1968 Fender Telecaster Pink Paisley w/ Bigsby

According to the previous seller in Paris, this '68 Pink Paisley Tele was once in the famous Andre Duchossoir / Patrice Bastien collection in Paris when it was purchased by French musician and composer Gerard Feraud. He eventually sold it to the well known French singer, composer, musician, artist, songwriter, actor and writer "Renaud" (Renaud Pierre Manuel Séchan) who kept it in his collection up to recently.
 
The Pink Paisley Telecaster offered is a 100% original and rare (one of a kind - read below) 1968 Bigsby model with a 3 OCT 68B neck date stamp and a 304-6617 pots date. And whereas most of the paisley guitars have completely chipped/flaked bodies with huge craquelé and massive parts of the lacquer chipped off, this one has been in a temperature controlled collection for many decades and in the absolute best condition we have ever seen one!! Hardly any cracks in the finish, the neck has almost no playware and everything on this guitar is original down to the rectangular Fender hardshell case which is also in great condition. It plays very easy, and it has an amazing powerfull, warm and rich sounding neck pickup. The bridge pickup sounds a bit thinner and more nasal with that typical Tele "quack" but both are 100% original and never been repaired or changed. The mid position combines the best of both worlds, making this one rare and versatile guitar.
 
But, here comes the surprise......
 
This Tele started out as a Blue Flower Telecaster!! In the neck pocket and on the top side of the pots cavity you can clearly see the remnants of the Blue Flower finish! Who knows what happened, maybe Fender was processing this as a Blue Flower and got an urgent call for a Pink Paisley? Whatever the case, we have NEVER EVER seen another original Pink Paysley with Blue Flower underneath!! All shows perfectly under UV and specialists agree: this is absolutely legit!
 
How about that for rare....
 
History of the Paisley guitars. The decade 1960 is that of a deep transformation of the morals by the emergence of the hippie counterculture. Finding its apotheosis in the legendary Woodstock festival organised in August 1969, the years of protest and claims found their emblem in psychedelism. These hours of Peace, Love and Harmony were guided by the smell of marijuana, the coloured visions of magic mushrooms, the amazing compositions by The Beachboys , Janis Joplin's raw soul and Jimi Hendrix's wild guitar solos. 
 
There is a pattern that sums up this extraordinary decade of Flower Power: the "Paisley" pattern. Of Iranian/Persian origin, the paisley pattern is an ornamental textile design using the boteh or buta: a teardrop-shaped motif with a curved upper end in the shape of a water drop or leaf. Paisley designs became popular in the West in the 18th and 19th centuries, following imports of post-Mughal Empire versions of the design from India, especially in the form of Kashmir shawls, and were then replicated locally. In the late 60's it quickly became emblematic of the uprising psychedelic hippie era, so much so that Fender created a pink paisley version of their Telecaster guitar and bass in 1968 to sail the crazy hippie wave.
 
Fender built only a few of these guitars in this amazing and iconic finish that is among the most sought after and rare colors. These finishes were made by sticking paisley-patterned wallpaper to the bodies. After the glue dried, a sunburst-like technique was used to add depth to the finish, and the bodies were then finished with a clear coat. These Tele's had a clear plastic pickguard that allowed the full effect of the paisley-pattern colors.