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Watch: Jimmy Page tells the story of his iconic ’59 Telecaster

The guitar’s journey is detailed in a new Fender ‘In Conversation’ video.

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Back at Winter NAMM 2019, Fender thrilled Led Zeppelin fans by announcing reissues of Jimmy Page’s historic ’59 Telecaster. Now, the brand has released a new video of Page talking at length about the special model. This clip follows an animated short released in April, which briefly covered the fabled Tele’s journey.

In the video, which is part of Fender’s In Conversation series, Page provides a personal account of the Tele’s origins along with its evolving aesthetics. The Led Zep man explained that he first received the guitar from Jeff Beck, who wanted to thank Page for recommending him to The Yardbirds.

Page then recounts his decision to consecrate the guitar as his own in 1967 by appending eight circular mirrors to the axe’s body. When the Yardbirds folded in 1968, Page decided to once again revamp the axe by stripping it of its mirrors and painting on a psychedelic dragon motif with poster paint. The Dragon Tele would become Page’s go-to instrument during the recording of Led Zeppelin I.

The last segment of the clip zooms in on why Page decided to set aside the Dragon Tele. He had left the axe in the care of a ceramic artist friend while on tour with Led Zep during “1969 or 1970”. When he arrived home, he was upset to find that the guitar had been painted over, so he dismantled the instrument, and ultimately set it aside.

Watch the conversation with Jimmy Page above. And read the history of Page’s Led Zeppelin guitars here.

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