A 1952 Fender Telecaster

Details

A 1952 Fender Telecaster
Serial No. 2921, neck date and initials TG 3-25-52 in pencil, in natural finish, body with single cutaway, maple neck with skunk-stripe routing, twenty-one fret fingerboard with dot inlays, bridge baseplate with three adjustable saddles, two pickups, two rotary controls, selector switch and black pickguard; and a brown hardshell contour case with brown plush lining and Lee Dickson's handwritten tie-on label inscribed Natural Blonde Tele 52 921 and adhesive paper label similarly inscribed

This guitar was given to Eric Clapton by Carl Radle, bass player with Derek and the Dominos, in c.1969-1970. Clapton said that he "...used this guitar throughout the Dominos period..." and for a lot of stage and recording work at this time and throughout the 1970s.

Fender Tele/Natural

Literature

HENKE, James Eric Clapton: The Rolling Stone Interview in Rolling Stone, Issue 615, October 17, 1991, p.106

Lot Essay

The letters TG on the neck are the initials of a Fender employee.
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 1991, Clapton spoke of his friend Carl Radle: "..Carl was like my brother. He brought me out of my seclusion when I was taking heroin after the Dominos broke up. He stayed in touch and found Dick Sims and Jamie Oldaker and said this could be our new band. And it was. And then drugs got into that and booze and it created a monster again...It was all drug related. And within six months Carl was dead...Now I look at it all and see what a waste and what a great player he was and I'm sad. I mean, drugs have a lot to answer for in my life..."

The stage-shots illustrated show Clapton playing this guitar on two occasions:
a) At the KB Halle, Copenhagen, April 21, 1974

b) At the Garden Party IX Concert, The Crystal Palace Concert Bowl, London, July 31, 1976

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