Alex Kapranos

"I bought this guitar on April 17, 2003: the first time I used eBay. It was the most expensive object I'd bought in my life. I'd been after a Telecaster for years – I'd seen one in a guitar shop when I was a teenager and had never seen another. Then I heard about this website where you could buy stuff, and I figured I might find one there. I couldn't believe how cheap it seemed at first – just over a hundred quid. I didn't realise that there would be a flurry of bids at the last minute until I watched the seconds counting away as the guitar quickly doubled, tripled, quadrupled, and quintupled in value. "Ah, fuck you all," I thought, and typed in my second and last bid of £666 with seconds to go. There. I'd won. Bollocks. How could I afford that? It was fine. I just didn't pay my rent that month. I've played the guitar ever since."

Original source: Revealed: the real guitar heroes. For his latest book, photographer Pat Graham snapped musicians with their favourite instrument and got them to explain why they loved them. Here is a selection

Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand occasionally plays a black Fender Deluxe guitar. While the black Fender Classic Series '72 Telecaster Deluxe we are showing you is a very close alternative (down to the color, body style, dual humbuckers, and maple neck), the actual one Kapranos uses is likely vintage from the 60s or 70s.

However, he gives a fan advice on Twitter on how to replicate his guitar tone, while not shelling out a ton of cash for a USA-made vintage Fender: "...those teles are made well enough, but the pickups that come with it are terrible. Replace them and you'll have a great guitar. Buy a cheap 2nd hand Mexican made Telecaster Deluxe, then get replacement pickups from @the_creamery ..."

This guitar was commissioned by Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand. One of the unique features is that the pickguard has actual beetle wings embedded into it.

The custom-made pickups (made by Jaime Campbell of The Creamery) are as follows: The bridge has wide-range humbucker, the middle is a P-90 in Gibson humbucker format, and the neck has a Tele-style single coil.

In an Instagram photo posted by Franz Ferdinand, Alex Kapranos looks to be playing a green/blue-ish colored Fender Strat. It looks a lot like a Fender American Vintage '59 Stratocaster in Sherwood Green, however that particular guitar has a rosewood fingerboard, and Alex's guitar clearly has a maple fingerboard.

Alex Kapranos uses a Gibson Double Cutaway Les Paul in this performance, most likely to be a vintage one.

This is the guitar Alex Kapranos used during their private concert for Virgin Radio in Paris. I'm not sure it is exactly that one, but I think so.

Alex Kapranos used a Fender Electric XII for his collaboration with Edwyn Collins for the song "Do It Again".

In this video you can see Alex Kapranos using this guitar during the live recording on Triple J.

Alex Kapranos uses this Fender Coronado II in this video of Franz Ferdinand's "Stand On The Horizon."

Alex Kapranos uses a Gibson SJ-200 Standard in this acoustic session for Oüi FM.

In this video, you can clearly see Alex playing a custom Telecaster Deluxe. It is semihollow and has a black body and matching headstock. He commonly uses it for their 'Always Ascending' album. Unfortunately, I can't find a better image of it.

Alex playing Sunburst Fender Telecaster with white pickguad and maple neck during a performance onstage Art Platforma, Kyiv, Ukraine. 13.06.2018.

One of Alex Kapranos' amps is the Carr Slant 6V.

A Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III amp is used by Alex Kapranos at the 2004 Pinkpop Festival.

In the end, nearly all of singer/guitarist Alex Kapranos and guitarist Nick McCarthy's parts were recorded using the former's battered old Selmer amp and bassist Robert Hardy's Fender Bassman 100. "Both Nick and Alex swap around playing rhythm and lead guitars. Nick has a tendency to play those kind of funky Talking Heads/Devo parts and Alex plays the more orthodox rock guitar parts."

"Last week was the first opportunity I had to put the pickups on my guitar. They are SO good. I put them in my '72 CBS strat which I love playing, but never sounded that great and it has been completely transformed. I'm using it on an LP we are currently recording at RAK."

Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos' electric guitar strings of choice are Rotosound R11 Roto Reds.