The Magic of the '64 Tele

It goes without saying, but the 1960s was an incredibly important decade for music.

Not only did the Beatles come across the water from the United Kingdom to the United States and spark the British Invasion, which also saw the likes of the Rolling Stones, the Kinks and the Dave Clark Five also follow suit, but it also was a time when the Bakersfield Sound powered by the likes of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard was alive and thriving.

One common thread? The Fender Telecaster.

Now, for those that are wishing to get their hands on a true mid-‘60s Tele, that can be an expensive endeavor. But the Fender Mod Shop makes it easy for anyone to build their own guitar with the same feel and vibe of that iconic era with the new Mod Shop ’64 Tele pickups and neck shape options.

Both represent landmark times in Fender’s storied history.

“There is a large body of timeless work that came from those mid-‘60s Fenders that all of our heroes used,” said Mike Lewis, who heads up the Fender Custom Shop. “There was a lot of mojo and emotion involved with them.”

When thinking about the ’64 Telecaster, Lewis recalled Fender’s previous reissues of classic models like the 1952 Telecaster—the one that started it all—the ’58 Tele and, of course, the ’64 … all of which were recreated in the American Vintage and Pure Vintage lines of years past.

These ’64 specs, however, are special, as the Telecaster pickups came into their twangy personality that we know today and the neck settled into a well-known mid-‘60s “C”-shaped neck with a 7.25” radius.

“You look back in history during the British Invasion, there were a lot of bands that used Telecasters for ‘60s rock and roll,” Lewis said. “The Beatles hit the U.S. in ’64, and then after that, a lot of bands came over. The sound of that era of the Telecaster is ingrained in ‘60s rock and roll.

“On the flipside, you’ve got the whole ‘60s country thing that was pioneered by Buck Owens. They didn’t necessarily use that 1964 guitar, but by that time, the sound of the Telecaster had evolved into what we commonly think of as that twangy tone. The early Telecasters weren’t that twangy. They were thick and juicy sounding. By that time, the sound of the Telecaster had evolved into the twangy type tone. It’s intertwined with Fender’s history and musical history.”

To land on the perfect tribute to the ’64 Tele, Lewis and his fellow Fender experts analyzed several guitars from that era.

“These just have that classic feel,” said Lewis. “We went and looked at many, many vintage guitars—probably between 20 and 25 vintage guitars. Of course, many of them were Telecasters. We looked for consistencies and inconsistencies, and measured them all carefully to get down to the most exacting specs from that era.”

Build your own Telecaster with a '64 neck in the Fender Mod Shop here.