Two years ago I had the opportunity to visit Norms shop. Not wanting to bankrupt myself, I only brought half my life savings with me in cash as we all know cash is king. What he has on display is nothing short of legendary. I was trying to control myself and shop for the best deal I could get on something truly awesome I could cherish forever. It took all the cash I had with me which was half of my retirement account, but I finally found the dream I could afford. I walked out of there smiling ear to ear and a skip in my step with not one...but TWO Fender medium heavy tortoise shell colored picks. It was a life changing experience I will never forget and my Grandchildren can pass them down to their kids as well.
@@drippinglass A Tesla is a much better car than an old Ferrari 250 GTO. Also, you will get much more drunk on a bottle of Jack than a vintage Bordeaux.
@@drippinglass your paying for the history it’s where it all began the vintage instrument will be profitable investment forever the Cs will hold its value although they look the same you can’t compare the two
Fortunately we all can celebrate his birthday on August 10th of this year. a much more upbeat way to honor the Legend. Death dates are depressing. Clarence Leonidas Fender # Legend......And he didn’t even play the guitar....But he’s in the RRHOF.
from "The FIRST EVER FENDER TELECASTER!!" in the title of this video, to "Has to be in the first batch of Telecasters, one of the earliest". Right! AHA. Talk about "out of control" and "ridiculous".
People can build anything nowday's,... a guitar... or a "57" Chevrolet from the ground up,... gotta love the picture of the original owner,...right....... it's all about money.........
He said possibly the first telecaster. The name telecaster on the guitar. As he stated before earlier series numbers the name broadcaster was cut off and they just use the Fender logo which gave them the nickname of no caster. Later they added the word telecaster and this might be one of the first few hundred guitars that got the telecaster logo.
So a 70 year old Tele.....and yet the design looks just like they do today, talk about getting it right the first time. Think about a 70 year old car compared to today....
These are examples of Show Queens. These are pristine and meant to stay that way, unfortunately. And, they probably don't sound that great. The few guys who can play the best always choose olde and well played guitars because they get better the more you play them and for longer. Who wants to be the guy to scratch up the perfect museum quality instrument? Wait 20 years and get these things CHEAP.
LOL on 10 year old guitars. You mean 10 year old PLAYER guitars. As I look forlornly at the Strat in the corner that now gets dusted periodically as a piece of art that I can barely play due to an uncoordinated left hand.
You can hear the engines starting for the race between John 5 and Bonamassa, to claim this. It's so pristine, I would only trust Norm to say it's legit.
Maybe, but the really “significant” ones always seem to have been bought by those guys (or “a really close friend”) before this channel even gets to know about them. My bet is that Norm’s price on this one may be too high even for Joe and John. Or...Joe uploaded a video to Instagram about a ‘58 ‘burst named “PJ” that he just recently bought. It may be that he needs to play a few more shows to gather the money for this one.
@@matthewjohnloren1995 yep, Joe lives nearby but I think he’s playing a few shows in Nashville ATM. But I could be wrong. Besides, like I wrote above, I’ll bet he’s already seen it, or pics, video, FaceTime, etc.
Ok - when Norm first showed that Tele, my first thought was - “Damn, Norm must be much older than I thought because his hands are crazy wrinkled!” Then, I realized he was wearing surgical gloves. Lol!!
@@gooseit You are correct. None of the rare instruments are put out for sale to the "commoners" before all the "chosen one" get a bite at it first. If this guitar is on RU-vid, it is also for the promotion of the shop. I just watched the video at the moment he said "under one thousand", and I briefly thought under one thousand dollars.... lol
Norm: "Why hello John, wait...how did you even know this Tele came in? I haven't even finished the video." John5: "My little birds are everywhere. They whisper to me the strangest songs."
Around 1980, Noman came to my house early one morning to look at guitars I had for sale. I had about 50 vintage at the time. He was ruthless & no deals were made. I know there are some incredible guitar forgers out there. Some of them go as far as using period correct woods, dated parts etc. I am curious if Norm has ever bought any without knowing it was a forged guitar?
@@brandonanderson2066 I don’t think it would be a neck swap. Due to the fact they date match and sign them with the bodies in pencil it would be pretty hard to neck swap that.
Lovely example but by no means the FIRST Telecaster. This one has late October body and neck dates where as the move to the Telecaster decal was in August. More click bait titles guys...
so....clickbait. You don't know it's the first one. In the video you say "one of the first, if not the first", the description says "one of the first", so your web person thought "that's not going to bring the clicks, I'll stretch the truth a bit". Just let it be "one of the first", it's a sweet guitar, most people coming to watch want it, don't go lying about it.
Correct. Fender basically massed produced the bridge plates and all were stamped in a chronological order. The techs grabbed a plate and popped it on to the guitar. I’ve got an 88 tele but the bridge plate is stamped 84. The date for mine is on the neck in the join. Still....nice guitar.
Such beautiful guitars, i love watching Norms videos but I can't help also feel sad for the owners who sold these, that so many of these guitars are so crazy beautiful but look almost unplayed and wish they were enjoyed more by the owners with more usage wear.
As a guitar builder, I totally understand that, but at the same time, I'm glad these examples do exist. Because, otherwise, we'd have none. Well over 90% of vintage guitars have been well played. It's extremely rare to find them in pristine condition like this, so these people serve a vital historical purpose. Manufacturers didn't keep perfect records back then, so these examples offer a lot of knowledge. Things like the production time and structure, like Norman touched on, hardware types, circuit variations, original unfaded colors, etc. These are museum pieces that are an important part of the historical record. All that said, what I wouldn't do to hear or even play one of these... But good lord would it scare me to even touch one. One bad pick stroke would add more wear in 1/100th of a second than it has seen over its entire 70 years.
I've bought a few guitars from Norm's shop and he, and the staff, are incredibly helpful and great to work with. I would highly recommend his store for anyone looking for a vintage piece.
I HAVE SOME OLD EPIPHONE GUITARS WITH THE NEW YORK PICK UPS / ZEPHERS N STUFF I HAVE A SET OF 1958 TELECASTER PICKUPS YOUR TELE LOOKS GREAT NORM, ALWAYS THE VERY BEST SHIT I GOTTA GET A 'KING OF LA T' YOU'RE A WALNUT NORM AND MAYBE THE 1st ONE EVER MADE IT'S A WONDER TO HEAR AND SEE NORMAN HARRIS DO HIS THING I ALWAYS PAY ATTENTION CARLOS GUITARLOS 90042
Tele patina looks too good for a 70 yr old guitar. That thing must of been tucked away in a room with the exact right temperature and humidity it’s whole life. Incredible if true. But the odds are staggering.
@@teleguy5699 a car is metal, a guitar is mostly wood. The desert heat is not kind to guitars. That’s why people who live in the desert have fret sprout so often. A guitars optimum humidity is 45-55%. You won’t get that in the desert .
@@Wargasm644 Yeah, I can see that. The patina might be less, but the body probably would have dried up over the years if that's where it was stored. Especially in that case. Not like some hermetically sealed box or something like that.
Blows my mind that Norm just keeps finding this stuff. It almost makes me think that the guitar companies back in the day kept poor records. These things just keep showing up all over the place
@@garymitchell5899 There are tens if thousands of older men who have been hoarding guitars and other collectibles for decades. It's not surprising to see guitars popping up.
I heard there's a Japanese " Billionaire " who collects rare, vintage guitars. I'll bet Norm could turn that guy into a " Millionaire " on the sale of that 51' Telecaster !
0942 is an early number anyway, but in my database I have Telecasters with even lower numbers: 0267 from 1952, 0747 from 1952, 0791 from 1953, 0910 from 1951. The latter from the same year as Norm's Tele.
Who cares about what year a guitar is or this and that depends on who's playing it and what song they're singing Kurt Cobain could take the shittiest guitar in the world and make songs that were genius doesn't matter what kind of guitar you have it matters who you are what you play and what songs do you have in your heart you can write the best song on a $5 thrift store guitar or you can write the shittiest song on a $5,000 over expensive guitar
This isn't really about how good the guitar is (if it's good it's a bonus) it's about what the guitar is and what it represents, a piece of history it's not going on tour any time soon, I'm sure you would pay a premium for Kurt's personal guitar whether it played well or not
If it doesn't matter than why are you here? And nothing personal but I think your comment is one of the fucking stupidest I have ever read. You obviously just don't get it.
this guitar is a relieque, telecaster sound is part of the history and it would be awesome for anyone to have one of the first telecaster ever made, is not all about playing it
Very cool find! Pretty sure a friend of mine has an early Tele. No serial number, it is believed to be a prototype. There was a long dispute between him and Fender on this to no resolve to date. It was his fathers (Scotty Turner)
An Epiphone Professional with matching amp was my first decent personal rig. Sold it when I was a college student to go to Europe. This example is cleaner than the one that got away. 👍
@@rikkousa three months in the French Alps was a good cultural exchange, as was my highschool experience of a summer in Rio. Didn't travel much after that. The old Epiphone Professional served me well but the lack of a bridge pickup left me wanting classic rock tones that I couldn't get.
There are NO words for that Tele,...exceptional, amazing, incredible and gorgeous pale in their descriptive form. That isn't a guitar, it is History and Art, it's Blues and Rock and Roll, it's Country and Inspiration, Bad Boys and Leather Jackets, White T-Shirts and Blue Jeans. It's America at it's glorious best. It is quite simply, stunning.
I'm always suspicious of vintage guitars that look like they were never played. A lot of the time it's because they just weren't very good guitars. Not something a player would want to pick up if something else was available. Either the didn't play well, or didn't sound good, and sometimes they just couldn't be tuned properly.
