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  Fender Telecaster Dragon


The Fender Telecaster 1959, nicknamed the Dragon Telecaster, had a rather adventurous life, ending in tragedy.
It was purchased in 1961 by John Owen for £ 107. Shortly afterwards fell into the hands of Jeff Beck, his band mate in "the Deltones. Beck took his guitar with him in the Yardbirds in 1965 as a supply for his Gibson Les Paul.
The original white pick guard in the Bakelite of theTelecaster broke; Beck replaced him with a homemade black pick guard. When Beck left the Yardbirds in August 1966, the Telecaster was left as a gift to Jimmy Page (with its original white mask).
In March 1967 appeared eight reflecting circles on the front of the guitar, perhaps as a symbol of Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd, who played a Telecaster like this in January 1967 for a recording session for the film Let's All Make.
Jimmy Page Fender bare the blond color at the end of 1967, hand painted a green, red and orange psychedelic dragon on the front of the guitar and replaced the pick guard with a transparent plastic mask with a sheet of plastic foil . Jimmy Page brought the Dragon Telecaster in Led Zeppelin and used it as his main guitar until April 1969 when he bought the Gibson les Paul n1.
The Dragon Telecaster was farther used on Led Zeppelin 4 for the solo in Stairway To Heaven. Jimmy Page said in a 1998 interview in Guitar World the following about the fate of the Telecaster Dragon: "I still have something, but it is a tragic story. I went on tour with the Les Paul '59, when I returned, my friend had kindly painted, covering my original paint. He said that it was a present for me. He thought he had done a great favor. As you can imagine, I was not happy about this. My paint was completely spoiled, the sound and the wiring changed, only the pickup on the neck was working. I picked up the neck and put it on the brown Telecaster for using it later. As for the body ... I have not seen it anymore (laughs)."

I built my Telecaster piece by piece, purchased over the Internet in an American website. The design of the dragon is a project of patience of a friend on adhesive paper and seems that it is drawn. I’m very satisfied with the work done, so since Jimmy hadn’t anymore the guitar, he knows where to play a very faithful one like his original.



 
 

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