In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin, guitar legend Jimmy Page narrates a gorgeous animation by Nexus Studios that shares the mystical journey of his iconic 1959 Fender Telecaster.
In 1966, Page’s bandmate, friend and guitar legend Jeff Beck of The Yardbirds gave the guitar to Page as a thank you gift for getting him into the band. Page, who had very little money at the time, went about making that guitar his very own. He added eight circular mirrors to the guitar’s facade in order to reflect the lights when he was onstage with The Yardbirds. This guitar served Page well at that time and for many years beyond
I got to the point where I wanted to consecrate this guitar and really make it my own …Being there in the Yardbirds, I was building my own identity in the group. I tried applying mirrors to it, so you could use it in an optical way with the lights and shine the mirrors on people while you were playing. …Basically, this guitar goes through from the Yardbirds relatively unscathed to Led Zeppelin, and it’s the guitar that does Led Zeppelin I… So, it’s sort of the birth of Excalibur that goes all the way through in a way..
