Tele = Versatility

[LagrangeCalvert]

Now I guess im alone in a crowd here...cause I fell in love with a tele that blew me off (I didn't have the money for it ) and sent me home cryin the blues.

It was the SET NECK areodyne tele with an F hole, a P90 in the neck and a regular humbucker with Coil Tap in the bridge.....super jumbo frets and strat style saddles.....not much of a tele I know but damn did it have tone oozing out of the binding....it was all black with creme binding. IMO it was a great ROCK guitar and could pull of the country twang so-so cause of the coil spit I played some brad paisley stuff through a fender champ and it was pretty good sounding. Then I went to a Peavey XXX and blew the doors off the Sam Ash I am always at.

Tele's are loved and respected by most guitarist that have been playing for a while. Though they do have to "grow on you". I didn't want a tele when I started playing 19 years ago....I wanted a warlock so I could be cool and play metallica and impress my brother....but then again I was also 6 years old.

[elavd]

Lately I play more and more with my teles (recently I got a second one), leaving my other beloved guitars on their stands...

Tele fever!!!

[ted s]

Nice Elavd, I really like that second picture, very professional looking !

[Tim]

Good photos Elavd. Those puppies looked like they are lock in a love embrace. I imagine they are inseperatble, but which one do you like the best?

[Brian Krashpad]

That's a great pic!

I only posted my Tex-Mex with the neck bucker before, here's my other two, a '52 AVRI and a cheapo beater Frankentele I got for a Benjamin, with a Seymour Duncan mini-humbucker in the neck:

[sunvalleylaw]

Nice guys! That '52 style sure seems popular. I have seen a lot these days. There is a Sunburst Maple neck MIM from around the 02 or 03 at a local pawn shop with one chip near the bottom that he wants $275 for. Sure gets to be tempting! I played it and did not fall in love right away with this one though.

[WackyT]

That '52 is a beautiful looking guitar, Brian.

[Iago]

One more tele owner here. Surely a versatile instrument. The neck pickup can easily cover the humbucker territory, but with more definition than the average. Like other fretters pointed out, it has a round tone, slightly compressed and great sustain; more output than a regular strat pickup. The bridge is trebly, great for clean, shimmering 60's stuff, can be a bit harsh sometimes (I noticed that from the first time I played it, through my Valve Jr.), output also higher than the average strat pickup, great when overdriven, for those stinging leads, think about Mike Bloomfield and Jimmy Page on the first Zeppelin album, though I'm gonna change it for a Duncan Broadcaster pickup I bought soon, just to smooth the things out a bit.

[elavd]

Good photos Elavd. Those puppies looked like they are lock in a love embrace. I imagine they are inseperatble, but which one do you like the best?

The white blonde one is my new love... I got it last weekend...

The Candy Apple Red one is older and beloved...

The one is my wife and the one is my ... girlfriend

Take a look at 3 more photos:

CANDY APPLE RED:



WHITE BLONDE:

[guitartist]

I've got a Squier tele with a neck humbucker...I wanted the neck humbucker so I could approximate the "Keef" sound (on a budget)...I also wanted the single coil bridge pup to get that tele spank. (I love chicken picken' with the tele twang!)

I am not 100% happy with the way this guitar plays though....its not bad, just doesn't seem to have the warm feel of my MIM strat or even my Squier 51. I have been a bit undecided whether to upgrade its parts (pups, nut, etc) or save up and get a MIM tele...if I go for a bonafide fender though, getting one with a neck humbucker is going to get kind of expensive...so I will probably just keep the Squier and fix it up some. I'm thinking maybe a new bridge might help to0

Reading this thread makes me want to coil-split the neck pup...that seems like a good idea which I hadn't thought about much. A lot of my favorite players are/were tele devotees, they definitely are very versatlie guitars!

[guitaro]

What do you guys think about this one?
Fender Standard Telecaster Guitar

- Vintage Styling,
- 2 Classic Single-coil Pickups,
- 6-Saddle String-Thru-Body Bridge.

[sunvalleylaw]

I agree. I think that any guitar shaped like a Tele but with a humbucker would/should not be considered a Telecaster simply because the original model had/has single coil pickups of specific intention and design. When I say go get an original Tele and all your dreams will come true I truly mean this! But with single coils please!

What about a p-9?0 The G&L's have a p-90 like pup in the neck, don't they? Just wonderin' what you afficianados think.

[ShortBuSX]

Hmmm...Ive already got a really nice strat, maybe I should get a Tele instead? I hear theyre really versatile....hmmmm?

I think a P-90 Tele is great if youve already got a Tele, mod it...but a lipstick covered neck is purdy damn nice too.

[markb]

A local blues player has a partscaster with a P90 at the neck. Sounds fantastic but then he does play through a transitional Fender Super (blackface but with brownface innards, 2x10). Although, come to think of it, it still sounds great when he plays through a Classic 30.
Personally I like the tele's stock front pickup. The two drastically different sounding pickups account for a large part of that versatility thing that started this thread and the mix position chimes like nothing else.

[thearabianmage]

I saw a tele at a bar I was working tonight - it had one of those Fender humbuckers in the neck with 3 screws on the top left coil and three on the bottom right.

Anyone ever tried that? I'm interested to know what they are like.

Teles aren't my thing, but if people are saying that they are nice and versatile, I wanna check 'em out a bit more (only played 2 ever. . .)

Thoughts, comments, suggestions?

[TS808]

I saw a tele at a bar I was working tonight - it had one of those Fender humbuckers in the neck with 3 screws on the top left coil and three on the bottom right.

Anyone ever tried that? I'm interested to know what they are like.

Teles aren't my thing, but if people are saying that they are nice and versatile, I wanna check 'em out a bit more (only played 2 ever. . .)

Thoughts, comments, suggestions?

Sounds like it may be one of the '72 reissues. I've been kicking around the idea of getting either the '72 Thinline RI or the '72 Tele Deluxe RI. I saw the Thinline at GC last weekend, and it's a gorgeous guitar with the f-hole in it.

The one with one humbucker at the neck and one single coil is the '72 Tele Custom I believe. Reviews on all of those are pretty good. Some folks swap out the pots for 500k instead of the stock 250k saying that the humbuckers are a little too "dark" sounding.

[markb]

I saw a tele at a bar I was working tonight - it had one of those Fender humbuckers in the neck with 3 screws on the top left coil and three on the bottom right.

Anyone ever tried that? I'm interested to know what they are like.

Teles aren't my thing, but if people are saying that they are nice and versatile, I wanna check 'em out a bit more (only played 2 ever. . .)

Thoughts, comments, suggestions?

A friend has a Tele Custom ('75ish, not a reissue) that I've played a few times. It's a nice guitar and the Lester style control layout helps with balance between the pickups. The Fender buckers were designed by Seth Lover who also designed the original Gibson humbucker. They're a bit brighter than PAFs but still quite meaty so with the Custom you can go from a twangy tele bridge tone to a thick neck 'bucker with a flick of the switch with individual volume controls. Nice.

[Tone2TheBone]

Beautiful Telecasters you guys. I've been gassing for an American Deluxe Tele lately. I love bound Tele bodies. Anyone have one?

[t_ross33]

What about a p-9?0 The G&L's have a p-90 like pup in the neck, don't they? Just wonderin' what you afficianados think.

just gotta brag