Keith Richards' "Micawber" Telecaster - If Guitars Could Speak... #2 

It's a LOT more fascinating that KEITH is still here. He's going to outlive us all.

I play a telecaster today partly because of Keith Richards. I started playing telecasters back in ‘83. They are a very solid, durable reliable good sounding guitar for rock n roll, country, blues and jazz.

The follow up to Let It Bleed ('69) was Sticky Fingers ('71). Exile followed in '72.

Who has the one dislike on this video? This was a great history of an iconic guitar. I'm not even a big Stones fan and I loved it.

I always loved the look and sound of a Tele with a humbucker in the neck. I put together my own Micawber this year and it's my number one now. Cheers Keith R, keep on rocking.

AMEN you can't beat the Master. ❤️ Philadelphia USA

Thank you for speaking for the guitars what great storys you have much appreciated

That’s a great synopsis of a legendary axe. Thank you.

Bless the Algorithm for letting me find this channel.

awesome video and if u have more videos on specific guitars like this im subscribing forsure!!! im a geek when it comes to this stuff

Thanks, i enjoyed this a lot. 😊

The PAF in the neck is the ONLY place I really like HB's.But that standard neck SC is pretty nice as well; hard to choose, maybe more HB if playing a lot of slide. Open and drops have finally caught on, thankfully, - really expands the vocabulary, as in all those QOTSA songs in C standard. Teles can have unbeatable mojo.

Micawber definition: a person who idles and trusts to fortune. Seems an apt name for a Pirates' weapon of choice. 😉

very good man.

The greatest rock and roll player .

3:02 when the humbucker was first installed, the pole pieces faced upwards. It was only years later when the pickup was flipped upside down. I don‘t know when but I think sometime in the 80‘s.

Great video.

Wonderful

Nice work here! Also, Is that the Dave's Guitars phone-on-hold music in the background?

I do this G Tuning a bit differently. I tune my Guitar to Open E & put a capo on the 3rd Fret to get Open G w/ a High G string.

no coverage of when he changed the bridge from ashtray with trad saddles? :P

Thanks for making this.!! Clapton did not give this guitar to Keith. He may have given him another Tele but not Micawber. These are from Ted Newman Jones. He states this himself, and Greg Prevost stands corrected also on mentioning it was from Clapton. there are many others that say the same thing. I thought Micawber was a 53' Fender?

Micawber actually does speak and has been speaking for 51 years

My dream guitar

At a critical juncture in the timeline, narrator completely skips over the monster album Sticky Fingers (between Let It Bleed & Exile On Main Street) an album which (I suspect) already saw Keith using the open G tuning on a 5-string Telecaster.

Hey Man, if u r interesting in Stones music equipment, wich song in wich tuning. It`s the very best book about the Stones in general, and of course of the instrument. The book is called, "the Rolling Stones Gear, all the instruments from Stage to Studio". Then all yours questions will be answered. And you and many other guys will read, that there is no open g in "Gimme Shelter".

Norm from Norms rare gtrs was involved with Lucy. he has a short vlog about it

what wood is this body made of?

So the bridge is like the GE Smith signature tele. A pedal steel bridge PU. Then a PAF hummer reverse mounted on the neck. Makes sense. I guess.

This whole thing is all wrong, Brian Jones died years before exile was being recorded and you meant to say coming off Sticky Fingers not let it bleed

Guitars can speak, and that's the Blues, the whole blues and nothing but the blues, so talk t'me Lucille...!!!

I have 2 Tele's..butterscotch blackface with rails standard tuning Babe...and a hollow natural wood in 5 string open g Blondie...best guitars in my opinion.

You give voice to an inanimate object that would be silenced...except when it's rocking!! LOL.

"Exile on main street" is the Richards`s album,and "Brenda" was dissapointed,with his Masterpiece.-

Keith Richards o imortal 😎💯♊😜🚫👍🙌

Keefer is so old...he sat in the sand playing guitar as the pyramids were being built....Long life brother..

Why would the neck pup matter? Every image I've seen shows the selector set at bridge only. Might just as well be a broadcaster.

thought he got this before sticky fingers and used it on brown sugar with the single PU in the neck?!?!!

A lot of guitarists will leave both the neck and bridge pickups open for their own signature.

was this the SYMPATHY guitar?

The Humbucker had the pole pieces near the neck for years and sounded better that way....72 73 75 78 81

Not on Exile but Sticky Fingers!

Not many know this story , but, when I was in england I took a job as food delivery ,and one day I delivered sandwiches to abby rd But later found I'd been cut .not really,

Who took the place of Bill Wyman?

I don’t believe Keith has taken the original Micawber on the road for quite some time now, due to it’s value and the fact that it’s irreplaceable. What you see onstage are replica Micawbers made by Fender, a la their distressed instrument line. Keith has had a number of guitars stolen over the years, most notably his Dan Armstrong that he used on the 69/70/71 tours.

Um that's funny because the Telecaster bridge pickup IS a lap steel pickup! If you knew anything about Fender is that he reused a lot of things and parts from other guitars that they manufactured is nothing new. This was used because Leo Fender lacked the technology and the funds to make a new pickup at the time that the Broadcaster (later named the Telecaster) would be constructed with and all other guitars sharing its' lineage! It would be like removing a Telecaster pickup to replace a Telecaster pickup - stupid really! Also worth noting is that Sperzel wasn't even a manufacturer until the 1980s - LONG after these modifications would be made. The original machine heads were SCHALLER made and used until the early 2000s. There's also McCawber 2 which shares the same bastardisation and it is a 1952 Telecaster which Keith has used since the late 70s. It is a backup and is used on all the albums that the Stones did since Beggars' Banquet. There's a really interesting article from 1989 on it where all these guitars are discussed in full available from Guitar Player Magazine.

If that telly could speak...and it does...it would say Please give me to someone who can actually play something And even tune me right!!!

its a 53....malcom is a 54

According to Richards the whole Clapton story is not true...

Pretty sure it’s a 53 not a 54

The Rolling Stones was always the kings of Rock And Roll since 1963!!!!!!! Because The Beatles isn`t Rock And Roll! They never were! They were just a ordinary rock band!!!!!! The Beatles never made a single Rock And Roll song! But The Rolling Stones have made Thousands of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Too say that McCawber has more mileage then Blackie, or Jerrys Wolf is a big mistake. We are talking about guys who played 300 gigs a year against guys who might play 50 shows every 5 years. Do better research.

Only utter BS could have stopped the greatest R&R band in the world. BS with a capital C.

Is he the most overrated guitar player ever? I think so

It wasn’t a gift from Clapton. Stop rehashing the same bollocks.