1987 Fender Japan Contemporary Series Telecaster HSS Pearl White

This Fender Contemporary Telecaster in Frost White finish was one of the last Made in Japan Fender models, at the end of the period between the sale from CBS and the launch of Fender’s new US plant.

In March 1985, CBS sold the Fender name – but not the Fullerton plant or fixtures – to a management group. This sudden loss of production facilities meant that the Japanese companies who had been building for Fender Japan would be the sources for Fender instruments until 1987 when the new Corona, California plant opened. When it did finally open, it wasn’t ready for mass production and could only produce about five guitars a day, and most of those were vintage re-issues.

Here we’re looking at a Fender Contemporary Telecaster from the end of the Japanese production period. This model was unique to this time period and did not transition to US production. Its design is very much a merge of a Telecaster body and Stratocaster bridge and wiring concepts. The ‘Vintage’ style trem was not used, instead the new, half-locking System 1 with a separate locking nut, and fine-tuner bridge was installed.

The Fender Contemporary Telecaster electronics are in an SSH format, with a humbucker at the bridge. There are three mini-toggle switches. From the neck, the first two are on/off for the neck and middle pickups. The third, three position switch controls the humbucker; up is a coil split, middle is off and down is both coils.

This interesting Fender Contemporary Telecaster is in overall decent shape. There are some finish chips throughout and could it could use a good cleaning and setup. Looks to be some finish missing on the headstock decal. Back trem cover is cracked. It is missing its original trem arm. All electronics are original and working. Sounds great! You can get a wide range of different tones out of this guitar. Sold as is. Please examine all photos carefully.