I was looking at the back cover of my Talk Is Cheep record and I noticed something strange. If you look at the right side of the photo you can see six strings on the guitar next to Keith's fingers. When you look to the left there are only 5 strings and 5 saddles(i think that's what they're called).

[3.bp.blogspot.com]


Take a look

And the lack of light has never entered your mind? Or some people would call that a shadow.

And there are only four fingers on his hand...

If you have the vinyl version, look at it as that picture is much larger obviously. There are clearly only 5 saddles on the left and six strings on the right.

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skipstone
And the lack of light has never entered your mind? Or some people would call that a shadow.

Or some other people call it photoshop or retouching.

I love this record, and interesting observation.

... it's his rosewood Tele, right?
i think the angle & lighting mean you're not seeing the full 6-saddle bridge

Sunburst Telcaster


Micawber

Both just have 5 strings.. I don't know a whole lot about guitars, so correct me if I'm wrong.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2009-07-16 11:02 by yorkey.

"...five strings, three notes, two fingers, and one as.shole..." ;-)

***** i'm a cold italian pizza *****



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-07-15 13:07 by guitarbastard.

Yorkey, are those two pics the actual Keithian guitars?

I'm not sure about the first one, but the Micawber is. From here [members.tripod.com]

Speaking of the Micawber: " and of course has the famous 5 strings with the 6th string removed (as do all his open G tuned guitars)."

Never noticed, keefgotsoul, but you are right. The saddle for the lower E-string is missing (of course its 5 string) but then they put in the low e-string . It seems to be reworked.

This is deliberate. I remember a reviewer picking up on this when the album came out. A little visual pun, if you like...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-07-15 15:18 by WeLoveYou.

The open G tuning he uses much of the time only requires 5 strings. I don't think this is a rare occurance with his guitars.

that photo yorkey labelled "rosewood Tele" is not a rosewood Tele - it's a sunburst Tele.
it's not the 1967 sunburst Tele that we're accustomed to seeing Keith with on stage
so i don't see any reason to imagine the one in the photo is Keith's.

yorkey, if you could correct that caption, so as not to confuse more readers, that would be very nice

there are shots of Keith's rosewood Tele in this thread: [www.iorr.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-07-15 17:21 by with sssoul.

I don't think it's just a trick of the light.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-07-15 16:24 by marcovandereijk.

Quote
Koen
And there are only four fingers on his hand...

Haha - that just sums it up what it means when you look at a foto.
he doesn't have a right hand thumb because I can't see it - yeah right.

The rosewood Tele was never dedicated for open G tuning, afaik.
my guess; it's a photoshop thang - probably too much reflection, distraction from the fingers and skull ring.

the 1st pic from Yorkey shows a Made In Japan Replica of "Sonny".
it even says so in the pic description.

>> The rosewood Tele was never dedicated for open G tuning, afaik. <<

thanks open-g honey - that's part of what i was thinking but didn't manage to type:
if Keith had the rosewood Tele revamped to make it a 5-string, there aren't any photos of it.
well, no clear ones anyway! this one isn't what i'd call conclusive evidence. :E

your idea that the photographer touched up the shot to eliminate reflections makes sense -
photographers do things like that - just to see if we guitar geeks will notice, i guess :E
like that mysterious stripe Annie Leibowitz put on the pickup of the ES-355 in that Vuitton advert

The best Stones record after Exile and since then. No matter how many strings.

The Rosewood Tele was only used in '81 and '82, has the cover of the neck pickup removed, and was never adjusted for five string open G.

I can only imagine they removed the 6th saddle for as the reflection didn't fit the picture.

Mathijs

That guitar is that black one with leather on it. It's not any of the others mentioned here.

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skipstone
That guitar is that black one with leather on it. It's not any of the others mentioned here.

Which 'black guitar with leather on it' are you refering to?

Mathijs

Did you notice also that the G (3rd) string becomes a round wound string at the bridge. Starts off as solid!!!

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More Hot Rocks
Did you notice also that the G (3rd) string becomes a round wound string at the bridge. Starts off as solid!!!

You're right! Another strange thing about the photo.

>> The Rosewood Tele was only used in '81 and '82, has the cover of the neck pickup removed, and was never adjusted for five string open G. <<

well ... the fact that Keith used it on stage only in 81/82
doesn't mean he never had it around in the studio or for a photo shoot.

>> Which 'black guitar with leather on it' are you refering to? <<

excellent question! :E Keith of course has plenty of guitars we've never seen, but ... leather?
the only one "with leather on it" i can think of is that Waylon Jennings Tribute model
that he used at the Vancouver show in 2006, which obviously isn't what we're talking about here


ps: yorkey, thanks for amending that caption, but it's "sunburst", not "sunbird"



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2009-07-16 12:51 by with sssoul.

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with sssoul
ps: yorkey, thanks for amending that caption, but it's "sunburst", not "sunbird"

Sorry Trust me to f-up something silly like that.

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with sssoul
>> The Rosewood Tele was only used in '81 and '82, has the cover of the neck pickup removed, and was never adjusted for five string open G. <<

well ... the fact that Keith used it on stage only in 81/82
doesn't mean he never had it around in the studio or for a photo shoot.

That's not what I meant. I meant that it has never been converted to five strings, so the picture must be tricked. There's some pics of the '89 rehearsels and there this guitar still is six string.

Mathijs

[members.tripod.com]

Is this the guitar you mean?

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wild_horse_pete
[members.tripod.com]

Is this the guitar you mean?

No. that is Sonny.
whitch is not a Sunbird but a '67 Sunburst.

we're talking Rosewood Telecaster like this, and probably only this one:

by Ulrich E.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-07-17 04:25 by open-g.

>> I meant that it has never been converted to five strings, so the picture must be tricked.
There's some pics of the '89 rehearsels and there this guitar still is six string.<<

ah so - can you post the 89 photos where we can see the rosewood Tele, please please please
and thank you very kindly?