Fender Telecaster Electric Guitars
One of Leo Fender's dreams was to develop a guitar that would be cheap and easy to repair. It had a single cutaway and a bolted-on neck. The soon-to-be famous and copied headstock with all six tuning machines on one side. The guitar was called a "Standard Electric" the name soon to be chaged to "Esquire." Many of those Esquires had warped necks which prompted Don Randall of Radio-Tel to address the problem by installing metal truss rods on the guitars. Leo added a second pickup which was installed in the neck position. Fender renamed the two pickup guitar the "Broadcaster" which ruffled Gretsch's feathers in that they were producing a guitar called the "Broadkaster." Thus the Broadcaster became the Telecaster. In 1952 the new "Telecaster" was selling briskly for the manufacturer's suggested retail price of $189.50. There were no options--all were finished in butterscotch and fitted with black pickguards. In 1975 Fender added several standard colors to the Telecaster guitar line.
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