Thinline Telecasters

[gps]

Hi
I wondered if anyone had tried a thinline tele. At the moment Fender seems to have just two, the 69 with single coil pick ups and the 72 with humbuckers. If you've tried them, what do you think of them as jazz guitars and which one would you choose if any.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Sure, you can play jazz on a Tele. The thinline body doesn't change the amplified sound of the guitar much; I'd say the biggest difference is that it weighs less and that was the original motivation for the thinline design. If you're looking at Teles, I'd say the two most important things are the neck and the pickups.

[oilywrag]

You could have a look at one of these cool with flatwound 12's on.
The model is adkinsJa90 .Hope you like.

Cheers Tom

[gps]

Thanks I've been thinking about a new guitar but haven't had chance to try these yet and I've been listening to Ed Bickert and I think he used a tele with a humbucker at the neck and I used to see Adrian Ingram play and he used single coils. They both have a great sound

[mr. beaumont]

i'd pik the '69 over the '72 just because of the neck.

my main tele has the neck from a '69 thinline reissue. body and pups are from a '97 american standard. you definitely do not need humbuckers to play jazz.

[gps]

what do you prefer about the neck on the 69? re pick ups - I do like the clear sounds that people get with single coils when playing chords

[amusiathread]

Originally Posted by oilywrag

You could have a look at one of these cool with flatwound 12's on.
The model is adkinsJa90 .Hope you like.

Cheers Tom

I had one of these when they called it a TC90 (same guitar, different knobs). I didn't like it much, the SD P90's were really harsh and incredibly noisy. Acoustically it wasn't much, it was overall an unimpressive guitar. Just my opinion though.

[RoyaleT]

The JA 90 is sweet, and if you can find one of the old discontinued TC90's it was based on grab it.

[derek]

I find the thinline to be a bit more midrangy, and perhaps a bit less focused sound wise. The one I played recently was from K-Line (all Fender Lic parts), with the same Lollar pups as my Nash Tele. I would really like to have one at some point.

Unless you are looking to buy one of the Mexican or Asian made Fenders, I would recommend buying from one of the small assemblers like K-Line, Nash, Danocaster or King Bee. Much better quality for less than Fender CS.

[mr. beaumont]

Originally Posted by gps

what do you prefer about the neck on the 69? re pick ups - I do like the clear sounds that people get with single coils when playing chords

the '69 thinline neck is the hidden gem in the fender production line, IMHO. it's on the chunky side, but not too big, and has nice small frets that are great for jazz playing. it also has a rounde radius (7.25") which i actually find very comfortable for jazz chording--i can't actually figure out why so many jazz guitar makers stick with gibson--or flatter--spec for fretboard radius!

I like the '69 thinline neck better than any other fender neck until you get into the custom shop stuff, which costs, oh, 3-5 times as much!

[Tom Karol]

I played a beautiful natural ash '90's Thinline at, of all places - Guitar Center about 10 years ago. Hardware and electronics were based on the American Standard series. Fender only made them for a few years. I'm still kicking myself for not snatching it up. That having been said, today I'd probably opt for a G&L ASAT BluesBoy Semi-Hollow.

[Bflat]

I opted for the G&L Bluesboy. It was not the USA version; that was out of my price range. I was surprised by the value though. It cost me $630 shipped and after setting it up w/ flatwounds and dialing the intonation (you can adjust each string individually) it is really sweet. The bridge pickup is worthless to me; very thin sounding. But the Neck pickup is really jazzy and very quiet.

During my search I tried the Squier thinline and it just didn't have the right sound for jazz. I was also not too impressed with the entry-level USA Tele's.

-Enjoy

[JohnW400]

Originally Posted by Tom Karol

I played a beautiful natural ash '90's Thinline at, of all places - Guitar Center about 10 years ago. Hardware and electronics were based on the American Standard series. Fender only made them for a few years.

I bought one new back in the 90's. Natural body with a rosewood fb, faux tortise shell pickgaurd and binding plus F hole. I swapped out the bridge pup for a texas special and had a Seth Lover HB for the neck and a push / pull switch. They were giving these away. I think the list was $2k with the fancy case. I still have it. After conversing with all the jazz tele players here (Yes I mean you Mr B) I've been thinking about setting it up for jazz