1 TELECASTER THINLINE

In 1962, pioneering guitar designer Roger Rossmeisl departed fellow Californian guitar builder Rickenbacker to join Fender. After helping launch the firm’s acoustic guitar range in 1963, he moved on to develop the semi-hollowbody electric Coronado design in early 1966 before beginning work on a hollow Telecaster design the following year. With its non-contoured body, the Tele proved an ideal testbed for such experimentation, and by 1968 Rossmeisl and his assistant, Virgilio Simoni, had refined a method of construction for a new Telecaster model.

Launched in 1968, the Telecaster Thinline initially came in either a natural ash or mahogany finish; a three-tone sunburst option became available later in the year. In 1971, the standard Telecaster pickup configuration was superseded by dual Wide Range humbuckers designed by father of the Gibson PAF, Seth Lover. The model remained in production throughout the 1970s until it was pulled from the catalogue at the end of the decade.