It IS a typical Telecaster headstock. (Well, typical for a Telecaster Deluxe - which come with that type of neck/headstock design).
But yes, I completely understand your point. I would think he might have pulled out the `66 ("Vertigo" / "...Boots" / "...Crazy...") Tele.
But his having this leads me to believe that it might be a recently acquired 'treasure'.
Here's (below) is a screencap of the Telecaster Deluxe (courtesy of a friend of mine on Interference), from the recent Fender Telecaster video with Edge.
Right now I'm playing my Rickenbacker almost exclusively. I love the sound it gives, it's so unique. Right now my band is in the writing process again (having played a few gigs with our originals, we thought we should write some more for the next few gigs) and I'm only bringing the Rickenbacker to practise. Very awesome guitar.
Depends how often you play and how clean your hands are when you do. I'd say every few weeks if you play every day. That's acoustic, electric you can probably get longer out of them. It's all personal choice though, I'm a lazy feck lately when it comes to strings.
