Serial Number 60312

This example from the collection has all the features common to early rosewood fingerboard Telecasters. It has a Brazilian rosewood slab board fingerboard on a slim maple neck (seen until late1962), clay dots (seen until 1964), single ply white pickguard (seen until 1963), and an ash body with an almost opaque creamy blonde finish.

When examining the metal bridge plate, six extra holes can be seen at the end, near the bridge saddle screws. These holes were originally intended to hold the strings on the unpopular top-loading bridge used from mid-1958 to mid-1959. Since Leo Fender never wasted a usable part, these bridges were converted back to the original string-through design when the top loading system was abandoned. These top-loading/string-through bridges can be seen from 1959 to as late as 1962.

The original owner of this Tele decided to buy it with the less expensive plasti-leather padded bag instead of the typically seen brown Tolex case.