My friend Joel Lewis started building a custom Telecaster-style guitar, got it mostly built, and then gave it to me to finish. I put a Zebra-style Humbucker pickup at the neck instead of the standard single coil pickup normally installed at the neck of Telecaster guitars, so it has a different sound than a standard Telecaster.
Joel painted the guitar blue, but then we started discussing possibilities for the body. I sent him an image of a Telecaster guitar with the Sandias and a Sand Hill Crane on it that I had created as a mock-up. Then Joel suggested I do something with a Santa Fe Super Chief locomotive and a New Mexico Zia symbol. I found a nice stylized Zia symbol, a decent photo of a Super Chief locomotive, created the design, printed the images on vinyl skins and put the skins on the guitar.
The music video is a medley of three different songs with trains that cover different genres of music. I modified the lyrics a bit in each song to go with the Tele. You will probably recognize at least one, if not all three, of the songs.
The art work is impressive and the video is fun. 🙂
Thanks, Susan!
Awesome art!
Thanks, Cindy!
Great looking and sounding guitar! And the guitar player/singer looks like a real rock star. Keep on rockin’, my friend!
Thanks, Herman. It was a fun project.
Hey, that Telecaster looks familiar! I promise to check into that idea, I’m sure there’s a market for it. Fun video and song! Did I hear a bird screech about mid-way through??
Hey Tiffany. You could have heard or Conure screech. I checked the video and I forgot to mute one of the video tracks. I couldn’t hear the bird on it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. Years ago when I would record guitar parts for dancers to practice to, the Conure would end up screeching on some of the tapes. The dancers got used to having the bird screech it the tape, so when we performed live, they would get thrown off because the bird screech was not in the guitar part live.
Thanks for bringing it to life. Great job. At first I thought you were Terry Katz of Chicago.
Is Chicago still around? Last time I thought about them was on a Saturday in the park. It might have been the 4th of July. Thanks, Joel.
Chattanooga Choo-Choo, I Walk The Line, Locomotive Breath … and that’s not looking at the end of video credit roll. 🙂
Chicago, they haven’t been the same since Cetera left the group – and that’s a long time ago.
Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny cash is the second song in the medley. I have not kept up with Chicago, so I didn’t know Cetera left the group. I remember you had experience with them at Caribou Ranch. Didn’t one of the band members die in the late 70’s, or early 80’s as well?
Yes, Terry Kath. He accidentally killed himself playing Russian Roulette while drinking heavily. A sad way to go.
Silly way to go. But people do it.
The video looks great, Tim! “Is that the cat who chewed the new shoes?” 🙂 Nice paint paint job on the guitar.
The cat that ate my new shoes? Old Spunk. He’s still up to no good. Thanks, Lavinia.
An amazing guitar! Keep on rockin’ my friend!
The Tele is fantabulous!!!!
The vid rocks! What a lot of fun. Thank you!!!
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Thank you Resa. I’m really happy you like the guitar and vid.
FAB!!
That made me laugh Tim, Thanks for sharing…🙂
Hi Billy. I’m so happy it made you laugh.