The Difference Between Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster

[Hammertone]

The best things about both Strats and Teles are that they can be built from parts very easily and that there are a myriad of parts makers and parts designs to choose from IMHO. You can get custom necks in any shape, of any dimensions, in any woods. Same with bodies including preferred weights. There are probably close to a hundred choices for every other part as well. There is no way to build any other guitar type as easily.

^ This.

For instance, 0% Fender content:

[krusty]

Hmm. The solid rosewood neck on the Tele in the bottom left pic looks familiar...

[lawson-stone]

Since the 60's when a friend had a powder blue Hagstron 1 or 2 and an Ampeg Reberbrocket I've wanted one, and just never got around to finding one. Jeez, you guys promote GAS.

Seriously I do love my Hag. That vinyl back, the cheesy acrylic front, the tone SWITCH (not a knob, you can have tone on or off!)... it's just fun. And the neck is very nice. Hagstrom necks are legendary for staying straight and true. My dad bought me one way back when I was a kid, my first nice guitar, and a Sears (I think) tube amp that my memory seems to think looked like a Deluxe Reverb--1 12" speaker, front panel, reverb, tremolo. But my memory is vague, it was either a Silvertone, Truetone, or one of those catalogue brands. Wish I still had it.

The Hag got lost when it went to the attic I went to college and my dad had to sell off or dispose of a bunch of the stuff from the house. I found the one in the clip on Reverb last year and couldn't resist. I'm glad I have it. Wish I could remember the details of that first amp!

[strumcat]

My dream guitar is along the same lines as what you've built:

- Fender Mustang body, maybe the only body style even more comfortable than a Strat. Naturally you want a piece of wood that sings, which is a hit-or-miss kind of thing. Same for the neck. I'd rather have a live piece of wood than a particular kind of wood.
- Short scale neck, 24" to 24.75", 9.5" radius, not too thick, for arthritis reasons.
- Wide string spacing at the bridge end, because I'm used to finger-picking acoustic guitars.
- Strat-style individually two-way adjustable saddles
- Strat-style, through-the-body, springy trem tailpiece (but no whammy bar). I like the sound and I hate tuning every five minutes.
- A Gretsch Silent58 humbucker at the neck.
- A P90 at the bridge.
- Generally decent remaining hardware... tuners/nut/switches/pots/caps etc.

Kind of a Mustang/Strat hybrid I guess.

[Hammertone]

Hmm. The solid rosewood neck on the Tele in the bottom left pic looks familiar...

Yes, that's the one!


Warmoth Modern boatneck. I paired it with a one-piece Korina body built by Brian Monty (for Peter Florance, when he was selling that kind of stuff). The guitar turned out squeaky clean - real Bakersfield-style, and a bit neck-heavy. I wanted an older, fatter sound, so I swapped in a REALLY ancient brass bridge (Starz?), a Pickup Wizard/SD rewind in the neck, and a Rumplestiltskin Black Rope in the bridge. Now it's a fat rock guitar, balances great, and is still quite light. Come play it sometime! Through this setup - it's a riser, it's a 2x10 Bell cab, it's both! :

[mr. beaumont]

The Warmoth boatneck is a thing of beauty.

[pauln]

I guess if one plays the same guitar for a few decades the problems with accidentally hitting the controls goes away, but if you switch guitars a lot, not so much. Fortunately, this has been my one and only for the last three decades... we know each other very well.

[Greentone]

+1 The boatneck is exceptional

OTOH, the Monty neck is the finest I have ever played. HT has these on some of his 'casters.

[Hammertone]

I have a few F-style guitars with Monty bodies and a couple with Monty necks, including a strat with an MJT body & Mechanicland "Ballpark" neck (by Monty) and a complete Monty-built tele. All great fun.

[rmpmcdermott]

You have a trem on the Strat, which is useless and has to be blocked as already stated above. But once it's blocked, you have a nice guitar.


No famous jazz player plays a Strat, so, that is a good start for you !

1. There are plenty of amazing players who would disagree about the trem being useless (see: Jeff Beck)

2. Mike Stern (during the Miles years), Oz Noy, Wayne Krantz, Scott Henderson, Dean Brown, Nir Felder, Mark Lettieri. Ton of big jazz names play Strat. Now, they don't play straight ahead jazz, if that's what you're referring to.

[Tal_175]

Tele can more easily function as an archtop substitute. With Strat you can get nice jazz tones but less archtop like. If one already has an archtop, I think Strat would be the more interesting choice. There is something unique about the combination of gentle output and ringing sustain strats produce. Whether its rhythm, single lines or chord melodies strats bring something very unique to all aspects of playing.

[Tal_175]

Also I think strats shine with light gauge strings. I like 12's but they take away some of the strat qualities of the guitar. So, I tend to keep 10's on one of my strats.

[rmpmcdermott]

Also I think strats shine with light gauge strings. I like 12's but they take away some of the strat qualities of the guitar. So, I tend to keep 10's on one of my strats.

I run all my Strats with TI Swing 11s. I agree that they shine with lighter string gauges, at least when it comes to clean tones. I wouldn't go higher than the 11s I have on now.

[Stringswinger]

Also I think strats shine with light gauge strings. I like 12's but they take away some of the strat qualities of the guitar. So, I tend to keep 10's on one of my strats.

I think that depends on the Pickups. Fender's 57/62 PUPs were designed for 12's and IMO, sound best with 12's and unbalanced with 10's. Fenders American Standard Pickups sound best with 10's to be sure as that is what they were designed for.

[Tal_175]

I think that depends on the Pickups. Fender's 57/62 PUPs were designed for 12's and IMO, sound best with 12's and unbalanced with 10's. Fenders American Standard Pickups sound best with 10's to be sure as that is what they were designed for.

Do 57/62's have less output then the standard pickups? Is that why?

[Stringswinger]

Do 57/62's have less output then the standard pickups? Is that why?

Probably, in addition the polepieces on the 57/62's need a wound third. Back in the day (late 50's, early 60's) all string sets came with a wound third. Try finding a set of 10's other than flats or Gypsy jazz strings with a wound third.....

[Doug B]

1. There are plenty of amazing players who would disagree about the trem being useless (see: Jeff Beck)

2. Mike Stern (during the Miles years), Oz Noy, Wayne Krantz, Scott Henderson, Dean Brown, Nir Felder, Mark Lettieri. Ton of big jazz names play Strat. Now, they don't play straight ahead jazz, if that's what you're referring to.

Also, don't forget Lorne Lofesky:

lorne lofsky guitar - YouTube

[John A.]

I think that depends on the Pickups. Fender's 57/62 PUPs were designed for 12's and IMO, sound best with 12's and unbalanced with 10's. Fenders American Standard Pickups sound best with 10's to be sure as that is what they were designed for.

Interesting -- I've not heard that Fender pups were designed for particular string gauges before. How so? [I have heard that the pole-piece stagger was supposed to compensate for fingerboard radius, though.] In any event, when I first got my strat (89 American Standard, with non-staggered pole-pieces), I experimented with gauges, and (from what I remember) it didn't make much difference in the tone. I wound up sticking with 10s (after a long period with 11s), but more because they just feel better on that guitar than heavier gauges do (to me, anyway).

Regardless, though, I think perhaps the most important thing to say about playability and tone with strats is that set-up is really important -- IME more so than with other guitars. Neck tilt (either shims or micro-tilt), saddle height and radius, pup height and angle, whammy springs/tension/float are all adjustable and interactive. Change one, and you have to change the others, and it's difficult to dial them all in just right. [Voice of experience here; a few years ago, I finally got my strat into the right tech's hands, and it made a huge difference.] Most Tele's have fewer variables and less adjustment range, so less to get wrong.

John

[Greentone]

When both the Telecaster and Stratocaster were designed, there were no such thing as .009-.40 (Fender 150XL) gauge strings. The strings that would have come with those guitars were .12-.50 gauge strings.

To my ear, that's what the Telecaster and Stratocaster still sound best with. I will confess that it helps to have played upright bass for almost 50 years, when it comes to wrestling .12-gauge strings on a Tele or Strat with mid-to-high action, but the guitars are _so sweet_ set up this way. The late Roy Buchanan favored a high action on his '53 Telecaster.

On the Stratocaster, in particular, the super skinny strings are prone to play out of tune, given the impact of the strong magnetic polepieces of the three pickups. (Be sure to lower the pickups on the Strat to minimize this tendency.)

All this being said, I sub both my Tele and Strat onto the jazz bandstand regularly. With the correct string gauge and setup, each is a pleasure. With ".10s" though, things sound like I should be playing in Chic, with Nile Rodgers.