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1973-74 American telecaster...what's it worth?


bigtorquehemi

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I have to make an offer on a 40 year old tele that is in pretty good shape. It has normal war wounds of a 40 year old guitar. It is white but has been in bars most of its life so now its yellow. Maple neck..frets need replaced. Everything works fine on it. I dont want to low ball the seller too much or he will go wlsewhere. I have first dibs on this guitar and I want it bad. I dont have any pictures. Any hwlp is greatly appreciated.

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a little more info...there's no case. And i already looked on Ebay, but there isnt anything that compares to the body of this guitar. They are all clean and mostly mint condition. The tele i'm looking at hasn't been taken care of very well. It has just been played. I had it for a couple days...cleaned up the neck, which was sticky with sweat, smoke and beer. I put new strings on it and adjusted the action. It sounds and plays amazing.

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Iv'e been trying to get this guy to sell me the guitar for years, but he always said he was gonna hand it down to his kids. He calls me yesterday and says he will sell it and i have to make him an offer. Not sure if I mentioned its all original. Its been hanging on his wall for the last 15 years. He's an older gentleman in his late 60's. He doesnt need the money, and wants to sell it to me because "he knows i will take care of it and play it". I might go get it today and tell him I wanna play it for a couple days. Then I can post some pics of it. But, any ideas until then would be appreciated.

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Check it carefully before you buy.

 

I had a 74 tele and it was an absolute POS. The neck was twisted, the bridge was not in the right place so the high E string fell off the edge of the fretboard, one pickup was microphonic and had an intermittent internal short, the pickguard was warped and rattled, .... it put me off teles for life. This example might be good, but the early 70s was not the best time for manufacturing quality in the western world.

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If it "sounds and plays amazing" then why does it need new frets?

Im no expert but I dont think 70's Teles are all that special as far as vintage guitars go. That doesnt mean there arent some great 70's Teles out there, just that they aren't worth nearly as much as even the later 60's stuff. With any kind of collectable antique, condition is everything. Im sure this applies to guitars as well . If it hasn't been well taken care of I'd start at like $1400.

But thats just a ballpark guess without seeing what it looks like. I really don't know. The way I find out what stuff is going for is look for completed autions of similar items on Ebay. Good luck.

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  • 2 years later...
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you got yourself a bargain

early 70s Teles with a pricetag under 2000USD are scarce, prices are actually going up in the past couple of years

I also like early 70s Teles, if you find a good one, they're about as good as it gets,

 

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you got yourself a bargain

early 70s Teles with a pricetag under 2000USD are scarce, prices are actually going up in the past couple of years

I also like early 70s Teles, if you find a good one, they're about as good as it gets,

 

I've owned a few of them, and have had friends who also owned them, and I really have to agree with this. While 70s era Fenders (rightfully) have a reputation for poor quality (especially compared to their 50s and early 60s production), the later in the decade you go, the worse it generally gets, so if you stick with the first half of the decade, you'll usually be better off. Also, for some crazy reason standard Telecasters from the first half of the decade are generally a cut above some of their other guitars. One of them (that I still kick myself for selling) was one of the best Telecasters - from any era - that I've ever played. They're no longer cheap (we used to be able to find / buy them for $300-$400 all day long), but compared to the prices for those ivory pedestaled models from the 50s and 60s they're still a bargain.

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is this really a resurrected thread from 2013? or are the dates wrong from the OP onwards until biekes post?

 

didn't know there were inline comments possible already in 2013 :)

 

Yes, it's a necrothread. It's a common phenomenon here, and people tend to ignore dates when they reply without realizing that it's an ancient thread and the OP is probably dead in a ditch somewhere covered in donuts and lipstick.

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... early 70s Teles' date=' if you find a good one, they're about as good as it gets [/quote']

 

 

Surely you meant early 60s??? Early 70s Teles are actually alright usually, just not as good as early 60s Teles. LATE 70s Teles are another thing altogether. Now those things can be downright awful. Sometimes they can be 9 or even 10 pounds, haphazardly assembled, acoustically dead, giant gaps between the body and the side of the neck, cheapo finishes, etc.

 

 

 

 

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is this really a resurrected thread from 2013? or are the dates wrong from the OP onwards until biekes post?

 

didn't know there were inline comments possible already in 2013 :)

 

waitwut ? how did that happen. the thread was one the first page, did not check date and replied

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Surely you meant early 60s??? Early 70s Teles are actually alright usually, just not as good as early 60s Teles. LATE 70s Teles are another thing altogether. Now those things can be downright awful. Sometimes they can be 9 or even 10 pounds, haphazardly assembled, acoustically dead, giant gaps between the body and the side of the neck, cheapo finishes, etc.

 

 

 

ah well, early 60s Teles (or 50s Teles) are over budget. But I was on a Tele hunt recently and met some collectors and played about 2 dozen of 50s and 60s and 70s Teles, and the early 70s Teles I trie dwere just as good as the late 60s I played (I played a 1966, 1968, 1972 (now mine) and 1971). But there is a huge price difference in 60s and 70s Teles, so I wanted to say that early 70s Teles that are just as good as (late) 60s Teles but it came out different.

 

I also tried a lot of partscasters and was surpirized how good some of those were.

 

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After I bought the guitar I took the neck off and found it to be a January run 1972 model. I took all the original pots and pickups off and put them away. Dropped in a pair of fender noiseless singles and some cts pots and it sounds and plays amazing. I also had it refretted with the original nos frets. Wish I would have went a size bigger on the frets but they will do.

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