Fender Telecaster Custom

About the Fender Telecaster Custom

Most guitars under this name are the 1970s Telecaster Custom, built in Fullerton, California. In 1972 Fender redesigned the model: the body binding went, a Wide Range humbucker with CuNiFe magnets went in at the neck beside a standard Tele single coil, and the neck got a three-bolt plate with Micro-Tilt and a bullet truss rod nut at the headstock. Each pickup has its own volume and tone knob, and the three-way toggle sits on the upper bout. The maple neck has a maple or rosewood board, a 7.25 inch radius, 21 frets and a 25.5 inch scale; bodies are ash or alder, finished black, natural, blonde or sunburst.

Early 1970s guitars carry a six-digit serial on the neck plate; late 1970s serials begin with S (S7 on 1977 guitars). CTS pot codes read 137, the year's last digit and the week, so 1377645 is the 45th week of 1976. Serial, pots, pickup stamps and the often faint neck stamp can disagree, so read them together. Measured nuts are about 1 5/8 inch (41 to 41.8 mm), necks 0.82 to 0.87 inch deep at the first fret and 0.89 to 0.94 inch at the 12th, original neck pickups 10.1 to 10.3 kilohms, and weighed examples 7.2 to 9.6 lb (3.3 to 4.35 kg). Complete ones keep the ashtray bridge cover. Expect refrets, new nuts and pots, brass saddles, filled holes from a past vibrato, and marks from other tuners.

The name also covers the bound 1960s Custom Telecaster, Japanese reissues of the 1962 model and Custom Shop builds.

In one paragraph

The page's figures as one paragraph, assembled for quoting; not written by hand.

Sellers are asking a median of €4,096 for the Fender Telecaster Custom today, 58% over the €2,600 it actually sells for (17 recorded sales, last 6 months; most sold between €2,250 and €3,700). New, it costs €5,599 at Thomann (read 14 October 2026), so a used one at the median saves about 54%. There are 105 listings live right now across Reverb, eBay United States, eBay Germany, from €710 asking. Figures computed 17 October 2026 by Doirado from cross-platform listing data.