People are always asking me about my guitar (one of 'em anyway) - a 1968 Fender Telecaster (picture). The history of this axe is an interesting story. Keep reading...
In 1976, I was playin' in a band with some friends called The Players. I was also giving guitar lessons at Virginia Music 2 or 3 nights a week... working for Bill Darr. My cousin, Michael Lacy, and I were switching back and forth on different shifts giving the lessons (our students were VERY confused).

At any rate, working at the music store allowed me to see the guitar trade-ins as soon as they came in and one night, this Telecaster came into the store. It was unusual in that it had some wood inlay work (an american eagle) done on it which may have hurt the actual value of it but surely made it very unique. Needless to say I really liked it and scarfed it up for $250!! I changed the pickups on it and turned it into a real screamer. I think maybe I may have been the second owner of this guitar but I am not sure about that. For this story we will assume I was the second owner.

I owned this Tele for about 1 month when a cherry sunburst Les Paul Deluxe came into the music store and I had to have that one... or so I thought. I immediately sold the Tele to a friend (with an agreement) so I could get the Les Paul. Played it for a couple of years and then traded it for a Guild acoustic guitar.

Somewhere around 10 years later, the friend (3rd owner of the Tele) contacted me and said he wanted to get rid of it so I bought it back from him. He had added a wooden laminate pickguard to it, so now it was even more unique. I had this guitar for a few more years and it was the one I was playing on the very 1st AMF band gig in 1986. I was now the 2nd and 4th owner of the travelling Tele.

When AMF first started playing together, I began to expand my guitar collection. I was playing the Tele and a Westone guitar when I spied a Paul Reed Smith over at Don Grubb Music that I simply had to have. I sold the Tele to one of my bandmates (again with an agreement) and bought the PRS. I then sold the Westone to another friend and I played this PRS exclusively for about the next 10 years or so. I really loved the PRS - it is still a great guitar!

Not long after selling the Tele to it's 5th owner, he contacted me about it. He didn't ever play it and wanted to sell it back to me. So I bought the Tele back again... now I was the 6th owner.

A couple of years later, I became desperate for money and again sold the Tele (agreement again) to it's 7th owner, my very best friend from childhood. He owned the guitar for many years while I began to acquire more... my 2002 fat strat, a 2004 GNL ASAT (Tele clone), a 2005 Deluxe Strat and my newest one, a 2006 American Deluxe Tele (thanks P). The '06 Tele is really a beautiful axe. During the years I was acquiring these new Fenders, I contacted my best friend several times about buying back the travelling Tele, but he was not interested in selling it (boo hoo).

Sometime in early 2007, I started playing in another band with my best friend (Phat Fish Blues Band) and one night at rehearsal, he brought the travelling Tele out into the practice room and handed it to me. I opened the case to view my old girlfriend and was once again smitten. After closing the case and handing it back to him, he responded with "Keep it - it is your guitar - it has always been your guitar!" I was floored! I had my baby back (for good this time). I'll never sell it again!

So that is story of the travelling Tele. A couple of interesting points are:

• I was the 2nd, 4th, 6th and now 8th owner of this guitar
• The 3rd, 5th, and 7th owners are three different people who are all named Steve

I would not have this guitar today were it not for my three friends honoring our gentlemen's agreement - all three of them agreeing to sell it back to me before selling it to anyone else!

Thanks guys!