil.

The back of the neck that fits into the pocket is stamped in green ink 1771 with a circular inspection stamp with the letters F/F/R with the number 10 below and below that INSP again in green ink.

the butt end of the neck is stamped in red ink with 1303 5721.

Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks


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Post subject: Re: 1977 fender tele
Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2017 4:02 pm
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Posted to the wrong forum. This is about Mustang GT, please repost appropriately.


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Post subject: Re: 1977 fender tele
Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2017 4:18 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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here ya go....tele forum... viewforum.php?f=7


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Post subject: Re: 1977 fender tele
Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2017 5:25 pm
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Probably a Fender Factory Run made for Chuck Levin's music store in Maryland / Washington D.C. Big stores order special runs of guitars is not uncommon. Usually it's just unique color combinations, but it could be different hardware too.
Contact them with your description and serial number, and they may be able to give you more information.
And otherwise, yes, the Telecaster forum is a better place for this. Perhaps a friendly moderator could move it?


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Post subject: Re: 1977 fender tele
Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2017 12:45 am
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Tele Mojo wrote:
a circular inspection stamp with the letters F/F/R with the number 10 below

I believe it says FRR; as in 'Fender Rogers Rhodes' (a division of CBS), that would be a correct inspection stamp.

Outside that, nothing you tell about the stamps/markings is blatantly wrong, and arth1 could very well be right.

Further than that, can't help without pics.


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Post subject: Re: 1977 fender tele
Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2017 7:05 am
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Professional Musician
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The most difficult years to ID 100% of the time. Fender was into using varying codes until about 1981.

A R Duchossoirs "Guitar Identification" pp19-20 deciphers the first four digits as:
13=Telecaster standard
03=Custom finish w/ maple neck

The second set of 4 numbers is still somewhat a mystery but concludes that the 3rd digit is the year, the preceding two digits could be the week and the last digit unknown. Many neck date codes from this era are years apart from the serial numbers.


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Post subject: Re: 1977 fender tele
Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2017 12:08 pm
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Hi Thanks for the replies, they are very much appreciated.

I now believe the inspection name marking on the neck pocket is 'Chuck Lewis'

I would still like to find out the relevance of the code in the neck pocket which appears to be 3373 and,

I would also like to find out the relevance of the code stamped on the rear of the neck which is 1771.

Thanks again for your help and support.


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Post subject: Re: 1977 fender tele
Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2017 1:23 pm
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Mojo, my best guess would be that the 1771 was perhaps the original date of the neck (17th week of 1977) and the 3373 is perhaps a later neck date based on a finishing/change/mod-etc (33rd week of 1977).


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Post subject: Re: 1977 fender tele
Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2017 1:03 am
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Rock Star
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Found your query, with pics, on the other forum:
http://www.tdpri.com/threads/1977-telec ... in.752090/

I got the 'FRR' right.
'Chuck Lewis' I agree with, and that checks out for some other Fender instruments from the era.
I believe the "3373" is actually B373; that would make it a B for a 1 5/8" nut width neck.
"J.F." - most likely initials from a Fender worker - but could also be written after the guitar left the factory (owner/guitar tech etc.)

I'm not expert enough to help with those numbers you're still missing, and the web info is (as usual) partly contradictory. Anyways, I think you've gotten confirmation that the guitar is legit.


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