The animated story of Jimmy Page’s mirrored telecaster

From Planet Rock.

When the world was first introduced to Led Zeppelin with two echoing chords in ‘Good Times Bad Times’ back in 1969 few people, let alone Jimmy Page himself. would have been able to predict the effect the band would have on rock music.

And the sound of that album was all largely down to one guitar, as Jimmy explains in a new video shared by Fender, who have recreated the mirrored / dragon Tele (one guitar, two incarnations, in case you’re confused) as an extremely limited edition, available only in runs of 50.

Jimmy Page's custom mirrored & dragon guitars ⓒ Fender

Jimmy Page’s custom mirrored & dragon guitar ⓒ Fender

The film tells of how Jimmy was gifted the plain white Telecaster by Jeff Beck after Page had recommended him for the position of lead guitarist in The Yardbirds.

The extravagant animations, partnered with Jimmy Page’s narration, go on to recount how Jimmy began customising the Tele, first with mirrors to catch stage lights, and then later by stripping it and putting his art school skills to good use, painting the vibrant dragon design, and adding a reflective pick guard.

Fancy snaring yourself one? Well, you’ll have to do some hunting to find the dragon issue for sale, listed as it currently is with no price. But the mirrored version is yours for a snip at $2,500.

And whatever happened to the original dragon Tele? Well, that’s actually a bit of a sad story, as Jimmy told Guitar World in 1998: “I still have it, but it’s a tragic story. I went on tour with (a) ’59 Les Paul that I bought from Joe Walsh, and when I got back, a friend of mine had kindly painted over my paint job. He said, ‘I’ve got a present for you.’ He thought he had done me a real favour.

As you can guess, I wasn’t real happy about that. His paint job totally screwed up the sound and the wiring, so only the neck pickup worked. I salvaged the neck and put it on my brown Tele string bender that I used in the Firm (in 1985 and 1986). As for the body, it will never be seen again!”

Lucky for Jimmy, and for us, there are now faithful replicas ready to take its place for generations to come.

Watch the behind-the-scenes making of the custom guitars below:

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