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Palace Revolution 2000
Just blown away how rough this guitar is. Mathijs uses the word 'crude'. Exact;y. I always considered this kind of a nancy boy guitar; a bit frou frou . It looks totally different up close. The craftmanship, but one also gets the feeling that Keith played it quite a bit. At least more than the live history pics show.
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Mathijs
This is the info I gathered on the Ted Newman Jones made five-string guitar for Keith Richards. Build in late November / December 1972. Design is based on a drawing by Keith Richards, which where tow ellipses, one smaller than the other. Newman slightly tilted the ellipse. Body is made of 1 ¼ “ cherry wood, faced with Brazilian rosewood xylophone keys cut to 5/16” thickness. The Gibson PAF pickup was from one of Keith’s LP Custom, where Keith had taken out the middle pickup (the LP Custom used by Keith on the 1970 and 1971 tour was stolen at Nellcote and then purchased by Steve Marriott. It had the middle pickup missing when Marriott bought it). The first installment had a Leo Quan Bad Ass bridge for six strings, and the guitar was missing the Luftwaffe model kit decals. For the 1973 European tour the Bad Ass bridge was replaced by a crude strip of wood with Gibson tune-o-matic saddles. Tuners are gold Grover tuners.
When up close it is striking how crude the guitar is made. The head stock is rudely sawn and does not appear to be sanded properly, the pickup spaces look like they were chiseled out roughly and not properly routed. The bridge is just a crude strip of wood, with the ground wire wrapped around the strings and run to the electronics cover plate over the body. Neck shape appears to be fairly thick D-shaped, and in combination with the 5-string spacing I can imagine it must feel like a thick banjo neck.
Mathijs
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MathijsQuote
Palace Revolution 2000
Just blown away how rough this guitar is. Mathijs uses the word 'crude'. Exact;y. I always considered this kind of a nancy boy guitar; a bit frou frou . It looks totally different up close. The craftmanship, but one also gets the feeling that Keith played it quite a bit. At least more than the live history pics show.
I am not sure he played it a lot after the 1973 tour -the strap that is still on it is simply cut off, and this is the exact strap he used for the 1973 tour. The whereabouts have always been unknown, ranging from being stolen, lost in a fire, sold/given to the hard rock cafe. Now it seems more likely it simply has been stored since 1973 in a warehouse.
Mathijs