1973 Fender Rosewood Telecaster

I’ve never understood why the Fender Rosewood Telecaster isn’t more popular. I mean, they are beautiful guitars, they sound great and George Harrison not only had the first one, he played it at one of rock’s most iconic moments: the famous Rooftop Concert at the Apple Records headquarters in 1969. The one complaint that people seem to have about them is that they are heavy, but the couple I’ve played over the years were no heavier than a Les Paul, and those guitars seem to have done well over the decades. Fender only made the original run from 1969 to 1972 or 1973, so they are quite rare. And the players who are lucky enough to have one hang on to them.

This particular guitar is from the very end of the Rosewood Tele’s first run and it looks to be in very good original condition, except for the replaced pickup switch tip. The rosewood in this guitar is a little lighter in color than some of the other ones I’ve seen, but it still looks great. The body is made of a sandwich of two pieces of rosewood with a thin piece of maple in the middle. The electronics are the standard Tele configuration of two single coil pickups, a three way pickup selector switch and a single volume and tone control. Oddly, Rosewood Telecasters had a plain Fender decal on the headstock with no model name. Fender has done limited runs of Rosewood Teles but they usually sell out very quickly and rarely come up for sale as used items. If you’d like to add this rare beast to your menagerie it will set you back $12,000. It’s currently for sale at Gryphon Stringed Instruments.

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All you need is a furry jacket and this Rosewood Telecaster to complete your George Harrison ensemble.