Citation:
Keith Richard's Micawber
Why Micawber?
Micawber is the name of Keith's main Fender® Telecaster®, named after one of the central characters in the Charles Dickens novel, David Copperfield. However, in an interview a few years ago, Richards denied this, adding, "There's no reason for my guitar being called Micawber, apart from the fact that it's such an unlikely name. There's no one around me called Micawber, so when I scream for Micawber everyone knows what I'm talking about."
Specs
Micawber is a 1952 butterscotch-coloured model with a black pickguard & a stock 3 way switch. The sixth string is removed, it's always tuned to open G, with the following gauges: .011,.015,.018,.030,.042. It has replacement tuners & a brass replacement bridge with individual saddles, and the nut is cut to accommodate 5 strings-they aren't evenly spaced across the fingerboard, but the first string is moved a bit to keep it from going over the edge.
Micawber is modified with a humbucker in neck position and an original Tele pickup in the bridge position. It is warm & thick sounding & can be heard on such live tracks as Before They Make Me Run, Brown Sugar, Mixed Emotions , and Honky Tonk Women.
