“I think they’re f** king ugly!”: Mikael Åkerfeldt names the guitar he “wouldn’t be caught dead with”
It’s official – Mikael Åkerfeldt is a closet Telecaster lover. A few years ago, the Opeth guitarist opted not to judge a book by its cover and try the Fender staple. Now, he’s hooked.
In an interview with Total Guitar, Åkerfeldt has lauds his Telecaster Custom. In fact, it’s the only guitar he used on Opeth’s forthcoming 14th record, The Last Will and Testament. “All my parts were recorded using a Telecaster Custom from the ’90s, with a humbucker in the neck and single-coil in the bridge,” he reveals.
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Typically, Åkerfeldt uses PRS guitars, especially live. Yet he has been known to knock out Gibson‘s Flying V and Les Paul models, and even another Fender model, the Strat. His Telecaster usage has remained a secret – until now.
While he finds a Telecaster pleasing on the ears, it’s still an assault on the eyes, in his opinion. “No-one’s seen me with a Tele before,” he says. “I wouldn’t normally be caught dead with one because I think they’re fucking ugly! But that’s the only guitar I used.”
“It doesn’t hum when you raise the gain,” he explains. “I also love the feel of that Tele; it’s so comfortable I didn’t feel the need to bring anything else. I also knew if it didn’t work, Fredrik [Åkesson] would have a bunch of shit for me to try.”
It’s not the first time Åkerfeldt has used a Telecaster for recording purposes. He also used one while recording the score for the 2022 Swedish Netflix series, Clark.
Alongside his Fender Telecaster, Åkerfeldt also used a beaten-up ’60s Marshall cabinet on the upcoming record. Just like the guitar, the cab wasn’t too pretty. “It looked like somebody had taken a dump on it,” he says.
“I asked the Rockfield Studios owner if one of my favourite English prog bands, Spring, used that cab on the one album they recorded,” he recalls. “He said they definitely did. And it sounded fuckin’ awesome.”
Opeth’s upcoming album, The Last Will and Testament, will be released on 22nd November.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
