The Doors' guitarist Robby Krieger is the first guitarist to showcase a brand-new cardboard Telecaster, putting it through its paces during his take on the blues classic "Little Red Rooster."
Krieger features in the latest installment of the Cardboard Sessions video series, which finds the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and his band, Soul Savages, playing instruments made of cardboard.
The project was born from a collaboration between snowboard manufacturer Signal Snowboards and Ernest Packaging to use cardboard in ways never seen before. The material had proved useful for making surfboards, skateboards and even push bikes, and the community-based snowboard brand was looking for its next cardboard-based venture.
In 2015, the Fender Custom Shop joined the project to create a fresh approach to the Stratocaster, and the legacy of cardboard instruments has continued to grow since. The instruments, built at Fender's facility in Corona, California, are made of layered cardboard strong enough to withstand string tension, and have been played by Billy Gibbons and Keanu Reeves. Bass guitars have also been built, but a Tele hadn’t been in the cards until now.
Krieger, who unveiled the first cardboard Telecaster with some purring slide guitar licks, is an unusual choice for this particular model. He's usually seen playing a Gibson SG or a Les Paul. But he's unequivocal when it comes to his belief in the power of music.
“Music, I think, is the only thing that can mend the world," he says following his band’s performance, "and I hope we can do that before it’s too late. Music is the answer, so let’s keep playing.”
Soul Savages features keyboardist Ed Roth, drummer Franklin Vanderbilt and bass player Kevin Brandon. Their collective resume includes stints with Lenny Kravitz, Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder. Krieger’s son, Waylon, guest stars in this episode, trading licks with his father on a cardboard Strat.
Speaking to Guitar World, Cardboard Sessions’ Dave Lee says, “A lot of artists will see the cardboard guitar for the first time and joke, ‘You guys just took some pizza boxes and started stacking them together to make a guitar!
“That material is not as sturdy as wood, obviously, so there are some minor tweaks that need to happen,” he admits. “But they all have truss rods; you’re able to tweak ’em. The structural integrity is pretty amazing for cardboard. You can totally rock it.”
Billy Gibbons concurs with that sentiment. During his Cardboard Sessions video, the ZZ Top man can be heard exclaiming “Man, I like this thing!” while tracking an original song, "Slammin' on Cardboard" with Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum.
