Submitted by Mathias
Here is a link to a good chocolate burst picture. As per the small swtich to the left of his neck pickup, i believe it is a screw in which he can pull the e string down to for the noisey bit in “The Bends”. It seems to have been added to all Tele’s
http://cache3.asset-cache.net/xc/112407113-jonny-greenwood-of-radiohead-during-radiohead-filmmagic.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF87892140FEB0FF7845C57DEEA5B35750A5A8AF49B76310157EB722600FFF5CB8DA3863E30A760B0D811297
Thank you for the picture!
Thank you for your theory as well, but I don’t think that it is correct. Jonny did not add the extra knob/screw until circa 1997. It is not present on any of his earlier Teles, and so we know for sure that he doesn’t need them for The Bends. If you watch this video, we see that he does not use any such screw for The Bends. Those sounds are all Whammy. In videos from 1996 and 1997, after Jonny added the screw, we even see him messing with the low E-string. We also see this use of the low E-string in 2006, and in 2010 he stops the string bending altogether and just messes with his Whammy and cutoff switch whilst holding some notes. If only you were right, though; I’d love to finally get an answer for this one.