❌SOLD❌ Fender American Series Telecaster Rosewood Board Sunburst, 2005

The Fender American Series Telecaster was built from 2000 to 2007, renamed from (and then back to!) the American Standard Telecaster. It presents many of the best improvements to this venerable design.

Leo Fender’s design, quickly becoming the Telecaster, has arguably been one of the most successful and influential musical instruments ever. It has been in continuous production since the early 1950’s, with really only relatively minor changes and improvements.

Here we’re looking at a Fender American Series Telecaster built during 2005 at the Fender plant in Corona, California. It follows the early 1960’s variant with a Rosewood fingerboard and relatively slim neck and sports a nicely done Nitrocellulose Lacquer Sunburst finish and slightly ‘minty’ three layer pickguard.

Fender chose to use a much larger, non-vintage style fret wire for the 22 fret neck, which greatly increases fret life. As a bonus, when the time eventually comes for a re-fret, that will be a bit less expensive as Rosewood fingerboards don’t require re-lacquering.

In terms of hardware, the American Series Telecaster has three main improvements over the early designs. First, the Schaller-made tuners have staggered posts, increasing the downbearing at the nut without requiring string trees. Second, the bridge is a more robust six steel saddle model, which provides an increase in clarity, sustain, and separation. Finally, the tone control uses a ‘No Load’ pot. This is a special variant on the standard pot, with a small section of the resistive element removed so that when the control is at full, no signal passes through the pot and no highs are lost.

This particular series is one of my favourite Telecaster versions. They offer the classic Telecaster tone, but with the added accuracy and convenience of the upgraded bridge and tuners. If you need the full vintage Telecaster twang, the 1950’s models might be a better bet, but these models are very good.

This example is in very good condition, with minor wear. The nitrocellulose lacquer finish is naturally sinking to match the wood grain, and that shows that the finish is not heavy.

The original Fender molded hard shell case is included.