In the mid-to-late 1960s, Fender and it’s CBS masters were hungry for novelty, and the increased profits that it could bring.

The company began experimenting with one of it’s staple products, the Telecaster. Some players had found the Tele too heavy, and in 1968, an attempt was made to solve this problem by routing out substancial sections of the body, adding an f-hole, and marketing the result as the Telecaster Thinline.

Offered in the choice of “natural” finishes (mahogany or ash), the adapted Tele underwent furthur modification in 1972, when it’s single-coil pickups were replaced with humbuckers designed by former Gibson staffer Seth Lover, as shown here.