D. Boon

This Telecaster Deluxe (if it's not a Telecaster Custom) was not kept in stock form the whole time in the Minutemen. It seems as though D. Boon bought this guitar in 1984, and shortly after, he installed a different Fender Tailpiece on it that has more metal than most Tele tailpieces. Why? Because he liked it and it was the same kind of tailpiece (minus a few more minor differences) that he had on his Black & Gold Telecaster Collector's Edition. The main difference is the one on this Tele Deluxe (or custom) is that the tailpiece he put on was Chrome or Nickel, not Gold. Example of Black & Gold Collector's Editions with their special tailpiece: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=black+gold+telecaster+collector%27s+edition&iar=images&t=ffab

D. Boon is supposed to have also changed pickups on this guitar more than a few times, but in the August 1984 "Anti Club" footage, it seems like it's stock. By late 1985 he seems to have an EMG in it with a plastic cover over the top, after trying at least one or two other pickups. The reason why is supposed to be because he didn't like his sweat getting into the pickup which would mess with the sound of the guitar. Refer to this article for what I'm saying; https://www.premierguitar.com/artists/forgotten-heroes-d-boon

"'D. Boon favored Telecasters, he used a lot of treble, and he sweated like crazy,” Cline recalls. And that sweating caused electrical problems with Boon’s guitars.

“'We had a problem with sweating at gigs,' Watt agrees. 'It would soak the pickups and shut out all the high end, which, for D. Boon, was like, ‘What? No high end?!’ The solution, eventually, was to use EMG pickups, which were sealed in epoxy. We took out the pickup—for a little while there was a Seymour Duncan blade pickup in there—and put in the EMG, so we wouldn’t have to deal with the sweat. That fat one—the humbucker in the neck position—he hardly used that. He used that sometimes for sustaining when he wanted to play like Curt Kirkwood from the Meat Puppets, but he always used the bridge pickup.”

You can see D. Boon playing the Melody maker in a number of photos and in the video for "This Ain't No Picnic" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDr25zjd4yM

Edit: This Melody Maker is supposed to have been given to D. Boon either in 1981 or 1982. An early photo shows D. Boon playing it with a Humbucker in the Bridge position, but he then modified it to have an Aluminum Pickguard and a Strat Pickup in the bridge position. The later cojnfiguration is seen in the "This Ain't No Picnic" Music Video that's alreayd linked above.

The guitar he’s wearing is the ES-125 he used for overdubs on the band’s magnum opus, Double Nickels on the Dime. Photo by Bev Davies/Courtesy of Mike Watt

Edit: A link to the article featuring the photo: https://www.premierguitar.com/artists/forgotten-heroes-d-boon

“After his Bandmaster amp, D. Boon pretty much fell in love with Twin Reverbs,” Spot says. “The Twin Reverb was what they would call a ‘proper amp.’ It was a silverface. It had a master volume control on it. His was a good one.”

One of D's normal Minutemen guitars, his Tele.

Edit: This is most likely to be D. Boon's 1981 - 1983 Fender Telecaster Black and Gold Collector's Edition model with a special extra sustain tailpiece. It's hard to tell in this lower resolution photo, and D. Boon did have the stock Maple neck on it for a while, but he later changed the neck to one with Rosewood Fretboard. He also changed the pickguard to a Black one by the time of the "The Party" show in June 1985. https://youtu.be/k4W5jP_Gmrg?t=570

"D. Boon’s penchant for low-cost, ad-hoc gear applied to his amps as well. “He had an old blackface Fender Bandmaster head,” Spot says. “At that time, it was considered the low version of a Fender piggyback.” He also had a 2x12 cabinet with mismatched speakers, which were wired out of phase. “I recorded it in stereo. I had each speaker miked separately. When I was mixing the stuff down, I tried to see how everything sounded in mono and the guitar disappeared."

Boon favored heavy gauge strings—usually D’Addario .012’s—and gray .88 mm Dunlop picks.

Boon favored heavy gauge strings—usually D’Addario .012’s—and gray .88 mm Dunlop picks.

In this picture, Boon can be seen playing a CBS era Fender Stratocaster.

D. Boon seems to have had this guitar in 1980 and at least up to very early 1981, and maybe he had it earlier in The Reactionaries. It doesn't seem to show up in later footage or photos.

"D. Boon’s penchant for low-cost, ad-hoc gear applied to his amps as well. “He had an old blackface Fender Bandmaster head,” Spot says. “At that time, it was considered the low version of a Fender piggyback.” He also had a 2x12 cabinet with mismatched speakers, which were wired out of phase. “I recorded it in stereo. I had each speaker miked separately. When I was mixing the stuff down, I tried to see how everything sounded in mono and the guitar disappeared." The 2x12 cabinet could possibly be this one, as it has the same name and is a 2x12 cabinet.

Seen in this video of Minutmen playing "Corona."

This guitar was modified; D. Boon added a different Fender Tailpiece on it, an early 1980s extra sustain tailpiece (like on his Black & Gold Collector's Edition Telecaster,) and he went through a few pickups before settling on an EMG to keep sweat out of the pickup. It seems as though this guitar was bought in 1984, but I have no confirmation of it - it just doesn't seem to appear in 1983 footage or photos, correct me if I'm wrong.

Boon favored heavy gauge strings—usually D’Addario .012’s—and gray .88 mm Dunlop picks.

Boon favored heavy gauge strings—usually D’Addario .012’s—and gray .88 mm Dunlop picks.

"By that point, Boon was using much better gear. 'He had a Super Twin,' Mascis says about Boon’s amp. 'It was a 180-watt Twin with six tubes, from the late ’70s or early ’80s.'"

"The overdubbed solos on Double Nickels, as well as on subsequent sessions, were done at the behest of Ethan James, the engineer and owner of Radio Tokyo, where the album was recorded. (James was also the keyboardist in a late-’60s incarnation of Blue Cheer.) Boon used a Gibson ES-125 for those overdubs. The guitar had a soap bar pickup in the neck position and he ran it through an Ibanez Tube Screamer. But other than on those overdubs, he almost never used distortion or effects."

D. Boon is confirmed to have used the EMG T-Set Active Alnico Telecaster Pickup Set on his Telecasters. According to an article by Tzvi Gluckin in Premier Guitar, his bandmate Mike Watt explained that Boon installed EMG pickups because his original pickups malfunctioned due to excessive sweating during performances. Watt stated, "We had a problem with sweating at gigs... The solution, eventually, was to use EMG pickups, which were sealed in epoxy." This change was made to prevent sweat from affecting the guitar's high-end sound.

D. Boon appears to have bought this 1981 - 1983 Fender Telecaster Black and Gold Collector's Edition model in 1983, and it might be what they recorded much of Double Nickels on the Dime with although that's speculation, it's not confirmed.

It's said that D. Boon changed the bridge pickup in his Telecaster or Telecasters, but it's not clear when this happened or if he changed the pickups in both the Black Tele and his Brown Tele Deluxe (I have no good photos of Black from 1985 right now to confirm if he used the EMG then, although there is an EMG in the Brown Tele.)

This specific type of Telecaster Guitar has a special larger tailpiece with extra sustain compared to a regular Telecaster Tailpiece, which might be a subtle and often overlooked detail about D. Boon's Gear Tone.

Fender don't seem to have reissued the tailpiece since its original manufacturing run. It seems as though there are at least 3 versions of the tailpiece; first, the one that appeared n this guitar. Second, a Brass version that was sold under the then available "Fender Brassworks" line. Third, there was a chrome plated version which is seen on D. Boon's modified Telecaster Deluxe (or Telecaster Custom.)

This Black Telecaster Collector's Edition Guitar is seen at the top of the page at this article at PremierGuitar, in the shot that's supposed to be from Mid-February 1984: https://www.premierguitar.com/artists/forgotten-heroes-d-boon