Telecaster Thunk?

[markesquire]

Has anyone achieved a definitive Tal thunk sound on a Tele? Besides flatwounds, is there anything else you use to dampen the strings? I saw a video where Tim Lerch used rubber rings from the hardware store to dampen strings on his archtops behind the bridge; maybe something like that works on Teles?

[entresz]

I can't say I've ever been able to achieve that particular sound on my Telecaster, even with flats. They have too must sustain to 'thunk' like a laminated archtop. If there's a way to get wooden saddles on there somehow that could help, although I've never seen that done on a Tele before.

[lammie200]

If you want to take some of the attack spike out of a solid body you might want to try using something like GraphTech Black Tusq nuts and Stringsaver saddles. They will tame that zing but they also won’t prevent the good parts of the tone to still ring true.

[whiskey02]

I believe (which could be total BS) that TI Benson flat strings give my les paul more thunk than it had with Rotosound Monel flats.

[markesquire]

If there's a way to get wooden saddles on there somehow that could help, although I've never seen that done on a Tele before.

I’ve thought of this before, and at least one former Fender Custom Shop builder now makes and sells wooden saddles, though they have fretwire installed: JP WoodTone | 2022

Tele wood saddles? | Telecaster Guitar Forum

[Gabor]

If you want to take some of the attack spike out of a solid body you might want to try using something like GraphTech Black Tusq nuts and Stringsaver saddles. They will tame that zing but they also won’t prevent the good parts of the tone to still ring true.

I never undestood, how can have significant sound effect the nut anything else than open strings. I can believe it have some, but I also convinced that it is so small, that do no worth to consider it when playing jazz lines on the frets...

I also understand that nut is the cruical part of the intonation, and tunability, but again, soundwise of the fretted lines, and chords?

[lammie200]

I never undestood, how can have significant sound effect the nut anything else than open strings. I can believe it have some, but I also convinced that it is so small, that do no worth to consider it when playing jazz lines on the frets...

I also understand that nut is the cruical part of the intonation, and tunability, but again, soundwise of the fretted lines, and chords?

Well, a completely different topic would be compensated nuts. I use Earvana compensated nuts on all my partcaster builds and Hosco nut spacers on my archtops. Sound wise they are no different than any composite nut material or even bone IMHO. But tuning and intonation wise they help all over the fretboard as intended. Understand that guitars will be tuned differently with compensated nuts so that that tuning affects the entire string length. So fretted notes are affected.

[Gabor]

I compensate with ear, having the goal to get the minimum out of tuneness between 3rd an 12th fret, focusing on 7th to 10th. I do not care about open strings :-) what are this way may slightly out of tune as a compromise

[AllanAllen]

I agree with Gabor. I tune with a tuner, then I flat the G string by ear. The rest of the strings are close enough.

[44lombard]

I love Tal's sound, and I happen to love Ed Bickert and have two Teles. I've never tried to set up either Tele specifically to get a thunk. But, when I'm playing one of them, particularly between the 3rd and, say, 12th frets, particularly the A-D-G-B strings, I've noticed a lot more of a 50's vintage mid-rangy sound that at times reminds me a little of "the thunk" of Tal, Jimmy Raney, Billy Bean, etc.

I have always assumed it to be the neck pickup on this particular Tele, a pickup made by K-line--the "Signature" Tele pickup described here. This thunky sound is mostly in single-note lines...chords sound great, but I can't imagine a Tele that would give that airy quality and quick decay of chords played on a good archtop.

My other (bargain/project) Tele came with a terrible neck pickup, which I replaced with a low-wind neck pickup from Cavalier (hoping for that same kind of tone as the guitar that has the K-line neck pickup). Alas, the Cavalier doesn't give me quite the delightful mid-range tone I love on my other guitar.

So, long story short, some neck pickup experimentation might be worth pursuing.

[omphalopsychos]

I haven’t gotten the “thunk” sound but I’ve gotten something way better than “thunk” with a tele and flatwounds. My aim is the tonal palette of the 40s-60s swing/soul/blues rather than the thunk sound associated with Joe pass, tal farlow et al.

[Filmosound 621]

^^ best Telecaster sound on the internet.

fine playing as well of course.