Why Do You Love Your Tele?

[davidrf]

Thanks Malikon & BeefTinn Now I'm startin to get it... and I'm curious to try one

 

[bluesblabber]

@ OP : Tele is soo... responsive. It can sound fat and rough or cute and sweet, or anything else, depends on how you want to play it. It is a very versatile guitar.

Some guitars will cover your mistakes and the notes will come out loud even if you don't hit the strings exceptionally hard. Ibanez in particular I've found does this.

Other guitars, (mostly Fenders to be honest) are unforgiving. If you make a mistake it won't hide that mistake in fuzz. If you want the notes to be louder you've really got to dig in and hit the strings harder. For example it's easy to play fast with a very light touch, it's not easy at all to play fast with a hard hitting aggressive touch.

You just can't hide with a Tele, there's nothing to hide behind. It's literally a plank of wood with a crude pickup that's transmitting the sound of the string you're hitting.

If guitars were women, a Telecaster would be all natural. No makeup, no fake ta-ta's, no high heels, 100% real. But she'd be loyal and treat you proper.

other guitars would be a women with fake ta-ta's, fake nails, tons of makeup, high heels, expensive dresses, and an inflated self worth.

In conclusion (ha ha, I love that expression) A Tele is just the real deal. A good guitarist can plug a Tele straight into an amp and make it sound awesome (like Danny Gatton) other guitars can have lots of flash and pop and make things really easy to play and pull off (ever wonder why so many shredders play an Ibanez? It's literally the easiest guitar to play.) And you can be not very good but still sound pretty impressive with those guitars.

If you're not very good and playing a Telecaster, not only will you not sound very good, you're probably going to sound worse then usual. Because you're finally hearing every. little. thing. From the subtle scrape of the pick hitting and exiting the string, to the slight shift of your fingers on the neck.

Some people step up to the challenge (and to be fair a Strat will do it too, but a Tele does it more) and other people run screaming back to their Ibanez's/Shecters/ESPS because they sound better on them.

But that's why when I see someone shredding on an Ibanez I yawn, but if I see someone shredding a Telecaster I sit up and take notice.

Because one of those guys can reallllly play a guitar.

If you can make a Tele sound good, you can make anything sound good. And that's why they're awesome and why I consider them the manliest of guitars. There's no hiding, no smoke and mirrors. You can either play it or you can't. It's brutally humbling. But that's part of the appeal.

(to me anyway, it's all just my opinion.)

Nicely said!!

 

[anfontan]

I think there were 2 main experiences that made me realize I needed a Tele in my collection...
1. Seeing Roy Buchanan play one live-with a small cranked Fender amp and some reverb-Priceless............:twisted:
2. When I got to play one of the rosewood Telecasters like the one George Harrison had-incredible...........

The Tele's get more playing time than my Strats, Les Paul or Firebird-they cut through a mix and could get you through a bar fight, and still finish the set!

A strat is like a fine highway machine-a tele is more like a Jeep!!

 

[jwhit007]

You gotta love the bruised ribcage after a night of playing one.

 

[Guitar Player]

Because that string-through bridge with the plate, the bridge pickup with the chunk underneath it mounted in that plate, sounds like nothing else but.... a tele.

It took a long time for me to get to needing one. But that time did come.

It took a long time for me to get to needing a strat. But that time did come as well.

 

[Texocaster]

If you can make a Tele sound good, you can make anything sound good. And that's why they're awesome and why I consider them the manliest of guitars. There's no hiding, no smoke and mirrors. You can either play it or you can't. It's brutally humbling. But that's part of the appeal.

(to me anyway, it's all just my opinion.)

I'm currently in our "down" season, we usually only do outdoor type events so we are off generally from the end of the "Toy Rides" of November/early December until March. During this period I ONLY play Teles, and I string em one gauge heavier. When it is time to get back at it, I go backl on the LP,V's, and of course Strats and the hard Tele work of winter all pays off. I do manage to squeeze a few Tele tunes in on gigs tho......

 

[Texocaster]

You gotta love the bruised ribcage after a night of playing one.

Eat more doughnuts, it will cure the bruised rib problem

 

[tyguy]

Tele neck pups are jazzier and the bridge pups are fatter and utile compared to 90% of unusable bridge pups on strats.I set my strats up with a bridge tone control and Callaham baseplate which gives me a tele bridge pup sound(Duncans of course).My strats punch like a LP and sustain great.Tele players generally are pickers and Strat players are not(Hendrix etc.).I need a Strat only for Mark Knopfler tones in the 2 and 4 position and that's what makes a Strat unique(forgot,most comfortable git to hold also).If I was on a desert island it would be a Tele or one of my custom build strats(not a run of the mill,wired wrong,crappy pups,inferior alder body,skinny neck strat. The Best, Ty M.

 

[BHighkin]

I know so many "thrasher" types that don't like strats or teles because all they think about is output.
What I like about the tele is that it is everything that a strat is, to the extreme. Its simple, uses single coils (traditionally) and relies on player skill for a good sound.
People like the tele because it is the original. It was the first marketable solid body electric, and it still stands up to the competition. You can put four humbuckers in a shovel and it will sound loud, but it takes somebody with real skill to do a telecaster right.

 

[abracadabra]

(ever wonder why so many shredders play an Ibanez? It's literally the easiest guitar to play.)

Well I just upped from 9s to 10s so that has to count for something.

I wouldn't call myself a shredder but I do like Ibanez products. Their Prestige guitars are to die for, imo.

I'm liking this thread though. Some great comments and I've been steered back to the idea of getting a tele instead of another strat (or Ibby...)

 

[Leeb]

I never met a good guitar I didn't like.

I love Teles, have an Am Std. and a '72 Tele custom with the 'bucker at the neck (an early '90s CIJ model, not the newer ones that feel nothing like the originals).

There's songs that call for certain voices. I can't play an entire show on just one guitar and certainly can't record with just one around.

Different gits bring out different things in your technique. As others have said the Tele is certainly a different beast to play if you beyond just strumming chords.

Play one, you might like it... if not, you'll certainly bring a different perspective back to your strat when you pick it up.

 

[TSims1]

Sting and bite baby......sting and bite. I also love the fight - I am generally a pretty physical guitar player when I gig out, and I used to play a Telecaster exclusively. Most times, when I gig with a Tele, I walk away with some skin scraped off my forearm and fingers and a bruise or two on my hip and ribs. I love the fight.

 

[Jagboy]

Why do i love my tele? If you have to ask you wouldn't understand

i know i've come to this thread really late but i had to respond. I love my tele for the sound and feel of it. For it's looks. Because it was the first proper electric guitar and it's still on sale today.

I'm not tele all the way by any means. Until a couple of years back i was all about Les Pauls and now i mostly play a Strat live but there is something about a tele that you just can't get from other guitars....

i, personally, find it easier to flip from tele to LP and back than strat to LP and back... but that might just be me.

 

[stratsrgood]

If you like the feel and sound of a Strat sooner or later you feel the need to play a Tele as well!
Its not as "different" as a Gibson, but has a quality of sound that will not come out of a Strat.
I suspect that the jazz sound may have something to do with it, when discussing a track on an album Jeff Beck said he had used a Tele because a Strat sounded "too edgy"

 

[Laylas Daddy]

I like them because I think they're the manliest guitars of all time.

If Rambo played guitar, he'd play a Telecaster.
(you know, one he made for himself out of a tree stump with his survival knife.)

LOL!!!!!!!