the best tele tone I ever heard had to be Ted Greene, but he most certainly modded his Teles to certain degrees. I honestly feel I can get my strat to sound similar to his tone using the pot switch that comes with newer strats.. specifically activating while with switch in first position on a performer 2019
Your reply got me thinking again (uh-oh!!) lneal14513 when you said "kinda close" and "spot on" If the majority of the Strat-Talk members were given the EXACT guitar Hendrix used at Woodstock, could we get "kinda close" or "spot on" to the way Hendrix made that Strat sound?
I'm betting not even close! Jimi had those "mutantly" long fingers that we stubby fingered plunkers can only dream of. Part of "his sound" was facilitated by the fact that he could bar up to three strings with his thumb, while still having enough finger length to "lick or even chord" on the other strings over the span of ten or even twelve frets! Combine that with he genius creativity and he was a force and indeed a freak of nature! Not likely to be seen again! Just Sayin' Gene
The single-coil bridge PU in the strat is an abomination, even EJ swaps it out. The Tele, on the other hand, got the bridge right. Tele's are awesome for hard-rock in the bridge but have a limited tonal pallet compared to the Strat. With that said, it's easy to make a strat work in a balanced setup with carefully wound pickups, a bridge with an inductance plate wired for good bass response, a blender pot, and the right wiring, or 2 tone controls with the right caps and a freeway 10-way switch.
Not "THE" sound, no. I think a clean Tele and clean Strat are very distinguishable. A Tele bridge is about as distinct as a tone gets. A Strat quack similarly, and a Strat has a chime and blues rock aura that is its own. There is a range of moderate overdrive where a Strat and Tele approximate each other, but these are not "THE" sound. And I think the Tele begins to outplay the Strat in high gain scenarios.
No. A friend of mine is a famous left handed guitarist. He got to play through one of Hendrix' rigs. I asked him what it sounded like. He said "it sounded like me playing through Jimi's rig". There's your answer.
Did he play a left-handed strat righty style? Because you'd need to do that to get Hendrix's sound. Has to be the opposite side guitar to what you normally play, held upside down, strung correctly for you. Oh, and a coiled cord. Gotta have a coiled cord. Otherwise you've got no chance.
I have a close friend, here in Akron,Oh (Chrissie Hynde, Black Keys...etc..)that played with them for a while, Freddie Salem..he can get any sound out of any guitar...he's playing my old '79 Stratocaster here at a jam session... Another photo , I'm on the right ,doing the chin move, center is Freddie with Bob Kidney from a NE Ohio legendary band 15-60-75 in the "green room" for a gig we had at "Tangiers" in Akron....so I'd say yes you can coax any sound out of any guitar with the right settings on guitar AND amp
I agree Antstrat. I can throw on some country music and play along ( if I can ) and to me at the moment,I'm sounding just like aTele. I'm using The bridge and middle along with some picking adjustment. There's lots of similarities in the sound as long as I try to make it sound that way. I haven't recorded it the other way around because I don't own a Tele But my bud has one and I can play the rundown of strat songs and it's similar in places but there is no doubt I'm not playing a Strat. I think they can each mimic each other and just like a guitar player they are going to sound like themselves in the long run.
It is a Blues Deluxe....sold it ...too loud, too clean...after three Supers, two Deluxe Reverbs, a Twin, A Bandmaster through a Dual Showman JBL 15" loaded...remarkably , I figured out the Fender Fuse and I use a Mustang II loaded with an old English Celestion 12' for larger clubs , a Radial Big Shot ABY with a Super Champ XD MOUNTED IN A 12' Fender combo~Lots of air moving at 1:45 into it►