The original Thinline was produced from '68 until '71.
Fender's American Vintage series is the closest you can get to a vintage Fender guitar without buying the real thing from yesteryear or moving into the more elite Custom Shop.
This new addition – along with the American Vintage '72 Thinline and Custom Teles - is already available in lower-cost Fender ranges, but not at this quality or with this much vintage detail.
The '69 Telecaster Thinline, aims to replicate the original Thinline, which appeared in 1968 and lasted until 1971.
Classed by Fender at the time as a 'semi-acoustic' it was offered initially with just mahogany or ash bodies with a natural finish. Semi-hollow construction aside, it retained the Tele's dual single-coils and master volume/master tone control layout.
Build
"One reason why the Telecaster has survived is that it has graced every genre from country, jazz and blues through to modern rock and metal."
The historians tell us that the Thinline concept came about in an attempt to reduce the weight of the Telecaster.
Here the solid slab body is machined from the back leaving a centre section that stops just after the end of the bridge surrounded by hollow 'wings'. A back is then added and a single f-hole cut on the top's bass side.
This lightweight American Vintage version uses mahogany for the body - there's no ash version - and we get either the two-color burst or Olympic white, which is £72 cheaper. For a guitar that retails not too far short of £2k, it seems a miserly color choice reinforced by a complete lack of options.
The body and neck finish on all these models is 'gloss lacquer' (aka nitro-cellulose) applied to a high standard, although on this sample there's a light patch around the f-hole and a splodge of darker color on the inside of the soundhole making things a little untidy.
An original '69 Thinline would have been finished in polyester so, strictly speaking, this finish is inaccurate but few will have a problem.
According to Fender's Neil Whitcher: "The finish is a more modern nitro-cellulose lacquer with a poly undercoat; we felt that this would be a tonally superior option to go with for the guitars."
The guitar features an all maple one-piece neck/fingerboard with a rear skunk stripe, and uses a body-end truss rod adjustment and the classic four screws and rectangular neck plate neck-to- body join.
The 21-fret face is clearly lightly finished in a slightly orange-toned gloss. We get the original small fingerboard radius, small frets and a modern 'C' profile that most players should feel comfortable with.
It also sports 'F' logo tuners, with their distinct squared off buttons, and a single butterfly string tree that increases the string angle behind the nicely cut synthetic bone nut. It's nicely done but that gloss finish does look and feel a little bit cheap, and rather sticky, too.
Spec'd with two American Vintage single-coils, one meg ohm volume and tone pots and the ubiquitous three-way lever pickup selector, it's period correct business as usual save, of course, for that scratchplate, which holds all the electronic components plus the neck pickup.
As usual the output jack is side-mounted and, of course, the bridge pickup is mounted in an old-style Tele bridge plate with three steel saddles.
Sounds
One reason why the Telecaster has survived all these years is that it has graced pretty much every genre from country, jazz and blues through to modern mainstream rock and metal.
It's not always an easy ride: some swear by the bridge pickup (and swear at the neck pickup), others find an endless soul and funk groove from that middle, hollowed mix. There are even a few of us that actually like the neck single-coil for its smooth, jazz-edged voice.
On the '69 Thinline platform, and compared to an original solidbody '69 Tele, we have a different flavor. There's immediately less mid-range solidness to the sound, which makes that bridge pickup even spikier; conversely both the middle mix and neck pickup sound wider and fuller.
Definitely more hollowbody sounding, it's a step towards, perhaps, a P-90-style ES-330, with of course more Tele-like spike and Fender-ness.
This guitar was originally conceived at a time when Fender began to lose its way. However, 40 years on the guitar has been elevated into Fender's top drawer, thanks to numerous often left-field players who wanted a piece of 'vintage' Fender but simply couldn't afford the high-value classics.
Although this guitar has been available for some time in both Mexican- and Japanese-made guises, this American Vintage guitar improves on both those and the original, with its lightweight build and lacquer finishes.
Features such as the three-bolt neck joint and bullet truss rod adjusters (when done properly) make a lot of sense, too. The small frets and fingerboard radius, not to mention the paltry colour choice, won't endear it to all, but with street prices already around £1.5k, this updated blast from the past remains a powerful draw.
Verdict
The best-yet production version of a now-classic Tele, with excellent vintage detail and sounds.

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Fender Classic Series '69 Telecaster® Thinline Electric Guitar, 2 Tone Sunburst, Maple Fretboard List Price: $1,099.99 Sale Price: $799.99 You save: $300.00 (27%)   Eligible for free shipping! Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours 3 new from $799.99

Description

The semi-hollow body design of 1968's Telecaster Thinline guitar was originally an attempt to reduce the weight of ash-body Telecasters. With its f hole and reshaped pickguard, it was a truly distinctive take on Fender's first great instrument. The Classic Series '69 Telecaster Thinline brings it all back, with features including a lightweight semi-hollow mahogany body with f hole, U-shaped maple neck with 7.25"-radius maple freeboard, vintage-style single-coil Telecaster pickups and vintage-style bridge and tuners.

Features

• Vintage style single-coil Tele pickups and a light-weight, semi-hollow mahogany body combine to offer a really unique and musical voice.
• U-shape neck, 7.25" freeboard radius, and vintage style frets combined offer playability that's great for riffing, rhythm playing and rhythmic leads.
• 4-Ply White Pearloid pickguard sets this model apart visually, and inclusion of a deluxe gig bag allows for easy transport.

Reviews

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Fender’s tribute to one of their most renowned instruments is a fantastic blend of old school, don’t-fix-what-isn’t-broken mentality and current, more reliable technology.

Few guitars are as historically important as the Fender Telecaster. In fact, you could argue that the stalwart instrument is the most influential guitar of all time. Since its official release in 1949 as the Broadcaster, the Telecaster has been prized and praised for its no-nonsense tones, and simple and elegant design. It’s been used in pretty much every form of music that ever called for a guitar part and spawned countless variations tailored towards players of all walks and musical styles. And while countless electric guitar innovations have come and gone in the 60 years since the Telecaster’s birth, the core Tele’s design has remained relatively unchanged—standing the test of time and flash-in-the-pan musical fads.

To honor the 60 years of the guitar’s life—and its immeasurable impact on music—Fender released the 60th Anniversary Telecaster. But the guitar is more than just a simple vintage-themed reissue. It also feature several modern appointments and refinements that make it an especially sweet playing Tele.

Birthday Tele-bration
The 60th Anniversary Telecaster model screams with vintage vibe and sophistication when you open the guitar’s custom SKB hardshell case. The guitar’s mustard-hued ash body is finished Fender’s nitrocellulose-based lacquer, which is closer in composition to the finishes that Fender used before changing to a nitro overcoat and poly undercoat finish (to increase strength against dings and wear). The ash wood grain was clearly visible through the body’s paint job and the finish felt smooth and glassy underneath my fingertips.

Classic Telecaster appointments include a black pickguard, three-way switching, and volume and tone controls, while the pickups are from Fender’s own American Vintage Series. There are some noteworthy updates that are less than totally obvious—Fender used the popular Delta Tone No-Load tone circuit, which eliminates attenuation issues for brighter, more powerful tones. And instead of using a vintage-correct set of three brass saddles, the Anniversary uses a more tuning- and intonation-friendly six saddle set.

Tele lovers have long understood that the unique feel and shape of the legendary guitar’s neck can be as integral to the tone as its body and electronics are, and the 60th Anniversary features a traditional one-piece maple neck with a 25.5” scale length with more modern features like a 9.5” fretboard radius, medium jumbo fretwire, rolled fret edges and a modern C profile. A traditional four-bolt neck joint kept the neck snug against the body, along with Fender’s Micro-Tilt adjustment feature and a classy-looking 60th Anniversary Edition neckplate.

Sultry Delta Tone
Before I even plugged the 60th Anniversary Tele into a warmed-up Fender Twin Reverb reissue combo, I could almost instantly tell that this wasn’t your average guitar. The guitar’s resonance unplugged was immediately noticeable while I fingerpicked a simple, country-infused riff, with each pluck of the piece’s bass notes causing the neck and body to purr lovingly against my body and fretting hand. In addition, the rolled edges of the fingerboard and superb fret job allowed me to throw in various double stops and bends between each chord, with a negligible amount of resistance from the back of the neck’s finish.

The uncanny resonant qualities of the Tele only got better as I plugged it into the aforementioned Fender combo. Each note sustained and bloomed with a high amount of sustain, something that was uncharacteristic of the guitar—most players have had to rely on compressor pedals to overcome that common ailment. Fender’s American Vintage bridge pickup also scored high points in terms of touch sensitivity and sag, yielding an impressive range of tones as I varied my pick attack from light and precise to fast and strong. The top end of the pickups bit and snarled with quick snaps of pull-offs and Jerry Reed-esque fragmented chord progressions, and backed off with a smooth, detailed purr when I gingerly plucked jazz progressions.
The Fender Telecaster has never had a reputation for being a dull-sounding instrument, yet the Delta Tone’s ability to cut itself out of the circuit added a great-sounding, forceful, punchy bite to the Tele’s natural sting, without being too overbearing or icepicky.

Adding their Delta Tone circuit to the 60th Anniversary Tele was a spot-on decision by Fender. Its ability to completely cut out the tone attenuation is perfect for guitarists looking to put more sass in their tonal strut. DIY’ers have been adding a variation of this mod to their guitars this to their guitars for decades, by paining a thin coat of clear nail polish over the portion of the tone pot’s internal disk (where the tone pot would normally touch at its maximum setting). This breaks the connection between the pot and the circuitry, increasing the volume slightly and adding a fair amount of top end sparkle. The Fender Telecaster has never had a reputation for being a dull-sounding instrument, yet the Delta Tone’s ability to cut itself out of the circuit added a great-sounding, forceful, punchy bite to the Tele’s natural sting, without being too overbearing or icepicky. Since the Tele is already a pretty bright-sounding guitar, I had to keep the Tone control just below its top setting for most of my playing—then roll it back up to max when I need some high end spank on leads and fills.

Dirty Deeds
Dirty tones with the Tele were equally smooth and defined through a 2011 Mesa Boogie Multiwatt Dual Rectifier head. With the amp set to the clean channel and the Push mode engaged, the Tele ripped through like a bolt of lightning, carried along by a creamy midrange and snappy low-end response. Feedback wasn’t an issue until the amp reached more extreme gain settings, but I was content with leaving it in the realm of smooth, slightly crunchy classic rock territory. Again, keeping the Delta Tone-enabled Tone control below its maximum setting was essential to taming the sound, unless I needed a razor sharp top end that sliced through like a hot knife through butter.

Teles from the ’50s tended to have pretty beefy neck profiles, commonly referred to as a “boatneck”. I was a little worried that this particular neck wouldn’t have the same beefy feel as a correct-spec, early ’50s Tele, but it had enough meat on its bones to sit comfortably grab notes, while also allowing me to move up and down the neck with ease. The only amount of resistance I met when I would try to fly up and down the fretboard was against the neck’s coat of slightly sticky lacquer. Whether or not a coated or an uncoated neck makes for the perfect Tele neck has been a debate amongst guitarists since the instrument’s inception 60 years ago. Regardless of the fact that I had very little issues moving quickly around the frets, you’ll need to apply your own judgments in this instance—it’s an intensely personal thing for Tele players, one that can make or break a great playing experience.

The Verdict
Fender’s tribute to one of their most renowned instruments is a fantastic blend of old school, don’t-fix-what-isn’t-broken mentality and current, more reliable technology. The additions of the company’s Delta Tone circuit, lacquer finish, modern C neck shape and six saddle bridge offer even more precise tonal tuning, and the vintage snarl that put the Telecaster—and Fender—name on the map is there in full force. For those players who aren’t keen on a finished neck, the company offers a multitude of other models for consideration. However, for those who want a near-perfect blend of old and new to cure their Tele jones, this one’s hard to beat.

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The Player Series Tele marries vintage look and affordability with modern features

When Fender introduced its Custom Shop Relic models in the mid-90s, few could have guessed how big the market for relics would become. Guitarists by the score craved vintage authenticity and new-guitar reliability in the same instrument. Replete with strategically placed arm-wear; nicks, dings, and checking; corroded hardware; and other signs of extensive use, Fender’s relics could be dead ringers for their vintage inspirations. But most importantly, these guitars cost a fraction of the price of their predecessors and unlike vintage instruments, were replaceable—handy for touring guitarists who didn’t want to take their beloved original instruments on the road.

While those first Fender relics may have been accessibly priced, they weren’t necessarily cheap. But in 2009 Fender began using the same proprietary aging process for its new Ensenada, Mexico-built Road Worn guitars to bring vintage specs and feel to an affordable level. This year, the company released the Road Worn Player Series, which are still affordable, but add a lot of modern player-friendly features and mods like higher-output pickups and bigger frets that weren’t available on vintage-inspired models. I checked out the Road Worn Player Telecaster, with its neck-position humbucker and relatively flat fingerboard radius and was impressed with the effortless and effective combination of modern and time-tested design attributes.

Pre Hot-Rodded Styling
Our Fender Road Worn Player Telecaster could easily be mistaken for a guitar that its owner retooled 25 years ago and has since played several nights a weeks in a smoky bar. The black nitro finish (it’s also available in candy apple red) looks like an weathered high-quality refinish, and the PAF-style neck pickup is typical of the sort of hot-rodding that was common in the ’70s and ’80s to old single-coil guitars. Some of the details, like the 21-fret maple neck, spa-ghetti headstock logo, and eight-screw pickguard look vintage. While others, including the squared-off tuners and six individual bridge saddles, are more current.

The Fender Road Worn Player Telecaster has medium jumbo frets and a 9.5-inch radius (as opposed to the vintage 7.25), which gives it an unmistakably modern feel. Electronics include a Seymour Duncan 59 humbucker and a Fender Tex Mex single-coil bridge pickup, which is slightly hotter than a vintage-spec unit. And the three-way switch switches between bridge, two-pickup, and neck pickup settings.

Our Fender Road Worn Player Telecaster is a well-made guitar. While you can fast get into subjective territory assessing the quality of something that has been intentionally abused, the finish—actual nitro and not the smothering poly often used on inexpensive modern guitars—is nice and thin and the patterns of wear look convincing and not overdone. The neck fits nicely in its pocket. Though on the fingerboard, the fret ends are a little rough and the action a tad high—details that can be addressed easily enough by a good tech.
“Vibrant overtones popped out on the simplest barre-chord work and the guitar responded to blues-based soloing with an excited snap.”

The Sound and the Feel
The medium C-shaped neck, with a smooth satin finish, also lends a modern feel to the Player Tele. It’s fast and extremely comfortable to grip in all positions from the to the highest frets. Whether playing complex chords or single-note lines I never felt like I was fighting the neck. And thanks to the 9.5-inch radius, it was easy to bend the strings pretty aggressively without the notes fretting out.

Unamplified, this Fender Road Worn Player Telecaster is livelier than most guitars you encounter in this price range, which may owe something to the thin finish. Vibrant overtones popped out on the simplest barre-chord work and the guitar responded to blues-based soloing with an excited snap.

I plugged the Tele into a Blackstar HT Stage 6 amplifier, dialing in a clean tone and activating the guitar’s bridge pickup. Right out of the gate, the sound was slightly fatter than you’d typically expect of a Tele, but it did have that unmistakable twang that works so well for pedal steel–style bends.

When I switched to the neck pickup, it came as little surprise that the guitar reacted like a Tele on steroids. This pickup had a rich and spongy tone that added excellent definition and presence to John Scofield-style jazzy lines as well as substance and grit for some classic shuffle It’s a wide sound that you can adjust be at home in a great variety of idioms, from roots rock to reggae and even punk—just what would be expected from a no-nonsense multipurpose guitar like a Tele. And it’s all very easily shaped with use of the tone knob and volume control.

The Verdict
The Fender Road Worn Player Telecaster, incorporates some of the mods most commonly applied to vintage Teles in a brand new instrument that looks convincingly loved and well travelled. The Road Worn Player surpasses the sound, both acoustic and plugged-in, of most guitars at this price range, and incorporates features, like a nitro finish, generally found on Fender’s more expensive guitars.

The Fender Road Worn Player Telecaster would only be cooler if it came with a slightly better factory setup, were available in finishes other than black and red, and came with an optional rosewood fretboard. But all things considered, the Road Worn Player is a superb guitar for the price—a perfect, blank slate of an instrument for La-Z-Boy instrumentalists and working pros alike.

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These Wide range humbuckers are an entirely new, updated design
The Thinline Deluxe combines two of the guitar world's most classic designs – the Telecaster and Gibson's ES-335. In the construction stakes Fender has excelled with all the Classic Player series guitars, but the Thinline is even better.

The overall fit and finish is genuinely superb, especially considering its price. Moreover, a silky black finish is entirely blemish-free, even around the tricky f-hole.

Just like the original, we have a more traditional slab Tele body – unlike the solid Deluxe there's no belly contour. However, thanks to its semi-solid design, it's light and comfortable; even lighter than many originals we've encountered.
"Blues players, this is your Fender/Gibson hybrid sound."

Meanwhile, its distinctive and shapely, off-white pickguard gives this Thinline that desirable vintage vibe, enhanced by its correct, early seventies-style Tele neck and headstock.

We also get Fender's modern, flatter-than-vintage 9.5-inch radius with bigger frets along with the original-style six saddle bridge. In addition, the neck features four, rather than three bolts.

Strummed acoustically, although the Thinline's intrinsic character is very similar to the solid, humbucker-equipped Deluxe, because of its semi-hollow construction it's less dense sounding with an airy, swirly tone.

Clean, the bridge pickup's soft low-end and bumped mids help mellow this sprightly guitar. More gain gives individual notes plenty of cut and thrust, while open chords sound lush, thick and resonate in typical semi-hollow fashion. There really are few limits tonally.
Sticking with the overdrive, the middle position offers sweet and snappy Gibson-type tones, perfect for edgy rhythms – blues players, this is your Fender/Gibson hybrid sound.

The neck offers a creamy mid-range with ES-335-like thickness, which carries a similar single-note, airy resonance. Overall, the Wide Range humbuckers aren't as hot as a modern ES-335 and are brighter and snappier, in true Fender style.
This guitar represents astonishingly good value. It takes two iconic models and brings a real Fender-y take on the ES-335 format that will surely appeal to both traditional Tele and Gibson semi-hollow lovers.

A very affordable blend of ES-335 tones, but with a snappier Tele edge that really opens this guitar up to myriad playing styles.

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Why has Fender chosen to revisit the Telecaster Deluxe? "For many years the Stratocaster was more dominant," confirms Fender's marketing director Justin Norvell, "but the Tele has been gaining for several years now - all the more reason to expand our selection of Telecasters!"

The Deluxe Black Dove utilizes the same template as its vibrato-equipped sibling, but this time around the name comes from Fender's DE-9000 P-90-style single-coil pickups.

They certainly evoke a classic rock vibe and the black pickup covers, especially with the black three-ply scratch plate and crimson red finish, give the guitar a classic SG quality. That said we would love to see this one in sunburst.

Sounds
With the bridge position selected, the Black Dove offers typical single-coil bite from the top end; however, this is kept in check with a spank-a-plenty blend of brassy lows and sweet mids. It's a great tonal platform for snappy country runs, indie-rock rhythms and heavier rock clean sections.

More vigorous gain opens things up. The sweet and punchy mid-range seems to blend effortlessly with the brittle Fender-y top end, delivering a biting yet Moorish rock tone in a similar fashion to a Les Paul Special – it's bouncy, bubbly and cutting. Even down-tuned with heavy overdrive, it keeps full string definition and gives heavier riffing a real edge.
Middle and neck positions aren't quite as hot as the bridge selection, but the presence of the larger P-90 coil brings a more Strat-like tone. A smooth, brassy low end reminds us of classic vintage Strat tones, sitting firmly in both vintage and modern camps.

Verdict
A real rock 'n' ready Tele with a bit of SG and Strat about it. What's not to like?

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