1967 Fender Smugglers Telecaster

Telecaster Series CBS (Late 1967)

STANDARD: Blonde

CUSTOM: 3-Tone Sunburst (No up charge) Lake Placid Blue Metallic - Ocean Tuquoise Metallic - Blue Ice Metallic - Teal Green Metallic - Sonic Blue - Firemist Gold Metallic - Charcoal Frost Metallic - Seafoam Green - Firemist Silver - Candy Apple Red Metallic - Olympic White - Dakota Red - Black - Fiesta Red

BODY

Wood: Ash

Lacquer: Nitrocellulose

Shape: Telecaster Standard / Routed under Pickguard

Pickguard: 8 Hole / 3-Ply White/Black/White Vinyl or ABS

Serial: Stamped On Neckplate / 6-Digit

NECK

Neck Wood: Maple

Decal: Black Transistion w /Gold Trim+ "Telecaster" + Pat#

Fretboard Wood: Rosewood / Maple (Maple Cap, no Skunk Stripe)

Lacquer: Nitrocellulose

Profile: Medium/Slim "C"

Headstock: Standard Tele

Nut Width: 1.650" (42mm) +/-

Scale: 25.5"

Radius: 7.25"

#Frets: 21

Fretwire: 6230 Vintage Frets

Trussrod: Vintage adjust at Heel

Bolt-On Type: 4-Bolt

HARDWARE

Bridge Type: 3-Saddle Vintage String-trough Bridge / Ashtray Cover

Bridge Marking: "FENDER Pat.No DES.164227 / 2.573.254"

Saddle: Threaded Steel Saddles

Tuners: "F" Tuners

String Tree: Butterfly

Neckplate: Blank Plate

Knobs: Knurled Flat-Top

ELECTRONICS

Switch: 3-Way CRL / Top Hat Switch-Tip

Wiring: Standard B/BM/N

Capacitor: 50V / .05uf Dime Capacitor

Pickup Config: S

Neck Pickup: Vintage Single Coil

Bridge Pickup: Vintage Single Coil (Staggered and Cloth-Wrapped)

CASE: Fender Black Hardshell Case w/ Orange Plush Lining (Additional Cost)

INFO

"The Smuggler" deserves its own listing on here. otherwise same specs as standard `67 Tele.

The Smugglers Telecaster was Fenders attempt to reduce some weight from their heavy ash wood at the time. The CBS-Era guitars is notoriously known to be on the heavy side.

In late-1967, they experimented with this by routing out some wood under the pickguard.

This was abandoned at the end of '67 or very early '68 as they pursued other ways to deal with it. What came out of further planing of the weight reduction was the Thinline Telecaster.

Most people who bought this in '67/'68 was never told of the rout-outs done on these telecasters on purchase. They only came to know of it when they removed the pickguard.

The nickname "Smugglers" is off course tied to that you could smuggle contraband goods in the routings.