“She’s a badass guitar player who always played a Pink Paisley Telecaster – they should have made a signature model 20 years ago”: Susan Tedeschi names the guitarist who deserved a signature model but never got one

Susan Tedeschi is fresh off the release of her signature Fender Telecaster, which arrived last week. However, she doesn't shy away from addressing the need for more representation in the guitar world, particularly the gender gap in the signature guitar market.

“I think they should have made a signature model 20 years ago for Sue Foley,” she says in a new Guitar World interview.

“She’s a badass guitar player who always played a Pink Paisley Telecaster and that was one of the reasons that I went with a Tele.”

Tedeschi also points out that when she was an emerging guitarist, “it would have been very inspirational had there been greater female representation in the guitar market.

“I think it’s also important for women to know that you can play an electric guitar, because so many times you’ll start on an acoustic – and sometimes the acoustic is harder to play than an electric, but you don’t realize that,” she adds.

Sue Foley plays Slow Blues at Festival De Guitares de Monde June 2023 - YouTube

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Elsewhere in the interview, Tedeschi reveals how her signature model came about. “They approached me and it was perfect timing, what with the 25th anniversary of Just Won’t Burn [last year]. It took about two years to go through the whole process.”

“The idea came about to make it like my American Standard Tele, but with a couple of little perks here and there to make it special and to make it as close to mine as possible. I worked with a guy named Stephen Taylor from Fender, as well as Patrick Harberd. They both were instrumental in making this happen.”

She also gave a special shoutout to all the women working behind the scenes who often get sidelined.

“I also got to go and meet all the people that make the guitars and I was blown away by how many women were in there, especially Spanish-speaking women,” she remarks.

Exploring the Susan Tedeschi Telecaster | Artist Signature Series | Fender - YouTube

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“Women never get the cred – nevermind Spanish-speaking women – and they’re just kicking ass on these huge old machines, doing everything from making the frets and doing the fretboard, or the saddles. It’s a lot of work!”

In a recent study published by the Journal of Popular Music Studies, guitarist and researcher Isabella Fincher revealed that only 6% of all signature electric guitars were designed by women and non-binary artists, despite research by Fender that 50% of all beginner and aspirational guitar players come from this demographic group.