'72 Fender Thinline on Layaway_Acoupla Questions

[Random1643]

Hey, I'm psyched. Just locked-in purchase of a beautiful, 43 year old guitar.

I've been looking for a hollow or semi-hollow electric - sold my last electric, a solid body Tele in the late-70s. Starting out I focused on lines offered by Sweetwater where I could tap their 24- or 36-months interest free deal. The Godin 5th Avenue became the main focus and acoupla smart folks on AGF helped me scope this opportunity.

Then in mid-stream I decided to Go Local and just "pot luck" the search with my local music store. The store is very guitar-centered and the staff are super friendly, knowledgeable. They're a 5 minute drive from my house. I've been parking $50 every other week in an in-store account and just playing lots of new and used guitars including lots of new Fenders (they're a dealer). I found most of the guitars I played pretty unsatisfying, especially the necks/fingerboards which tended towards too narrow, cramping my fingers, low quality build....pretty much unplayable.

Then a few days ago, my guy at the store emailed me about a "real deal" '72 Thinline. But a heads-up: Bill Lawrence pickups, not the orig wide range humbuckers. Told him I was stoked and I'd be by soon. Then he texted me a pic. Dropped by on my lunch break the next day. Plugged it into a Fender Princeton Reissue and....Wow! The playability of the neck (maple) and the fretboard (maple) was amazing and those pickups - 70s-era L-90s - just had everything going on. Huge range of tones. On consignment for an estate + the non-orig Bill Lawrence pickups = a $1,000 price tag. After literally 10 minutes of play, I flipped my in-store account to layaway. (One of those moments where you can feel the Musical Universe aligning. Jupiter is in the House of Pancakes!) It'll be mine by early June.

I'll post pics and sound clips when I bring it home. A few specs, thoughts, & acoupla questions for all y'all:

• Very Good to Excellent condition. Needs a setup to deal with intonation, buzzing issues. Electronics need a good cleaning.
• Semi-Hollow
• Pretty sure body's the ash “natural” finish model. Pretty wood. White sparkle pickguard is in great shape. Looks new.
• Maple neck. Maple fretboard.
• 3-bolt Micro-Tilt joins neck to body
• “Bullet” truss rod
• 1 Volume knob, 1 Tone knob & 3-Way Switch. All orig.
• "Thinline" decal on headstock - which Fender first added in Feb 1972
• Why is neck/fretboard so friendly compared to newer Fenders? Nut width is pretty much the same as the other thinlines, Cabronitas, Starcasters, etc I've been playing, there's simply more room. I can play fingerstyle with no problem. Am guessing something to do with string spacing? Flatter radius? What say AGFers?
• Appears to be all original except the only owner replaced the Fender wide range humbuckers with those 70s-era Bill Lawrence dual-blade, wide range humbuckers - some form of his L-90 line which varied by output but I think were all housed in the same soapbar-type plastic casing? Anyone familiar with these pickups? I'll reach out to http://www.billlawrence.com/ if I can get more data from store.
• Oh, and a bonus is that this guitar is the semi-hollow twin sister of the solid Tele I sold in the late-70s. Plus I graduated high school in 1972. :-)

[SFCRetired]

I hope you enjoy it, sounds nice

[wayne8]

I had that same model/color Tele, back when they were new. I think it cost a little over $400. Awesome guitar. Have owned many Teles since but never one that even came close. Wasn't in a band for a long time, playing acoustic only, so I sold it. Regret it now.

[wayne8]

The original Wide Range buckers were awesome. Fender sells recreations of them now but I've read they aren't the same. As a consequence, I've read that the originals, if you can find them, bring big money nowadays. May be why they were replaced. Some pickup builders sell their own versions of the Wide Range, though, if you were looking to get back to that sound.

[Freedbaby]

Wow, sounds awesome...can you take a few pics next time you have visitation?

[Random1643]

Thanks for all yalls' responses.

I'm very happy with the Bill Lawrence L-90s that are on the guitar, altho I'd like to learn more about them. I've never played the orig Fender WR humbuckers so have no basis for comparison, but your experience Wayne seems to match what a lot of folks say about them. The guitar comes with the original hardshell case with that incredibly ugly IMO orange plush lining; I should look in the accessories compartment to see if the old Fender pickups are just sitting there waiting to be reinstalled. ;-} If that were true, the price woulda been a bit higher, hey?

Re pics, my office is Downtown a few blocks from the music store. I'll try to remember to stop by & snap a few pics.

Another question - along with why such cool playability and background on those L-90s - is what are best recommended strings for this guitar? I have toxic hands so sorry strings need to be coated. I'm an all 5 bare fingers picker. Don't use any kind of pick(s). Also, for the setup I've asked for a moderately high action with a string gauge that gives me decent tension for finger picking and slide. Store's recommendation is Elixir Nano Elec Lights = .010 - .046. Any ideas are appreciated.

[redir]

Those are great guitars. Personally I would want the original pickups inside just... because.

You said you had a couple of questions but I didn't see any?

[Psalad]

Originally Posted by redir

Those are great guitars. Personally I would want the original pickups inside just... because.

You said you had a couple of questions but I didn't see any?

My tele from the late 60s has one stock pickup in the bridge but a routed and switched out humbucker in the neck. I know it's worth a lot less as a result but dammit... it's a lot more usable that way IMO.

[Random1643]

Redir, yeah sorry. I'm too wordy. Here are my 3 Questions about this guitar:

1. Why is neck/fretboard so friendly compared to newer Fenders? Nut width is pretty much the same as the other thinlines, Cabronitas, Starcasters, etc I've been playing, there's simply more room. I can fret and play fingerstyle with no problem. Am guessing something to do with string spacing? Flatter radius? C-shape slim neck profile?
2. Appears to be all original except the owner replaced the Fender wide range humbuckers with 70s-era Bill Lawrence dual-blade, wide range humbuckers - some form of his L-90 line which varied by output but I think were all housed in the same soapbar-type plastic casing? Anyone familiar with these pickups? They sound great; big dynamic range. I'll reach out to http://www.billlawrence.com/ Maybe I can get more, ohms per p/u type data from the store. (Worth noting that I couldn't have afforded the guitar with the original p/us.)
3. What are best recommended strings for this guitar? I have toxic hands so sorry strings need to be coated. I'm an all 5 bare fingers picker. Don't use any kind of pick(s). Also, for the setup I've asked for a moderately high action with a string gauge that gives me decent tension for finger picking and slide. Store's recommendation is Elixir Nano Elec Lights = .010 - .046. Any ideas are appreciated.

[redir]

Originally Posted by Random1643

Redir, yeah sorry. I'm too wordy. Here are my 3 Questions about this guitar:

1. Why is neck/fretboard so friendly compared to newer Fenders? Nut width is pretty much the same as the other thinlines, Cabronitas, Starcasters, etc I've been playing, there's simply more room. I can fret and play fingerstyle with no problem. Am guessing something to do with string spacing? Flatter radius? C-shape slim neck profile?
2. Appears to be all original except the owner replaced the Fender wide range humbuckers with 70s-era Bill Lawrence dual-blade, wide range humbuckers - some form of his L-90 line which varied by output but I think were all housed in the same soapbar-type plastic casing? Anyone familiar with these pickups? They sound great; big dynamic range. I'll reach out to http://www.billlawrence.com/ Maybe I can get more, ohms per p/u type data from the store. (Worth noting that I couldn't have afforded the guitar with the original p/us.)
3. What are best recommended strings for this guitar? I have toxic hands so sorry strings need to be coated. I'm an all 5 bare fingers picker. Don't use any kind of pick(s). Also, for the setup I've asked for a moderately high action with a string gauge that gives me decent tension for finger picking and slide. Store's recommendation is Elixir Nano Elec Lights = .010 - .046. Any ideas are appreciated.

1) Don't have an answer for you but I would suspect all of the above.

2) Soap bar mountings are for P-90 or P-100 type pickups. The Thinline was a standard size humbucker with a staggered pole piece set up iirc.

3) For toxic hands go with some coated strings but strings are never easy to recommend to anyone because they might work for some people while not for others and even they might sound great on one guitar but not what you like on the other. Only solution is to try try try till you find what you like.

Those are great guitars post some pics.

[pieterh]

My brother in law had a Deluxe from around 1976 I think (he had it stolen while it was having some work done on it, it was then sold through a pawn shop even though we could prove it was his, long story...). It was one of the nicest Telecasters I've ever played, double humbuckers, Strat-style hardtail bridge and headstock but with the slightly chunkier neck I associate with Teles. Like you say, a very nice guitar to play, and his sounded awesome - humbucker pups but still with enough Tele twang if you needed it.

[sweiss]

Originally Posted by wayne8

I had that same model/color Tele, back when they were new......

Same here. Gorgeous looking, nice playing guitar, but it turned out that I didn't like humbuckers on a Tele, so I didn't keep it.

[maxtheaxe]

These original '72 Thinlines have a neck profile that I don't believe is made any longer...they used to call it a 'U' shaped profile. Thicker from the fingerboard to the back of the neck than the typical modern 'C' profile. This might explain your ease with finger-style on the old neck.

I think I would try to source a set of original Fender pups, but then, you could do a lot worse than the Bill Lawrence. For all I know, he might have designed the originals anyway!

As to strings, I also have the very corrosive mojo in my fingers and all my acoustics have coated strings as a result, however I still use uncoated on my electrics, just coz I want that extra snap and volume. I personally favor GHS Boomers...loud, bright with just a taste of nasty grind to them...great for rock, blues, country. Their 'Progressives' are very nice too, but much cleaner sounding...I keep coming back to the Boomers. If you're playing fingerstyle with this, might try going up to .11s, and they have a set available with a wound 3rd if you want really firm strings.

[MikeBmusic]

I've got a 72 solid body tele. Same orange fur-lined Fender case - you don't like tha tcolor? One of a kind (now)! I use 9s on my tele, but for the thinline, 10s shoudl be good - try the Cleartones, I liked the sound I got from them when I was using them (just so expensive!)

[Random1643]

I'm really appreciating the knowledge & experience I can tap on this board.

Pieter, I'm sorry your bro-in-law had to experience that.

I'm stopping by the shop tomorrow to add another $50 to my layaway acct. I'll take some pics to post on this thread.