what's so great about fender telecasters?

[mbengs1]

They're one of the most popular guitars aside from the strat and les paul. what makes them great guitars? i play hard rock and metal. will the twangy sound of the tele work for me tastes? feel-wise, they feel exactly like fender strats to me.

[onelife]

You have to experience it.

 

For years I played strats and ES-335s. I tried a few friends' telecasters but didn't really connect with them like I did with a strat.

 

There was a MIJ '52 re-issue for sale locally so I took it home for a weekend to try it out at a gig. At one point during the show I thought "that's it… that's the sound... the reason people play telecasters". It was as if the guitar would express whatever I wanted it to do in the moment.

 

It was smooth and bluesy on the neck pickup (one of my teachers plays jazz on a telecaster) - clean and jangley in the middle position and super snarly (somewhere between a Les Paul and a strat) on the bridge pickup. I found myself using the tone control a lot more with the tele than with other guitars because it works so well and that makes it an extremely versatile guitar.

 

I now have two telecasters and I usually bring at least one to every gig.

[mbengs1]

i've tried tele's in stores but never got to take one home and play comfortably by myself. richie kotzen uses tele's and i like his sound. him and some local guitar player here in manila called tirso ripoll uses one and sounds great.

[onelife]

Here's Gutrie Trapp getting a variety of sounds out of his tele...

 

[video=youtube;ef0I1aJliWk]

[billybilly]

In the early days of playing electric, I made a warmoth tele with contours and Fralin Blues singles in it. Like onelife stated, they can do anything, didn't know what I had.

 

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n31819927[/ATTACH]

[badpenguin]

An old Tele is a sonic blank canvas. It has it's own tone, but it depends on the abilities and talents of the player to give it a unique voice.

Page played a tele, people thought it was a Paul.

Beck played a tele,(actually a Esquire, but sameish thing) people thought it was a strat.

Muddy waters played a tele, people thought it was an hollow body.

Merle Haggard played a tele, and people knew it was a tele.

I play a tele, people thought it was crap.

 

An old tele, and I am talking up to the mid 70's or so, required you to dig into it, to bring out the tones. The fat neck and small radius, requires you to play a little differently. And when you do, it comes alive. I don't think the modern ones have that same chameleon aspect to it.

[Phil O'Keefe]

They're one of the most popular guitars aside from the strat and les paul. what makes them great guitars?

 

Spankin' tones, rugged durability and functional simplicity.

 

i play hard rock and metal. will the twangy sound of the tele work for me tastes?

 

Taste is highly personal and individual - I can't speak for whether or not one would appeal to you, but I suspect not - not for the styles of music you do. You'd definitely want some sort of modified Tele (not Leo's original 50s design - something like a Deluxe or Custom), with hotter humbucker pickups... although you might be able to go with stacked humbuckers that fit into a single coil sized route.

 

feel-wise, they feel exactly like fender strats to me.

 

Not to me they don't. Sure the string tension is similar (especially if you have a hardtail Strat) and the scale length is the same and the neck profiles can be similar, but the bodies are completely different, and they feel a lot different to me - the Strat's a bit more comfortable with all the contours, but it also can slip away from you easier when playing it while sitting down because of those contours. A Tele digs into your gut a bit more, but it also tends to stay put, even when you're sitting down.

[WRGKMC]

What's so great about fender telecasters?

 

Nothing. They are simple meat and potatoes that get the job done well. Simple and durable, nothing fancy, easy to set up and maintain, easy to play plus they give you a nice range of tones to work with. They are my favorite guitar for great slide tones too.

 

I'd say the Les Paul is the Meat and Potatoes of the Gibson's too. You have both and you can get all the basic Fender and Gibson tones you'll ever need. When I gig I often bring both and can play all the cover tunes quite well.

 

You may not even realize how many songs have been recorded with one or the other. Tele's can get you those spanky clear blues and country tones but you can gain them up to sound fat and rocked out too.

 

Many of the early Hendrix tunes for example were recorded with a Tele, not a Strat. That Jimi page lead part in Stairway to Heaven was originally recorded on a Tele through a Supro, not a double neck or Les Paul.

 

For me pulling out a tele is like pulling out a hammer to drive nails. I can beat the crap out of notes with it and not have to worry bout how I'm sounding cause It simply gets the job done and sounds good doing it.

[Bucksstudent]

What makes any product great? Why have so many different ones? People have different preferences and expectations from what they spend their money on.

 

I played and owned several Teles, including ones made by other brands. I have yet to play a disappointing one. From the used Alvarez Tele copy I had to the Telecaster Deluxe, they all had something good to offer. They were all basic and reliable. Simply strumming chords on a Telecaster versus any other electric guitar sounds naturally better to my ears. That's why so many rhythm players in Country, Rock, and other genres love them.

 

And look up any sub-$200 guitar thread, and the one constant recommendation is the Squier Affinity Tele. There's no tremolo/whammy to go out of tune, you have the classic two-pick up and two knob setup, and a solidly built instrument. I think the most basic, affordable Fender version of the Telecaster is a testament to how awesome they are.

 

You may not get it, but very few players agree with you.

[Mikeo]

Me likes this a lot.

 

I own 2 tele's.

 

It's kind of like owning a framer hammer and a 16 ounce.

[MarvelUndies]

This. A thousand times this. A Tele is whatever you want it to be, while simultaneously being something entirely its own. My old man says Teles are a measure of a guitarist's talents. Take Danny Gatton, for example. Or Jerry Donahue. With just a Tele and an amp, they get a sound all their own. And it's not bad.

 

On the technical side of things, a Tele may not be the perfect instrument. This is proven by the coming of the Strat six years later or so. Leo simply took the Tele design and applied suggestions received from players. But the Tele by itself was a huge achievement. It was so basic, which kept production costs down and pushed its versatility way up. It's totally modular, meaning any part of it can be swapped out for something else. The possibilities for modification are almost endless.

[soundcreation]

Personally I don't believe in "mystifying" types of guitars. Teles, Strats, Pauls, SG's etc....all have their different things about them, but none of them are "better" than any of the others. I think people use a lot of nonsense to try to justify why one particular type of guitar is better than another. "can't hide on a tele" is one of my favorite useless statements. lol. People seem to always need to make themselves feel better about the thing THEY own.

 

The tele has become that guitar that everyone goes around saying is "underrated" and "under appreciated" when in reality there are a billion threads about it being those things with nearly EVERYONE waxing poetic about the tele, thus making it pretty much the favorite guitar of everyone.

 

It parallels the arguments people use about certain musicians as well. I call them the "adopt a stray dog" crowd. They latch on to something they perceive as unappreciated and then blow that thing or person so out of proportion to reality.

 

A good example in the musician world is Malcolm Young. I LOOOVE Malcolm Young's playing.....but geez it's bloody ridiculous how many "fans" write stuff like "Malcolm was the real talent behind the band" ...."he wrote all the songs" and on and on.....making out like Angus was really just a minor player in the success of the bank. JUST because they THINK he didn't get any credit! When the reality is there is NO evidence to suggest any of that and that both shared the song writing completely. And if anything, what evidence that is out there shows it probably was Angus being the bigger contributor.

 

So in conclusion....the tele is the "malcolm young" of guitars.....damn good, but totally over rated by it's fans. It's just a guitar.

[GAS Man]

I think that's about as good a comment I could ever come up with. I was going to say, "their versatility despite their limitations". But indeed, the jazzy potential of the neck and bite of the bridge or tone that down with the tone control. Also a great guitar for volume swells, especially if you flip the control plate. As Keith Richards said, as essential a tool to a guitar player as a wrench is to a plumber. But on the other hand, they do come in a lot of flavors so pick one that does do these things well. My fave in my herd for best classic tele tone is my '52 RI, but as a daily player, I quickly bonded with my American Special.

[Les Paul Lover]

Ah ah!!! Gave me quite a chuckle!!

 

In part because this is very accurate.

Not that teles aren't good guitars. They are good guitars, just like plenty others.

 

One thing is down to tone, and the other to ergonomics. For any given guitar, the mix of these 2 will mean some fare better in your hands.

[soundcreation]

Yeah I thought I'd stir the pot a little with that one!

 

I enjoy my tele very much. But I can see how others might not like it.

 

You are exactly correct about the factors. Me personally I just adapt my self to whatever guitar I'm playing in terms of ergonomics. I really just don't care. But I also understand some people do. They might not like the slab body and prefer cutaways. Fair enough. It's all valid.

[onelife]

One of the cool things about the Telecaster was how it morphed into the Stratocaster and how we didn't know what we had until Jimi came along and used it to change our approach to the solid body electric guitar.

 

Hendrix didn't just play guitar, he played Stratocaster.

 

No tele = no strat (and maybe a few other guitars)

 

 

Les Paul and 'an ironing board with pickups'...

[WRGKMC]

Keep in mind it was designed to be an ultra low budget, mass produced instrument, something any kid could afford at the time without going broke. I think its a good instrument from that vantage point especially when you compare what else was available at the time.

 

By todays standards with all the possible electronic and instrument designs available its understandable where many players will find a Tele come up short. But that's in fact its strong point. Its minimalist build and limited tonal range forces you to focus on your playing because there's not allot knob settings to diddle around with. You just find the best settings and make up for what you do have by simply playing the crap out of it.

 

The Strat was of course an upgrade, and Leo had allot of input from pro musicians that lead him to that design including the cutaways that made it much more ergonomic.

 

As far as quality builds go there are tons of other instruments that I prefer over Tele's and Fenders in general but in the end its still a matter of making music pleasing to the ears, and whole genres of music have been developed around certain instruments.

 

I was a Gibson lover long before I got my first Fender and it took me a long time before I learned to appreciate how they could facilitate certain styles of music the Gibsons couldn't. I had played many Fenders that just weren't a match for me. Most had clunky necks, poor set ups, low output pickups I couldn't warm up to.

 

It took a buddy of mine who worked in a music store to come by with one of their high end builds for me to wake up to them. Playing that one was a whole different ball game, especially the neck and pickups, it played and sounded great.

 

 

In the end it still comes down to owning one for a good period of time and learning its tonal secrets.

A Tele well set up is one of the best pinch harmonic guitars made. You can make the thing squeal and moan like a wild animal, but its not a technique you instantly learn. Once you do learn how to do it well, you wind up using that technique on all your other instruments. This is why I say the instrument facilitated my growth as a player because I could refine a technique I liked.

 

My favorite master of the instrument goes back to my Blues guitar days and listening to Roy Buchanan who simply plugged into a twin and turned it up to 10.

 

 

[WRGKMC]

One of my favorite masters of the instrument goes back to my Blues guitar days and listening to Roy Buchanan who simply plugged into a twin and played the instrument like an animal getting more toned from it then you can imagine. Got to like those treble tones however.

 

This video starts off slow but you'll see what he does once it gets going. I saw him in concert doing this kind of stuff a few times too. Knocked my socks off.

[thatsbunk]

^^^^

Wow, great video. From about 5:40 to 6:20 is classic!

[GAS Man]

Roy Buchanan [/color][/b]who simply plugged into a twin and played the instrument like an animal getting more toned from it then you can imagine. Got to like those treble tones however.

 

That's the problem I have with Roy as a poster child for "master of the Tele". I agree he's an amazing talent on the instrument, but the first album I ever bought of his was this one:

 

 

And it's tough to listen to because of his ice-picky sounding treble. I would have loved to dial in his tone a bit (blasphemy I know, but I liked his playing more than his sharp tone), but I truly imagine it probably sounded much more incredible in person. But indeed Roy was a great player (RIP 1988), it was nice that Marin Scorsese played tribute to him by including (what is probably my favorite tune of his) his cover of Sweet Dreams, in the ending credits of 2006's "The Departed". Even if some might dismiss that as being one of his more commercial, rather than raw bluesy, tunes, it's a "go to" song for listening to well crafted volume swells on a Telecaster.

 

[video=youtube;swX9oq6TVAU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swX9oq6TVAU

 

I find it to be an odd coincidence that the two Tele players that are most often regarded as the "Masters of the Telecaster", i.e. Roy and Danny Gatton, both died from suicide. Roy, (for those who don't know) hung himself in the local lockup after a domestic disturbance incident and Danny, frustrated and down - some folks say from not ever making it as big as he should have - shot himself. So I'd suggest, mix up your guitars from time to time.

 

[video=youtube;KbNKMlrkHMc]

This video is worth watching just for the beer bottle slide at 5:52

 

But on the other side of the Tele fence, you've got Joe Strummer. So from Roy and Danny to Joe Strummer, that's versatility.

 

 

 

[onelife]

I'm beginning to think that today's 'Master of the Telecaster' is Guthrie Trapp - see post #4 in this thread.

[Ratae Corieltauvorum]

Nothing

[Phil O'Keefe]

Rory was an absolute monster. Just a great player!

[garthman]

Nothing

 

:lol:

[wankdeplank]

Great thread in that I find myself shaking my head in agreement. It sounds like I'm not alone as a guy that wanted to like and play one but just couldn't completely bond with it. Not like I hated the one's I owned (three) but I just liked the feel of my Strat and LP types better. (Like the SG, the tele neck extends further out from the body). My favorite Tele was a US built Washburn Laredo made of two piece Swamp Ash, but it had a serious neck dive issue till I filled the control cavity with lead washers. The ones I owned were all tone machines but I never thought they had anything over on my Strats in that regard.

 

They didn't completely work for me but I recently ran into the best guitar teacher I ever had playing out with his band doing recent and classic covers. I may be biased, but I believe he's the best I've heard locally for rhythm/lead/vocals and most seem to agree. In any event he was toting his trusty Aussie custom built Tele with standard pickup configuration and his tonal palette and ability to ape the sound of the recordings was amazing to me.