Telecaster Time Redux

I believe the old saying is true – “[Blogging] insanity is writing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” like maybe someone actually reading it (?). But heck, I’m not in this for the clicks, it’s my blog, and I’ll retell it if I want to.

It’s about a guitar I bought in high school and how it went on to better things

Telecaster

In fact I spotted once an entry in my old savings account passbook the 1980 entry that was likely the withdrawal I made to buy the Telecaster from a classified ad in the Baltimore Sun.

My 1980 finances, old school bank passbook. The withdrawal on September 29, 1980 likely was for a musical item purchase.

Long blog post short, the lovely instrument ended up in the hands of my high school best friend’s son, who definitely put it to better use than I ever would. Kevin just texted me a video, and you can see it appear at the 4 second mark.

I like how this story panned out.

In 2015 from some fit of nostalgia I reached again for a Tele. I was in LA for maybe a DML conference? and when visiting my good friend MIkhail Gershoviz, when he offered to take me to a local guitar shop, I splurged and bought a new modern Fender Telecaster Deluxe. I rode home to Arizona with it on a train.

It was maybe one of those tweeted photos, that spun another story of generosity, when another ed tech guitar friend, Adam Croom, offered to send me his old Vox practice amp. The foam in the photo is from its shipping box!

You Think We Look Pretty Good Together flickr photo by cogdogblog shared under a Creative Commons (BY 2.0) license

I have kept this Tele.

Generosity flowed. When posting this new one, David Kernohan and Irwin Devries both, without even me asking or them telling, mailed me effects pedals.

No Matter How Much I Stomp on the Delay Pedal

Yet, I really do not do much except notice the dust collecting in it.

One day.

As it goes, I was relaying the story in our regualar “ketchup” calls with Gardner Campbell, and he unfolded his own “Telecaster in the basement” story. So now we have a plan for our next call to bust out our Telecasters.

Closing the loop, or maybe letting it endlessly loop, I went into the “music room” and tried to recreate my 1980 Telecaster pose with a 2025 recreation, and GIFfing them together, the old DS106 photogif way.