Throughout his time with Def Leppard, Phil Collen has most commonly been associated with Stratocaster-style electric guitars. They’ve appeared in various forms over the years, but the double-cut design has always been Collen’s preferred axe of choice.
However, that looks like it’s all about to change after Collen took delivery of a rather special custom shop creation that he says is his “new favourite guitar” – and, in what will come as a surprise to many, it’s inspired by the Fender Telecaster.
In the new issue of Guitarist, Collen and Jackson Master Builder Joe Williams discussed the creation of the relic'd, blue-finished, single-cut six-string, with the guitarist revealing this particular build is the first prototype of many.
“I just recently got my new favourite guitar!” he says when asked about the model, which he’s been snapped playing live in recent months.
“Jackson made me a ‘Telecaster’[-style model] that’s just amazing. It’s got a [DiMarzio] Super Distortion in the neck position, no whammy bar or sustainer, and it’s got the fattest neck Jackson has ever made.
“Joe Williams, who is a luthier at Jackson, said, ‘I’ve kind of made it really big and tried it out...’ I said, ‘Okay, am I going to be able to play this thing?’”
Well, he was able to play the thing, and now he can’t seem to put it down. In fact, he’s got more on the way, and he fully intends on taking them all on tour with him when they’re ready.
“It’s a beast. I love it. It’s easy to play and the tone is just ridiculous,” he continues. “It’s an ash body with a cut-out like a regular Telecaster, but there’s a bit more wood involved because the neck is so heavy and big.
“It’s a prototype, this one, and my tech had to put a couple of bars that are actually old blocks that we took out when we put the titanium ones in, so we have a couple of them to balance this thing out because it’s so big.
“The tone on it is crazy! We recently recorded a live thing for Sirius XM in LA. It was one of my favourite and best-sounding guitars, and it kind of freaked me out. They’re actually building me another one; I’ll be using that on tour for sure.”
As for how the project first began, Williams reveals Collen once brought an old Fender Tele into the Jackson Custom in search of equipping it with a fatter neck. Soon, an entirely new creation was in the works.
Specs-wise, it features a pickup-mounted Gotoh bridge, a one-piece ash body, and a reverse headstock – oh, and the largest neck of any of Collen’s guitars. In fact, the two collaborators set about setting a record with the neck.
“That was one big change, obviously, the giant neck,” Williams recalls. “It was like, ‘Let’s see how big we can go; let’s go for a record-breaker and see if we can hit that ceiling for him’ [laughs].
“If we had gone any bigger, it probably would have messed with the balance of the body or caused neck dive, but it didn’t. The neck is essentially twice the thickness of many standard necks.”
Williams confirms more Collen custom shops are in the pipeline – “We’ll do a red one with chrome hardware and a maple fingerboard” – but also teases a standard run may also be a possibility.
“As for a run of them, that’s out of my wheelhouse. But I wouldn’t be surprised,” he adds. “If there’s a lot of demand, it’s not uncommon for sales, marketing and the product team to want to do a run.”
Visit Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitarist, which features the full interview with Phil Collen, during which he also recalls recording the solo to Stagefright in one take.
