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Albert Collins passed away on 24 November 1993, at his home in Las Vegas, and is

buried at the Davis Memorial Park, Las Vegas, where he has a simple plaque, noting
‘Albert Collins - The Master of the Telecaster’ - indeed a fitting epitaph!

So, what guitar did the ‘Master of the Telecaster’ use?! Pretty obviously a Fender

Telecaster. But that wasn’t always the case. As Collins himself said “I was playing an
Epiphone hollow box for a while, until I first saw Gate (Gatemouth Brown) playing a
Fender Esquire. So I went out and bought me an Esquire in ‘52. I had that for a while,

and later on I got me a Telecaster, which I’ve played ever since”.

He later added a Gibson humbucking pickup in the neck position, to give his sound

another level of individuality. His blistering tone could “take your head off from 100
yards”, but quite often he could be standing next to you in the audience whilst playing,
courtesy of his 100 foot plus guitar lead. Indeed, legend has it that he was playing a

club somewhere in the US when he left both the stage and the building whilst still
playing. After returning, a few minutes later a pizza was delivered from the restaurant

next door!

And finally, what about that weird open chord tuning? Various sources state that he
used an Em, Dm or Fm tuning, so I thought I would try to establish which one was
correct. I therefore put on a DVD of Collins at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1992, worked

out what the key of the song was, then checked where the capo had been placed on
the guitar neck. By a process of deduction I reckon he used an Fm open tuning……but

if anyone knows better, please let me know!