GORDON KENNEDY
oh, it’ s also got a Joe Glaser B Bender on it, too.
That guitar has gone with me everywhere I’ ve asked it to go. And I’ ll tell you, when I plug that guitar in, that neck just feels like home. Whenever I try any new Fender, I’ m always measuring the neck against that mid-’ 70s rosewood board Telecaster. That’ s the one everything else gets compared to.
Jerry Kennedy holding the original uniquely modified Gibson ES-335, with Gordon Kennedy showing off its modern reissue.
Well, I think Jimmy Lee and I would get along on the Buck Owens score. Not only was I born in 1959, but I was also born in Bakersfield!
Oh, that’ s cool. Yes, Buck Owens, you bet, all the way. I played at the Buck Owens Crystal Palace with Garth Brooks back in 2019. And I got to play the guitar in Buck’ s office that was the last guitar he used before he passed.
Well, there you go. But back to this business of modifying guitars … it brings to mind David Gilmour’ s Black Strat that just sold at auction. Another CBS-era Fender, and one that became something of a Frankenstein over the years, necks swapped out and lord knows what else. With your sensibilities now, and what’ s happening in the vintage market, do you have any guiding ethics on that score? Is there a threshold a guitar crosses where future modifications become verboten?
If I’ m talking to my younger self, I’ d say don’ t do anything to your guitar. But then, on the other hand, my dad’ s‘ 61 cherry red 335 had a Bigsby on it when he bought it. A guy named Dean Porter talked him and Grady Martin both into taking the Bigsbys off and letting him install these custom levers— a B Bender under the palm and an elbow lever that drops the high string down a step. If you’ re coming from the standpoint of these being working tools, I’ m glad my dad let him do it, because I’ ve loved being able to use that B Bender over the years. The beauty of Dean Porter’ s design is that I can sit in the studio and use it without having to stand with a strap, which is how all the Parsons systems have to be used. Joe is actually replicating that mechanism for me right now for a different guitar that I’ m taking out with Garth.
“ SOMETIMES THOSE HAREBRAINED IDEAS FROM GUYS WHO ARE TINKERERS— AND THAT’ S EXACTLY THE MINDSET LES PAUL HAD AND LOOK WHAT HE BROUGHT TO THE WORLD— CAN YIELD SOMETHING REMARKABLE, AS LONG AS YOU’ RE NOT TOO PRECIOUS ABOUT IT. GOOD THINGS CAN HAPPEN.”
22 | SUMMER 2026