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Post subject: Please help identify date my telecaster
Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2020 6:39 am
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hi
I have tried to post this message before but must have messed it up. I bought my second hand Tele in 2004 in Warwick, UK for about £500 at the time.

I recently got interested in vintage guitars and so tried to see how old/make/country of origin mine is but I cant find much to help on the neck or head.

All that is says is 63699 on the backplate and no other symbols. The head just says " Fender "Telecaster" "

There is no other markings on the bottom of the neck or the back of the head.

Looking at the guide on reverb.com the serial numbers places it as a 1962 original, but that surely cant be the case as its in way too good a condition.https://reverb.com/news/how-to-date-a-fender

Please help!
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Post subject: Re: Please help identify date my telecaster
Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 2:52 pm
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Location: Province de Québec, Canada
Custom telecaster

We need to see pots and switch and body pocket and neck end with truss rod nut.

Some forum members may have more answer


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Post subject: Re: Please help identify date my telecaster
Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2020 1:37 am
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Well it has the details of a 50's Tele but the machine heads are wrong so I am assuming it isn't. Sweet looking guitar though.

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After all this time I should be better.


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Post subject: Re: Please help identify date my telecaster
Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2020 2:05 am
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Location: Province de Québec, Canada
Body is '60 custom Tele


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Post subject: Re: Please help identify date my telecaster
Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2020 10:41 am
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It's modern, not an actual vintage original.

It has a 1 piece maple neck with skunk stripe and headstock plug. Fender stopped making necks that way in mid '59 and didn't start again until the '70s.

Early '62 would be a slab rosewood fretboard. Late '62 would be a round lam rosewood fretboard. (Late '62 could have a special order maple cap fretboard, but it wouldn't have a skunk stripe or headstock plug.)

Vintage style serial number suggests it's a high quality partscaster or replica, not a Fender reissue or Custom Shop.


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Post subject: Re: Please help identify date my telecaster
Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2020 12:48 pm
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I sorta get a Japan feeling about this guitar, but I can be totally wrong there.

A neck plate with any number is easy to buy & install, so I think that the plate and the serial number aren't original.

Any stamps/markings in the neck pocket/heel? And how do the electronics look like down under; pot bottoms and pickup backs, wirings/solderings..?

Looks nice, though, with that double binding.


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Post subject: Re: Please help identify date my telecaster
Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2020 1:10 pm
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jmattis wrote:
I

And how do the electronics look like down under; pot bottoms and pickup backs, wirings/solderings..?




People alway forget that ; electronic say a lot.
I ask for few days ago.


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Post subject: Re: Please help identify date my telecaster
Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2020 2:35 pm
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stratele52 wrote:
jmattis wrote:
I

And how do the electronics look like down under; pot bottoms and pickup backs, wirings/solderings..?




People alway forget that ; electronic say a lot.
I ask for few days ago.


+1
Op is asking about a date. More pictures would be helpful.

While I agree the tuners and neck don't look quite legit, it's a nice looking tele. If it sounds good, might be worth the price in the UK.

Besides pot dates that may or may not be visible, it would be interesting to see the switch wiring.
In '62, I don't think Fender made any teles that included neck + bridge wiring. I'll readily admit I don't know as much as some of the others here, but I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for more pictures to attempt to nail down an approximate date.

Hell, I'm impressed that on his first post, he figured out how to get pictures to show up. Hopefully, he'll come back and post some other pictures.

Cheers,
vinyl


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Post subject: Re: Please help identify date my telecaster
Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2020 3:06 pm
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so i took the neck off (never done that before!) and took pics. the back of the neckplate says Made in Japan so well done whoever said that. the writing though on the pocket is not much to go off and the neck end has nothing! go for it telecaster sleuths.....please say its a Fender :) Will be a bit annoyed if it isn't and was sold as such ! It does seem very high quality.

Regarding getting the neck back on, it seems 'flush' visually but i seem to be able to get a pamplet under one side of the rear where it attaches to he neck but the other side i cant.....any advice on how to lie the guitar down when reattaching please advise and i will do it again to see if it is really flush.

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Post subject: Re: Please help identify date my telecaster
Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2020 3:15 pm
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since posting pictures is encouraged please see what the neck has now ended up like......like i say it seems fine, the neck isn't creaking and the strings are staying in tune and the action seems the same (albeit this 'Tele' has been unloved for some years)

as you can see the left side from the rear looks nice and tight but the right has a tiny bit of a gap - enough for a couple of sheets of paper. can anyone check their Tele's and see how flush things actually have to be otherwise with the forum advice on how to position the guitar when reattaching i will happily do so....however I did screw and unscrew 3 times last night so wary of messing up the screws.

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Post subject: Re: Please help identify date my telecaster
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2020 12:18 am
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OK, the body is a Tokai "Breezysound" - that's what the ATE-55 tells me, so the Japanese hunch was right.
Very nice instruments usually, and the factory has been involved in building FMIC instruments, too.
With a Tokai, that neck plate could be original; those were numbered according to the original vintage Fender system.

I'm not sure about the neck - the truss rod doesn't look functional..?
And the neck misalignment doesn't look good. I'd either shim it (maybe tilting the neck backwards a degree or two) or just fit the neck/pocket to each other with some sanding.
The screw holes can be lined with a few layers of glue (I use rapid epoxy, applied inside the hole with a toothpick thin layer by thin layer, but wood glue like TiteBond is just as good).
Then again, if the neck angle/action/string-break-angle-over-the-bridge are all good and the guitar plays right, only us OCD-minded would care...


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Post subject: Re: Please help identify date my telecaster
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2020 4:01 am
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The holes in the body look to have screw thread marks in them. This often causes the neck not to seat properly in the pocket. The holes should be large enough for the screws to pass through the body freely.


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Post subject: Re: Please help identify date my telecaster
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2020 5:06 am
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64Galaxie wrote:
The holes in the body look to have screw thread marks in them. This often causes the neck not to seat properly in the pocket. The holes should be large enough for the screws to pass through the body freely.


I desagree. You talk about general wood assembly.

How can you explain why my two originals Fender Tele have these screw thread ?

I guess my four Strats are same.

And it doesn't cause any problem to adjust the parallelism of the neck to the body


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Post subject: Re: Please help identify date my telecaster
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2020 6:52 am
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ok so there is hope this is an official MIJ Fender and the neck has not been changed?! That would actually match what the vendor told me in 2004 (he said it was a 60s reissue).

My only curiosity is that it has less screws on the scratch plate than almost all the Teles i have seen online be they Fenders or Tokais....which is curious.

https://www.vintagejapanguitars.com.br/en/history-of-tokai This history mentions Fender using Tokai for replicas from 1998 and that it says 'crafted in Japan' under the serial number (mine says 'Made in Japan')

If it was a circa turn of the millennium guitar that would fit with the condition; its just way too nice to be from the 80s i would say as surely it would be more beat up ? there was one scratch on it when i bought it, otherwise flawless.


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Post subject: Re: Please help identify date my telecaster
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2020 1:08 pm
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city951 wrote:
ok so there is hope this is an official MIJ Fender and the neck has not been changed?!

Sorry but no. The guitar (the body, at least) started out with the Tokai brand.
MIJ Teles, made by any of the subcontractors, had Fenders model stamps/markings in the neck pocket, for example a "TL-62" stamp.
The neck could have been a Tokai originally, although I don't think it originally came with this body - ATE usually means Tokai style headstock, while TTE would be Fender headstock.


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