[Garth]

I am new to the board but I have been a huge Clarence fan since the summer of 1969 when I saw Clarence and the Byrds play at local rock festival.

Several months ago, I was browsing James V. Roy's site "Inside Clarence White's Telecaster." The pictures of "Clarence" show a push knob next to the bridge of the telecaster for bending strings.

http://www.pbase.com/jroy/image/1060654

I was curious about this knob, so I emailed Gene Parsons and asked him about it. Here is his response:

[patdaddy]

the way i understand it, current owner of the guitar Marty Stuart had that installed. its an "E" bender, ya push down on that black knob.

[Brian]

Yep..that is correct... Marty modified the holy grail of Bender Tele's

[patdaddy]

get a rope..

[Dogbear]

LOL..... +1

[Garth]

[patdaddy]

in his defence...im sure clarence considered the guitar a tool. and clearly clarence and gene were tinkerers, making it work better for themselves..mabey what marty did wouldnt bother clarence in the least.

but still...

[Dogbear]

Get a rope..........

[unbridled]

At least he's keeping the appearance. When the Nudie sticker wore out, he replaced it, even though it's the wrong one.

I've heard the guitar wasn't playable when Marty got it, so, he did bring it back. I don't agree with adding the palm pedal, but, I won't hang him quite yet.

The fingers on the changer were all still there, so did he use them with the new "pedal?" if so, I might be willing to forgive him.

[unbridled]

In this picture:

You can tell which parts are new, and it looks like the new bender is attached to the fingers that were originally installed in the guitar by Gene.

Also, in the picture Garth posted, it looks like the control plate and the phaze switch have been replaced. The little bracket between the bridge and the bender could be the new bender, but the strings are off of that section so, it's hard to say.

I'll give Marty praise for getting the guitar back on stage. I don't think I would have addd the plunger, but, whatever it takes to get the guitar back where people can see and hear it. I rarely see Marty using the new bender. It would have made more sense to do what Gene originally wanted to do and run a cable to a floor pedal to run the bender on the E that Marty wanted, and it would have needed less modification to the guitar.

Also, check out how clean the poles and housing of the neck pickup are compared to the rest of the guitar. Hmmmm wonder how that happend.

[unbridled]

Pics aren't working now so, here's the picture of the guts where you can see the new parts:
http://ic2.pbase.com/u7/jroy/upload/1060652.MARTY17.jpg

And here's the picture Garth posted where you can see the "newness: of the control plate and the neck pup:


http://ic2.pbase.com/u7/jroy/upload/1060654.MARTY19.jpg

These pics are also somewhere else on this site.

[patdaddy]

Im glad marty keeps it playing and allows access to fans, but i believe Clarences daughter Michelle was supposed to receive the guitar, and i really think it should have remained in the family. just my opinion

[patdaddy]

btw, on the Fender website, if you look up Marty Stuart, there is a picture of him from 1980 playing "clarence". this must have been right after he got it. it looks like he hadn't moved/replaced the banjo tuners yet.

[Johnny Isaacs]

patdaddy - Susie sold the guitar to Marty. It's been his since 1980, 30+ years. He still refers to it as Clarence's guitar and tons of us on this page have had the honor to get to spend some time with it multiple times.

Johnny Isaacs

[bossaroo]

i heard Ralph Mooney helped Marty add the E bender. somehow i think Clarence would approve.

I also agree that Marty should give the guitar to Michelle at some point. i think Clarence would approve.