Some guitarists are happy to change their guitars like clothing, while Brian May would never dare part with his beloved six-string, the Red Special.
Chrissie Hynde falls distinctly in the latter category; she says she’s been offered countless free guitars throughout her career but has remained unflinchingly loyal to her Ice Blue Telecaster.
The Pretenders guitarist, who has also moonlighted as a session player, recording for the likes of Eric Clapton, and UB40, can be very singular. As the origin story of her inseparable Fender details, once she’s set her eyes on something, there’s no turning her away.
“I got it in the early days, somewhere in New York City,” she tells Guitarist, “Manny’s or one of those places. The guy had two Teles and I wanted to get one. One was a blue one and one had the original finish.
“The guy in the shop said, ‘Well, this white one has the original finish, so it’s going to be worth more.”
Such a sales pitch fell on deaf ears.
“Because I come from a punk mentality — and I really do have it,” she goes on, “I don’t like collector's items and all that. I said, ‘Give me the blue one.’”
She walked away with the Ice Blue Tele, and despite many trying to tempt her into playing different electric guitars since, every endeavor has been fruitless.
“In the early days, a guitar company would come and I’d go into a soundcheck and there’d be all these cases open with different guitars,” Hynde recalls. “They'd say, ‘Choose one. We’ll give you a guitar.’ I’d be like, ‘No, thanks. I have a guitar.’”
“‘But you can have any of these,’ they’d tell me… but I’d always say, ‘No, I’m okay with my guitar.’”
Speaking to Guitar Player in 2023, she admitted that, when she welcomed another guitar into her collection, they'd often move onto more loving homes sooner or later. For the sake of the instrument's well-being.
“I like the feel of [the Tele],” she says, “and it’s comfortable for me. I have had a few different guitars, but if I don’t play them for a while, I punish myself by giving them away, because I feel that it’s not fair to have that guitar in a lockup.”
It's no surprise, then, that the only time she joined forces with a luthier was with Fender in 2021, for a special reissue of the unique Tele.
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