Like Buchanan, Richards bestowed a nickname on this guitarMicawber, after a character in DickensDavid Copperfield. King and Clarence Gatemouth Brown took readily to the Telecaster. The Telecaster Thinline and Telecaster Custom were now joined by the Telecaster Deluxe, which featured two humbucking pickups, a Stratocaster-style headstock and a choice of hard-tail or tremolo bridge. Veteran U.K. guitarist Andy Summers (Dantalians Chariot, Soft Machine, the Animals) returned to England in 1977 after a few years in United States during which he studied music at California State University, Northridge. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. He simply worked on another level, coaxing jaw-dropping solos, haunting cello-like volume swells, and otherworldly harmonic and feedback sounds from his main instrument, a 1953 Telecaster he nicknamed Nancy. Many who saw him came away convinced that theyd just seen the worlds greatest guitarist. If the maple neck broke or became too worn, there was no complex luthiery involvedyou just screwed on a new one. As 1970 drew to a close, an article appeared in the Dec. 9 edition of theWashington Postin which writer Tom Zito described a visit to a dark suburban tavern in Bladensburg, Md., called the Crossroads Restaurant and Supper Club, where he caught a set by house band Danny Denver and the Soundmasters. Strummer accepted an invitation to be lead singer in a new band with guitarists Mick Jones and Keith Levene, bassist Paul Simonon and drummer Terry Chimes. Ritchie Kotzen (Winery Dogs, Mr. Big, Poison). Sources for this article include The Blackguard by Nacho Banos, The Fender Telecaster by A.R. Its title track was an enormous hit; both it and the album introduced the world to the impeccable phrasing of Missouri-born guitarist/producer/songwriter Steve Cropper. Fender and its new Telecaster guitar were ideally placed to take advantage of all of this, because Fender didnt belong to the stodgy old world of high-end guitar craft. The front knob always controlled master volume, but the rear knob wasnotalways a master tone knob. Across the Atlantic, sweeping change had struck the U.K. music scene in mid-decade. Scotty Moore used one much like it on his earliest recordings with Elvis. Lore Reverse Soundscape Generator from Walrus Audio. On theBorn to Runcover photo, it still has its original three-saddle 1950s bridge with a stamped steel base plate (subsequently replaced by Petillo with a six-saddle titanium bridge), although it does have a set of replacement tuners. A recreation of George Harrison's '61 Sonic Blue Strat, hand-painted in psychedelic Day-Glo colors and affectionately named Rocky.. The Telecaster had both the style and substance; the form and function to endure indefinitely as both a valuable tool and a potent symbol. At Londons Abbey Road Studios on March 28, Paul McCartney used an Esquire to record guitar parts in Good Morning Good Morning and Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite for the Beatles momentous eighth album,Sgt. Every piece of metal, from the pickup surrounds, knobs, tailpieceeven the heel plate and control cavity coverhave been intricately engraved by OBrien. Combining influences as varied as instrumental funk la the Meters, traditional folk music, and a heavy dose of rhythm and blues, the Faces brand of rock n roll can be heard in some way or another in the music of countless bands that followed. Perhaps no single 12-month period during the 1960s testified to the Telecasters amazing workhorse versatility more than the musically explosive year of 1967. The modern Telecaster was seen in the early 1990s being wielded by many a grunge guitarist for the intensely meteoric few years when that genre dominated rock. Finally, any survey of the Telecaster in 1971 isnt complete without noting that early in the year, Jimmy Page used his 58 model to record the solo on quintessential Led Zeppelin epic Stairway to Heaven one of his most famous guitar solos, if not hismostfamous solo. After the Sex Pistols opened an April 3, 1976, show at the Nashville Rooms in London for his band, the 101ers, pub rocker John Mellorbetter known by the stage name hed taken the year before, Joe Strummerswitched from pub to punk. Since that late-80s resurrection, the Telecaster once again reigns supreme as a must-have instrument for guitarists of all types and styles worldwide. While Fender Japan now became the worlds main producer of Fender instruments, Schultz and his staff established headquarters for the newly renamed Fender Musical Instruments Corporation in Brea, Calif., and acquired a 14,000-square-foot factory in Corona, Calif., in October 1985. In California, meanwhile, Buck Owenss career had taken off. In July 1964, a London quintet called the Yardbirds appeared on Granada Television programGo Tell it on the Mountain, playing Louise and I Wish You Would. What was noteworthy about the appearance is that while so many British groups at first played guitars by makers other than Fender, the Yardbirds 19-year-old guitarist, Eric Clapton, tore up both songs on a red Telecaster. It didnt take long to become an essential element in the arsenal of studio veterans nationwide and A-list session veterans Barney Kessel, Howard Roberts and Tommy Tedesco all got Telecasters. One of the earliest results was the Vintage Reissue series, a high-quality new family that appeared in 1982 and featured a well-built and largely historically accurate 52 Telecaster model. In July 1957, Dale Hawkins scored what was probably the first Telecaster-fueled U.S. Top 40 hit with Suzie Q, a song built on a catchy guitar lick by his bands young guitarist, James Burton. Back in the United States in the mid-1960s, the Telecaster-bred Bakersfield sound continued to grow in popularity. First, Fender (sold by Leo Fender in 1965 and now under the corporate banner of CBS) reconfigured the guitars controls so that the three-way switch delivered neck pickup/both pickups/bridge pickup operation. The Telecaster is an original that remains, simply and more than ever, indispensable. Nonetheless, interesting Telecaster sounds were in the works. Several of its features were carried over from the Hawaiian steel guitars Fender had already been making since 1945, such as the ashtray bridge cover, knurled chrome knobs, Kluson tuners and combination of bridge and bridge pickup in one integral unit. The Telecaster, however, quite separate from the intentions of its makers, fed the emergence only a few years later of rock n roll and the explosion in U.S. youth culture that came with it, and by the end of the 1950s it was an unqualified success as an indispensable workhorse instrument for guitarists of many musical styles and genres nationwide. With U.S. production resumed but not up to full steam by late 1983, Japanese-made Fender guitarsincluding a70s-style Squier Telecasterbecame available in the United States, too. Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/embed/rf2e4QPPxJY?rel=0. Both the headstock and end of the fretboard are delicately carved into a crown-like pattern, perhaps drawing inspiration from mandolins and lutes of the previous century. Second, musicians Gene Parsons and Clarence White (the Byrds) invented the Parsons/White String Pull, later known as the B-Bender, and equipped Whites 1956 Telecaster with it (Fender would release its own B-Bender-equipped Telecaster 33 years later). It had a simple black pickguard (of fiber or Bakelite) held on with five screws. The well-worn 1953 Telecaster pictured here has the classic features most often associated with that year, including a one-piece, bolt-on maple neck, a round string tree on the headstock (rectangular by 56), an ash body with see-through butterscotch blonde finish (after the mid 50s, the blonde finish became whiter and eventually more opaque), a black Bakelite pickguard (changed to white in late 54), the serial number on the bridge plate (moved to the neck plate by late 54), outer brass bridge saddles that were notched on the bottom to allow for lower saddle adjustment, and a bridge pickup with flush level pole pieces (staggered by the end of 55). It bears remembering that when the Telecaster was introduced in 1951, rock n roll was still a few years away; Leo Fender and his staff were building guitars and amps mainly for the western swing guitarists whose touring circuits often brought them near the companys home in sunny Southern California. The sad loss of Ronnie Lane to multiple sclerosis in 1997 makes this instrument even more special. The first wasBlack Claw & Country Fever, by virtuoso country/rockabilly/rock/R&B guitarist Albert Lee, subsequently widely known to many as Mr. Like Summers, leader Joe Strummer also wielded a battered 60s-era Telecaster, which he continually plastered with slogans befitting his groups early-80s status as the only band that matters. Stylistically sprawling epic double albumLondon Callingwas released in late 1979, but was truly an album for the 1980s and included the bands first U.S. Top 40 hit, Train in Vain.. Telecaster? Summer Rig Giveaway from D'Angelico, Supro, and Pigtronix! So there was quite a bit of tonal versatility there. Thus firmly established, the Telecaster-driven Bakersfield Sound would rival Nashville throughout the decade as its other hit-making artists ascended the charts. These included 16-year-olds Keith Richards and George Harrison, 15-year-olds Jeff Beck and James Page, 14-year-olds Eric Clapton and Peter Townshend, 13-year-old schoolmates Roger Syd Barrett and David Gilmour, 17-year-old Andy Summers and a great many more. Harrison played this guitar on the final Beatles album,Let It Be, and played it atop the London headquarters of the Beatles company, Apple, during the famous Jan. 20, 1969, rooftop concert that would be the Beatles final live performance (as seen in 1970 documentaryLet It Be). An archetypal Telecaster moment came in 1975 when Long Branch, N.J., native Bruce Springsteen achieved breakout success with his third album, the epicBorn to Run. ?serial number 4123?? They spent 1960-1962 continuing to absorb U.S. rock n roll and furthering their mostly self-taught musical educations; some were already performing publicly with their earliest bands. They mastered rock n roll and made it their own on any third-rate guitar they could get their hands on, never dreaming that in very short order they would be the ones to re-introduce the formexplosively soto the land of its birth. His guitars distinctive metal tops, often with elaborately engraved designs provided by Danny OBrien, can be seen with some of the eras most legendary guitar players, but it was his connection to the Faces that really put Zemaitis instruments on the map. Outside the factory, the western swing guitarists who helped Leo perfect his new guitar were the first to fully understand how good the Telecaster really was. Production continued through a name change in late 1951 (Fenders name conflicted with Gretschs Broadkaster drum set) and a factory relocation in 1953. The ensuing vacuum was filled with schmaltzy ballads, reverb-drenched teen idols and girl groups that, while they had a charm of their own, werent especially guitar oriented. A fellow Californian and early Bakersfield Sound devotee also started racking up impressive chart successes, tooin late 1966, Merle Haggard and the Strangers hit number one with their seventh single, Im a Lonesome Fugitive.. For many guitarists and collectors, a 1953 blackguard Telecaster is considered the Holy Grail of all Teles. Throughout the remainder of the decade, as a member of Booker T. & the M.G.s and as a house guitarist for the Stax label, Croppers graceful Telecaster work appeared on many seminal hits, including (Sittin On) The Dock of the Bay (Otis Redding, 1965), In the Midnight Hour (Wilson Pickett, 1965) and Soul Man (Sam and Dave, 1967). Danny in this case being Danny Gatton, a stylistically eclectic guitar virtuoso regarded throughout the remainder of his career as one of the most technically dazzling players ever to wield a Telecaster. Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/embed/xfBF4rr7FiA?rel=0. Northwest of London in March 1978, in Hereford, Ohio-born singer, songwriter and Telecaster-wielding guitarist Chrissie Hynde assembled a four-piece band with a lineup that quickly settled on her, guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, bassist Pete Farndon and drummer Martin Chambers. Ronnie Lane is hardly the most famous name associated with the Faces, but it could be argued that the spirit of the band was largely due to his influence. The distinctive suit of cards inlays along the 32"-scale neck would become a signature of Ronnie Lane, but this is perhaps the earliest example of that motif on one of his instruments. In the 1970s, as always, the guitar itself had changed hardly at while music had mutated wildly. Punk reared its reactionary spiky-haired head, thumbing its safety-pinned nose at the establishment and at the lumbering blues-based, psychedelic and prog giants who ruled the first half of the 1970s. The wear and tear he put on the bass and the music he made with it are part of his lasting legacy. It debuted in early 1951 as an innovative new kind of instrument from a small upstart Southern California maker that served the regions Western swing and dance band guitarists. ", Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/embed/mq7y2xjoav0?rel=0, And in what is widely regarded as the greatest rock n roll film ever made, 1956sThe Girl Cant Help It, the Telecaster (in its single-pickup Esquire version) puts in a pair of appearances. For many young players in the U.K., Waters October 1958 tour was the first time they ever saw a Telecaster in real life. But the ever-ubiquitous Telecaster found itself right at home there, too. In addition to many artist models and the ongoing American Vintage series Telecaster guitars, Fender has introduced a variety of Telecaster variations, from authentically traditional to distinctively modified, from pristine to battered and from high-end to budget-conscious. The Who had become known not only for their visceral sound, but also for their violent stage act, which by late 1965 regularly culminated in Townshend smashing his guitar at the end of set-closing anthem My Generation. Smashing up the delicate Rickenbacker guitars Towshend was known for playing had become prohibitively expensive, however, and in a money-saving move he began switching to Telecasters for My Generation, as they were less expensive and certainly easier to repair. Indeed, it was the year that saw the first truly significant design departure for the model in the lightweight form of the Thinline Telecaster. OnLed Zeppelin, Jimmy Page played a psychedelic-painted Telecaster (given to him by Jeff Beck) on tracks including Dazed and Confused, Good Times Bad Times, Communication Breakdown, How Many More Times, You Shook Me and more. Artistically, the Telecaster served as the main musical voice of two monumental debut albums recorded in 1968, both by U.K. artists. This would keep Fender instruments in production and combat the cheap copies that were voraciously eating away at Fenders Far East sales. This bass was with him for early Faces performances and could easily have been used on some of these classic recordings, including the albums First Step and Long Player. As the mid-1970s gave way to the latter part of the decade, Burton and Cropper remained busier than ever. Richards, in fact, became something of a Telecaster connoisseur during the 1970s, acquiring and further nicknaming instruments of various vintages, including a blonde 1954 model (Malcolm) and a sunburst 1966 model (Sonny). Muddy Waters, the lion of Delta blues, played his ever-present Telecaster on theSuper Bluesalbum with Bo Diddley and Little Walter. Tight, focused punk- and new wave-based Davids of the late 1970s and early 1980s wrested the charts and the critical acclaim from the blues-based Goliaths of the early- and mid-70s using the very same instrumentsthe Telecaster chief among them. Rock n roll, it turned out, was alive and well in the U.K.; rescued by skinny English kids who couldnt get enough of authentic U.S. blues and rock n roll and who eagerly devoured every James Burton solo, every Chuck Berry riff, every Eddy Cochran lyric and every Scotty Moore chord voicing. The new band, the Clash, made its live debut three months later, opening foras fate would have itthe Sex Pistols at the Black Swan in Sheffield, England, on July 4, 1976. Although the venue itself was wholly unimpressive, Zito wrote that What makes the Crossroads remarkable is the presence of one man, Roy Buchanan, who provides what may well be the best rock guitar picking in the world.. Perhaps the biggest change of the decade came in 1958, when the once blonde-finish-only Telecaster first became available with eye-catching custom color finishes for an additional 5 percent cost. The Telecaster would become the foundation of the Bakersfield Sound pioneered in the later 1950s and popularized in the 1960s by Owens and his band, the Buckaroos, Merle Haggard and the Strangers, and others. The American Standard Telecaster appeared in 1988, updated with 22 frets, a more robust-sounding bridge pickup and a six-saddle bridge. However, players were quick to discover that the Telecasters three-position switch could be precariously balanced in the two in-between switch positions to deliver in-phase or out-of-phase sounds (depending on the polarity of the pickups) in which both pickups were on (an unintentional design feature exploited by players to even greater extent on the Stratocaster). Back at Fender headquarters, Telecaster experimentation continued apace by institutionalizing the most popular mod players had been making for a few years alreadyreplacing the single-coil neck pickup with a fatter-sounding humbucking pickup. The amps current value is $2,500. So here's the first installment in no particular order. Becks innovative and experimental guitar work typified the Yardbirds most successful period; his 18-month stint featured hits such as Heart Full of Soul, Im a Man, Shapes of Things and Over Under Sideways Down, most of which he played on a battered 1954 Esquire. The color of the pickguard was changed from black to white in 1954; its pickup selector switch tip was changed from the original round type to the top hat type in 1955. The Telecaster also made great inroads in the 1950s as a must-have studio session instrument. The amp supporting this Tele is a wide-panel Fender Deluxe from the same year. They all immersed themselves in the sounds of the Telecaster in the 1950s, and they all eventually got their hands on Telecaster guitars. Be the first to know about new products, featured content, exclusive offers and giveaways. And so the Telecaster struck the final notes of its third decade, put to greater use than ever by U.S. and U.K. guitarists, veterans and newcomers alike. used to decorate their tops (each guitar had a clear pickguard). ZitosPostpiece was reprinted inRolling Stonetwo months later in February 1971, and eccentric and phenomenally talented Arkansas-born guitarist Roy Buchanan, 31, suddenly found himself the object of much attention after toiling more than 15 years in relative obscurity (he briefly succeeded Burton in Dale Hawkins band in the late 1950s). The British Invasion of 1964 needs little introduction. As a member of the duos backing band that year, Cropper appeared with them onSaturday Night Liveand on chart-topping debut albumBriefcase Full of Blues. Unlike many existing guitars at the time, the Telecasters strings were pulled straight over the nut, with all the tuners on one side of the headstockideas that Leo himself said he borrowed from 19-century Istrian folk guitars and Viennese Staufer guitars. During his years in California, he bought a battered 1961 Custom Telecaster from one of his guitar students; the instrument was heavily modified with a humbucking neck pickup, phase switch, onboard preamp and overdrive unit, maple fingerboard and more. TheRolling Stonereprint led to interest from public television station WNET, flagship of the then-new PBS network, which produced an hour-long documentary,Introducing Roy Buchanan, which aired that November and shifted his career into high gear. Meanwhile, the Fender Custom Shop had been established in 1987, and one of the very first orders it took was for a custom left-handed Telecaster Thinline for Cars guitarist Elliot Easton. With his band, the charmingly named Snakestretchers, he release indie solo debutBuch and the Snakestretcherslate in 1971 before inking a deal with Polydor Records, for which he recorded five solo albums before moving to Atlantic Records in 1976. And so the 1960s closed with Fenders original electric guitar enjoying wider and more varied use than ever, with the company starting to explore innovative new takes on the Telecaster that would continue well into the decade to come. With that new mid-80s beginning under Bill Schultz, Fender started by concentrating on quality rather than quantity, beginning with a small number of vintage reissue guitars and redesigned back-to-basics modern instruments dubbed American Standard models. Although James Burton became closely associated with the Paisley Red guitar, neither model lasted long. The mid-1970s saw some of the most diverse use the Telecaster has ever been put to. Cropper once again found himself in the spotlight with the unexpectedly successful 1978 formation of blues/soul revival outfit the Blues Brothers bySaturday Night Livealumni John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. Real salvation, as it turned out, came from across the Atlantic and from seemingly unlikely saviors. Schultz and a group of investors bought Fender in a sale that was completed in March 1985, ending 20 years of unpopular CBS rule. The controls are two tone dials with on-off switches for each, plus a master volumewith a missing knobon the upper body. Fender previously released a limited number of meticulous Rocky recreations via the Fender Custom Shop in 2020, but now this release gives fans the opportunity to enjoy the sound and history behind this iconic guitar. Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/embed/M9cINH9yob4?rel=0. The selector switch in the front (neck) position delivered the neck pickup alone with the preset bassier sound and a non-functioning rear knob (as before). The George Harrison Rocky Stratocaster features an alder body hand-painted with a replica of Harrisons famous psychedelic brushstrokes. He first hit theBillboardcountry chart in 1959 with his tenth and eleventh singles, Second Fiddle and Under Your Spell Again, and 1960s Above and Beyond reached number three. In 1953, the list price for the Deluxe was $99. Nearly every album and single Buck Owens released from late 1963 to early 1968 hit number one on theBillboardcountry chart. It continues to embody the spirit of Fender innovation and dedication to tonal and performance excellence. With Lovers Fender Wide Range humbucking pickups successfully in place on the Thinline model, Fender simply stuck one in the neck position on a solid-body Telecaster, added a new pickguard design, upper bout pickup toggle switch and a new four-knob control layout, and there it wasthe Telecaster Custom, introduced in 1972. From prog to punk, rockabilly-inflected jazz to FM rock and an unexpected blues revival to chart-topping pop, Fenders first guitarstill largely unchangedwas more ubiquitous than ever in the middle of its third decade. Unlike any guitar that came before it, the Telecaster had an incredibly bright, clean and cutting sounding, with a piercing high end and thick midrange and bass. In 2017 Fender released the American Professional Telecaster (also available for lefties and the Telecaster Deluxe Shawbucker featuring classic design and innovative new features. Nonetheless, Fenders innovative new instruments fed the rise of the small, loud bands that, by the mid-1950s, had largely supplanted the big bands of the 1930s and 1940s, a phenomenon that in turn fueled the concurrent explosion of U.S. youth culture. Also of note in 1965 is Claptons departure from the Yardbirds that March. The dramatic effects of this would become palpably evident in the decade that followed. The U.S. factory did produce the short-lived Elite Telecaster of 1983-1984, which was intended as a high-end model with humbucking pickups and active circuitry. After nearly two decades of general neglect, quality control problems and budget cuts under CBS, the Fender of the early 1980s had fallen far from its former greatness. Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/embed/feN8kZA5H3Q?rel=0. Its simplicity and efficiency as a solidly reliable workhorse guitar remained hallmarks of its design throughout the 1950s, as indeed they would throughout subsequent decades. In the country world, Luther Perkins accompanied Johnny Cash from 1954 on by playing bright, catchy lines on a Telecaster and an Esquire. It was a great idea whose time had come, and it changed music in the 50s-era United States. Some of these models include Classic Player (2006), Road Worn (2009) and American Special (2010), all of which have kept the Telecaster at the forefront of modern electric guitar. This headstock has flourishes fit for a kingpossibly of clubs. The bass pictured here was one of his earliest custom designs for Ronnie Lane. These were the Fender Wide Range humbucking pickups developed by Seth Lover, who had pioneered hum-cancelling pickups at Gibson in the mid-1950s (the PAF, most famously) and had joined Fender in 1967. Fender PlayThe #1 guitar learning platformTRY FOR FREE. The album established Springsteen as a major star, and its famous black-and-white cover showed him leaning on Clarence The Big Man Clemmons shoulder and slinging his Esquire? And while long-gone favorites like Manny's Music (New York) and Black Market Music (San Francisco) came up again and again, there were even more current shops topping readers' favorites list. He made a few notable modifications, including the backwards installation of a PAF humbucking pickup at the bridge (as noted, a popular mod of the era), a six-saddle bridge with the low-E saddle removed to accommodate his preference for a five-string open-G tuning, and a white Stratocaster-style switch tip in place of the original barrel tip. Early players such as Jimmy Wyble, Charlie Aldrich, Jimmy Bryant, Roy Watkins and Bill Carson took to the instrument with missionary zeal, and Fender Sales chief Don Randalls carefully built sales network made sure the appeal of the Telecaster slowly but surely radiated from Southern California all the way to the East Coast. It is equipped with a Jensen P12R 12" speaker and powered by two 6V6GT tubes. They couldnt possibly have. It now suffered from a bleak reputation for producing, as noted guitar author and historian Tom Wheeler put it in his 2011 history of the Fender Custom Shop,The Dream Factory, boat anchor guitars, and revenues were starting to decline along with quality.

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how many 1953 fender telecasters were made