Signed to Capitol in 1979, the Knack’s ‘My Sharona’ spent six straight weeks at number 1 of the Billboard chart with their debut album selling 6 million copies worldwide. One of the architects of this success and co-writer of the hit was Doug Fieger from who’s collection this 1966 Fender Telecaster is taken. 

The guitar looks great. Both front and back show very light signs of wear with a few dinks here and there. The finish on the back of the neck has worn a little in a few places and is very comfortable. The frets are evenly worn up the neck and still have some life left in them. The fretboard itself is in great shape with no sign of pitting.

The electronics are all correct, however Mr Fieger must have experimented with a different neck pickup at some stage but the original pickup has been neatly spliced back in. No additional routes are present. Tele is wired with original 1M pots and a treble bleed capacitor. The pots dates are week 13 of 1966.

The guitar comes with the correct Fender black tolex hardshell case with orange lining and a COA from the the estate of Mr Fieger - see last pic.

This guitar’s ash body has quite a resonant tone with a bite that sits wonderfully with the bridge pickup. The neck pickup has a darker tone which mixes well in the middle position. This guitar isn’t shrill but has plenty of the attack we look for in a good telecaster and is typical of the transition era Teles that are not quite as shrill as the later models.

We all understand that blonde telecasters are iconic. Be it the earlier blackguard, butterscotch incarnation or the parchment blonde when Fender moved over to white guard, the combination of ash body and the translucent (to varing degrees) finish made for an unmistakable combination. This 1966 Fender Telecaster certainly is an archetype of this finish with some killer tones to match.