Fender have launched a limited edition custom guitar with The Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon – see all the details below.
The collaboration is named the Brian Fallon ‘59 Telecaster Custom, in tribute to the New Jersey band’s 2008 breakthrough album ‘The ‘59 Sound’. It is a recreation of Fallon’s #1 Telecaster from his early days as a touring musician, and you can order yours here.
The custom instrument features a double-bound, two-piece alder body, finished with a black lacquer, with a ‘60-Style Oval C’ maple neck and flat-laminated dark AAA rosewood fingerboard.
Speaking about how it conjures his earlier guitar, Fallon has said: “There’s only the switches, and the volume and the tone, and that’s really all you got, so you better figure it out. It’s about taking what you can do and making the best of that, and I think this is the guitar for that. If you need a hammer, that’s a hammer, and everyone needs a hammer. You cannot build a house without it.”
It follows on from other collaborations between Fender and rock musicians in recent years. Tom Morello launched an ‘Arm The Homeless’ spec last year, while Iron Maiden lent their name to a signature Fender collection to mark half a century of the band. In 2024, Jack White also launched a range of signature guitars and amps with Fender.
As for The Gaslight Anthem, they released their sixth studio album ‘History Books’ in 2023, and Bruce Springsteen appeared on that record’s title track. The two artists had collaborated several times before that, with the Boss even joining them during their set at Glastonbury 2009.
Fallon late spoke to NME about his reaction to that Worthy Farm team-up. “We were playing in 10 minutes, so when he showed up, I couldn’t think,” Fallon said. “My musical professional brain took over because my regular brain freaked out, and I said to him: ‘Do you know the song? Then let’s go!’ It was a small tent and felt pretty epic afterwards. I freaked out.”
He continued: “I had to go straight back to the bus and lie on the floor thinking: ‘What the hell just happened? Am I in a club now? Do I get a card or a badge now?’ I should at least get a Nando’s Black Card after playing with Bruce Springsteen at Glastonbury!”
In 2024, the band also shared a heavy cover of Billie Eilish’s ‘Ocean Eyes’, after Fallon heard the song while driving his daughter to school.
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