Roger Rossmeisl had been with Fender for seven years, designing acoustic flat-tops as well as the Coronado semi-hollow electrics, before Fender gave his creative talent free rein in 1969 with the result being the creation of the LTD model.

Fender’s first electric featured a spruce top that was personally carved by Rossmeisl. It sported the elegant “German carve”- the pronounced “lip” around the edge of the top that Rossmeisl had brought with him from his native Germany (where his father was a noted guitarmaker). The neck-position pickup with controls in the pickguard, the height adjustable ebony bridge, the gold-plated tailpiece, the ebony fingerboard with fancy inlays, the flared headstock – everything about the LTD (except, significantly, the bolt-on neck) exuded traditional artisanship in a way no Fender ever had before.

Production of this model, like many Fenders that didn’t have a solid-body, production was quite limited at no more than a dozen guitars.