zigzag Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 Yeah, I'm one of those who cannot bond with a Tele. I would agree that they are probably the most versatile Fender (love the neck pup on a Tele), but just not for me. I have a Strat, and like it for what it does, but I'm a hollow/semi-hollow/HB kinda guy (although I love P-90s and TV Jones Filter-trons). Plus, I love the necks on my Gibsons! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bill Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 I can't resist an op to post a pick of mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izzy Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 Ya'll are making me want one. A sales guy once told me if I wanted to play country a Tele was better and if I wanted to play rock a Strat was better. How true is that? I chose the Stratish one because I like rock and saw the love pickup and thought, "just one?" I was just starting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btoth76 Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 Ya'll are making me want one. A sales guy once told me if I wanted to play country a Tele was better and if I wanted to play rock a Strat was better. How true is that? I chose the Stratish one because I like rock and saw the love pickup and thought, "just one?" I was just starting Hello Izzy! I guess it much depends on the pickups. My FSR has - what it's called the "Hot AlNiCos" - and they are hot enough for even shredding! No joke! Sometimes I do it on the Tele. (Don't tell anyone, please). With the "Baja-mod" it became a very versatile instrument. It can sound like an LP (with both pickups in serial mode), or Peter Green-like (both pickups - OOP) and very sharp with bridge pickup on (I prefer it for playing Gary Moore's version of "The loner"). So, - I think - it's not a one-trick guitar as many might believe. Cheers... Bence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buxom Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 Ya'll are making me want one. A sales guy once told me if I wanted to play country a Tele was better and if I wanted to play rock a Strat was better. How true is that? I chose the Stratish one because I like rock and saw the love pickup and thought, "just one?" I was just starting Look at my telecaster. Now imagine at doing country. It could probably still pull it off (WITH THE BRIDGE PICKUP) but truthfully, a telecaster is what you make it. It's the best guitar to buy if you truly want an instrument to make your own. The metal band Wintersun uses a stock tele. I'd link, but I'm on a phone now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btoth76 Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 ...and Status Quo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 I was working pretty darned late through last evening and just discovered my first "minus." Honestly, I think that shows how so many of "us" tend to see our instrument choices almost as a religious decision or political stance that is taken personally if others don't agree. Here's the deal: Necks and body shapes/weight distribution on different guitars are of prime importance to this old picker who started acoustic a few months short of 50 years ago - and then a cupla years later went electric for rock, then country, then more country rock of the 1970s. Now I play whatever I doggone well please which mostly is solo fingerstyle guitar with or without vocal. My big thing is playability for the way I play. Period. That assumes functional electronics on whatever electric or AE guitar I happen to enjoy the physical act of playing. The specific tone of any playable guitar should be within a decent range of what I'm trying to do, so I don't even try to find a "holy grail." I do not like Fender short-radius necks for how I play now or how I played 48 years ago when I first bought an electric. Period. I do not like the geometry and weight distribution brought by the Les Paul to my own body geometry. Period. Now, were I to have a roughly 25-inch scale 14-inch neck radius and roughly 1 3/4" nut on Fender... A Tele would be my first choice of a Fender for a combination of potential sound - listen to that Buchanan jazz piece since most of us already know how a Tele can do other stuff - the weight distribution and the control setup with the volume easily messed with while playing as Buchanan and many others have done. My second choice of the Jag largely is the shorter scale and controls; the Jazzmaster largely because of the control setup. The Les Paul just plain feels wrong for my body geometry. Been over this before. I love a few custom shirts I got overseas because my sleeves should be about two inches less than the smallest current mass produced shirts for a medium-size male torso. I feel like I'm really reaching on an LP. I feel like I'm reaching a bit on a 335 and don't feel like I'm reaching at all on a 175. That's my take after 50 years of pickin'. When I was younger, I also sought this or that holy grail. I played Ricks in bands; major-modded solidbodies with a wide range of single coil and HBs, full hollows with the add-on pups of the day, semis of various brands and shapes, classical guitars for jazz... various sizes of flattops... 12-strings. I go for what's most playable for how I play what I play and really regret some of my more juvenile swaps because "it didn't seem right for this kinda music." Frankly I think that's not a bad thing and that it seems a bit silly to think otherwise. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Versatile Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 I believe(sounds religious already :blink:)...that a well balanced diet includes a Tele or several... Jeff Beck, Andy Summers, Luther Perkins, Mike Stern, Albert Lee plus all aforementioned Have made re-defining music on said 'plank' A product of elegant simple genius And the first viable mass production 'solid' Favourite version...Texan B-Bender... V Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdgm Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 I've had a nice 60s Tele since 1980; looks a bit like Bences one....my main teaching guitar for a decade. Modern ones sometimes have a wider neck radius I think. Mine's been refretted twice and when the varnish rubbed off the board I had it revarnished. I also (this is yrs ago)got a Kent Armstrong rewind on the neck pickup and a 6-saddle bridge. Whenever I restring this guitar, for some reason it comes over to me as a completely new and delightful experience and I really love and value it now. Someone once said of Telecasters that 'everything lives in the treble', and there is a John Hiatt number where he sings about needing to hear a Tele through a Fender amp turned up to 10. I also heard or read once that Leo was trying to get near to the sound of an acoustic guitar with it. To me it is one of the 3 most iconic solid-body guitar shapes. Great guitars with their own unique sound - have fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 Milod: I feel you. Or rather, I feel what I feel and know you feel what you feel. I don't know that the (-) you got was personal, or not a joke, or what thought was behind it. What I mean is that, I don't know if we all view our choices or discussions about choices as serious, or having fun with it, or even think our opinions should matter depending on where or point of view is coming from. I come from a time, an age where the "holy trinity" of LP, Strat and Tele applied, but then during that age, only Rock and Roll and solid bodies mattered. Didn't have much use or need to play other music. And if we did, we played it on a solid body, which made it BETTER (so we thought). But, I ain't the same man, and things aren't the same either. NOW, I would definitely choose YOUR "holy trinity" of SG, 335, and 175 over the other 3. I mean, c'mon! BUT...realistically, I would choose like this: a 335, because it replaces the LP and does more (and maybe does a better LP anyway), AND it replaces the SG as well, especially in upper fret access. Then a full archtop of all out "Jazz" like an L-5 (or L-7 is it is), which leaves no need for a 175. And of corse, a STRAT, because nothing replaces that. In fact, from MY point of view, you can play ANYTHING on a Strat. Back to the point: I "see" you as Mr. practical, in that, you CHOOSE your gear in a different way. You seem more focused on the performance you will do, how to do it, and what you need or want to "use" to do it with. Me: I actually go nuts over what a guitar CAN do, and I base my performance on what extracting from what the equipment does. So where does it leave us? To me, I wouldn't dream of telling you what you need or don't need to do what you do. BUT...I would have a blast seeing you try and do it on an LP or a Strat (especially a Strat). So, therefore, you "need" a Strat in that sense. Then, I would be picking through your choices having all kinds of fun getting what you get from your's. Then, I would want to see what you would want to do with mine, what you LIKE as opposed to what I might want to see you play. Then, you might just go "stop screwing around and PLAY something so we can play", and I would end up playing what I do on mine and you on yours and different folks play together in harmony with different points of view, but the same song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 Stein... No argument on the incredible versatility of the 335 type. Nothing at all against the bigger archtops - nor against the bigger flattops. I have three bigger flattops and they end up largely sitting in their cases except for the few occasions when I'm doing "old country" or bluegrass at an occasional unamplified "jam" where I use a flatpick. It ain't what I do more than a time or two a year. Right now the 2 guitars in the collection getting most use are first, a small Epi PR5e that's almost exactly the same size as the 175 - and almost the same proportions as the old Gibbie '50s piece CF100(e) with a medium/small body and florentine cutaway that I'd love to have with an under saddle pup of some sort. It wears 9-42 Zebras. The other is one I just picked up, a used but cherry black Gretsch G100CE archtop that I'm experimenting with lighter-gauge flatwounds. Also about the same size body. We'll see how that goes. I think two factors play into the guitar body size, my body size and how I play: I started on classical guitars and they, and their follow-up instruments, just plain feel comfortable. The shape, weight distribution, control of the body, etc., just "work" with my body size, playing style and physical comfort level. That's regardless of other factors of a given instrument. I dunno about the strat. I do think they've made some 12-inch fingerboard radiuses although the nut still is a bit more narrow than I care for. But again, one "anti" for me is the same as that of the LP - it doesn't fit. I feel like I'm reaching out with my left hand which is not comfortable. I don't really see that any relatively minor tonal variation is worth feeling less relaxed playing. Shorten the neck, get rid of the whammy, widen the nut, flatten the fingerboard... Then it's something perhaps to consider. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heymisterk Posted November 29, 2012 Author Share Posted November 29, 2012 I am very happy that a Tele thread has caught on in Gibsonland. Milod mentioned playability being the most important thing, and I absolutely could not agree more. I grew up loving Zeppelin and Gun 'n Roses, so naturally I wanted a Les Paul. In addition, they look so damn sexy. Then I got one and it was absolutely beautiful...but taught me that basically a Les Paul was a sexy woman I could never marry. If I had to break it down, I would say that the neck and the brightness are what sold me. Certainly there are sacrifices: Playing "Search and Destroy" on my Tele doesn't sound particularly good. But tone other than that I have found can be had, and for some tones, it is the absolute Alpha. Here's what first piqued my interest... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bender 4 Life Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 my MexiTele is a wonderful guitar, and once the p'up height is set right it screams, squeals, sings, etc. liked it so much I built m'self one with a 10"-16" compound radius fb liked IT so much I also built the Strat on the right, same compound radius fb one day i'm gonna get a USA Tele, but i'm in no rush. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Versatile Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 A Tele thread is always righteous and worthy... A further point to mention...the Esquire... Probably closest to the original Tele ethos Big boost coming from Luther Perkins behind Johnny Cash as the borders between rockabilly and country became blurred Later on 'spanked' thoroughly by Jeff Beck in a somewhat different style :blink: Must mention last night when I called in on a friend...he plays a beautiful blonde Tele... I borrowed his Casino We played Status Quo, jazz blues, clean and dirty rock... Dream sounds which blended perfectly through Marshall and Roland amps Life can be great... V Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pippy Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 ...Here's what first piqued my interest... I remember seeing that clip once before and it blew me away. An absolute delight to see it again. Thanks, heymisterk! He's a phenomenal player, of course. The bits between 1; 48 and around 2:10 are simply amazing. A few small things that I had either forgotten or else first noticed this time around; Who needs a B-Bender - or even a Bigsby - when you can just grab the body and neck and HEAVE...lol! Three-section saddle but perfect intonation it would seem! And finally, as a matter of interest, where exactly is the for'ard strap button located? It would appear to be behind the 13th fret or thereabouts..... P. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sellen Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 i don't wanna try a telecaster cause i'm afraid i love it, and i wanna be a Sg man. How stupid is that Anyway rock on man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Californiaman Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 Leo Fender worked hard to get it right. I love my telecasters. They're both completely unique in their own right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky4 Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 Home made Warmoth body with Duncan 1/4 pounders. I keep it tuned to an open G. It takes a special player to unlock the power of the Tele http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmgAjkxq4Gc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heymisterk Posted December 1, 2012 Author Share Posted December 1, 2012 Leo Fender worked hard to get it right. I love my telecasters. They're both completely unique in their own right. Cali- Those are absolutely beautiful. Choosing between the two would be nearly impossible! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heymisterk Posted December 1, 2012 Author Share Posted December 1, 2012 Here is one of my favorite Prince guitar moments ever. Check the Tele. Prince has always had love for Tele. can't seem to insert vids lately, sorry Izzy, That is a fantastic performance by Prince. Sometimes his "weirdness" gets in the way of what an amazingly innovative musician he is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Californiaman Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 Cali- Those are absolutely beautiful. Choosing between the two would be nearly impossible! Thanks for the compliment Mr. K. That's why this is my No. 1 go-to-guitar. It gets played at least an hour every day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaiser Bill Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 I just scored an original Telly Thinline. Its stamped Aug 3, 1969 on the end of the neck. Bought it on a referral from a friend. Seems the owner died two years ago, and none of his kids wanted it. I've restored it to original stock and its a honey. Sure looks good hanging on my wall and sounds even better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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