List of Telecaster players



Fender is a manufacturer of stringed instruments and amplifiers which was founded by Leo Fender. Among the best-known products made by Fender were the Telecaster, the Broadcaster and the Esquire. Because of the great popularity of these models, musicians are listed here only if their use of this instrument was especially significant—that is, they are players with long careers who have a history of faithful Telecaster use, or the particular guitar they used was unique or of historical importance, or their use of the Telecaster contributed significantly to the popularization of the instrument.

Esquire players are here listed alongside players of the more famous Telecaster, since Fender regards it as part of the "family of Telecaster guitars". While the one-pickup Esquire has been marketed as a separate model from the two-pickup Telecaster since its reintroduction in 1951, the Esquire and Telecaster are so intimately linked in their development and history, and so similar in design and tonal characteristics, that they are considered variations of the same model.

A-E


  • Syd Barrett, guitarist/singer/songwriter of the band Pink Floyd; used a unique mirror-disk covered Esquire and a 1960s-era Tele Custom.
  • Phil Baugh, a hot country guitarist whose song "Country Guitar" with Verne Stovall, recorded on his Telecaster, was a hit in 1964 and earned him numerous awards. He worked as a popular session guitarist in Nashville from 1975 until his death in 1990.
  • Jeff Beck Emerging in the mid 1960s with The Yardbirds, Beck proved that a ragged Fender Esquire could moan like a fuzzed-out violin. His lines in “Heart Full of Soul” and “Evil Hearted You” defined psychedelic guitar.
  • Ed Bickert was a premier jazz player who started playing a Telecaster when his regular guitar was in the shop, and he used it for the rest of his career.
  • Frank Black of the Pixies is a long-time Telecaster player.
  • Mike Bloomfield played a Telecaster on the first album by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, considered a groundbreaking example of post-Chicago electric blues. He employed the same instrument on Bob Dylan's hit single "Like a Rolling Stone" and the album Highway 61 Revisited. Most famously, Bloomfield played his Telecaster on stage with Dylan at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, at which Dylan "went electric" to much controversy among his fans.