He used it on Durham! Don't know which song.

So there IS a god!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-06-28 11:27 by bv.

he used it on SMU.

He also used in VA on Thursday. I was glad to see it again. THose are some sweet guitars and have played on several of those myself. I know it brings back some memories for some of yall who saw them on the 78-83 tours.

"When I was a junkie I learned to ski, and I recorded Exile on Mainstreet" Keith Richards

Great to hear he used it on Start Me Up. Can't wait for the bootleg to hear the sound. By the way, there was no tour in 83.
I think it's great he varies the choise of guitar, even for one song.

Great news!!!, is there any other song played on this guitar ?

I would like to see Brown Sugar and JJF played on different guitars.
Maybe these warhorses would sound fresher.

he used his plexi dan armstrong too. I would like to know on wich song.
Ronnie used one during licks

When was the last time he used the dan armstrong on stage: 1971, 1973 ?

71, as far as i know ...

He used the '72 Tele all-black custom EXTENSIVELY at Hershey. Going to Philly tonight and hope he's got it out again.

When was the last time he used this piece? Winos 92-93?

From what I remember in Hershey, Keith used it on SMU, All Down The Line, possibly She's So Cold and some others. He also has a cream-colored '72 Tele custom that he pulled out at least once during the show.

I have a copy of this guitar (not Fender copy's that are out now, a custom shop that actually makes less expensive and better quality than the Fender reissues), and it is the coolest guitar! It growls like a monster, bites like a Tele should, and just has a killer look!

this guitar is a real custom -- its not even made from the same wood as the others you find from the same year -- keith played the plexi for bitch at msg

BECAUSE IM OLDKR
www.oldkr.co.uk

I want to hear Brown Sugar played on a gibson guitar with humbuckers!! That's the way it was recorded, and it sounds so powerful...

oldkr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> this guitar is a real custom -- its not even made
> from the same wood as the others you find from the
> same year

Sorry, that's not true. Keith bought his first Tele Custom from Gene Warner (now repair man at Krazy Kat Music) in San Antonio, TX June 2nd 1975 (the exact date is known since the local dealer made it to national press with his story). According to the dealer, he had the guitar for about half a year, meaning it most probably was a 1974 model. In all accounts, it was a regular off-the-shelf Custom, straight from the factory: a two or three piece ash body, maple neck, bridge single coil pickup and fender Wide Range Humbucker in the neck, classic three-saddle Telecaster bridge, white switch tip. Keith used this guitar during the 1975, 1976 and 1978 tour. He replaced the guitar for the 1979 tour (most probably due to a bunch of guitars being either stolen or damaged in the 1979 Redlands fire) with a late 1975/early 1976 model with the then modern 6-saddle bridge, and a black switch tip. He used this guitar for the new Barbarians tour. Somewhere before the 1981 tour (probably during the Longview Farm rehearsals), this guitar was modified: the Fender 6-saddle bridge was replaced with a Schaller modern 6-saddle bridge, the tuners were changed to Schallers, and the jack cup was replaced by a Gibson Les Paul type jack. The switch tip was changed back to white, as it was replaced by a click-less Les Paul switch. This guitar –a straight from the factory late 1975/early 1976 model- would be his main guitar for the 1981 and 1982 tours and his Hail Hail R&R guitar. The guitar returned in 1993 for the Winos, but now in 5-string modification: it was strung to 5 strings, and the low E slug of the single-coil was pulled and filled with wax, in order to get rid of unwanted noise. It was put away after the Winos tour, only to be pulled out again for the last two shows of this 2005 tour! Notice another change: the pickup selector switch has moved to the neck pickup’s tone pot. In this way, Keith won’t accidentally hit it as he plays really high on the neck when playing open G.

The white Custom Telecaster is a late 70’s one, probably 1978 or 1979. During these two years, the volume and tone knobs changed from Amp/witch hat style to smaller, true guitar knobs in black instead of black with aluminum top.

To me, the classic Keith sound I like best is him playing the Custom with both pickups on. Check out Hampton 1981: he plays like this for 75% of the time. It’s warm, fat, and still biting. Check out Just My Imagination, Shattered, Beast of Burden, Going To A Go-Go –it’s all that sound.

The only way to get this sound is with a true, vintage Wide range humbucker on an ash body. These pickups are very muddy, but there’s a trick: Fender installed 1 MEG volume pots to clean up the muddiness. The Mexican reissue of the Custom Telecaster is worthless: it’s an alder body with thick plastic coating, and the Wide Range humbucker is just a cheap Mexican humbucker installed in the bigger casing. It sounds and plays like shit. In order to get the real Keith sound you have to buy a vintage Custom, but these are expensive, and 70’s Fender’s can be really heavy and quite badly made. There is another option: the Japanese make an exact copy of the Keith Custom, including ash body, thin polyurethane coating and the big Schaller tuners. The Wide Range Humbucker is the same as the Mexican one, so you need to replace it with a vintage unit, which can be found for about $250, and the bridge pickup is terrible too, so you need to shell out for something good like a Seymour Duncan Antiquity. The guitar is far better made than American Fender’s as they are made of light ash, and the Japanese just know how to build guitars. Their craftsmanship truly is excellent. Sadly these guitars aren’t imported to Europe or the US, but you can order them straight from Japan, and will cost about $1000 including tax. So, for $1250 you have a better guitar than the US made guitar, and you will sound like Keith in 1981!

Mathijs

the sound was down & dirty from that black guitar in hershey on SMU ,,,very diferent than any other SMU version ,,, he didn't use it on shes so cold ,,,the video was posted here ,,it should b a few pages back ,,,i dont remember it for all down the line either ,, but i could b wrong

Didn't he use the black fender on Not Fade Away in 94? Must have been a different guitar as that was in standard tuning.

uz2bstoned Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
Must have been a different guitar as that was
> in standard tuning.

It is truly possible to tune an open-g guitar into standard tune - and vice versa ^^

hey Reptile,
i altered the headline
*heheh*

Monsieur Maillot and Ms Sssoul, I was surprised as anyone to learn that the last time that Keith used the Dan Armstrong was actually 1972, a year after the Nellcote robbery. Evidence of the ol' glazzies:



Thanks to Harold Colson for the photo by the way. I think this photo was taken in San Francisco either June 6th or 8th.

thanks ChrisM for that fine photo -
yeah, Mathijs mentioned last night on another thread that Keith bought two more
after his original plexi buddies were stolen, but he didn't like the new ones.

and Mathijs, thanks for all these additional details - i am fascinated.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-09-24 09:21 by with sssoul.

This is where you can find the Japanese tele.

[www.ishibashi-music.com]

If you are not a purist, the G&L Classic Blues Boy is one hell of a telecaster

[www.glguitars.com]

C

the 76 custom that he's playing at the moment is made of alder its as mathijs points out a modified promo model-- the rest of em were made from ash , keith mentions it in (i think???) Q aug 88

BECAUSE IM OLDKR
www.oldkr.co.uk

Keith himself said the '72 cost is solid mahagony.

that may be so but he's not playing a 72

oldkr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> that may be so but he's not playing a 72

These so called '76 costums don't exist. This is a '72 costum model. No doubt.

custom, Reptile sweetie, custom.

with sssoul Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> custom, Reptile sweetie, custom.

It may be constructed in '76 but it's still a '72 model.

Reptile Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> with sssoul Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > custom, Reptile sweetie, custom.
>
> It may be constructed in '76 but it's still a '72
> model.


Actually Im pretty sure his is from '72. The de luxe came in '74 right? He has a blonde custom which is from '74 right? Small differences but really the same guitar. They're made in Mexico today whch is a step forward from the Japan-era in the 80s/90s.

If you ask me this one is from '72. Easy as that.

Above statements aren't correct. The Fender Telecaster Custom was originally a standard telecaster, only the body was bound (a stripe of white plastic around the body) and initially was only available in sunburst with a rosewood on maple capped fretboard. This guitar was released in 1959 and remained in production until 1971. In 1972, at the Chicago Trade Show, the new, revamped Custom was released to the music press: the official name is Fender Custom Telecaster (so not Telecaster Custom), but ever since everybody refers to it as "the 1972 Telecaster Custom", in order to make a difference with the vintage (and thus much more expensive) 1959 Telecaster Custom. The 1972 Custom Telecaster was released in 1972, but actually almost none of them were available in stores -it wasn't until 1973 you could actually buy them. 1972 Customs with a 1972 serial number are virtual non-existant. So, the "1972" in the name is meant as a reference to the model, not the date it was build.

Until 1975, the Custom Telecaster was only available in black, sunburst and in late 1975, mocha (coffee brown). ALL black models (so also Keith's) were made of ash, but all (more expensive) sunburst models were made of alder, as alder has much more grain and figure in it's wood, wich shows up nicely on sunburst. Also, black models were mostly made of several pieces of wood glued together (sometimes up to six pieces), while sunburst was made of two pieces at the most. In 1976, there were some changes, but only in appearence: the headstock logo changed slightly, a six saddle bridge was fitted and 1 MEG post were also fitted for the bridge pickup (making it way too trebly actually), and the guitar came available in more colours: black, sunburst, white, mocha, blonde and some rare colours. In late 1978, the custom was fitted with cheaper, smaller black knobs, and the wood that was used was encredibly heavy. Also, the curve of the upper bout changed shape.

No matter what Keith says in interviews: all his customs have an ash body, and were run of the mill production models, and not prototypes. The first one was a 1974 acquired in 1975, and later he bought another one.

The white one he's playing at this tour, is a 1978 or 1979 model: white with black knobs were only made in these two years.

Keith spoke about the "custom made of mahogany that was too heavy". Keith was talking about his 1969 Fender Rosewood Telecaster from the 1981 and 1982 tours (that he used for Let's Spend the Night Together). There are no telecasters made of mahogany, except for some showcase models.

Last, the Mexican made Custom is by all accounts not a good instrument, and certainly worse than the Japanese line. The Japanese line is meant as the American counterpart for the Japanese market, while the Mexican's are meant as cheaper production Fenders. The wood and craftmanship of the Japanese is better than the American made guitars of today. The Mexican models feature the wrong wood, thick plastic coating and bad craftmanship.

Mathijs
ps I always assumed Keith played the custom for the last time in 1993, but I have a picture of Keith with a sunburst costom with a butterfly sticker on top, that is from a later date (but I am not sure of the date).





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-10-12 21:17 by Mathijs.

Mathijs, how do you know all this?

Reptile Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mathijs, how do you know all this?

I've been a guitar geek ever since I was 8 years old, and that was also the age I discovered the Stones. Now I am a collector, player, and anorak.

Mathijs