"Jail-Break": a 1975 Fender Telecaster

Thanks to the kindness of strangers and the power of the internet, I have been slowly piecing together the backstory of this beat up warrior of a 1975 Fender Telecaster.

To begin, engraved into the neck plate pictured reads “MTCM Rec. Department Music Room”. Initially I thought this Telecaster lived its better half of the 70s & 80s in an elementary school or maybe a church group.....pretty cool touch of character I thought! But something about this guitar’s rough edges and full body of cuts and scars kept me wondering...

I was stagnant on the trail to uncover any further history. It wasn’t until a stranger reached out to share his experience playing this exact guitar in 1976 that a key piece of information was unlocked....what the hell that MTCM engraving meant!

The Missouri Training Center for Men was opened in January of 1963 in Moberly, Missouri. It wasn’t until 1990 that the MTCM changed to its current name the MCC: Moberly Correctional Center - a medium security prison that houses 1800 inmates.

From roughly 1976 to 1990 this guitar lived life behind bars to be used by the inmate band. Thinking about the journey of this guitar makes every bump and bruise that much cooler. Played by many during a low time in their lives, it makes me smile to think about how, for some, this guitar was an outlet to escape

With that being said I have decided this Telecaster needs a new name true to its origin...I give you “Jail-Break” the coolest telecaster I have ever been fortunate enough to meet.

- Nick