Fender

Telecaster

Deluxe

A Tele body, a Strat headstock, and two big humbuckers. The odd cousin in the family, and somebody’s favorite.

January 1973. Fender ships a Telecaster that doesn’t look much like a Telecaster: two fat chrome humbuckers, four knobs, a belly cut on the back, and the big headstock off a Stratocaster. It lists at $399.50, and not many people buy one.

Introduced: 1973
Type: Solidbody electric
Class: Production

Read the story · 3 min

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Telecaster Deluxe Black Dove. Photo by Mastermetal666. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.In-case photograph of a dual-humbucker Deluxe (TELECASTER DELUXE on the headstock). Not a 1970s Custom (Wide Range + single-coil), not a Thinline, and not a standard Telecaster.

The short version

1971
The pickup arrives
Seth Lover’s Wide Range humbuckers debut, as a pair, on the hollow Telecaster Thinline.
1972
The Custom
One Wide Range in the neck of a solid Tele. The Deluxe’s first neck is dated December.
1973
The Deluxe
Two Wide Ranges on a solid Tele, listed at $399.50. One account says it launched in 1972.
1974
Last of the tremolos
Fender says the optional Strat vibrato ended after 1974. Another history says 1975.
1981
Discontinued
The Deluxe and the Custom go out together.
2004
Mexico brings it back
A Classic Series ’72 Deluxe, made in Mexico.
2009
Blur reunites
Graham Coxon’s primary guitar for the reunion is a 1970s Deluxe.

Side A

The odd one at the table

Every family has one. The Telecaster’s is the Deluxe.

It has the Tele’s single-cut slab outline. Then it has a belly cut on the back, which Teles don’t have, and the big headstock off a Stratocaster, which Teles definitely don’t have. Then it has two chrome humbuckers the size of a sandwich, four knobs, and a toggle switch up on the upper bout. Put it next to a regular Telecaster and it looks like a cousin who showed up to dinner in somebody else’s jacket.

Fender shipped it in January 1973, though one account puts it in 1972. The first one off the line had a neck dated December 1972. It listed at $399.50.

And it didn’t catch on. Fender’s own word for it is “marginal success.” The favorite in the family was always going to be the plain one.

Two of the big ones

The Deluxe finished a set. Seth Lover’s Wide Range humbuckers had shown up in 1971 as a pair on the hollow Thinline. In 1972 the solid Telecaster Custom got one in the neck. The Deluxe was the solid Tele with two.

Two humbuckers mean the Deluxe has almost none of the Tele twang. It’s thick, loud, and round, closer to a Gibson than a Telecaster has any right to be. The neck was maple, with no rosewood option like the Custom had. The frets were bigger and the fingerboard flatter than the old Teles, so bends feel easier and it feels more like a rock guitar in your hand.

It is not the Custom, which has one humbucker and a Tele headstock. It’s not the Thinline, which has an f-hole and air inside. And it’s definitely not the “’90s Telecaster Deluxe” of 1995, which has three single-coils and only the name in common. John 5’s Triple Tele Deluxe has three pickups, too. And the newer Mexican Deluxes with a vibrato use Wide Range-style pickups, not the original kind.

About that belly cut: it’s on the back, like a Strat’s, but there’s no forearm contour on the front. Your ribs get the comfort. Your picking arm still gets the edge of a Tele.

Two big humbuckers, a Strat headstock, and a Tele body. It could sit with any branch of the family, so it never quite belonged to one.

The whammy years

Early on, you could order a Deluxe with a Strat tremolo. Fender says that option ended after 1974. Another history says 1975. Either way it didn’t last long, and those are the rare ones now. In 1976 the big amp-style knobs gave way to black Strat knobs.

What the body is made of depends on who you ask. Alder, ash, and no settled answer for the whole run. The original Deluxe went out in 1981, in the same year as the Custom.

Flip the record · By the numbers

$399.50
List price in 1973, the year it went on sale.
2
Wide Range humbuckers. The Thinline had two first, the Custom had one, and this was the solid-body pair.
4
Knobs, a volume and tone for each pickup.
1981
End of the original run, the same year as the Custom.

Side B

The British find the odd one

The guitar found its people later, and a lot of them were British.

Graham Coxon of Blur is a Telecaster player, but the famous Parklife-era guitar is a late-’60s Tele with a Gibson PAF in the neck, not this. He started using an early-’70s Deluxe around the time of his solo record Love Travels at Illegal Speeds, and when Blur got back together in 2009 it was his primary guitar.

Fender’s list of Deluxe players reads like a festival lineup: Noel Gallagher, Chris Martin, Gary Lightbody, James Dean Bradfield, Thom Yorke, James Iha, Chris Shiflett, Bradford Cox. It’s a list of acknowledgements, not specific guitars. Yorke turns up on the Thinline list too, and nobody should go calling OK Computer a Deluxe record.

A ’66 or a ’73

Fender kept reissuing it. Japan in the ’80s, Mexico with a Classic Series ’72 Deluxe in 2004, and in 2022 an American Vintage II 1975, the first American Deluxe since the original run.

In 2013 Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand was talking about his favorite electric guitars, and it came down to this: “an old ’66 Tele or my ’73 Tele Deluxe.”

The plain one and the odd one, side by side. The Deluxe never did win the family over. It didn’t have to. It only had to win over the person holding it.

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

2009
Graham Coxon
Early-’70s Telecaster Deluxe
His main Blur guitar for the reunion. The Parklife-era Tele with a PAF in the neck is a different guitar.
2013
Alex Kapranos
1973 Telecaster Deluxe
Named it among his favorite electrics, next to an old ’66 Tele. His beetle-wing Emerald Deluxe is a custom build, not a factory Deluxe.
1971
Seth Lover
Designer, Wide Range humbucker
Both big pickups are his design, with threaded magnet rods and a bigger footprint than a PAF.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

The 1973 Wide Range pair plus Strat headstock — Fender’s factory HH Deluxe, not the HS Custom, not the Thinline, not a two-single-coil Tele, and not Micawber.

Body: Alder; Tele slab with belly cut
Neck: Bolt-on maple, 3-bolt Micro-Tilt, 1975 “C,” bullet truss
Fingerboard: Maple, 9.5" radius, 21 medium-jumbo frets
Scale: 25.5" (648 mm)
Pickups: Two authentic CuNiFe Wide-Range humbuckers
Hardware: Pure Vintage 6-saddle string-through hardtail, stainless steel block saddles, chrome cover; Pure Vintage Tele Deluxe tuners
Electronics: Four knobs (vol/tone per pickup); 3-way toggle on the upper bout
Finish: Gloss polyurethane
Nut: Bone, 1.650" (42 mm)

Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

Current American Vintage II 1975 Telecaster Deluxe (USA). A 1975-spec recreation — not a 1973 first-year, not 1973–81 Fullerton. Mexican Classic Series ’72 and many MIJ “Wide Range” pickups are ceramic or alnico copies; CuNiFe returned on AVII. Classic Series is widely treated as ended (~late 2010s). Vintera II ’70s Deluxe (Mexico, often with tremolo) is vintage-style WRHB, not CuNiFe.

Construction

Fender’s third Wide Range Tele. The pickup debuted as a pair on the Thinline in 1971 — chambered, f-hole, a different instrument. Mid-1972: solid-body Custom, one Wide Range in the neck plus a Tele single-coil. January 1973 Fender shipped the missing layout: two Wide Ranges on a solid Tele (Absolute Power; Vintage Guitar). Wikipedia’s lead files Custom and Deluxe as launched “alongside” in 1972; Fender, Guitar World, and Vintage Guitar put Deluxe in 1973. MusicRadar (Brakes): first Deluxe off the line with a December 1972 neck date and serial 000001, then 1973 price-list top at $399.50. Attribute both; do not pick a switch day. Original run through 1981 with the Custom (Fender; MusicRadar). Thinline left earlier (end of 1979).

Layout: two Seth Lover Wide Range humbuckers (threaded CuNiFe rods, chrome cover, 3+3 poles, larger than a PAF). Four knobs — vol/tone per pickup. 3-way toggle on the upper bout. Elongated 3-ply pickguard. 3-bolt Micro-Tilt. Bullet truss. Large Stratocaster headstock — not the Custom’s traditional Tele headstock. Belly cut on the back; CRAVE: no matching forearm contour. Slab Tele outline — not a Strat body, not chambered, no binding.

Custom is not this guitar. One Wide Range plus Tele bridge, Tele headstock, no Strat contour. Thinline is not this guitar. WRHB pair, yes — f-hole and cavities. Standard Tele is not this guitar. Two single-coils, ashtray, Tele headstock.

Fender: maple fingerboard at launch; rosewood was not an option as it was on the Custom. Do not follow Wikipedia’s rosewood-on-original table. Scale 25.5", 21 frets. Original feel is 9.5" radius and jumbo wire (MusicRadar; AVII copies it) — not the Custom/AVII Custom 7.25".

Body wood is contested. AVII 1975 uses alder. MusicRadar’s 1977 walk-around is three-piece ash in Walnut. guitarhq’s post-1956 rule: alder unless blond (blond = ash). Alston: ash, alder unproven. Do not flatten the 1973–81 run.

Optional Strat synchronized tremolo. Fender: the option discontinued after 1974 and those guitars are now considered rare. MusicRadar timeline: tremolo discontinued 1975. Wikipedia collapses the change to a 1974 hardtail swap. Attribute; do not invent a factory count. MusicRadar: amp-style knobs give way to black Strat knobs in 1976.

Reissues are not Fullerton 1973–81: Japan from the 1980s; Mexico Classic Series ’72 Telecaster Deluxe from 2004 (MusicRadar); Classic Player tremolo hybrids; Vintera; AVII 1975 (first U.S. Deluxe since the original run — Wikipedia, 2022). MusicRadar: the 1995 “’90s Telecaster Deluxe” is three single-coils — not this guitar. John 5’s Triple Tele Deluxe is three pickups. Fender Black Dove soapbars are not Wide Range. Squier signatures are Squier.

Players

Graham Coxon (Blur) — early-1970s Telecaster Deluxe, not the Britpop Tele. Premier Guitar: he started using the Deluxe around the solo LP Love Travels at Illegal Speeds; it became his primary Blur guitar for the 2009 reunion. Fender lists him. Parklife-era Coxon is not this guitar — that identity is a late-1960s Tele with a Gibson PAF in the neck, the instrument behind the later Graham Coxon signature. Keep the Deluxe, the PAF Tele, and the signature as three facts.

Alex Kapranos (Franz Ferdinand) — 1973 Telecaster Deluxe. Premier Guitar (2013): among his favorite electrics, “an old ’66 Tele or my ’73 Tele Deluxe.” Fender lists him. The Vintage Guitar 1990s UK clause lumps Radiohead and Franz Ferdinand across Thinline, Deluxe, and Custom — not a Deluxe-only band. His Specimen Emerald Deluxe (beetle-wing guard, mixed pickups) is a custom, not a factory Deluxe.

Also on Fender’s Deluxe list (acknowledgement, not serials): Thom Yorke, Gary Lightbody, Chris Shiflett, Noel Gallagher, James Iha, James Dean Bradfield, Chris Martin, Brendon Urie, Bradford Cox. Yorke is also on Fender’s Thinline list; Live at the Astoria (1994) shows a modified f-hole Tele. Do not make The Bends, “Creep,” or OK Computer a Deluxe record. Peter Buck’s factory Custom stays on the Custom plate. John 5’s Triple Tele Deluxe is not a 1970s Deluxe.

Do not file here: Cropper’s Stax Tele, Page’s Dragon, Micawber / Malcolm, Albert Collins’s 1966 bound Custom, Burton, Strummer, Springsteen’s mutt / Born to Run Esquire-neck hybrid — those sit on the Telecaster page — or Custom/Thinline players as Deluxe players.

Rarity

Official 1973–81 shipping totals are unpublished. Fender: “marginal success” until discontinuation. Serials date era, not Deluxe counts. Not scarce the way a Broadcaster is scarce. Original CuNiFe Wide Range pickups are the scarcity that actually moves money. Optional tremolo 1973–74/75 is the thinner original window — dealer language (“rare”), not a census. Reissues (Japan, Mexico Classic Series 2004–, Vintera, AVII, Custom Shop) are high-volume relative to Fullerton.

Value

Informal estimate, 25 August 2026. Not an appraisal.

Ask ≠ sold. A swapped Wide Range moves a 1973–81 Deluxe a full tier (Edgewater Custom sibling: replaced WRHB −20–30%). Reissues are not Fullerton originals. Artist-owned examples sit outside these ranges. Do not paste Joe’s blonde standard Tele bands onto an HH Strat-headstock Tele.

New street. American Vintage II 1975 Telecaster Deluxe about $2,700 (Fender / dealers, $2,699.99, August 2026). Mexico Vintera II ’70s Deluxe with tremolo: Fender $1,179.99. Custom Shop ’70s relics commonly $4,000–$6,000 ask — not vintage.

Used modern. Mexico Classic Series ’72 Deluxe (2004–~2018): Reverb Good–Mint $539–$807 (903 orders). AVII used estimate $1,252–$1,823 (Reverb, 160 orders) — AVII Deluxe page, mixed conditions.

Vintage / collectible. AxeDB late-CBS Tele median (1970–79, mixed models) ~$2,900 (n=2,198) — not Deluxe-only. Reverb 1972–81 Deluxe Good–Mint $2,238–$4,106 (304 orders) — model page, still mixed; named transaction history includes sub-$1,500 outliers that do not read as clean CuNiFe. Named 1973–74 Deluxe asks: Jimmy’s 1974 $3,699; TR Crandall 1974 $4,699; Yeahman 1973 Blonde $5,499 (sold-out ask). Working informal zone for original-finish, original-WRHB 1970s Deluxes: roughly $3,000–$5,500 ask. Clean all-original 1973–75 CuNiFe with case: dealer neighborhood ~$4,500–$6,500 ask. Public solds at that top were thin. Edgewater excellent-original CBS Tele (Feb 2026, model-mixed): 1966–75 $4,000–$9,000; 1976–81 $2,000–$4,500 — directional, not Deluxe-split. CRAVE: Deluxe often sits slightly under a same-year standard Tele.