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When is a Telecaster no longer a Telecaster?


DeepEnd

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A thread over in Cool Jam (http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/forum/guitar/acapella-21/31525864-just-because-you-can-do-something-does-not-mean-you-should?_=1435882959538) prompted an interesting discussion. The guitar in question is the Limited Edition American Standard Double-Cut Telecaster:

fetch?id=31526806

 

I mentioned that I'd like to see a double cutaway version of the FMT Telecaster because I still don't care for the control plate even though I like the double cutaway body:

fetch?id=31526726

 

Someone then said:

With double cutaway and new tone controls it would be no longer any kind of Tele. Fender would have to invent a new name . . .

 

But I wonder if the thing that makes a Tele a Tele isn't the way it sounds? What about it? Would you want one, either the existing Standard Double Cut or the imaginary FMT double cut? Would you still think of it as a Tele as long as it sounded like one or at some point would it stop being a Tele?

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A Telecaster was utilitarian from the begining as it moves away from this concept it is less and less a Telecaster

 

I have to agree with Gardo. While I have never owned a Telecaster, I cannot even begin to list the masters of said instrument I have worshipped and admired. It has it's own place in the guitar universe. You start slappin' humbuckers, active electronics, and cuttin' on it...You still may come up with a very cool and unique guitar and sound....But she ain't 'Zactly a Tele no more.

 

A Tele be a Tele.

A Strat be a Strat. EVH slapped a Hummer and a FR on his...And what he wrought was most cool. But it weren't a Strat no more either.

 

 

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I see. So you think there's a sort of Tele-continuum with the Tele on one end and--not-a-Tele--at the other? What would the other end be, do you suppose? An Explorer with a Floyd Rose? I'm trying to think of something very un-Tele and that's what popped into my head.

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I watched the promo video on the link. While the gentleman playing has talent....I cannot help but feel that they would have helped matters by getting someone like Vince Gill or James Burton to put this new offering through the paces. Danny Gatton and Roy Buchanan are somewhere else right now...

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I always thought my 1986 Fender Contemporary Telecaster was a far as it could get from the original . More of a super strat kind of thing . Good points of the guitar are 3 mini switches so you can get any combination on the pick-ups and a coil tap on the brige pick-up. Oh yeah it came factory with Schaller strap locks . This the year Fender made no USA guiatrs they were in flux at the factory .

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A Telecaster was utilitarian from the begining as it moves away from this concept it is less and less a Telecaster

 

I could also ask when is a Fender on longer a Fender

 

528018000837000-00-500x500.jpg

Ever seen Jeff "Skunk" Baxter's Tele from the 1974 Steely Dan Tour ? Watch Steely Dan from 1974 Midnight Special doing "Reeling in the Years" looks alot like this one !

 

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I figure if it says "Telecaster" on the headstock, it's a Telecaster.

I've got one with standard tele pickups, one with a bucker in the neck, one with a strat pickup between two tele pickups, and one with P-90s.

They're all Telecasters as far as I'm concerned.

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A few years back I asked people for their definition of a stratocaster. Many, as above, said if it says stratocaster on the headstock....which I think rather misses the point. Generally I think people mean body shape when they use a name to describe a guitar.

 

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OK, I'm coming late to the party with these observations and I never owned a tele - I don't like the shape and the short radius neck.

 

But in the past, a big difference between Fender and Gibson guitars was that with Gibson, all the guitars came with the same pickup options so they all pretty much could sound the same. That LP, SG, Moderna, V fitted with the same HBs or P90s didn't sound very different from each other.

 

With Fender, each guitar had it's own pickup selection. Therefore the Tele sounded like a Tele which was different from the Strat which was different from the Jaguar which was different from the Jazz Master, etc. Each guitar had it's own sound.

 

So IMO when you put humbuckers on the Tele instead of the traditional pups, it no longer sounds like a Tele.

 

Good or bad thing? That's a matter of opinion, and my opinion doesn't count, only the opinion of the purchaser.

 

For me it makes the Fender line-up more Gibson-ish in that respect. Again, my opinion doesn't count. If they sell more guitars, it's a good thing for Fender.

 

If I were to ever buy a Tele, I'd want the traditional pickups with the thin-edgy sound that says Tele to me. If I want humbuckers, I'd get a more comfortable body, a neck with a 14" radius, and better high fret access.

 

So a tele shaped guitar without the original pups is a Tele-ish guitar, not a Tele.

 

But again, that's me, and my opinion only counts for me. YMMV.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

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Its a Tele as long as it has the original design bridge pickup.

So my original question, "Would you still think of it as a Tele as long as it sounded like one"? would pretty much get a "Yes" from you. Good to know.

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It's a fantastic guitar. Apparently it's an '85 model, which I got used in '86. The pickups are original, with the coil split mini-switch. There's nothing about it I don't like, as I keep the vibrato locked down ...

GreyTele.jpg

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