Fender Telecaster Deluxe - Similar Guitars

Similar Guitars

The Telecaster Deluxe is very similar to another Fender model sold in the 1970s - the Telecaster Custom. The Custom can be differentiated from the Deluxe by its use of the "classic Tele"-style neck & headstock, as well as the "ashtray" style bridge and single-coil slanted bridge pickup also used by all other Telecaster models. The Custom was also available with a rosewood fretboard, whereas the Deluxe was only available with maple.

The Telecaster Thinline also featured a version with two "Wide Range" humbuckers, however in most other respects this was quite a different guitar from the Deluxe.

Electronically, the Tele Deluxe also resembles the Gibson Les Paul - as both models have dual humbucking pickups, an upper-bout mounted 3-way pickup selector switch, and independent volume/tone controls for each individual pickup.

A very small number of Telecaster Deluxes' (less than 50) left the factory fitted with a Stratocaster tremolo bridge.

In 2009, Fender released the Telecaster Thinline Deluxe, combining the best of the Telecaster Thinline and Telecaster Deluxe into a single instrument. This Classic Player Series guitar features a semi-hollow ash body, four-bolt neck, 9.5” radius, Wide Range humbucking pickups, three-position toggle switch, bullet truss rod, four independent controls and skirted amp knobs.

As well as reissuing the original tremolo equipped Telecaster Deluxe in 2009, Fender has also introduced a completely new model based on the Deluxe: the Telecaster Deluxe Black Dove. This guitar is effectively the same as the non-trem Deluxe model, but features two Black Dove P90 pickups instead of the twin wide range pickups. The guitar is available in black and transparent crimson red finishes with an alder body.

This model in some ways can be thought of as the Fender version of the Squier Telecaster Custom II that was launched in 2003, as both instruments possess P90 pickups and maple necks, although the Squier version is built with Duncan Designed Pickups and an agathis body.

Black Dove P90 pickups were also used on the short lived Toronado and Strat-o-sonic models.