Watch: Eric Clapton demos Fender’s reissue of his Blind Faith Tele

Guitar Center has uploaded a video spotlighting a standout of its 2019 Crossroads Collection: Fender’s reissue of Eric Clapton’s ’64 Telecaster. The axe, put together by Master Builder Todd Krause, is a faithful tribute to the Tele Clapton famously played at Blind Faith’s Hyde Park concert.

The video’s first segment features Fender Custom Shop’s VP of Product Development, Mike Lewis, giving a brief history of the original ’64 Tele. He describes the “mythical” axe as the “epicentre of the Cream, Blind Faith and Delaney and Bonnie era”, before touching on its unique combination of a Stratocaster neck with a Telecaster body.

Slowhand was, of course, first spotted with the ’64 Tele during Cream’s cameo in the 1968 Danish film Det var en lørdag aften. The Tele stood out with its ’60s Strat neck, large CBS headstock and rosewood fingerboard. These three components would be swapped out in 1969 for a ‘50s Strat neck, a smaller pre-CBS headstock and a worn maple fingerboard. And it was this ’50s Strat neck that would later feature on Clapton’s beloved “Brownie” Stratocaster.

The video also features the man himself talking about the reissue in relation to his original ’64 Tele. Clapton recalls that he bought the original axe because “it was the first Tele with purfling [he’d] ever seen”. He also shared that the Tele marked his return to Fender after a period of playing Gibsons “for a long time”.

Master Builder Tom Krause also chipped in with details about the reissue’s production, running through features such as its hand-wound ’63 Tele single-coils and custom maple neck with a ’56 Strat profile.

Watch the full video above. Learn more about the Blind Faith Tele reissue at guitarcenter.com.