SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS ON THE WIRE
250k potentiometers with 1M versions in pursuit of greater brightness and clarity. The decision reflected the musical priorities of the era. But many later players found the result excessively sharp and quickly reverted to earlier specifications. Such debates emerged because musicians had become intimately familiar with the instrument, and such small changes mattered.
Fender chose to mark the anniversary with five distinct Telecasters, each approaching the instrument from a different point in its history. The American Professional Custom
“ THE AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL CUSTOM OCCUPIES A PARTICULARLY INTERESTING PLACE IN THAT GROUP BECAUSE IT DRAWS FROM SEVERAL CHAPTERS OF THE TELECASTER STORY AT ONCE.”
occupies a particularly interesting place in that group because it draws from several chapters of the Telecaster story at once. By the time the instrument reached its seventy-fifth anniversary, Fender had accumulated decades of experience, along with a detailed record of which ideas endured and which simply disappeared.
The anniversary model carries the Custom designation. Double binding frames the alder body beneath a two-color sunburst, much as it did on the bound Telecasters that began appearing at the end of the 1950s. The
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