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The Tele gets a lot of love on this board. I know I've heard some great Tele sounds. What I'm curious about is the versatility factor. I pulled this quote from a different thread
"(The Gibson 335 is...) possibly the most versatile electric guitar ever, along with a Telecaster."
The Tele is an ultra simple design with two single coil pickups. I understand it's appeal in that context. Intuitively though, it seems that it would be less versatile than a Strat, or a PRS with coil splits, or even a Les Paul due to single coil hum.
What is it about the Telecaster that makes it more versatile than I might think?
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01-24-2011 08:30 PM
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It has a slab body and you can Dremel out the neck pickup cavity and install any pickup you want. With the right setup it can scream and sustain like a vintage Les Paul or purr like a vintage archtop. Better yet, a 335 and a Tele.
Originally Posted by sdr
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Strat's have their own sound and its trying to find a word that won't start a war with strat lovers, but they are scooped? They don't get the fullness of a Tele because of the floating bridge, get a hard tail strat and they are fuller. Then many put a humbucker in the neck of tele's to add more variety. I've only heard one strat I thought could sound like about anything that was Mike Miller's old salmon colored strat. It was an old Fender, 60's maybe, and real light weight, he said something about the wood being not the typical wood, but it sounded so sweet.
Also a coil split humbucker doesn't get the sound of a single coil. It is thinner than an HB, but no single coil.
For me a tele just feels right. I've always wanted to like a strat and have had a few of them and sold them all. Tele's I like the control layout, the balance, sound, and the body just sits right.Last edited by docbop; 01-24-2011 at 09:48 PM.
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The telecaster also has a very usable tone control that allow those two simple pickups to be tweaked into a variety of sounds.
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I've got a tele (Peavey Reactor) with a Joe Barden in the neck, which is probably the greatest pup I've ever played and have used it in all kinds of ways. The bridge has a Seymour Duncan Lil 59 (for tele) that is pure rock and roll. While the two pups don't play well together in the middle position, individually they cover a lot of sonic ground. If needed, I could do a chord-melody solo gig in the afternoon and then a classic rock bar gig later that night and only have this guitar on hand.
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Teles have the dynamic range of brightness and twang in the bridge and the warmth with the neck pickup. Add in the cleanliness of those single coils that allows for your amp to take the tone in whichever direction you choose, from sparkly clean to dark crunch, and a lot more.
Despite what many will opine, I still say a guitar has vibe and attitude in the look and feel. There's something about how one feels and looks playing a tele, no matter what style of music. They're just so damn cool! (Okay, 335's are pretty cool too.)
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Just thinking about this a bit more. Before I got my Peavey Reactor, I played an Epiphone Sheraton II, which is just a fantastic guitar. Two things I really enjoyed about moving from the 335-style to the Tele-style: tele-style is so much lighter, and I felt it to be bit more responsive and raunchy than the 335.
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This still remain my main axe for pop/rock/blues gigs. Its more versatile than 335, being less prone to feedback while using distorsion stompbox, unless you set to an obscene level of gain. Originally Posted by sdr
Mine is mapple neck, maybe less suitable to jazz than a rosewood , not only in terms of sound but also in term of feeling (thicker with less sustain).
Two strong aspect of the Tele vs my Ibanez 335: it's incredibly stays in tune even after severe abuse and the sound palette you get while rolling of volume and tone knob controls.
But for jazz exclusively, I would preferably stick to my 335 or an archtop.
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I believe thats personal taste, I own both and as for me if I could only own one guitar, It would be a Fender American Telecaster. My second choice would be a maybe a Peavey Cropper Classic. But I do have a Gibson 335 since the 80s wouldn't part with it.
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No one has compared it to a Les Paul. Dual humbuckers with independent tone and volume seems like it would be more versatile. At least on paper. What's the compare/contrast?
For what it's worth, I'm looking to get a Les Paul as my next guitar because I want a solid body with a 24.75" neck. Tele's definitely have an appeal that could sway me though.
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On paper yes, but once you play em, you'll what a tele can do.
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You could always go to http:/warmoth.com and order the parts to build your own tele-style guitar with 24.75 neck. There was a really nice looking tele made with a replacement warmoth neck that was for sale on The Gear Page not too long ago with a neck humbucker and 24.75 ebony neck... interesting. Originally Posted by sdr
Cheers,
Steve
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Well obviously Tele And LP are too very different animals.Not to mention the different LP models which makes each sounding rather different as well. Originally Posted by sdr
I usually have the opportunity to compare LP and Tele plugged in my Twin Reverb during rehearsal as in my band the two other guitar players have LPs.
I like very both very much, no question.But talking about versatility, I would rank the LP very close to the 335 (feed back sensitivity excepted)
But to my ears, the main Tele advantage over the LP is the tone clarity and dynamic when playing chords with overdrive or distortion effects, you would hardly get with an LP.
On the other hand, I prefer the jazz tone & feel of LP over my Tele.
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A tele really blends well in a band setting. You guys that play by yourselves in your living room have no idea how different things are on the bandstand, where each instrument needs to find it's own sonic space without stepping on the range of other instruments.
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I agree with cosmic gumbo, when I'am playing in a band I take my Tele and my 335. I find I hardly ever use the 335 anymore. I do use it a lot recording in my buddies little studio. I like it when singing ballad type songs.
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Don't judge playability just by scale length. Fingerboard radius makes difference too. Originally Posted by sdr
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Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo
Blends and stands out !!
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I must be in the unique minority that cares not a bit about the bridge pup and the astray, or "versAtility", or "blending". Just slap a CC on the neck pup and I'm good to go!
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Good point. I have small hands and I'm unstudied on various specs and measurements. Any hints on radius standards and what I might look for? Another member suggested piecing the axe together from Warmoth parts, this will be helpful advice if I go down that road. Originally Posted by GodinFan
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When it comes custom builders like Warmoth and USACG, a neck has a lot of properties you can specify:
* neck wood
* fretboard wood
* fret size and material
* nut width
* neck contour (C, U, D, V shapes, etc...)
* scale length
* fretboard radius
I like the 25.5" scale, but more for the tension of the strings. I'd say contour and fret size make the biggest difference, but you should just play a bunch of necks and see what you like. I find that fat necks are the most comfortable. Skinny necks make my hand cramp. My ideal would be (YMMV, of course!)
* mahogany neck
* ebony fretboard
* small frets (6230)
* 1.75" nut ("wide")
* fat neck (1" at nut)
* 25.5" scale
* 10"-16" conical radius, but not sure
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FWIW, I think a lightweight instrument is a must. I have a Squier CVC Tele that is a dream instrument. I haven't touched a thing on it -- it is lightweight, plays incredibly well and is rock solid. Oh, and if it gets dinged or damaged during a gig, I'm not going to cry about it either (these bad boys go for around $379).
Anyway, I find the strat body shape a bit more comfortable because of the contours, but it's a minor quibble. As a result, I bought 2 squiers at the same time (60's Strat and CVC tele) and ended up modding the strat with a SD Alnico Pro II pickup. Again, though, I've played maybe quite a few gigs with the tele unmodded and its a gem.
I'm not really sure about big tonal differences coming from the bridge, etc... For me strings and knob settings are huge, then pickup, then fingerboard. Everything else is subtle at best.
...and ironically, I've never cared much for versatility. Give me a decent workable jazz tone and I'll stop fussing with the knobs and focus on my playing.
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It's there's one thing that drives me crazy watching another guitarist play, it's when they can't stop fiddling with the guitar's knobs: play a phrase, *fiddle*, play a phrase, *fiddle* ... then they head over to their amp -- oh no, it's a Mesa Boogie! Originally Posted by Silentwiz
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LOL As one of the guitarist at work says... A Boogie gets any sound but one, the sound you want. I recent sold my Boogie back to the guy I originally bought it from, I rarely used it. Funny I swapped email with the guy and he isn't using it either. Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles
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I love my tele, it has its own special charm. I named it "Frankie" short for Frankenstein. To make a long story short, it is a home-built guitar made from used parts that came from eBay & other low-cost sources. The neck came from Warmoth and the neck pickup is a Joe Barden humbucker and I get a great tone from it for jazz. My intent was to have it for a back-up for jazz gigs and it is really perfect for that purpose.
wiz
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Seeing as how (I think) the quote in the original post was by me, it seems I have some explaining to do, although a lot of it has been covered.
The Telecaster has probably the most effective and useful volume and tone knobs of any standard guitar i've played. It can allow you to use quite a bit of gain without it getting too shrill (unless you want it to be shrill), and the clean tone allows easy colouration, either with amps or pedals. I also think the natural articulation of Tele's allow the nuances of your playing style to come through.
It's easy to modify pretty much any way you want. I know a Strat is too, but you're pretty much stuck with the bridge, which I think is pretty responsible for quite a lot of the "Strat" sound. Even if you block it or put a hardtail on, that... springiness is still there. It's a great sound, but obviously it colours everything else.
I can approximate the sound of a Les Paul with a good Tele and a good amp. It's more of a struggle approximating a Tele with a Les Paul, IMHO. Generally, I find 335's to be more natural and expressive sounding than LP's, and I find that they sit well in the mix and have more pleasant high end.
I do play a Les Paul style guitar an awful lot of the time, but that's because I like the feel and sound of Les Pauls. If I was a session guitarist and didn't know what I was going to be playing on from day to day, i'd probably use either a Tele or a 335.
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