Australian Musician editor Greg Phillips recently had the opportunity to chat with legendary American session musician Brent Mason via Skype about his new Fender Stories Collection Signature Telecaster. Note: The guitar Brent is holding in the interview is not the stories collection Tele but the custom shop model, a limited-edition Custom Shop version, featuring a range of custom appointments and a build recreated in exacting detail by Master Builder Kyle McMillin.
The Fender Stories Collection pays tribute to legendary musicians and their modified Fender guitars. With recording credits stretching across five decades, Brent Mason is one of the most prolific session guitarists of all time, featured on well over 1,000 albums, including hits by George Jones, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood and many more. He’s also been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, won a Grammy, earned twelve Guitarist of the Year awards from the Academy of Country Music and was named one of the top ten session guitarists of all time by Guitar World magazine.
The Stories Collection Brent Mason Telecaster recreates the prized Tele he discovered in a Nashville guitar shop in the early eighties: a ‘67/68 model that had been stripped of its original finish and re-sprayed in gray auto primer. Brent outfitted it with new pickups and controls, as well as a Glaser™ Bender system – transforming it into a versatile all-in-one session guitar.
Boasting a Joe Glaser B-Bender system, Seymour Duncan mini-hum in the neck position, Hot Stack in the middle and Vintage Stack in the bridge, locking Sperzel tuners and Dunlop locking strap buttons – the Brent Mason Telecaster provides the special features, smooth playability and diverse range of tones to nail Brent’s platinum Nashville session sound.
The guitar also comes in limited-edition custom shop model, an exact replica of Brent’s original ‘67/68 model
