I rarely know how these things come about, but this morning I spent a couple hours researching guitar player, Mike Bloomfield, and his ‘63 Telecaster; the guitar he played at the ‘65 Newport Folk Festival. As I post this I’ve got Highway 61 Revisited spinning on the turntable.

The cameraman (of course) focused on Dylan in this film of the historic ‘65 Newport Folk Festival, but at the beginning you’ll see Bloomfield standing to Dylan’s right (stage left) with his ‘63 Telecaster, “The Guitar That Killed Folk Music.”

I just learned that the guitar that was famously (or infamously) modified by taking a jigsaw to the upper bout and making a cutout, was traded by Bloomfield just months after Newport to another guitar player, John Neuse, for a Les Paul. Neuse was a left-handed player who played a right-handed guitar turned over with the strings unchanged. It was him who sawed the guitar.

Returning to Bloomfield, you won’t see him once Dylan starts singing, but you can sure hear him playing lead. Historic stuff, folks.

This is Stew Mac’s Dan Erlewine inspecting the Bloomfield Tele, 9 years ago. There are a few more videos out there because Dan was given the go ahead to refret the guitar and he did it reverently, like the guitar was a Stradivarius.

That is a truly epic performance and Bloomberg was a big part of it.

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Greyman, I saw the G.E. Smith video on YT when I was researching my post, but I didn’t bother to listen to it. I’m glad you posted it; that was great.

There’s also another out there of Jason Isbell playing this Tele

Why, why did someone do that to this guitar? Any random telecaster could have been butchered, why this one?

quote:

Originally posted by sigspecops:
Why, why did someone do that to this guitar? Any random telecaster could have been butchered, why this one?

To a working musician, a guitar is a tool. It's always cool hearing the story of an instrument and, often, just how many hands it was in before it became an icon. Very few famous instruments were bought new and owned by one guy.

I’ll also add a response to sigspecops’ question.

Dan Erlewine wasn’t sure when the guitar was modified (butchered), but he seemed to think it was not long after Neuse acquired it, ‘66, perhaps even late ‘65. I think it’s safe to say that he had no idea of the historical significance that would become attached to the guitar; it was just his Tele and he thought it would work better for him if he could access the upper frets.

Thanks for posting! What a rabbit-hole of good memories that turned into! Two hours later and I'm still watching videos of guitarists

I play guitar and I understand why someone butchered the guitar. I was just asking a rhetorical question. Still, it was really stupid. This was like someone cutting the divider out of a 63 split window corvette because it interfered with their view.