My wife always laughs when I say “Tele.” She thinks I’m trying to sound British while talking about my phone. “Oh your Tele. Are you going to call your mum with your Tele luv?
@unam45 welcome to our circus! If it were just math, we'd go to the guitar store with a calculator and walk out with the guitar that offered the largest number of permutations of pickup and switch position conbinations. It's not that way. Most Strats have 3 pickups with the same, basic tone, just located in different positiions. Usually you have 3 tones, plus 2 combination tones. Physically, the vibrato bridge assembly, balanced by springs, has an effect on tone. These things make a Strat sound like a Strat. Most Teles have 2 pickups that have very different tone. Usually you have 2 tones and 1 combination tone. The thin, stamped bridge and 3 shared saddles have an effect on tone. These things make a Tele sound like a Tele. Each has limitations, but you have infinite freedom of expression using the available tones within the limitations. You can make one sound similar to the other, but neither one really does what the other does, and physics dictate that you can't make one sound exactly like the other. You pick the configuration that suits you and your music the best. I pick both, but prefer the Tele as the tool to translate my musical blather.
Another major difference with between the strat and the tele is the location of the jack. Teles have the jack on the bottom and strats have the jack on the top. Fun fact, drill a hole in the top of your tele and put the jack there, then drill a hole in the side of your strat and put the jack there. The two guitars will be virtually indistinguishable, except for the shape and number of pickups. Res Ipsum Loquitor I copied this from the internet.
While they are both beautiful guitars, and play wonderfully, I am tending toward the Strat as of late. We have a gig this weekend, and I think I'll bring the Strat over the Tele. I guess I'll have to take the sticker off the Strat...
She's mixed up. A telly is a TV that you watch, you call people on a phone. Nobody calls a phone a tele...
While Strat-Talk was down, I rewired the tone control on my Strat. THe second tone control is now wired to the bridge pickup. It's sounds very Tele-like now. I'm enjoying that. The bridge pickup alone is more useable to me now.
That's my only problem with the Tele. I'll pick one up and the upper body rubs my forearm the wrong way.
They are different, embrace the difference. I like 'em both. Strats are more comfortable to me but I've owned Strat body style guitars for 34 years, only got into the Tele thing a couple years ago. My next guitar probably wouldn't be either, one Tele and two Strats covers lots of Fender territory for me.
Strats have volume knobs and middle pickups that get in the way. Most Teles do not. I've played Teles for a long time and now I get to learn to play a Strat and get to correct these issues. Strats have the extra comfy body though.
