Brad Paisley

Bill Crook also custom made a Black and White Paisely Telecaster for country music star Brad Paisley. “We had a black one, it was one of the first ones that Bill Crook had made for him and it was ruined so when I called Bill and said, “By the way, you know, I need, like, eight guitars, you know, yesterday,” he said, “I actually just finished one for a customer, called him up and said, ‘Hey, your guitar’s ready, but Brad Paisley lost all of his in the flood,’ and the guy said, ‘Let Brad have mine, build me another one.’” So bless you, sir, I do not know your name, I was never told, but thank you.” (2:25).

Country superstar Brad Paisley helps Fender celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Telecaster. Watch as he discusses his first guitar, what makes the Telecaster so special and why it's the "perfect thing for what" he does.

In this video, Brad Paisley talks about his custom "G-Bender" Fender Telecaster:

“I grew up listening to players that played B-Benders - and a B-Bender guitar, which is what I have here (mine’s got a G) - B-Bender guitars have their own thing and you heard them on everything from the Eagles to Ricky Skaggs and Steve Wariner and those guys. It was really the most prominent bender. And it’s a higher string, that sort of… [pauses to demonstrate] But the G, I actually had Joe Glaser build me a G-Bender a long time ago, and the first guitar I got a G - it's exactly like a steel guitar mechanism. If you look at a steel guitar it’s a bunch of saddles that look like this and they can hook up - levers and pedals and things to any of them - and it'll move this a whole step, and there's a little lever back here when you pull down, it raises this G string up whole steps. [demonstrates] And it's something you can kinda use when you get stuck. The reason being that Jimmy Olander with Diamond Rio had a double bender - and I liked the sound of the G string - he had both where he could… [pauses to demonstrate] But the idea of that lower string… sounded a little more musical me. A little less twangy and a little more throaty… like a steel guitar maybe. What I find is, and I do a lot of bending without it… it’s got a different pedal steel sound to it… [demonstrates]”

A custom guitar made for Brad Paisely, the Crook Water Telecaster was featured on Paisley’s H2O tour. This particular guitar, “it’s kind of what the tour’s based on and it was in the video. The original one was in the video and then Bill Crook had made a mock-up version of it for the video shoot and it got ruined in the pool and then the original one got ruined in the flood, so this is a third one,” Paisley’s tech says at (2:00).

One of Paisley’s guitars is a 1952 Reissue Fender Telecaster. Fortunately, one copy of this guitar survived when Paisley’s equipment was flooded, “but it’s a great guitar, good, this one couldn’t have worked out any better. I honestly thought this would be the hardest one to replace and it was the first one replaced,” Paisley’s tech says at (1:54).

This is a picture taken from backstage at the American Music Awards

In this video, Brad Paisley discusses his signature model Esquire guitar from Fender.

In this photo, Brad Paisley can be seen playing live with his signature model Gibson J-45 Acoustic-Electric Guitar. He also lists it on his official website as one of his "Road Guitars".

In this video interview with Parade, Brad Paisley can be seen strumming a Santa Cruz 1934D starting at 0:16.

In a Vintage Guitar magazine article by Ward Meeker, Brad Paisley discusses his use of the Martin D-28 during performances, highlighting its role in his music.

In this Instagram post by Jack White, he gives one of his signature Triplecaster guitars to Brad Paisley and says:

I just had to hop in my truck in Tennessee and drive on over and gift a new Triplecaster to one of the best Tele pickers to ever do it; Mr. Brad Paisley. We had the great Joe Glaser install a G bender on there for Brad to play with too, so he's got the only one with a G bender on it now. I hope it inspires you sir, and thank you so much for letting me play an original Broadcaster for the first time, always wanted to try a legit one, it felt so soulful to play.

In this video, Brad Paisley discusses his signature Road Worn Telecaster model from Fender. He says:

This is based on a 63 Tele that I have that was refined into this color and I made a pick guard for it and the next thing you know, you guys at Fender said, “Oh, we'll make a bunch of these.”

Yeah, I was heavily involved. I mean, I picked everything from the wood that the body is made from to the pickup rating and tested a bunch of different things with Fender; neck size and shape.

I like that. There's something about bare wood on you, and that is that's actually just sanded down bare wood, which is what would happen after a while. And I got a little bit of nicks here and there, some dents. The neck is a light finish so you know how great necks look when they start to get the black goo from people's hands. See what your hand does right there? That's the way the neck looks. No matter what age you are, your hand does that. You know, your hand isn't a perfect C.

I don't think anybody ever feels like they've mastered their craft because the guitar is this limitless pallet of equations and paint that you can basically create anything you want. You know what feels the best about having a fender signature Telecaster, the thing that I'm proudest of about this? It's relatively inexpensive for the vast majority of young guitar players. You know, this isn't one of the ones when you walk in a music store that they're going to say, “Whoa don't touch that, these are sensitive instruments.” This isn't sensitive. It is a Telecaster. It's a cutting board with a neck! I can't wait to see what people do with this instrument.

In this video from Fender, Brad Paisley talks about his signature Custom Shop "Lost Paisley" Telecaster.

In an Instagram post, Jack White states that he played an original Fender "Broadcaster" Telecaster owned by Brad Paisley.