Bruce Welch Tech Talk Video.

[Iain Purdon]

I have removed two posts from this thread to nip an argument in the bud.
Message to the authors: please do not take other members to task here, it's not in the spirit of the site code of conduct and there's no need for it.
If you are unhappy about a posting, please report it to a moderator.
Thanks - Iain

[bosunbob]

[satman10]

Bruce has succinctly stated and confirming twice with great brevity that the Telecaster was not used to
record with, but instead was used for promotional purnposes. In saying this there seems no doubt to the accuracy
in the emphatic "no" & " yes" answers.
However, was the Telecaster as observed being played by Bruce in the three TV performances I've seen on YT, being played live or was the
performance mimed - a common practice on TV shows at the time.
That, I believe is an important question to ask and find an answer to for anyone interested in the Shadows use
of the Telecaster whether it be as a photographic prop, during a performance on TV, or during a recording session.
As Bill suggests, there may well have been more than one Telecaster in play here. After Bruce's comment it seems clear
the latter is a none starter now, and the guitars use as a prop is there for all to see,
leaving the appearance on the Cliff TV show: plugged in and played, producing live music, or mimed?

Sorry to drone on about this but, on another group, a member recalls from a conversation with an employee
of the musical instrument store that loaned our the Telecaster for the Shadows first album cover photo shoot
and another on an EP cover (my thought), that the guitar was subsequently returned and sold as Shop Worn at £75.
So perhaps, the Telecaster may have sustained the effects of, although probably brief, but heavy use.
Such as in photo shoots and TV studios. From my experience from long ago, if people lend out items to
production houses or commercial photographers, and while they pay quite well, there is generally very little concern
for the borrowed prop once the camera has done it job. Damage seems always inevitable.
I forget the name of the music store in London, Its still there.

Cheers
Bruce Gibbins.

Hi on this topic I can say that I was the person who purchased the blonde Fender Telecaster that belonged to Bruce in 1961 .
It appeared in Lew Davis's music shop in Charing Cross Rd London early springtime I think.
I later changed the colour to sunburst ,JMI ( manufactures of Vox amps)did a good job.
I had never owned a Fender before and purchased it because I could not afford a Fender Stratocaster .
Pete Clifford was our lead guitarist and had just purchased his second-hand Fender Jazzmaster from a London music store.
He was told that the guitar had previously belonged to the Shadows rhythm guitarist Bruce Welch.
I found out recently on the web ,that my Telecaster had been used by Bruce Welch.
The Shadows wanted a full Fender line up for their first LP cover , so they borrowed a Telecaster from 'Lew Davis music shop' for the photo shoot , and it was returned a few weeks later unsold.
I purchased it in a 'shop soiled condition' for a reduced price of £107!
Two years later , I swaped the Telecaster for a red Fender stratocaster.
I was playing in band called 'Grant Tracey and the Sunsets' at the time, and at a venue I met a rhythm guitarist named Dave Bower,his band was called 'The Cherokees', they had a hit record"Seven golden daffodils".
I recently tried to contact Dave by email to see if he remembered me ,and ask him if he still had my old guitar without success,and found he had moved to Canada.
He ran a recording studio there , so I contacted a musician who worked there by email , and he told me that Dave had had a stroke and was recovering.
Six months later he emailed me.
Dave did remember me after all those years, and he said he no longer had my old Telecaster , if he did ,it would be worth a bundle!
He signed off with "Those were the days".
Pete Clifford later joined the Echoes , and backed Dusty Springfield on her South African tour in 1964.
Pete stayed in South Africa and married a local girl.
He is now on his third marriage.
He was in a group called 'The Bats' and has been quite sucessfull playing his music...........
Footnote. The Sunsets with Pete ,Sid our bass player and myself changed our name to The Jesters because two other bands had the same name.
There was a group called The Sunsets in Wales backing a guy called Shaking Stevens ,and Grant Tracey and the Sunsets which I later joined!
So I was 'Sunset' twice!!

[Derek Mowbray]

Pete, you said Dave Bower was in a group called The Cherokees ,are they the group from Leeds ? and did they change their name to The New York Public Library.If they were the same group I saw them playing in a pub called The Fforde Greene in Leeds in 1967 so he could have been playing that Telecaster .

[GoldenStreet]

Bruce's Telecaster discussion in 2014

viewtopic.php?t=11162

Bill

[bosunbob]

Many thanks Peter for your valuable contribution to my original question regarding the
Bruce Welch Telecaster.

Best wishes.
Bruce G.

[JimN]

Sorry to drone on about this but, on another group, a member recalls from a conversation with an employee
of the musical instrument store that loaned our the Telecaster for the Shadows first album cover photo shoot
and another on an EP cover (my thought), that the guitar was subsequently returned and sold as Shop Worn at £75.
So perhaps, the Telecaster may have sustained the effects of, although probably brief, but heavy use.
Such as in photo shoots and TV studios. From my experience from long ago, if people lend out items to
production houses or commercial photographers, and while they pay quite well, there is generally very little concern
for the borrowed prop once the camera has done it job. Damage seems always inevitable.
I forget the name of the music store in London, Its still there.
Cheers
Bruce Gibbins.

The company that loaned Fender guitars to The Shadows was Jenning Musical Industries. They had a retail shop in Charing Cross Road, but this became Macari's after Jennings went under as part of the Royston Group crash.

I am not aware that Macari's has much of a reputation as a musical instrument hire facility, but cannot rule it out. What I can say is that the foremost firm hiring out musical instruments for recording, TV and film work was the well-known Maurice Placquet's, over at Shepherd's Bush, handy-ish for the West End, also for the recording studios in the arc between Marble Arch and St John's Wood and for the BBC's Television Centre (as was).