“I wanted it to be a workhorse I could bash around, beat up, hit with metal pipes and get thrown into kegs without breaking in half”: The making of Jim Root’s Telecaster, the guitar that brought Fender into the modern age

Jim Root performs with his signature Telecaster during a 2008 Slipknot performance in London.

Fender Telecasters aren’t generally associated with heavy metal, but that didn’t stop Slipknot’s Jim Root from slapping his name on one in 2010. The result was a guitar that enraged purists but was beloved by metalheads. Most importantly, Root loves it, too.

“It doesn’t matter what producer we’re with,” he says. “Every time we record, as soon as I play the white Tele, they’re like, ‘That’s the one.’ I don’t know what it is, but whoever selected the wood for that guitar did a great job. It’s not a Slipknot theme or a Jim Root theme. It’s just a classic workhorse that makes you want to play it.”