Why Telecasters?

[bob32069]

This one goes out to all you Telecaster players.

Being relatively new to jazz, I never thought of a Telecaster as a jazz guitar but am realizing there are quite a few players of this guitar. As someone who has never played a telecaster and who mainly plays a "jazz box", I was wondering what drew you to the Telecaster as a jazz instrument?

I'm sure at some point in the future my chronic Gear Acquisition Syndrome will lead me to the purchase of a Tele, so I'd love to hear your responses.

Thanks to all,

Bob

[whippersnapper]

Good topic! I suppose for me it started when I heard the sounds guys like Adrian Ingram, Danny Gatton, Roy Buchanon, Ed Bickert, etc archieved. With the guitar having single coils I find I can get a lot more clarity and accurate sounds where as if you use humbuckers you can really get lost in the mix. If you're willing to fiddle around with your amp and tone controls you also get very good early Charlie Christian like sounds.

Oh and they just look so much cooler than a Strat or a Les Paul or something

[Jake Hanlon]

I played a tele for a while before I just realized that my 335 was far more what I was looking for.

I went with the tele because there is a certain feel to the instrument and a certain amount of manipulation that you have with a Telecaster that you just can't really get from a typical "Jazz Box". The instrument is far more versitile, you can get a warm sound, a bright sound, it works for your rock gigs your country gigs etc. A Jazz Box is pretty much just that, jazz and maybe old school country or something.

Some people, including myself hate the combersome feel of a large body guitar, and many jazz boxes don't have the access to the upper frets as easily as Fender style guitars.

[Stackabones]

The look and the feel. You can go from Ed Bickert to Ed Campilongo and everything in between. That, and I'm really fed up with the standard done-to-death jazzbox tone ... with or without RC chorus effect. It has its uses, I guess, but the Tele is a just hella more versatile.

I also like how it can respond to so many techniques ... from the aggressive to the delicate. And the fact that the tele body isn't as delicate as a semi-hollow/hollow jazzbox. Drop a tele and you get a dent and maybe a story. Drop a jazzbox and you get a new guitar.

If ya need f-holes, just get a Thinline.

[jcayer]

I'm new to the Tele world. Before last year, I always saw the Tele mainly as a country/western guitar. Then I discovered Danny Gatton, Jim Campilongo, Ed Bickert, Scotty Anderson, Roy Buchannan among others and became interested in the Tele history. I tried one and I was hooked...

Like Stackabones said: You can go from Ed Bickert to (Ed) JIM Campilongo and everything in between...

You can go from jazz to blues to rock to funky tones (etc...) with one guitar. Of course, one could say the same thing about a Les Paul or a Strat etc... I like its versatility.

I love the tone of jazz boxes but I'm just not comfortable playing them. I like a guitar to be as close to my body as a Tele can be.

There's plenty of different possible tone depending where you're picking, you can simulate a wah-wah easily by playing with the tone pot, you can also easily simulate volume pedal effect by turning the vol pot while playing, etc...

A Tele is an electric guitar in it's most simple expression; a piece of wood with neck, pickups and strings. Nothing fancy. It's also easy to modify a Tele (changing pickups, pots, bridge, etc...). I'm not afraid to take this guitar apart and put it back together; I would not do this with a jazzbox or a Les Paul for example...

Since I got my Tele, it's my number one guitar

[Stackabones]

Oops ... Jim Campilongo. Hehe. Got a little carried away.

[bob32069]

Thanks to everybody who answered! Definitely some food for thought.

[m78w]

I think the bigger question to be asked is why not a telecaster?

I love my tele, always have, it's versatile, lightweight, has great tone, and enough punch to cut through any sized ensemble.

It can sound like Ed Bickert or Mike Stern without much adjustment, which can't be said for a jazz box or other larger more genre specific guitars.

MW

[mr. beaumont]

Originally Posted by m78w

I think the bigger question to be asked is why not a telecaster?

that'd be my answer too

actually, it's easy how i decided to play jazz ona tele--i already had a tele when i got into jazz, and no money to buy another guitar...

my situation financially has gotten better, but since then, i just keep buying teles...all do different jobs...my am. std is set up with an unwound G, andi use it for teaching lessons to the rock kids, my thinline is my player at home, it's always around my neck, and my '72 custom is for solo gigs since it can get the darkest, softest, martini bar jazz sound of the three (when you play martini bars, people want that)

but as craziness will go, my wife (of two weeks) just bought me a new tele for my birthday (she said to make up for all the crap i went through for the wedding...gotta love a gal who helps you with your vices)...i'll post pics soon...

so again...why NOT a tele?

[whippersnapper]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

that'd be my answer too

but as craziness will go, my wife (of two weeks) just bought me a new tele for my birthday (she said to make up for all the crap i went through for the wedding...gotta love a gal who helps you with your vices)...i'll post pics soon...

Congrats, Mr B... what model did ya get??

[Jazz Classic]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

that'd be my answer too

actually, it's easy how i decided to play jazz ona tele--i already had a tele when i got into jazz, and no money to buy another guitar...

my situation financially has gotten better, but since then, i just keep buying teles...all do different jobs...my am. std is set up with an unwound G, andi use it for teaching lessons to the rock kids, my thinline is my player at home, it's always around my neck, and my '72 custom is for solo gigs since it can get the darkest, softest, martini bar jazz sound of the three (when you play martini bars, people want that)

but as craziness will go, my wife (of two weeks) just bought me a new tele for my birthday (she said to make up for all the crap i went through for the wedding...gotta love a gal who helps you with your vices)...i'll post pics soon...

so again...why NOT a tele?

First off, Congratulations to you and your new bride, Mr. Beaumont. And l also want want to thank you for telling me to listen to Grant Green, last year. I really dig his riffs. I picked up a used Strat on eBay. However, though I get some good sounds out of it, i believe that a Tele will be my choice when I am ready to put out some honest money for a new axe. I am the guy with the nice old Epi "jazz box". But I have gotten used to the ease of snuggling up to these small body hard wood guitars and am satisfied with the jazz sound that I can get with the pickup switch in the upper positions. (I am not a Rock fan). However, I am impressed with that new axe that you got last year, the one with the single F hole. I need to take another look at that one. My next guitar has to have a really smooth and easy fingering neck. This is more important to me that anything else. My eBay Strat has some rough edges along the frets, even though it has a beautiful Maple neck. It is a Squire 25th Anniversary model.

[stefan volta]

I own a Thinline 72 reissue, mainly for the versatility. I don't always play jazz, so this guitar is quintessential. Of course, I'm nineteen years old, so financially speaking I can't really afford to have lots of guitars yet. However, for some reason my guitar sings to me. I've never played a guitar that felt more like my partner than my tele. That's probably the biggest reason.

[fep]

Doesn't a Strat do everything a Tele does plus more?

Why a Tele over a Strat?

Well, a tele does have more of a 'cool' factor, at least to me. But for me, I'd take a strat over a tele.

[whippersnapper]

I think Tele's sound warmer. For me the only thing a strat really seemed good for is the SRV/Hendrix blues rock thing... and that was kind of just a phase for me. And mabye fusion, but then again I prefer Ben Monder's tone over Wayne Krantz...

[Stackabones]

Originally Posted by fep

Doesn't a Strat do everything a Tele does plus more?

No.

Different pups, different configurations, different bridges, etc. Try A/B'ing them -- you'll hear the difference very quickly.

IMO nothing exposes a player's weak spots like a Tele, except maybe an acoustic.

[JohnW400]

Tele's? you want to see Tele's. check this site out. look under electrics. They have some very nice Gibsons as well

Rumble Seat Music -Vintage & Collectible Guitars, Vintage Electric Guitars, Basses, Amps & Effects from Gibson, Fender, Vox, Rickenbacker & MORE!"

The Tele is the most versatile solid bodies I've ever seen (except for the Les Paul Recording model)

Aside from Ed B, a perenial name on this forum , you have Danny Gatton, Roy Buchanan, countless blues players from Muddy on down. Even Steve Howe used one with Yes on occasion plus most C&W and Texas Swing guys .

If all I could have was one guitar it would be....one of my archtops, but I would DEFINATELY MISS my Tele.

[Peter C]

I had never really taken the Telecaster seriously until I heard Ed Bickert play one. I love the tone he gets, whether with a single coil or a humbucker pickup. At the moment, if I had the spare cash, I think I'd be looking at a MIM 69 Thinline. I would certainly spend a lot of time exploring the tones of the standard pickup before maybe considering a mini humbucker, which would be a hassle to install, I know. Other than that, med gauge flatwounds and maybe brass saddles.I currently (try to) play Jazz on a LP style solid body. As someone said above, it's the guitar I had when I got into playing Jazz and it works very well to my ears and my interest in the Tele comes from the fact that I like to play some things on a Fender scale neck and, to answer a previous post, no, a Strat cannot cover Tele territory.

[ronjazz]

Tele's for some reason don't have the "stringiness" of a Strat, and I've yet to hear a Strat get the warm, fat sound that Bickert gets.

[musicalbodger]

Only just picked up on this thread.

A Tele is intimate. A Strat is too spangly. A LP is too heavy and thick.

I hankered after a tele years ago when I saw some blues guys (can't remember who, I'm ashamed to say) playing them and I just loved the sound. Then I saw Hank Marvin (Cliff Richard & the Shadows for you guys over there) playing a strat and he copped the idea off Buddy Holly and it was all too preppy and uncool. Man, I must have been 9 at the time. My first real; guitar was a semi-acoustic 335 copy which I still play and love but 4 years ago I bought a hand made tele and — it talks. As others have said they are so versatile and so simple. The semi-acoustic expects to be played properly, the tele wants you to play it how you feel. Not that it's always right for every occassion, I still love playing my semi but it's the difference between going for a drive in a Bentley and going for a ride on a bike. A bike will take you places a Bentley won't and it's a lot more exciting.

[henry b]

There is also a site for Telecasters .

[Space Pickle]

Originally Posted by fep

Doesn't a Strat do everything a Tele does plus more?

Why a Tele over a Strat?

Well, a tele does have more of a 'cool' factor, at least to me. But for me, I'd take a strat over a tele.

Well, for me it's why buy a guitar with a tremolo if I'm never going to use it.

But really, play whatever you want. I seem to play the same lines on my tele that I do on my strat anyway.

[mr. beaumont]

okay, you're in a smoky club, crowds a little "dodgy," drunk asshole stumbles up to the stage, leans over and knocks your A. L-5 CES, B. telecaster off it's stand.

which guitar will just need to be retuned and will play the rest of the set?

[Tom Karol]

Over at the TDPRI (Tele forum) they say, "Leo got it right the first time!"

[bkdavidson]

I really shouldn't have looked at this thread. I've had the idea of getting a tele for a long, long time. Unfortunately, I still have a lot of stolen equipment to replace first.

[medblues]

This tele is being built specially for jazz.

[NSJ]

I love the sweet mellow tone I get with my tele and Fingers--pick? Not so much--for me, a tele is the finger style axe par excellance....

[rio]

Originally Posted by medblues

This tele is being built specially for jazz.

Nice looking guitar. I put a humbucker in my Tele, and while the single coil (Lollar special T) that was in there was really great, the bucker (Gibson Burstbucker 1) is just a whole other thing in terms of tone. The guitar is a tone machine now, and so versatile. I haven't even touched my other guitars since doing that mod last month.

[itsall4you]

I like your guitar but I think I'd have preferred it without those metal bits.. Rather have a rear cavity and no metal bridge plate and pot covers. It would just look way classier IMO

[medblues]

Next build will be better itsall4you, I was being lazy and thrifty by pulling everything from a cheap Craigslist tele and buying a cheaper unsanded eBay body (instead of a fancy Warmoth one).

[itsall4you]

hey, having said that it still looks great