SOUL LOVE

HOW RICK TEDESCO FOUND AND LOST HIS DREAM GUITAR: MICK RONSON’S Z IGGY STARDUST–ERA 1968 GIBSON LES PAUL CUSTOM.

- CHRISTOPHER SCAPELLITI

FOR YEARS AFTER Mick Ronson's death, the whereabouts of his stripped 1968 Gibson Les Paul Custom - the Ziggy Stardust guitar – were a mystery even to those who had been closest to him. When Rick Tedesco asked Ronson's friend and fellow performer lan Hunter about it, the former Mott the Hoople frontman shrugged. God only knows where that went, he replied. Mick probably gave it to some guy walking across the street. He didn't care about gear. It was just a tool to him.

For Tedesco, finding the guitar became a mission. A guitarist, producer and engineer whose credits include work with Hunter, Alice Cooper and former Cooper band members Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith, Tedesco had become a Bowie fanatic through the artist's 1974 album, Diamond Dogs. I was a 13-year-old kid who was just obsessed with horror movies, he recalls. “And then I saw that album cover. I just absolutely loved that album. I was like, I'm done. That's what I want to do.' Working his way backward through Bowie's catalog, he soon discovered Ronson's signature performances on the albums Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and Pin-Ups. Eventually, he caught D.A. Pennebaker's 1973 Ziggy Stardust concert film on television. There was Mick, he recalls. “And that's what I wanted to be - David Bowie's guitarist.

Tedesco was particularly drawn to Ronson's Les Paul Custom. Originally a Black Beauty, the guitar was stripped in 1970 after Ronson heard that removing the finish could improve resonance and high-frequency tone. He subsequently used it on his first record with Bowie, The Man Who Sold the World, right through Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and Pin Ups, making it the vehicle for each album's searing power chords, singing leads and lyrical solos. For Tedesco, a hardcore Bowie and Ronson fan, the guitar was an indelible part of his own identity as a guitarist.