“Even if it doesn’t survive, you can just get a screwdriver and screw it back together”: Bill Frisell on why the Telecaster beats the archtop as the touring jazz guitarist’s best friend

Bill Frisell plays a Fender Telecaster on a stage lit up in blue.

You won’t hear Bill Frisell say a bad word about a well-made archtop. The archetypical jazz guitar has a special place in his heart. But there is a practicality about the Fender Telecaster that makes it his number one.

He tells Guitarist that it’s not only that it’s durable, it can be customised, with his number one electric guitar on new album, In My Dreams, unlike any Tele you’ll find in today’s Fender catalogue…