Jeff Buckley's borrowed telecaster...

[Slow Reflexes]

...played by this dude:



He's a Nederlander radio guy, I believe... he was lucky enough to get an interview with the woman who had loaned the guitar to Jeff, and was given the opportunity to play the thing. Lucky bastard.

Here's the (half hour) radio segment... it's largely in Dutch, and I understood next to naught of it, but the second two-thirds is largely devoted to Buckley and this guitar. The interview is in English. I just wish I could have understood the rest of the narration.

I actually got a bit weepy when he played the thing...

[fullertonfan83]

Jeff Buckley is my favourite musician...just the best.

Yeah, his telecaster is awesome...so versatile.

Here is an excerpt from a feature on his tele from the great Buckley fan site mojopin.org:



And here is my own 1983 tele intentionally made to look like and be a replica of Jeff's guitar (shameless self-promotion):



I "LOVE" this guitar! I could be the biggest Buckley schmuck on TDPRI? See my avatar....its Jeff

[fullertonfan83]

Here are a couple of vids one of the blonde guitar in use:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc7blE6kXsI

and another of the other Telecaster that I knew he owned and played...I think it was a gift from a fan around 1994/5. It has a custom, one-off floral pattern on the front. It had a rosewood fretboard too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnIT__G_E18

Can you tell I like this thread?

:)

[undafonk]

Thank you, Slow Reflexes, for the link!

Two years ago, I alerted the Dutch TDPRI'ers about the radioshow in this link - sorry, the rest of the thread ended up in organising a Dutch TDPRI jam

Now, finally, I can listen to the documentary - I don't have a redio or a TV at my home. The Dutch radio journalist and guitarplayer is Botte Jellema.

Edit: now I have to go find a PC - the radio show won't stream on a Mac.

Edit 2: of course, I already had some plugin, Flip4mac, Perian ... it's streaming now ... first part (Botte's mother) is in Frysian, a separate language ... so I can't understand it either

[onewhiteduck]

Live at Sin-e is THE reason why I got back into electric guitar and bought a Telecaster.

[athief]

Fullerton, where'd you find a chrome pickguard? Now you just need one of these in the bridge. XD

[twangstick]

Shouldn't the bridge pickup have a rail?

[telefreak]

Guys
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for reminding me of just how much I love Jeff Buckley.
My work colleagues won't be to grateful, because I'm going to play nothing but Jeff tomorrow

[fullertonfan83]

Originally Posted by athief

Fullerton, where'd you find a chrome pickguard? Now you just need one of these in the bridge. XD

Hi athief, I got the chrome guard off ebay. Yes, Jeff's guitar had a SD rail in it, but as it is an all original Fullerton factory guitar, I i didn't want to swap the original out...so I call it a "Sine' Period" replica

[Ironhide]

Don't you know that Jeff had a 5 hole chrome pickguard? I found this website more recently, after spending more than a year typing 5 hole chrome pickguard into ebay and eventually finding one like this. I too have an 83 tele, started off as a tribute to Jeff but I ended up putting in a chrome bridge pickup to match the chrome everywhere.

Jeff Buckley is my hero

[JPanichella]

Originally Posted by onewhiteduck

Live at Sin-e is THE reason why I got back into electric guitar and bought a Telecaster.

that version of Lover You Should've Come Over is mindblowing

[Slow Reflexes]

Originally Posted by undafonk

...(Botte's mother) is in Frysian, a separate language ... so I can't understand it either

Well, at least I'm not alone ; )

So they seemed to be talking for a bit at the beginning about the Telecaster in general rather than Buckley specifically... is that at all accurate? Maybe someone could give me a general rundown of the non-English stuff, if it's not an incredible hassle?

[undafonk]

Here you go, Slow Reflexes:

(in Frysian) (or Grunnings, maybe?) ‘When I became 14, you gave me a guitar. Why?’
‘You’d studied AMV [General Music Training], and you said you wouldn’t want to choose an instrument, and I thought that was pretty crass.’
‘So why give me a guitar?’
‘I don’t know, really’ [rest inaudible for me] ‘It has always been a pressure valve for you.’

‘This is me, on a Fender Telecaster. I recently bought one, after having an eye for one for a few years now. It is a character guitar, and that’s why I abandon my Paul Reed Smith for this surly Fender. I think it’s beautiful. Every day, I will play it for a while, and I always enjoy the sound that comes out of it. I know this sound from the records I love.’

‘From mum, I got a acoustic Spanish guitar when I turned fourteen. Just like that, no special reason. I appreciated it a lot. Within a year, I bought my first electric, with an amp. When I was nineteen, I bought – after much doubt – a serious electric guitar, a Paul Reed Smith. Carlos Santana also plays one. All my savings were sunk into that guitar, because it cost 4,750 guilders. An incredible amount. I don’t think my parents really understood that, at the time. The Paul Reed Smith I still own, after twelve years, and it’s a beautiful instrument.’

‘Only – a few years ago, an entirely different instrument caught my eye. The guitar played by Bruce Springsteen, Keith Richards. And foremost, by Jeff Buckley. The Telecaster, that simple electric instrument, the quintessential guitar. That simple model, and the beautiful sound. Listen!’

‘Last winter, I finally bought one. They’re not that expensive, at least, not the one I got, only € 630. Now I can imitate Jeff. It’s great to play along with him.’

[‘Grace’ by Jeff Buckley]

Guitar builder and technician Jacco Stuitje: The Telecater is basically a pretty boring looking guitar. If you look at these guitars that I build myself, they have a very luxurious topwood, made of South American rosewood – it is a very expensive, beautiful guitar, but that doesn’t matter at all for the Telecaster, that was never the point. When it was introduced in 1951, everyone said ‘What kind of paddle is that?’ They thought it was an ugly thing.’

[Sound of Jacco’s electric screwdriver]

‘Jacco is a guitar builder in Groningen. He disassembles my beloved Telecaster. Entirely.’

‘I have to admit, in those days, they diddn’t have electric drills. When a player had a problem with his guitar, the action, or the nut, the guitar had to be shipped to the factory. There were no guitar builders in those days. Luthiers already existed, but they looked down upon electric guitars. So you had to send it to the factory. So Fender thought that it would more simple if the guitar neck was interchangeable, and could be sent in for repair. So now, I have removed the neck from your guitar, you can see how easily that was done. Now we remove the scratchplate. When you remove the scratchplate, you can see underneath, that it is basically a series produced instrument. A body that can be machined, without a curved surface, like jazz guitars. Basically, these ornamental characteristics, without any real influence on the guitar’s sound.’

‘The Telecaster was designed for production in series, like many objects from the 40-es and 50-ies. It took a few yearsm but then this new instrument slowly gained popularity. Guitarists exchanged their softer sounding hollow-bodies for the louder sounding Telecaster. It became ‘cool’ to play one, and since then, you’ll here them everywhere, if you pay attention.’

[Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, Paskal Jacobs of Bløf, Bruce Springsteen]

‘According to me, the Telecaster meant the beginning of rock’n’roll and pop music.’

‘A detachable neck. A strange-shaped body. A heap of sawdust. Some screws and wires. Strings. Electronic parts. My Telecaster, designed for series production, lies in pieces on Jacco’s table. He starts to re-assemble it.’

‘I just did a few things to make the setup optimal. Intonation, the height of the strings has been lowered – that is personal taste, by the way. But mainly, it is still the same as the day it came from the factory.’

‘Actually most models, also the ones that we [Jacco] build ourselves, are basically Telecasters. The concept is still working. Thatat’s because somebody decided that this was a good wood to build this guitar with, and generations of guitarplayers have recorded with it. The top 200 of all time is full with Telecaster sounds – also with Les Pauls and Strats, of course. So much music has been made with the Telecaster, that it is part of everyonme collective memory.’

[JFK Airtrain sounds]

‘This is Tony. He works in a guitar store in 48th Street. That is not his real name. Tony says he can give me two receipts, one for the actual price, and one for the Dutch Customs and Revenues officers. Tony has worked here for more than 25 years, and he has sold a lot of Teles, like he calls them. Last year, he has sold a lot of expensive guitars to Europeans, because of the favourable exchange rate of the euro against the dollar. You can earn back your trip to New York, says Tony. I decided not to do that.’

[undafonk]

And totally unrelated to Jeff or his guitar - but a beautiful ode by Belgian band Zita Swoon

[Slow Reflexes]

Wow, thanks for that... certainly more than a general overview, and I greatly appreciate the effort!

[undafonk]

's No problem! Monday after Pentecost is a holiday here, stayed up late ... and used to do this for a living, pretty fast at it - that's why there are typo's and style isn't very good (three consecutive sentences starting with 'So' ...)

[ekul785]

I've not listened to much of his stuff, however this thread has intriqued me. At the risk of sounding like an idiot, was he actually a good guitarist? or was it more about the vocals and songs as a whole?

[FraKcture]

thanks for sharing this,

[fullertonfan83]

Originally Posted by ekul785

I've not listened to much of his stuff, however this thread has intriqued me. At the risk of sounding like an idiot, was he actually a good guitarist? or was it more about the vocals and songs as a whole?

He was an exceptional guitarist! Obviously his voice always overshadowed his guitar playing, but he was fully jazz trained and would often play some of the same songs at solo gigs without his band (covers mostly) but to keep it interesting for himself he would tune his guitar differently or play the song in a totally different position from one gig to the next, often playing one gig one place, then going on to another gig on the same night and plugging in and going again....

You should check out his Legacy (2 CD) edition of "Live at Sin'e" for a taste of his live solo stuff....and "Grace" for the whole band vibe....just awesome.

[J-man]

Love Jeff Buckley.