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The Dan Smith Telecaster

Here's another "what makes a Tele a Tele" built by Gene Baker. Dan went for a P-90 in the neck and an active Fender Lace Gold sensor in the middle position. The switching is Strat-style. The body is all mahogany, and it's a rosewood fretboard on a mahogany set-neck.

Now the Fender set-neck joint on the Merle Haggard makes some sense, and once you think about it, you shouldn't be too surprised to find that the Dan Smith has the same joint:

A bit of enhancement of this picture may have distorted the colors, but this was done so you can make out the pieces of the neck joint. I've played this guitar many times but until I tried taking this close up, I never realized that this guitar had a skunk stripe. A mahogany skunk stripe.

This type of joining is done on the Merle Haggard Set-Neck Joint where the components are easier to make out.

Why is there a skunk stripe on a guitar with a rosewood fretboard? I assume it's to accomodate a two-way truss rod, as in the Fender Contemporary Strat

Gene Baker 078 is another Gene Baker Telecaster.

Who, you may ask, is Dan Smith? He's been with Fender since 1981, and one of the major influences in the return to greatness of Fender guitars since the CBS era.

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