Roy Buchanan 1953 "Nancy"
Serial# 2324
Most associated with:
Roy Buchanan
Born: 23. september 1939
Died: 14. august 1988
Current Ownership:
Mac Yasuda
Previous Ownership:
None
Hailing from the Ozarks, Roy Buchanan was/is probably the REAL master of the Telecaster. A guitar player that had his own style that over the years has gained more and more a fan following. But for his guitars. His 1953 Telecaster which he named "Nancy" is his most famous guitar. But it should be known, this guitar has some mystique over it.
Roy's tone was piercing bright. It almost cut trough glass if volume would allow it. Btw, he always played with Volume and treble on 10 and very little bass, but he loved that sound and he rarely played neck position. His style was rooted in Blues and Rock and did things with the guitar that was ahead of time. He made that Tele speak... He basically put ROCK into Blues with no gimmicks attached. Roy was the real deal. He was once invited to join The Rolling Stones, but he turned it down,
One of the best shows that exists of Roy. Worth a watch or five.
The thing with Nancy was the Bridge pickup. It was sort of dead but working. Don Mare supposedly had Nancy on his workbench once. He got to measure the pickup and got zero ohms out of it. So the pickup seems to have a break in the wiring, but it works better than one could think. Maybe works too good. Also he had a .1 uf capacitor in series to the neck at both pos. 1 & 2.. This cap would brighten up things even further.
Roy sadly committed suicide while in jail after a drunk dispute in August 14th 1988. After his burial, his wife Judy had his guitar but decided to sell them in the early 90's. The guitar was eventually sold to record collector and guitarist Mac Yasuda for $65.000 (not confirmed) in 1991 i believe and he has had that in his collection ever since.
You can watch this old documentary of Roy if you want to get into his music:
The Roy Buchanan Bluesmaster was built by the Fritz Brothers and sold by Fritz Brorhers inc. Its still possible to by it through the Fritz brothersincs home page
Roy Buchanan was the greatest guitar player in the world period. Sayibg he was the greatest Teleplayer is to diminish him. There is no one even close to Roy Buchanan when it comes to play guitar. He made Jimi Hendrix look like a boy that had picked up the guitar for the first time. Roy Wondered why Jimi needed pedals for making the Wah Wah sound, something Roy had been doing with his fingers since the fiftiees. Jimi Hendrix famously backed down from a guitar duell with the intimidating Roy Buchanan. Roy respected Jimi anyway and played many of his songs. But Roy played a lot more guitars than Telecasters, he toured for 3 years with a Stratocaster, he recorded with Stratocasters and Les Pauls. In 1987 he got the most advanced guitar ever made up to that point ” The Roy Buchanan Bluesmaster ”. It had 3 active EMG pick ups a 17 switch ( a Stratocaster has a 5 switch ) and a fat controll making his guitar play perfect Humbucker tones just flipping a Switch. And lastly it has been proven the police killed Roy Buchanan. He did not Connor suicide.