Fender Rosewood Tele - thoughts?

Blueingreen

Philly_Q said:

Blueingreen said:

richardhomer said:

This thread got me wondering what actually happened to Harrison's original. I knew he'd given it to Delaney Bramlett - and I had a vague recollection he'd auctioned it.

What I didn't know is that Olivia Harrison bought it back after George died. What a touching story:

http://www.fenderrocks.com/historic-fenders-george-harrisons-rosewood-telecaster/

A touching story regarding Olivia but it it didn't leave me with a lot of positive thoughts about Delaney Bramlett.  A pal gives him a guitar as a present and he sells it back to his widow for $470,000?  What a grasping dick.

To be fair to Bramlett, we don't - correction, I don't - know what his financial situation may have been, or what he actually did with the money.

Not convinced it makes any difference.  Presumably the guitar would have come down to Olivia anyway if her husband hadn't so generously gifted it to Bramlett, who he presumably considered a friend.  To fleece her for $470K to get it back isn't defensible  even if Bramlett was skint and/or donated the proceeds to charity. 

Clarky

"Fender Rosewood Tele - thoughts?"

they burn a little differently to maple Tele's

fretfinder

I wonder how many people who've been gifted a celebrity guitar have gifted it back again or given the proceeds to charity? Not many I would guess...

Blueingreen

fretfinder said:

I wonder how many people who've been gifted a celebrity guitar have gifted it back again or given the proceeds to charity? Not many I would guess...

It's not the not giving it back that's offensive, it's the greedy profiteering from it, especially at the expense of the guy who gave it to him's widow.

mart

Maybe he thought an auction was the only way of accurately establishing what a fair price would be for the guitar, so that Olivia Harrison could buy it back at the right price. I could even imagine that she might have recommended this. I doubt half a million would make much impact on the value of the Harrison estate.

Edit: ok, scrub that. I've now read the link above. Maybe he was just short of cash!

Philly_Q

I don't really want to keep going on about this, but did Delaney Bramlett actually sell it back to Olivia Harrison - knowing it was her - or did her representative (Ed Begley Jr. of St Elsewhere fame....) just buy it in an open auction?

If it was the former, that would be wrong. And a remarkable piece of bare-faced cheek. 

If it was the latter, he was entitled to do whatever he wanted with it.  The fact it was a gift from a friend was neither here nor there.  If you give someone a gift you don't retain some kind of moral right to get it back if they decide they don't want it any more.

Evilmags

ICBM;360295" said:

They look great - or at least the proper ones do, I don't think a veneered body with painted sides and a painted neck would - but I've never played one that sounded any good. It's not the weight, I just don't think rosewood is a very resonant body wood. I would second the comment about skinny necks and excessive gloss lacquer too. I've only played one original and that also had an overly glossy, narrow neck - though deeper, if I remember rightly - and weighed as much as a small star.

I suppose the advantage of a veneered basswood one is that it might sound better, but it's still just wrong and misses the point.

Unfortunately you can't base the decision on the tone George got out of his one, since he was going through a ton of great equipment, at Abbey Road, and he was George.

Interesting, as a cap on a mahogany body it seems very resonant, and that with a rosewood neck. How much lacquer is on them? Rosewood is used a lot in accoustics.

ICBM

That is all true for maple as well, but solid maple bodied guitars generally don't sound that good either. Rickenbacker 600-series might be the exception, but I'm not sure how much the body wood contributes to the tone on those.