Hello guys
A friend of mine asked me to help find a nice tele for him - and struck gold with a beautiful refinished 1974 telecaster, black refin, rosewood board - vibes galore and affordable due to a brass nut added, a rewound neck pickup, replaced saddles. Some of these seem like upgrades to me to be honest.
The advert from this well-known guitar shop didn't mention the bridge pickup at all, but seeing as they mentioned the neck pup had been rewound I assumed this was all original. I've just seen the guitar for the first time in person now as he picked it up and bought it last week - there's a flatpole bridge pickup on there...
I love flatpole bridge pickups, but I'm 99% sure they didn't exist on any telecasters leaving the factory in 1974. It's likely replaced the original which was on there right? An original 1974 tele bridge pickup goes for upwards of £400, sometimes a lot more - so I feel like he's been wronged a bit here? Even if the pickup sounds good, you'd want to know if it was original or replaced.
My questions are - could it be original and that Fender sometimes used flat pole's for random guitars in the 70's - and if not and its an obvious replacement, do you think there are grounds to go back to the shop and (although it sounds petty), ask for some compensation?
Many thanks
Comments
Suspect upgrade with every thing else you mentioned
Suspect an oversight on the dealers behalf considering everything else they mentioned and did not try to hide
Also suspect probably better if a decent brand
best thing you can do on those guitars is take out the 1meg pots and fit decent 250k pots
Yes, it’s true that they’re much less horrible with 250K pots, but even so…
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Whole emotion and control plus superior tone is far far better
Those 1 meg pots are yuk
I would also say that if this has not been communicated to you, then I would think it breaches the Consumer Rights Act, as goods should be as described. If you are buying something advertised as a 1974 Tele then it should receive a 1974 spec Tele. Any deviation from this should be communicated.
https://reverb.com/uk/item/50851851-1974-vintage-fender-telecaster-bridge-pickup-original-1970s-tele
https://reverb.com/uk/item/41434772-1974-vintage-fender-telecaster-custom-deluxe-bridge-pickup-1970-s-tele-clean
I actually wouldn't think £200-£250 for a definitely original, unrepaired one to be wildly unrealistic, to be honest - given how much originality (or at least not being provably non-original) matters to the value of an old guitar.
Even then, they are often microphonic unless potted, and coil failure due to corrosion on the inside wraps around the magnets is probably a case of 'not yet' rather 'not at all', so originality may be a two-edged sword...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
That reminds me that the bridge pickup on my Tele Custom was microphonic and had to be potted to be usable.
Often the pole pieces are so corroded due to sloppy top flatwork (which curls up like a banana with time) that the pickup eats itself from the inside out - oh, that's caused mostly by sweat ... and when you open one of these babies up ... it smells that way too
You could be paying £400 for something rapidly self destructing from the inside out.
Whatever you have in there ... it will be better than a 1974 original, trust me!
PS microphonc bridge pickup is usually a loose baseplate
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