The Fender Telecaster: The Life and Times of the Electric Guitar That Changed the World

by Dave Hunter, Redd Volkaert (Afterword)

Fender’s Telecaster is one of the icons of the guitar world. It’s not just manufacturer’s hype that this is the one of the most famous guitars of all time€”it was the first production solid-body electric guitar, setting the style for everything that followed. To say this guitar changed the world of music is no over-the-top boast. This is the first history and giftbook devoted to the legendary Tele. It covers the development of the guitar and the famous players who made it their own, from the first 1949 prototype to the launch of the model in 1950 as the Esquire, through the Broadcaster, infamous ";Nocaster,"; the Telecaster€”and its numerous variations today.

Genres: Music, History, Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Rebekah]

Not a guitarist but this was interesting

[Lara]

What can I say? If you love Telecasters, this book is for you. A decent read, beautiful photos, lots of information. It helped me discover a few great tele artists that I didn't know about before, and that's priceless.

[James]

Pornography for Telecaster-lovers: lush and luscious photography, frenetic text in bad need of proof-reading, and a cart-load of unappeased desire on every page.

It's not the encyclopedia you were hoping for. It's a tease.

Try Six Decades of the Fender Telecaster: The Story of the World's First Solidbody Electric Guitar or (more comprehensively) 60 Years of Fender: Six Decades of the Greatest Electric Guitars for more full information and better text.

[Lori Levise]

Thank you to Goodreads for this free copy!
I was super excited when I received this book! I have played guitar for over 40 years for personal entertainment. I also spent some time working with bands. One of my favorite guitars I have owned was a beautiful Telecaster Thinline, i loved the feel and sound of that guitar! So when I received this book and saw it was a large coffee table book, it felt like Christmas! Great pictures and layout. Guests almost always leaf thru the pages even if they aren't guitar people. But as someone else stated the captions aren't correct sometimes and the text has some confusing spots. But still, a fantasticbook for the guitar lover.

[John Porcellino]

Excellent photo book detailing the history of this groundbreaking guitar. Lots of juicy photos/closeups, and the history is painstaking. I enjoyed the separate sections on famous Tele players and learned a lot. Two caveats: it weirdly ends (prematurely) in the mid-70's-- and it sure could have used a proofreader!

Nonetheless, this was an inspiring and well-informed book with gorgeous photography.

[Doug]

Yeah, it's a coffee table book. Not much technical stuff, but good light reading if you're a Telecaster player and/or fan.

[Jim]

Some history (that cuts off too soon, unfortunately) and some commentary by artists famous for playing Telecasters, but mostly photo after photo of those beautiful Teles.

[Bob]

Very cool stories about artists and their telecasters