The Story of the Blue Flower Telecaster - Ask Zac 202 

“A buddy of mine…” 😂 Terrific video, Zac.

You know how you can tell these guitars are straight up gawdy? Elvis’s guitar player was afraid to show it him. The guy who did his show in white jumpsuits covered in rhinestones, huge gold sunglasses and danced the way he did. James Burton was afraid to show THAT GUY the guitar 😂😂😂. That’s how gawdy the guitar is 😂😂😂. In a cool way of course.

thank you for another story that will fuel my unending affection for teles Zac

Wanted a paisley Tele for a while. Didn’t know how difficult it was to make. Once again another magisterial brilliant guitar history lesson from Zac.

I love that story. Thanks for sharing Zac! 🎸

I 1st saw cheapy lightweight body copies of both blue & pink years ago & bought them knowing nothing. What I now know I've learned mostly from you & I thank you. I just love 'em....

You are my kind of Tele nerd!❤

Great video, helps me a lot with understanding one of my guitars, which is an original Blue Floral '68. The sides are still blue, but of course the flowers are gone. All original parts, been in the family since '68.

I bought a blue flower Tele around 1973. The front and back of the body finish had disintegrated and had been refinished with a clear coat. The edge of the body still had the blue paint. I had the guitar shop remove the blue paint and refinish with a clear coat for a uniform appearance. I painted the back-side of the clear pickguard to hide the body routes. I was very happy with it! Back in the day when guitars were just instruments, not collectible! Oh well!

Just magnificent stuff, Brother. Long live the tele....!

Fascinating never seen one of those Blue floral Paisley ! Thanks Zac it's great

Thanks Zac, fascinating to see the origination of these. I have a Custom Shop ‘71 (?) reissue thats Blue Flower/Thinline/Wide Range HB’s and a Strat bridge. Lovely guitar.

I have a Made in Japan 1984 version of this guitar. Amazing to play and the finish has held up well! Thanks for featuring this guitar.

I have a Fender Japan blue floral tele. I love it, one of my favorites! I've always been curious about the history and building techniques. Thanks Zac for doing this! A real treat!

My sheet of vintage cling-foil is dimpled rather than "weaved" let's say, like the paisley stuff. Truly a unique product!

As I recall, a lot of companies were trying to cash in on psychedelia post the Summer of Love (1967) and Flower Power, and not just in clothing. That may have been the motivation behind the Pink Paisley and Blue Flower Teles. It was a quick and dirty way for a manufacturer to jump onto that particular bandwagon without having to make a major investment. After all, Fender are a So Cal company and California was where it was at musically in America at the time. Haight Ashbury was at its height and an awful lot of Fender's best customers were moving in with each other in Laurel Canyon and forming new bands.

no rewards without risks. i like these teles and i appreciate them taking a chance

Zac, First LOVE your channel! You, 5 Watt World and Rick Beato are the best music channels anywhere! I’ve researched your episode history and couldn’t find any episode devoted to the Gretsch guitar. Particularly that the greatest country, or any genre, guitarist was a Gretsch aficionado it would certainly offer an interesting history.

12:34 - a “buddy”. :)

With all respect Mr. Zack. That is one "FUGLY" Guitar. You rock. Have fun on tour. I'll stay tuned in.

I have been wanting to build one of these forever but I missed the boat on the allparts bluepaisley bodies. Great video and history lesson. Thank you very much.

With poly they still sound great and the full maple necks on those ‘69s are amazing. Ask James Burton. 😉

The more I look at them the more I love them. Especially the blue.

Very informative, thanks Zac. I've always liked the Blue Flower Teles.

Absolutely fantastic have a wonderful day Zac ❤😊

Great video Zac, my Xotic T style guitar I ordered 6 months ago is supposed to come any day, the wait is killing me.

To do a more durable reissue of this the design should be silkscreened. Leave the paper behind. Wonderful video - thanks Zac!

I love them. So quirky and cool. I have a Pink Paisley MIJ from '97 and a Blue Flower MIJ from 2019.

I’ve wanted to build one of those! I remember on the Reranch forum a person was also using cloth bandanas vs contact paper.

I've heard of that friend with the "black" paisley... thank you for sharing this!

Your buddy with the black refinish Tele… Was it Brad Blue Flower? 😂

Thanks Zac, really interesting video.

I had a 2000s MIJ RI that I got in like new condition for $550 and I traded it because I didn't like the pickups. I always regret it. But - the series of trades ended with the 2001 SG Standard that I have now and it's really good too.

Mahalo Zak! Another informative show.

fascinating history ,thanks Zac

Awesome video! My number one guitar for the last 20 years has been a blue floral reissue Tele. Would love to have an original ‘68.

I’m telling ya Zac can tell a good story. Cheers 🍻

I enjoyed today's episode.

Great video !

For a second, I thought you had Brad’s blue paisley! That thing must be a one-off. I don’t remember seeing an original blue flower, either. These things are all super cool…why does a yellowed clear coat make everything look so much better?

Top job Zac 👍

The shade on sides is perfect.

Just watched the Zak Kuhn interview with Brad and said I wanted a long form video about Brad getting that guitar of his. The Blue Unicorn Tele.

Cool episode Zac. Very informative. Glad to be a Patreon and see some of these episodes early. It must have been frustrating for someone back then to have payed the equivalent of over 400 dollars extra only to find out that the finish wouldn’t hold up in the long term. I wonder what price those rare examples would fetch these days.

Cool story- thank you!

I remember at Ace Music they were trying to sale Telecaster Bass for $200. Who knew.

Really cool story! I’ve only seen one of these before. I didn’t know it came from fender as the paisley did…

Great video Zac, this topic has never been as extensively covered (or as accurately). Regarding your estimate at the intro, I think it's more like 10x the number of pink paisley compared to blue flower. You rarely ever see the latter. I'm lucky to own one of each, they're super cool guitars.

I bought one of these in 1968 at Washington Music Center. It was great until the finish started cracking and then curling up.

You mention Tele sales dropping off in the early ‘60s and picking up again in 1966. That was probably due to one guy-Mike Bloomfield. When he first came to prominence around 1965 with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and then with Bob Dylan, he was playing a Tele. I think a lot of rock guys, of which I was one back then, got interested in Teles as a guitar for rock and blues virtuosos. Jeff Beck was playing one too. Regarding Blue Floral and Pink Paisley Teles, I graduated high school in ‘68, the year those came out, and growing up as a hippie-in-the-making in San Francisco, I thought they were goofy, and an example of Corporate America trying to be cool. Well, I was 18…At some point, I got to thinking the Pink Paisley was OK, probably because of James Burton, but in the early ‘70s I was still a Gibson player. I got my first Tele new in 1974, sunburst with a maple neck, and really didn’t give it a chance-it was so different than the Les Paul I’d been playing, and I traded it in on a new Strat. Later in ‘74, I got a ‘59 Tele and realized how great they can be. Loved Teles ever since, and when I started playing country, I had the right guitar for the job. But I’ve never owned a Paisley one, although I wouldn’t turn one down!

Have you ever checked out Daves Guitars in LaCrosse, WI? Vintage Tele heaven. Also I love the Jesus sticker. Big love from KY!

I have a partscaster in almost the exact color as the side of that Tele. The company I bought the body from calls it Sherwood Green.

I remember when these and the pinks came out ... they caused quite a stir. Then and now, I actually prefer the BLUES!

Great video Zac. I have a Fender custom shop blue flower ‘68 which is now my favourite guitar. Do you know what the plan is for the brown refinished guitar on the video? I hope it will be refinished one day soon.

My dream guitar. I have a reissue Tele and Strat, but they just don't look like the original. Would love to find someone that can copy the original pattern.

I have a complete all original hardware and case pink paisley in great shape. So I don’t take out on gigs anymore, haven’t in many years but it also has a sound I can’t match with any other tele I’ve tried. Do you think the finish has something to do with the sound

The bump in Strat popularity in the UK would also have been helped by the lifting of the post war import embargo.. Prior to that US made guitars were very hard to come by in the UK, hence the popularity of brands like Burns, Watkins, Hofner etc..

They had one for sale in the 80's at a store across the street from Manny's in NYC called We Buy Guitars for a couple of hundred bucks. I really wanted to buy it but I couldn't come up with the money. Oh well.

Marketed to the flower power hippies who generally had no money.😊

Hey Zac - is the left side of the VS XO an ODR1/Open Road?

It bothers me the Fender reissues have so little of the "paper" finish on them. The edges of blue or pink start way to early on the front and rear. Would love to add a blue floral to the collection, but the reissues don't look right. Cost saving method I suppose, but I am the proud owner of an Early Crook Custom Pink Paisley that looks amazing!

I have a tale of a sparkle silver '68 Tele I butchered that was resurrected to its original glory via a Marty Bell sparkle silver refinished '68 Blue Floral body. Before you call the cops, the '68 Blue Floral's body had deteriorated to the point the frustrated owner had its body refinished in Lake Placid blue. The original sparkle silver body of my '68 had been stripped to bare wood in the early 70s, routed for a humbucker and basically beaten to crap. I finally gave it away and replaced it with a Warmoth (still have it as basis for a Partscaster). To honor the sadly deceased original owner of the '68 sparkle silver, from whom I'd traded for it in '73, I decided to restore the guitar to its original condition. Number one I needed an original EARLY '68 body with the wire channel and recessed ferrules, which is what the Feb '68 spatrkle silver had. The refined Blue Floral body was for sale on Ebay and filled the bill. Marty did a stupendous job of the finish and the guitar is now all '68, just not the '68 that left the factory. Hey, that body needed a good home! The body came to me with the heavy tape over the wire channel intact, though it was removed to do the sparkle silver refin. It also came with the original clear Blue Floral pickguard, though it's in pretty bad condition.

So as often happened to guitars back then, many were deflowered!😂

Great video of Waylon doing me and Bobby McGee the guitar player in the background is playing one the video is probably from the 60 or 70s how about doing a video on the Waylon telecaster love your videos

Great episode! Lots of new info I haven't heard before.

Watching this with my project telecaster bass with the 1968 telecaster bass body. No foil here.

Is it possible that this was the material that was wrapped around Jesse Ed Davis' '59 Tele on the Rock n Roll Circus? It's a dark greenish paisley pattern.

Have you tried the Rolling b bender mod ?

Would these have been more difficult to do things like pickup/electronics upgrades? Does the paper cover the cavities?

I like your "Scandinavian" T-shirt. I live in Sweden.

12:34 “Buddy of mine” who just got back from the car wash to remove the Mud on the Tires of his pickup no doubt. Hee hee. Fun video Zac!

So is the guitar yours or your "buddy's" guitar

if this was purple i'd sell my gold paisley les paul for it

Who pays more money for the guitar with a different color. Really. Look at all the people who think it's a good idea to pay thousands more for a Gibson LP Murphy Lab. Hey guy's I have some new cars that look like they have a couple hundred thousand miles on to sell you for way more than a perfect new one.

Inflation. from 1968 to 2024. That's a $50. difference. According to the media, It's a 1 Billion dollar difference.

Ive never liked the finish on those guitars. Its a pretty poor quality finish

Personally. I would have went for the blonde. I would have saved $1 Billion dollars in 2024 money, and had a prettier guitar.🤣

Man this cat is always awesome