VINTAGE ICON

David Davidson of Well Strung Guitars talks us through an experimental 1967 Semi-Hollow Fender Stratocaster Prototype from Fender's R&D department made with zebrawood

- Rod Brakes

"The CBS era [from 1965] was a hugely experimental time for Fender because they had the financial resources to try a lot of different things. They’d already hired Roger Rossmeisl [in 1962] and Phil Kubicki [in 1964] to come onboard and develop new designs. The guitar world was changing quickly and people didn’t necessarily want the same old same old. But the biggest problem they were facing was weight. From my understanding, the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States made it mandatory to use the entire tree, as companies that were harvesting wood were taking the wood furthest from the roots and leaving the rest of the limbless tree to die. So that heavier wood down at the base had to be used in the process, and that prompted Fender to find ways of using less of it. Essentially, they wanted to figure out how to reduce the weight of guitars but still make them sound good.

“Obviously, there was a lot of experimentation with Telecasters – including the ‘smuggler’ and Thinline Telecasters – but I’ve also come across experimental models like a semi-hollow Jaguar that was made like a Custom Telecaster with a bound body. But the only commercially successful design out of all those weightrelieved guitars was the Thinline Telecaster. It was the number-one-selling Fender guitar in 1968 and 1969. They sold more Thinline Telecasters than they did any other guitar.