Fender Telecaster Deluxe
Encyclopedia
The Fender Telecaster
Deluxe is a solid-body electric guitar
originally produced from 1972 to 1981, and since re-issued by Fender in 2004 as the '72 Telecaster Deluxe.
in the late 1960s led Fender to re-think its strategy of exclusively using single-coil pickups, as they were not perceived as being suitable for the thick sound and extended sustain
favoured by heavy rock guitarists using double-coil humbucking
pickups. Consequently, Fender hired former Gibson
employee Seth Lover
, the inventor of the humbucker himself, to design a humbucking pickup for use in a number of Fender guitars. The result was a pickup known as the Wide Range
humbucker, and it was used in a variety of different Fender models including the Deluxe, Custom, and Thinline Telecasters as well as a semi-hollowbody design called the Starcaster
. The Deluxe, originally conceived as the top-of-the-line model in the Telecaster series, was the last of these to be released, in late 1972.
The "humbucker" Telecasters failed to draw potential customers away from competition like Gibson's Les Paul
model, and the Telecaster Deluxe was discontinued in 1981. However, in 2004 Fender decided to re-issue the Deluxe, probably in response to the belated popularity of the original 70s version.
The body shape was similar to other Telecaster models of the era, with one minor difference - a "belly cut" contour similar to that featured on all Stratocasters was added to the back of the guitar. The Deluxe also had the same "glitch" in its shape as the other Telecasters - a slightly less-pronounced curve where the upper bout meets the neck joint, compared to earlier (and later) Telecasters. This was attributed to more modern routing machines installed in the production line at the time. The 2004 re-issue differs from the original in that it does not have the 70s "notchless" body style.
The Fender Custom Shop
produced Factory Special Run limited-edition versions (FSR) of the guitar in 2005. These FSR '72 Tele Deluxes are made in Corona, California (USA).
The Deluxe features 2 Seth Lover-designed Wide Range
humbuckers with "Cunife
" (Copper/Nickel/Ferrite) rod magnets in the place of pole-pieces. This design yielded a brighter and clearer sound more similar to that of single coil pickups. They were wound with approximately 6,800 turns of copper wire, yielding a DC resistance of approximately 10.6 kΩ (compared to a standard Gibson P.A.F. humbucker
typical DC resistance of 9 kΩ).
The 2004 reissue version of the pickup was redesigned by Fender employee Bill Turner in order to achieve a similar sound in the absence of cunife
magnets. While looking almost identical to the original 1970s version it differs greatly in its construction, featuring an alnico bar magnet underneath non-magnetized pole-pieces. It is in fact an ordinary humbucker placed in the larger Wide Range Humbucker casing, and the gap is filled with wax. This is one important reason the reissue Deluxe sounds different from the original guitars. Another reason is the use of 250kΩ volume and tone pots, while the original used 1 MΩ pots. Using 250kΩ pots with very hot humbuckers results in a dark and muddy sound; a common remedy is to replace the controls with 500kΩ pots, which is generally agreed to improve the sound of the reissues. (These same reissue pickups are used for the current 1972 Custom and Thinline Telecaster Reissues.)
Most Deluxes produced have a "hard-tail" fixed bridge, although for the first couple of years of production a vibrato
bridge could be ordered with the guitar - this was the same bridge used on most Stratocasters. As this was not a standard option, models with the vibrato bridge are quite rare. Fender reintroduced the Tele Deluxe with the tremolo bridge option http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?partno=0142002300 as a part of the Classic Player series as of 2009 together with a new variant featuring Black Dove P90-style single-coil pickups http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?partno=0141902338.
The volume/tone knobs used on the early Deluxes were very similar to those used on Fender's "Blackface"/"Silverface" range of amplifiers
with a chromed "skirt" tip on the top, however in the late 1970s these were replaced with black knobs identical to those used on the Stratocaster.
For 2010 Fender has released a limited factory special run of 72 Deluxe Telecasters in their Road Worn Line available in black and olympic white nitrocellulose finishes with the neck and body being aged in appearance, along with aged hardware.
. The Custom can be differentiated from the Deluxe by its use of the "classic Tele"-style neck & headstock, as well as the "ashtray" bridge and single-coil slanted bridge pickup also used by all other Telecaster models. The Custom was also available with a rosewood fretboard, whereas the Deluxe was only available with maple.
The Telecaster Thinline
also featured a version with two "Wide Range" humbuckers, however in most other respects this was quite a different guitar from the Deluxe.
Electronically, the Tele Deluxe also resembles the Gibson Les Paul
- they both have dual humbucking pickups, an upper-bout mounted 3-way pickup selector switch, and independent volume/tone controls for each pickup.
A very small number of Telecaster Deluxes' (less than 50) left the factory with Stratocaster tremolos.
In 2009, Fender released the Telecaster Thinline Deluxe http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?partno=0141802306, combining the best of the Telecaster Thinline and Telecaster Deluxe into a single instrument. This Classic Player Series guitar features a semi-hollow ash body, four-bolt neck, 9.5” radius, Wide Range humbucking pickups, three-position toggle switch, bullet truss rod, four independent controls and skirted amp knobs.
As well as reissuing the original tremolo equipped Telecaster Deluxe in 2009, Fender has also introduced a completely new model based on the Deluxe: the Telecaster Deluxe Black Dove. This guitar is effectively the same as the non-trem Deluxe model, but features two Black Dove P90 pickups instead of the twin wide range pickups. The guitar is available in black and transparent crimson red finishes with an alder body.
This model in some ways can be thought of as the Fender version of the Squier Telecaster Custom
II that was launched in 2003 as both instruments have P90 pickups and maple necks but the Squier version is built with Duncan Designed Pickups and an agathis body.
Black Dove P90 pickups were also used on the short lived Toronado and Strat-o-sonic models.
Fender Telecaster
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is typically a dual-pickup, solid-body electric guitar made by Fender.Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music...
Deluxe is a solid-body electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
originally produced from 1972 to 1981, and since re-issued by Fender in 2004 as the '72 Telecaster Deluxe.
History
The popularity of heavy rockHard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
in the late 1960s led Fender to re-think its strategy of exclusively using single-coil pickups, as they were not perceived as being suitable for the thick sound and extended sustain
Sustain
In music, sustain is a parameter of musical sound over time. As its name implies, it denotes the period of time during which the sound remains before it becomes inaudible, or silent.Additionally, sustain is the third of the four segments in an ADSR envelope...
favoured by heavy rock guitarists using double-coil humbucking
Humbucker
A humbucker is a type of electric guitar pickup, first patented by Seth Lover and the Gibson company, that uses two coils, both generating string signal. Humbuckers have higher output than a single coil pickup since both coils are connected in series...
pickups. Consequently, Fender hired former Gibson
Gibson Guitar Corporation
The Gibson Guitar Corporation, formerly of Kalamazoo, Michigan and currently of Nashville, Tennessee, manufactures guitars and other instruments which sell under a variety of brand names...
employee Seth Lover
Seth Lover
Seth Lover is most famous for inventing the humbucker or hum-cancelling electric stringed instrument pickup, most often used on the electric guitar....
, the inventor of the humbucker himself, to design a humbucking pickup for use in a number of Fender guitars. The result was a pickup known as the Wide Range
Fender Wide Range
The Fender Wide Range Humbucker is a humbucker guitar pickup, designed by Seth Lover for Fender in the early 1970s. This pickup was intended to break Fender's image as a "single coil guitar company", and to gain a foothold in the humbucker guitar market dominated by Gibson.The pickups enjoyed some...
humbucker, and it was used in a variety of different Fender models including the Deluxe, Custom, and Thinline Telecasters as well as a semi-hollowbody design called the Starcaster
Fender Starcaster
The Fender Starcaster was a semi-hollowbody electric guitar made by the Fender company. The Starcaster was part of Fender's attempt to enter the semi-hollowbody market, which was dominated by Gibson's ES-335 and similar designs.-Design and production:...
. The Deluxe, originally conceived as the top-of-the-line model in the Telecaster series, was the last of these to be released, in late 1972.
The "humbucker" Telecasters failed to draw potential customers away from competition like Gibson's Les Paul
Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson...
model, and the Telecaster Deluxe was discontinued in 1981. However, in 2004 Fender decided to re-issue the Deluxe, probably in response to the belated popularity of the original 70s version.
Features
The Deluxe is unique amongst Telecasters in that the neck has an enlarged headstock - a very similar 21-fret neck was used by Fender Stratocaster models manufactured in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. The main difference between the Telecaster Deluxe and Stratocaster necks from this period is that the Telecaster Deluxe neck used medium jumbo frets while the Stratocaster necks featured narrower fretwire. The Telecaster's neck also features the "Micro-Tilt" angle adjustment device located in the heel of the neck, similar to other Fender models of the period.The body shape was similar to other Telecaster models of the era, with one minor difference - a "belly cut" contour similar to that featured on all Stratocasters was added to the back of the guitar. The Deluxe also had the same "glitch" in its shape as the other Telecasters - a slightly less-pronounced curve where the upper bout meets the neck joint, compared to earlier (and later) Telecasters. This was attributed to more modern routing machines installed in the production line at the time. The 2004 re-issue differs from the original in that it does not have the 70s "notchless" body style.
The Fender Custom Shop
Fender Custom Shop
The Fender Custom Shop is a division of Fender Musical Instruments, housed within their headquarters complex in Corona, Riverside County, California. The Fender Custom Shop primarily exists to compete with smaller companies and independent luthiers that, in turn, build products reminiscent of those...
produced Factory Special Run limited-edition versions (FSR) of the guitar in 2005. These FSR '72 Tele Deluxes are made in Corona, California (USA).
The Deluxe features 2 Seth Lover-designed Wide Range
Fender Wide Range
The Fender Wide Range Humbucker is a humbucker guitar pickup, designed by Seth Lover for Fender in the early 1970s. This pickup was intended to break Fender's image as a "single coil guitar company", and to gain a foothold in the humbucker guitar market dominated by Gibson.The pickups enjoyed some...
humbuckers with "Cunife
Cunife
Cunife is an alloy of copper , nickel , iron , and in some cases cobalt . The alloy has the same linear coefficient of expansion as certain types of glass, and thus makes an ideal material for the lead out wires in light bulbs and thermionic valves...
" (Copper/Nickel/Ferrite) rod magnets in the place of pole-pieces. This design yielded a brighter and clearer sound more similar to that of single coil pickups. They were wound with approximately 6,800 turns of copper wire, yielding a DC resistance of approximately 10.6 kΩ (compared to a standard Gibson P.A.F. humbucker
PAF (pickup)
P.A.F. or just PAF is the world's first humbucker guitar pickup, invented by Seth Lover in 1955 as an engineer for Gibson and began use in mass production guitars in 1956 or 1957. However Rickenbacker and Gretsch had developed humbucking pickups also...
typical DC resistance of 9 kΩ).
The 2004 reissue version of the pickup was redesigned by Fender employee Bill Turner in order to achieve a similar sound in the absence of cunife
Cunife
Cunife is an alloy of copper , nickel , iron , and in some cases cobalt . The alloy has the same linear coefficient of expansion as certain types of glass, and thus makes an ideal material for the lead out wires in light bulbs and thermionic valves...
magnets. While looking almost identical to the original 1970s version it differs greatly in its construction, featuring an alnico bar magnet underneath non-magnetized pole-pieces. It is in fact an ordinary humbucker placed in the larger Wide Range Humbucker casing, and the gap is filled with wax. This is one important reason the reissue Deluxe sounds different from the original guitars. Another reason is the use of 250kΩ volume and tone pots, while the original used 1 MΩ pots. Using 250kΩ pots with very hot humbuckers results in a dark and muddy sound; a common remedy is to replace the controls with 500kΩ pots, which is generally agreed to improve the sound of the reissues. (These same reissue pickups are used for the current 1972 Custom and Thinline Telecaster Reissues.)
Most Deluxes produced have a "hard-tail" fixed bridge, although for the first couple of years of production a vibrato
Vibrato
Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...
bridge could be ordered with the guitar - this was the same bridge used on most Stratocasters. As this was not a standard option, models with the vibrato bridge are quite rare. Fender reintroduced the Tele Deluxe with the tremolo bridge option http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?partno=0142002300 as a part of the Classic Player series as of 2009 together with a new variant featuring Black Dove P90-style single-coil pickups http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?partno=0141902338.
The volume/tone knobs used on the early Deluxes were very similar to those used on Fender's "Blackface"/"Silverface" range of amplifiers
Guitar amplifier
A guitar amplifier is an electronic amplifier designed to make the signal of an electric or acoustic guitar louder so that it will produce sound through a loudspeaker...
with a chromed "skirt" tip on the top, however in the late 1970s these were replaced with black knobs identical to those used on the Stratocaster.
For 2010 Fender has released a limited factory special run of 72 Deluxe Telecasters in their Road Worn Line available in black and olympic white nitrocellulose finishes with the neck and body being aged in appearance, along with aged hardware.
Similar guitars
The Telecaster Deluxe is very similar to another Fender model sold in the 1970s - the Telecaster CustomFender Telecaster Custom
Fender Telecaster Custom is a model of electric guitar made by Fender. This model should not be confused with the "Fender Custom Telecaster" model manufactured between 1959 and 1968, which only differs from a standard Telecaster in having a bound body...
. The Custom can be differentiated from the Deluxe by its use of the "classic Tele"-style neck & headstock, as well as the "ashtray" bridge and single-coil slanted bridge pickup also used by all other Telecaster models. The Custom was also available with a rosewood fretboard, whereas the Deluxe was only available with maple.
The Telecaster Thinline
Fender Telecaster Thinline
The Fender Telecaster Thinline is an electric guitar made by the Fender company. It is a Telecaster with body cavities. Designed by German luthier Roger Rossmeisl in 1968, it was introduced in 1969 and updated with a pair of Fender Wide Range humbucking pickups, Bullet truss-rod and 3-bolt neck...
also featured a version with two "Wide Range" humbuckers, however in most other respects this was quite a different guitar from the Deluxe.
Electronically, the Tele Deluxe also resembles the Gibson Les Paul
Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson...
- they both have dual humbucking pickups, an upper-bout mounted 3-way pickup selector switch, and independent volume/tone controls for each pickup.
A very small number of Telecaster Deluxes' (less than 50) left the factory with Stratocaster tremolos.
In 2009, Fender released the Telecaster Thinline Deluxe http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?partno=0141802306, combining the best of the Telecaster Thinline and Telecaster Deluxe into a single instrument. This Classic Player Series guitar features a semi-hollow ash body, four-bolt neck, 9.5” radius, Wide Range humbucking pickups, three-position toggle switch, bullet truss rod, four independent controls and skirted amp knobs.
As well as reissuing the original tremolo equipped Telecaster Deluxe in 2009, Fender has also introduced a completely new model based on the Deluxe: the Telecaster Deluxe Black Dove. This guitar is effectively the same as the non-trem Deluxe model, but features two Black Dove P90 pickups instead of the twin wide range pickups. The guitar is available in black and transparent crimson red finishes with an alder body.
This model in some ways can be thought of as the Fender version of the Squier Telecaster Custom
Squier Telecaster Custom
The Squier Telecaster Custom is a model of electric guitar made by Squier as part of their Vintage Modified Series. It is essentially an affordable hybird design that takes design features from both the Fender Telecaster Custom and the Fender Telecaster Deluxe...
II that was launched in 2003 as both instruments have P90 pickups and maple necks but the Squier version is built with Duncan Designed Pickups and an agathis body.
Black Dove P90 pickups were also used on the short lived Toronado and Strat-o-sonic models.