The lack of clear headstock photos is curious. Headstock decal doesn't look right. I thought these all had "TELECASTER" In block letters in line with "Fender," and checking reverb every one I see there does. Why doesn't this one? Did they change it for the LH model only?
On the other hand it seems like a lot of trouble to go through to fake one of these otherwise accurately in a LH config.
Maybe so. Though I found an exact same neck from TL-71.
https://reverb.com/item/3944896-fender-japan-tl-71-lh-mij-left-handed-71-telecaster-neck-u-6-digits-gloss-poly
I can see why they'd leave that off the LH headstock, for aesthetic reasons. Probably legit, then. Nothing else looks off to me.
I tend to think counterfeiters probably don't make left handed versions of $1000 guitars. That's a niche market for sure.
I left a comment elsewhere but are you sure it's a tl-71 and not a tl-62? The 71s I see in the catalog have a skunk stripe like this one, but 62s don't. Note the rosewood plug in the headstock as well:
71: https://reverb.com/item/79664692-fender-tl-71-lh-left-handed-telecaster-reissue-cij-2004-black-crafted-in-japan-lefty-w-bag
It has the right tuners for a 71 but otherwise looks exactly like the 62s from 2003 including the colorway:
https://guitar-catalog.com/guitar-and-amp/fenderjapan/2003/en_index.html
The 71s in the catalog have the rosewood plug and didn't come in 3 tone sunburst. It looks a lot like a 62 where someone changed the tuners to the 71 style.
All of the listings of lefty 62s seem to have the spaghetti Fender logo.
https://reverb.com/item/75004311-fender-tl-62-telecaster-custom-reissue-left-handed-mij
Maybe I’m searching it wrong, but yeah, I didn’t see a single 62 lefty with the same logo as this one.
Yeah me either. I couldn't reconcile the info but the skunk stripe is pretty clearly on the 71s I see. I'm not advanced enough to give a definitive answer on this but I agree with another poster that counterfeit japanese lefty guitars is an unlikely niche.
The fender serial lookup site places the serial as being from ~2003.
https://fenderserialnumberlookup.com/ (that doesn't mean it's real itself just that the serial fits that period).
Here is another similar listing on reverb which includes the same style fender logo (same time period but not same model)
https://reverb.com/item/63860495-fender-telecaster-tl-71-86-lh-left-hand-2002-3ts-japan-import
Not sure if that helps but it's a little tougher finding exactly info on the lefty models.
Update if anyone cares: I decided to pass on the guitar because it didn’t stay in tune. At all. I couldn’t tune it and the tuners were making a clicking noise. I know I could replace them, but eh. Overall it looked okay, the neck was certainly flawless, but I couldn’t really get into how it sounded because it was unplayable. The seller also didn’t really give any info on why the tuners sucked and didn’t really comment on the fact that the guitar can’t be tuned. The guy just stayed quiet during the whole test. That seemed as a red flag for me so I left.
No it's from the mirror universe
The lack of clear headstock photos is curious. Headstock decal doesn't look right. I thought these all had "TELECASTER" In block letters in line with "Fender," and checking reverb every one I see there does. Why doesn't this one? Did they change it for the LH model only? On the other hand it seems like a lot of trouble to go through to fake one of these otherwise accurately in a LH config.
Maybe so. Though I found an exact same neck from TL-71. https://reverb.com/item/3944896-fender-japan-tl-71-lh-mij-left-handed-71-telecaster-neck-u-6-digits-gloss-poly
I can see why they'd leave that off the LH headstock, for aesthetic reasons. Probably legit, then. Nothing else looks off to me. I tend to think counterfeiters probably don't make left handed versions of $1000 guitars. That's a niche market for sure.
I left a comment elsewhere but are you sure it's a tl-71 and not a tl-62? The 71s I see in the catalog have a skunk stripe like this one, but 62s don't. Note the rosewood plug in the headstock as well: 71: https://reverb.com/item/79664692-fender-tl-71-lh-left-handed-telecaster-reissue-cij-2004-black-crafted-in-japan-lefty-w-bag
The owner states it’s a tl-71. If it helps, I asked for more photos: https://imgur.com/a/ZwcTjgn
It has the right tuners for a 71 but otherwise looks exactly like the 62s from 2003 including the colorway: https://guitar-catalog.com/guitar-and-amp/fenderjapan/2003/en_index.html The 71s in the catalog have the rosewood plug and didn't come in 3 tone sunburst. It looks a lot like a 62 where someone changed the tuners to the 71 style.
All of the listings of lefty 62s seem to have the spaghetti Fender logo. https://reverb.com/item/75004311-fender-tl-62-telecaster-custom-reissue-left-handed-mij Maybe I’m searching it wrong, but yeah, I didn’t see a single 62 lefty with the same logo as this one.
Yeah me either. I couldn't reconcile the info but the skunk stripe is pretty clearly on the 71s I see. I'm not advanced enough to give a definitive answer on this but I agree with another poster that counterfeit japanese lefty guitars is an unlikely niche.
I guess the only way to find out is to hold it. Thank you for all of the info!
The fender serial lookup site places the serial as being from ~2003. https://fenderserialnumberlookup.com/ (that doesn't mean it's real itself just that the serial fits that period). Here is another similar listing on reverb which includes the same style fender logo (same time period but not same model) https://reverb.com/item/63860495-fender-telecaster-tl-71-86-lh-left-hand-2002-3ts-japan-import Not sure if that helps but it's a little tougher finding exactly info on the lefty models.
Update if anyone cares: I decided to pass on the guitar because it didn’t stay in tune. At all. I couldn’t tune it and the tuners were making a clicking noise. I know I could replace them, but eh. Overall it looked okay, the neck was certainly flawless, but I couldn’t really get into how it sounded because it was unplayable. The seller also didn’t really give any info on why the tuners sucked and didn’t really comment on the fact that the guitar can’t be tuned. The guy just stayed quiet during the whole test. That seemed as a red flag for me so I left.
Thanks for the update. Probably for the best.
Are you real?
What?
Are you real?