Fender American Vintage II 1977 Telecaster Custom

A Versatile Vintage Beast

Wildwoodians, the Telecaster Custom is one of the most versatile, inspiring guitars in Fender's arsenal. Historically, it's a bit of a full-circle moment for Fender. You see, when Leo Fender originally designed the Telecaster, one of his main aims was to build a guitar that could easily be worked on or modified by handy players. Around the late seventies, a common mod for the traditional Telecaster was to remove the neck pickup and replaced it with a PAF humbucker. That way, they could get the gristle of a humbucker and traditional bright Fender sounds from the bridge single-coil. Fender noticed this and decided to get into the humbucker game, too so they could turn this mod into a production guitar.

To do this, Fender poached the inventor of the humbucker from one of their competitors! Seth Love came over from Gibson and designed a truly revolutionary pickup: the Wide-Range humbucker. If you've never played a guitar equipped with these pickups, they are truly special. Something about the CuNiFe (Copper/Nickel/Iron) magnets and large bobbins give it a different flavor of tone than any other type of humbucker. They have all the fullness and robust frequency response you'd expect from a boss 'bucker, but they have a bell-like openness, superb articulation, and clarity that set them apart. There's plenty of beef, but also a tremendous capacity for subtlety and nuance. It's no small thing to recapture such a special tone, our friends at Fender have painstakingly recreated the magic of the originals by using real CuNiFe magnets (which hadn't been used in years) in the American Vintage 1977 Telecaster Custom.

That tone is perfect for a neck humbucker, and it complements the Pure Vintage Tele single-coil in the bridge position beautifully. It will give you all the jangle, chime, twang, and bite you've ever wanted. And, in the middle position the two go together like Hall and Oates!

The American Vintage II 1977 Telecaster Custom also feels and looks the part, too. It has a comfy '77 C neck profile with a 7.5" radius and vintage tall frets, a configuration that provides a delightful vintage experience. It also has all the period-correct touches, like a 6-saddle bridge, "F"-stamped tuners, a bullet truss rod, and a three-bolt neck plate.

All in all, it's one of the most versatile vintage-style guitars on our shelves, and we have no doubt it will help all kinds of Fender fanatics make all sorts of joyous racket!