THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY
FENDER PAISLEY TELECASTER - ONE COMES HOME
Well, if this isn't the most heartwarming story on this old blog, I don't know what is. Let's go backwards in the wayback machine to the early '90s. My daughter (who is now 20) was just a little tyke and for her 4th or 5th Christmas I wanted to get her something to keep forever. I happened to walk into Moonlight Music in Encinitas, CA and there, hanging on the wall, was a reissue of the Fender Telecaster pink paisley guitar. It was made in the late '80s and I know it had not been in this store for the whole time, so maybe he picked it up NOS from another store or something. I decided that I would get it for my daughter and it could be something she kept forever and hopefully learned to play when she was older.
It's really a cool guitar. Some of you might have man issues with a guitar like this, being pink paisley and all, but keep in mind that it was made famous by James Burton who played with none other than the king of rock n roll himself, Elvis Presley. The original models from the late '60s now command huge dollars...tens of thousands of dollars. (Here is a great link about Paisley Teles). I am not positive, but I believe these reissues from the late '80s may have been the first time these were reissued. The quality is fantastic...they were Made In Japan at a time when the Japan factories ruled. I'm still a fan of the Japanese Fenders and actually prefer them over the USA models. The paisleys have since been reissued a couple of additional times, but the vibe is just not the same as these first reissues. In fact, they have started to command quite a bit of money themselves.
So, sadly my daughter never really took up the guitar. I say sadly mostly because she really has a knack for it and just never wanted to put any time into it. She could accomplish more in 20 minutes of learning than I could in days and days of practice. As she got older the guitar sat in its case in the closet. When she was almost 18 she moved out of the house. She was a tough one. After being out on her own for a year or so I figured she could probably use the money, and a friend of mine had become a huge fan of country star Brad Paisley. I guess if they made a guitar with my last name on it I would probably play one too, much as Brad Paisley had become known for playing original Fender Paisley Telecasters.
So I suggested to my friend that he see if my daughter would be interested in selling the Tele. I gave her my blessing and the deal was done.
I was happy that it had at least gone to a friend of mine and "stayed in the family" so to speak. My friend Rob is a guitar player, but his first instrument is drums. Amazing drummer actually. He loved the paisley Tele and did maintenance on it and kept it sounding fantastic. It's a really great sounding and playing guitar just straight up stock from the factory. So a couple of years has gone by and I have always told Rob that if he should want to sell it to call me first. Yesterday I got the call. Rob needed to unload a guitar and hounded him to sell me the Paisley...bring it back into the fold. After an evening of anguish he finally agreed. I drove over to his house tonight and picked it up and he practically cried handing it over.
The news was leaked to my daughter who is ecstatic that I have managed to bring it back home. I think she may be slightly mistaken though...it's MINE now. I guess she can have it when I'm dead and gone, but until then...