Secrets of the Fender Telecaster

[mr. beaumont]

Kris’ tele sample thread inspired this…

I alwayssmile at all the tele love here, the official solidbody of jazzguitar.be…I’ve been a tele player since I was 18, and while I own other guitars, I always return to that plank…

It does make me think though…single coils or humbuckers, three saddle, six saddle, strat hardtail bridge, ash, alder, whatever, maple, rosewood, ebony…the tele can be hot rodded a million ways, but it almost always still makes a great jazz guiar…why?

So what do you all think? Why does the tele, in whatever incarnation, succeed as a “jazz guitar” better than just about any other plank out there? I have some hunches and suspicions, but I’ll wait to hear from others who know more than I do first.

And feel free to post lots of pics

[TOMMO]

I really don't know why....

Probably it's the neck pickup that delivers a good jazz tone?

On mine at least the tone control works wonders...

Or is it just perception? I have learned that any electric will be able to deliver fine jazz - approved sounds.

And since you want pics, here's mine in action:



[IMG][/IMG]

[docbop]

From just a player and inquisitive person point of view....

I think Leo just lucked into the perfect design of scale length, body size and shape, the single sided headstock making the E and B strings longer, he hit the perfect measurements. Even partscasters are wonderful the key is in the basic recipe. Les Paul are nice, but the shorter scale darkens the sound to me. Strat has that additional body cutaway and floating bridge changing the sound. Only other solid body I've had was a Gibson L6-S and it was nice, but something about it just couldn't feel right after awhile.

Buzz Feiten who is now making guitars that are very similar to teles. In a recent video of a new model he's designing showed him working on the blueprint for the body shape and he had a tele body on the paper. He had his big French curve out for drawing. Buzz said laying a French curve on a Tele body surprised as how many of the angles Leo used were just the default shape of a French curve.


I also heard that Leo did the tuners on on side to get the longer B and E string in order to make them easier to bend it reduced the tension on those strings. Which makes me wonder if the low-E string and it short and drastic angle on the headstock was to increase tension for tighter sound???

[Keira Witherkay]

yeah i like the fact that the tele is a tough "old bird" meaning you can tour it ... or gig multiple times a week or a day and it sounds the same everytime you plug in ....seems impervious to weather/humidity/room acoustics/impervious to feedback ... it's "Mr Reliable" i still personally prefer a fully hollow guitars tone...like an archtp or 330 but we all know the issues involved with gigging these more lets just say "sensitive" beasts if you moving about a lot with minimal setup time before gigs and constantly changing rooms , different house PA's and backlines and modes of transport..gigging a tele is an easy choice for a working muso

[rsclosson]

The first time I played a Tele, I was impressed by its almost acoustic vibe when playing rhythm. For a solid body guitar, it has, to my ears, a kind of airiness to the sound.

We sometimes think that a good straight ahead jazz sound is dark to the point of being muffled. If you listen to the really great jazz players, however, there is also a definition or a "sparkle" that Teles have. At least that is why I like it.

[mr. beaumont]

Teles do have that, don't they? Although I guess a lot of Fenders have an "acoustic strummability" to them...not that we strum all that often in jazz...but if I was a famous folk singer going electric for the first time at some huge festival, I'd definitely gravitate towards a Fender style guitar versus strumming say, a Les Paul...long scale and single coils there, I guess.

And Keira, yeah--that consistency. Last winter we had a stretch of weather where the temperature didn't get up above 0 for about a week..but I still had spring musical rehearsals where I teach most of that week...I couldn't even consider anything but bringing my tele out for those...it didn't even go out of tune.

[ESCC]

Its a perfect electric guitar due to its pure simplicity and that simplicity keeps me more in-tuned with what I'm playing and less on the instrument. Sometimes simple pleasures are the best.

[StanG]

I have read on the internet (means it's true, right?) that the neck pu is located directly under a harmonic node, which helps create the warm full tone. Back the tone some, and up the volume a notch, and the notes just fatten up.

the Bridge pu is also design perfection. The combo of the string thru, and pickup in the bridge plate create something wonderful. With a simple circuit tube amp, the notes feel like they are jumping right from the bridge to the speaker.

[rsclosson]

Teles do have that, don't they? Although I guess a lot of Fenders have an "acoustic strummability" to them...not that we strum all that often in jazz...but if I was a famous folk singer going electric for the first time at some huge festival, I'd definitely gravitate towards a Fender style guitar versus strumming say, a Les Paul...long scale and single coils there, I guess.

Yep. While never mistaken for a Martin D-28, there is a kind of "woodiness" to the tone that is hard to get from any other guitar. I can sort of get it from a Strat, but my Tele does it best. That woodiness translates well to a jazz tone just by darkening it up a little.

[JazzVocab]

I do appreciate a tele but for me not for jazz, I'm more of a soul fan when I pick up a tele.

How about this though, gave me bad tele GAS.........



New cheapish short scale tele with a bucker.. mmm..

[Steve Z]

Timely thread... I have a'94 G&L ASAT Classic that I really enjoy playing. It's very confortable with a body/belly contour, neck plays nice and well balanced. Definitely no thoughts of ever parting with it.

I took a quick trip to Guitar Center this afternoon just o see what was new in the used section the two guitars I played were (1) Tribute G&L ASAT Deluxe (the one with dual humbuckers) @ $299 and (2) a new but finish damaged Gibson Les Paul Supreme @$4995. Although the LP Supreme played nice, I have to say that I preferred the tone and playability of the Indonesian Tribute G&L.

Also, the fit and finish of the LP was horrible. The varnish on the neck was thick and gloppy looking and the insides of the f-hole binding still had shavings attached along the entire inside of both f-holes I can't remember seeing bad QA on tele-style guitars.

So... moral of the story... IMO the used import G&L at 6% of the cost of the blemished/discounted LP Supreme played and sounded better.

Here's a pic trying to show the shoddy craftsmanship of the new LP Supreme list price $10,998.00 street price $6,599...

[ruger9]

Great thread. Don't really have anything to add, because I don't think about it beyond knowing my tele - my #1- is a part of me, moreso than any other guitar I have ever owned in 30 years. ANY style. ANY.

While I prefer my Grestch or Epi Broadway for jump blues, the tele does that wonderfully as well.

Actually- my next electric is going to be a thinline. I'm going to experiment with the "netherworld" of a semi-hollow tele. Best of both worlds? Swiss Army Knife "Plus"? I'm going to find out.

[ruger9]

I have read on the internet (means it's true, right?) that the neck pu is located directly under a harmonic node, which helps create the warm full tone. Back the tone some, and up the volume a notch, and the notes just fatten up.

.

It is, which is why you can't get natural harmonics on the 5th fret on the neck pickup. THAT would be my ONLY complaint about my beloved tele..... but I hadn't heard the theory that the neck pickup placement somehow enhanced the tone...

[Rob MacKillop]

Although there is THAT Tele sound, I'm often surprised by how different they can sound from each other. I can get a decent jazz sound out of mine, yet one of my student's Teles, a Bajo one, is just a 100% chickin-pickin dream, without the slightest trace of a jazz vibe (though I suppose that depends on your jazz). Both sound like Teles, though.

[monk]

There are some who say that "planks" have no resonance but I think that the strings being attached and going through the body imparts a resonance (the aforementioned "woodiness) that is different than that of Strats and Les Pauls. That resonance coupled with the front PUP and 25.5 scale creates, in my mind, the most versatile work-horse guitar ever made.

There are lots of guitars that do one thing great and a few guitars that do a few things well but I don't know of any other guitar that has proven itself in as many different genres of music as the Telecaster.

[jazzbow]

Teles. Ah Teles.

A modders delight.

I put on Kluson harmonic brass saddles for the intonation; which are brilliant. I have flatwounds on and the sustain it has with those saddles isn't your usual ply top plunky plunky fat fifties sonics, but it is unique.
The metal mass of the bridge unit gives it a shimmer, especially with the tone rolled off. Through the Ampeg GVT 15 it's quite 'steel' like.



The harmonic pickup placement bugged me when I put on my humbucker VV CC rider, would it effect its tone?
Well? Nah! Watch this....

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v...=3&theater
This is Bill Lawrence.

I have used his 5 way switch mod, highly recommended.

The 5 way gives me..

1. Neck
2. Neck & Bridge
3. Bridge
4. Neck & Bridge half out of phase (great fake acoustic sound)
5. Neck with tone choke (great for clean rhythm and overdrive solos)

After all that, it's a great guitar when you find the one.

[palindrome]

I just got a little drunk, but I'd like to say this:

When, the other day, there was talk about Japanese versus Chinese guitars, I was only waiting for someone to jump in and say something like, "The CNC machine doesn't care". Of course it happened, without fail.

Another one of those funny mantras is "Leo got it right the first time". I always crack up on reading that.

Nash guitars have been mentioned in this thread. Earlier this year, a jazz video on Youtube featuring a Nash 52 Tele made me salivate after a sunburst ash Tele with a maple fingerboard.

So I bought a Fender Classic Series '50s MIM. An hour later I caught myself walking around that plank placed on the table in admiration, like around a fascinating cat, wondering how a single person could have thought this up.

The only fault I could find was the noise.

I cannot imagine that "Leo" just stumbled upon this concept. There must be a lot more to it than that.

(As an aside: perhaps we should start to collect mantras like "The CNC machine doensn't care" or "Leo got it right the first time." These are so funny.)

[monk]

I've owned three Teles over the years and, yes, they can be noisy especially in a venue with old wiring and lots of neon and fluorescent lights.

When I was living in Nashville, I had Joe Glaser insulate and ground the pickup cavities in my 1966 and 1968 Teles. It doesn't remove 100% of the noise but it certainly makes it negligible.

[jazzbow]

So I bought a Fender Classic Series '50s MIM. An hour later I caught myself walking around that plank placed on the table in admiration, l

Hey PD, draw an outline on the table and cut it out, 2 for 1

[Archie]

Kris’ tele sample thread inspired this…

I alwayssmile at all the tele love here, the official solidbody of jazzguitar.be…I’ve been a tele player since I was 18, and while I own other guitars, I always return to that plank…

It does make me think though…single coils or humbuckers, three saddle, six saddle, strat hardtail bridge, ash, alder, whatever, maple, rosewood, ebony…the tele can be hot rodded a million ways, but it almost always still makes a great jazz guiar…why?

So what do you all think? Why does the tele, in whatever incarnation, succeed as a “jazz guitar” better than just about any other plank out there? I have some hunches and suspicions, but I’ll wait to hear from others who know more than I do first.

And feel free to post lots of pics

Because it was the cheapest most available to hand, for a struggling heroine addicted jazz guitarist. Nothing more special about them than that I'm afraid (imo). If Ed or Ted had played a strat, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Thats my 2p

[Just_Guild]

Teles do have that, don't they? Although I guess a lot of Fenders have an "acoustic strummability" to them...not that we strum all that often in jazz...but if I was a famous folk singer going electric for the first time at some huge festival, I'd definitely gravitate towards a Fender style guitar versus strumming say, a Les Paul...long scale and single coils there, I guess.

And Keira, yeah--that consistency. Last winter we had a stretch of weather where the temperature didn't get up above 0 for about a week..but I still had spring musical rehearsals where I teach most of that week...I couldn't even consider anything but bringing my tele out for those...it didn't even go out of tune.

Its just an all around great guitar! What more can you say? I think Leo was a genius. How many times in the history of civilization did someone get something right, straight out of the box? Leo is in a very elite and small group. Just my humble opinion.

[palindrome]

If Ed or Ted had played a strat, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

I really respect you, but this explanation doesn't convince me.

[Archie]

But it makes sense, right?

Look at all the other solid bodies that can do exactly the same thing but with a hum bucker, which is even better. An SG a Les paul, A 335? Theres too many.

In the end, the tele is the cheapest most available and Jazz players at the time (like most times) are totally broke. Thats probably more likely than a Tele having a magical pick-up placement or body depth ??

Anyway I shall bow out before I lose any more respect :-))

[Just_Guild]

But it makes sense, right?

Look at all the other solid bodies that can do exactly the same thing but with a hum bucker, which is even better. An SG a Les paul, A 335? Theres too many.

In the end, the tele is the cheapest most available and Jazz players at the time (like most times) are totally broke. Thats probably more likely than a Tele having a magical pick-up placement or body depth ??

Anyway I shall bow out before I lose any more respect :-))

I am no guitar expert or guru by any stretch of the imagination. When I was a "young lad" many years ago, my first really good guitar was a Guild Starfire V that my Mom and Dad got me for my 16th birthday (1971). My Dad was very old school and there was "no way" he was going to buy me one of those "slabs of wood" (i.e. Fender) guitars. Little did he know the semi-hollow Starfire had a mahogany block down the center...

Anyway, segue ahead to 2012 with my teachers words echoing in my head, "Everyone should have a Telecaster, you can play jazz on them." I'm in Sam ash and make a deal on an American Standard, 2011, sunburst. Wow, what a guitar! Plays like butter, fast, awesome quality, I'm blown away. Sorry dad, you were wrong.

Just saying....

[palindrome]

Anyway I shall bow out before I lose any more respect :-))

No, you won't be losing any respect. I consider differing views to be normal.