The 1972 Fender Telecaster Thinline: A Little Rickenbacker, A Little Gibson.
The original Thinline arrived on the scene in 1968 and was revamped in 1972 with the introduction of the 2nd generation model (Thinline II). Several theories exist for the Thinline’s creation- two of which are to create a lighter working guitar for players, or combat the diminishing supply of “light-grade” ash wood that was available at the time.
Therefore it’s a semi-hollow body guitar, a partially hollowed-out Tele Standard. The Thinline II shed approximately half the weight from the solid-body Tele.
Roger Rossmeisl of Rickenbacker fame and their main-brain behind the semi-hollow 300 series Rickenbackers, helped lead the design of the Thinline. (Rossmeisl also had a brief stint at Gibson)
In 1972 it got more interesting.
Before 1972 Thinline’s featured standard Telecaster single-coil pickups, but this year Fender introduced the “Wide Range Humbucker” pickups designed by Seth Lover, formerly of Gibson.
Seth invented the humbucker pickup for Gibson around 1955 and they were introduced on Les Paul models in 1957.
Production of this first run ended in 1979.
Smaller details originating from 72:
Three-bolt neck attachment
Redesigned pickguard to surround the pickups
The headstock was stamped “Telecaster Thinline”
Specs-
Ash body
Maple neck with skunk stripe
Two Fender Wide Range Humbuckers
One volume and tone control
3-way selector
*Babe Simoni, another key Fender employee, worked alongside Rossmeisl when figuring out the best way to chamber the Tele body. Babe went on to work with Leo at Music Man.
