Fender Custom Shop 1960s "Linhof" Telecaster w/Fralins Black/Journeyman

A Fender Custom Shop take on the Linhof Tele, with a flipped Fralin bridge pickup, neck humbucker, and sassafras body.

We’ve long been fascinated by the Linhof T-style guitars. Kurt Linhof designed it, and JW Black built them until Kurt passed away in 2014. From what we’ve heard, only around 150 or so were ever made. We first had Don Grosh build us a run of guitars in this style. For this run, we brought the idea to the Fender Custom Shop.

The design has a few signature touches, and the most interesting is the flipped bridge pickup. There are plenty of theories about where that idea came from, and a popular one traces it back to Jimi Hendrix playing a right-handed Strat flipped over lefty, which reversed the slant of his bridge pickup. Hendrix himself aside, that may be part of why his guitars sounded so good. The idea makes a lot of sense. Flipping the pickup moves it farther from the bridge under the treble strings, which takes the edge off the icepick bite a Tele bridge pickup can have, and brings it closer to the bridge under the bass strings, adding clarity and snap to the low end. In practice, that’s exactly what happens. It still sounds like a Telecaster, just sweeter and fuller.

Add a Lindy Fralin P92 in the neck position, a P-90-style pickup in a humbucker-sized housing, and you get a thick, warm neck voice with more bite and character than a typical humbucker, paired with a Fralin Blues Special in that flipped bridge position for a slightly fuller, rounder take on classic Tele snap. It's a really musical pairing that we had a blast exploring.

The body is sassafras, a lightweight, resonant wood that adds a nice open quality to the guitar’s voice. The finish is black with Journeyman-level aging and a matching black headstock, a clean, understated look with just enough wear to make it feel broken in from day one. The neck is carved to Fender’s 11/56 offset V profile, and it’s a really comfortable shape that reminds us quite a bit of the feel of a vintage ’60s Telecaster.

Simply put? This is a phenomenal guitar that checks all the boxes - it looks amazing, sounds amazing, and feels alive and resonant in hand. Fantastic stuff folks.