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Unlike his more technically proficient bandmate in The Clash, Mick Jones, John Graham Mellor was strictly rhythm, hence his stage moniker, Joe Strummer.

The ‘sour’ to Jones’s ‘sweet,’ Strummer was a Tele man all the way, and he played it like a weapon, driving the band with a fervor that bordered on demonic possession. His axe of choice was a ‘66 sunburst that he painted black.

Aside from a bridge with individual saddles and six ’F’-style tuners, Strummer made little in the way of modifications. But he changed its look often: the word ’NOISE’ was stenciled on the upper part of the body, an ’Ignore Alien Orders’ sticker was placed above the bridge, a rasta flag sticker was affixed at the horn of the pickguard and a large question mark was spray-painted on the back of the instrument.

Strummer continued to play his ’66 Tele right up to his untimely death at the age of 50 in 2002.

Click here for 28 Telecaster legends: part 2