Interesting article discussing Andy's guitar
Posted: 25 Aug 2007 15:24Today's Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about Fender's production of "relic" guitars that have been factory-treated to have the same beaten and well-used look of their originals. The article discusses both Andy's guitar and Sting's bass:
"In a few instances, guitar makers have sold limited runs of replicas, with every nick, scratch and stain duplicated on new instruments made to look and feel like those made famous by Eric Clapton, Mr. Page and the Clash's Joe Strummer. Fender is producing copies of Police guitarist Andy Summers's 1961 Telecaster -- which he bought used in 1972 for $200 -- which are authentic right down to the broken bridge and quirky custom electronics. The 250 replicas are being offered at $15,000 each; dealers have already sold most of them, sight unseen, according to Fender and dealers.
This summer, Mr. Summers is using three of the replicas on his band's reunion tour; he is leaving the original home in Los Angeles. The British-born guitarist says that visually and musically he can't tell the difference between the doppelgangers and the original, whose battered paint job he compares to "a map of a foreign planet."
When Mr. Summers was shown the first finished duplicate, at a recording studio in Los Angeles, he says he experienced "a quantum-physics moment. I said: 'It's back at my house. How's it here? It's an impossibility!"'
Such sentiments run counter to the emotional attachment many guitarists feel to their main instrument. In an autobiography published last year, Mr. Summers wrote about his Telecaster in deeply romantic terms: "Arriving at this guitar was a bit like having several relationships with the wrong women before finding the one you truly love and will spend the rest of your life with."
Selling duplicates to potentially any hobbyist with a five-figure budget, then, spawned "a peculiar feeling," Mr. Summers acknowledges. But he says, he doesn't want to be "insane" in his possessiveness. "People love it and I want to share it." The "reasonably substantial" fee Fender is paying him has helped him get over any lingering hesitation. "It's like found money," he says.
On the tour, Mr. Summers's bandmate Sting is playing a replica of his worn 1955 Fender Precision bass. The company says it made just one copy for him, and hasn't approached Sting about a production model of his instrument."
"In a few instances, guitar makers have sold limited runs of replicas, with every nick, scratch and stain duplicated on new instruments made to look and feel like those made famous by Eric Clapton, Mr. Page and the Clash's Joe Strummer. Fender is producing copies of Police guitarist Andy Summers's 1961 Telecaster -- which he bought used in 1972 for $200 -- which are authentic right down to the broken bridge and quirky custom electronics. The 250 replicas are being offered at $15,000 each; dealers have already sold most of them, sight unseen, according to Fender and dealers.
This summer, Mr. Summers is using three of the replicas on his band's reunion tour; he is leaving the original home in Los Angeles. The British-born guitarist says that visually and musically he can't tell the difference between the doppelgangers and the original, whose battered paint job he compares to "a map of a foreign planet."
When Mr. Summers was shown the first finished duplicate, at a recording studio in Los Angeles, he says he experienced "a quantum-physics moment. I said: 'It's back at my house. How's it here? It's an impossibility!"'
Such sentiments run counter to the emotional attachment many guitarists feel to their main instrument. In an autobiography published last year, Mr. Summers wrote about his Telecaster in deeply romantic terms: "Arriving at this guitar was a bit like having several relationships with the wrong women before finding the one you truly love and will spend the rest of your life with."
Selling duplicates to potentially any hobbyist with a five-figure budget, then, spawned "a peculiar feeling," Mr. Summers acknowledges. But he says, he doesn't want to be "insane" in his possessiveness. "People love it and I want to share it." The "reasonably substantial" fee Fender is paying him has helped him get over any lingering hesitation. "It's like found money," he says.
On the tour, Mr. Summers's bandmate Sting is playing a replica of his worn 1955 Fender Precision bass. The company says it made just one copy for him, and hasn't approached Sting about a production model of his instrument."
