The American Vintage ’58 Telecaster harkens back to early 1958, when the Telecaster graduated from its original U-shaped neck profile—a real handful—to a still-large but more comfortable D-shape for its maple neck. Other spot-on early-’58 touches are here too, such as a lightweight ash body, staggered bridge pickup pole magnets, solid steel “barrel” bridge saddles, a single-ply white pickguard, “top-hat” switch tip, flat-top knurled aluminum chrome control knobs and more. 1958 was an important year for the Telecaster because that’s when slimmer necks started appearing on the instrument, and when (in early-year models) string-through bridges with solid-steel saddles first showed up, magnifying the guitar’s prized signature twang. Rather than just replacing the previous models with different ones, Fender have completely and comprehensively re-imagined the entire vintage-reissue concept—restoring original tooling dies, voicing new pickups, reformulating vintage colors and more—based on actual vintage guitars.