Hardtail Strat like playing a Tele?

What's Hot
I am enjoying my Tele a lot more than my Strat these days and was wondering if a hardtail strat might bridge (No pun intended) the gap.

I already have 5 springs in my strat but it is not blocked off. Would blocking it off make it more like a hardtail or is there a clear difference in feel between the ht and a standard strat?

I know there is more to consider than just the trem, like the pups and string spacing etc...
0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
«1

Comments

  • In my experience, a ‘genuine’ hardtail - as in ‘non-trem’ model has a more ‘direct’ tone, more akin to a Tele. They are still very clearly ‘a Strat’ - but the attack is somewhere between a Tele and a trem-equipped Strat. Blocking the trem isn’t the same - they still have that ‘airy’ quality that you don’t get from a Tele.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
  • ive got a fender modern player tele. which is a tele shaped guitar but with a "belly" cut. it has 3 pickups, a tele lipstick at neck, a strat type in the middle and a coil splittable humbucker at bridge. this guitar feels to me like a strat/tele hybrid, it does those in between pickup sounds.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • I had a hardtail Strat and it still felt like a Strat. Nothing like a Tele. I have 5 springs and deck all my regular Strats and they don’t feel like Tele’s either. 
    'Vot eva happened to the Transylvanian Tvist?'
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
  • Hard to put into words, but in terms of feel you dont get that solid no nonsense feel.

    Would be interesting to see what a Strat routed as a Tele felt like.  Something like this:

    http://imgur.com/a/uJpArKI

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • PhilKingPhilKing Frets: 1473
    edited December 2018
    I have a couple of hardtail strats.  One is a Bravewood copy of my 57 Strat, but with a hardtail.  It has BK Veneer Board pickups (even though it has a maple neck), as Tim suggested they would work well in a hardtail.  The other is this Tele/Strat Hybrid:


    It has string through the body and a tele neck.  Both of them have a different attack and tone to a trem Strat, but neither of them sounds like a Tele.  They also feel like Strats when you play them, partly due to how they sit (just like a strat), and the string tension is different in the one with the hardtail Strat bridge.
    0reaction image LOL 1reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • In my experience, a ‘genuine’ hardtail - as in ‘non-trem’ model has a more ‘direct’ tone, more akin to a Tele. They are still very clearly ‘a Strat’ - but the attack is somewhere between a Tele and a trem-equipped Strat. Blocking the trem isn’t the same - they still have that ‘airy’ quality that you don’t get from a Tele.
    Pretty much this. 
    The Assumptions - UAE party band for all your rock & soul desires
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
  • PhilKing said:
    ..and the string tension is different in the one with the hardtail Strat bridge.
    Whats the difference? What one has more tension?
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • PhilKingPhilKing Frets: 1473
    The regular Tele has more tension.  I don't know if it is the saddles or the break angle of the strings, but it feels a little stiffer with the same gauge strings
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
  • PhilKing said:
    The regular Tele has more tension.  I don't know if it is the saddles or the break angle of the strings, but it feels a little stiffer with the same gauge strings
    Interesting! Cheers :+1: 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • StefBStefB Frets: 2331
    PhilKing said:
    I have a couple of hardtail strats.  One is a Bravewood copy of my 57 Strat, but with a hardtail.  It has BK Veneer Board pickups (even though it has a maple neck), as Tim suggested they would work well in a hardtail.  The other is this Tele/Strat Hybrid:


    It has string through the body and a tele neck.  Both of them have a different attack and tone to a trem Strat, but neither of them sounds like a Tele.  They also feel like Strats when you play them, partly due to how they sit (just like a strat), and the string tension is different in the one with the hardtail Strat bridge.
    That’s a beautiful looking guitar Phil. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • PhilKingPhilKing Frets: 1473
    edited December 2018
    Thanks very much, though it is a bit blingy!  It really sustains and the feel is closer to a Tele than my other hardtail.  I did a couple of changes to it after that pick, though nothing major.  I got a new scratch plate made with 2 3-way switches, which gives me any combination of the pickups.  The pickups are McNelly T-bar and S-bar, which are a little more fatter than regular Fender styles https://mcnellypickups.com/collections/tele/products/t-bar-bridge

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • ESBlondeESBlonde Frets: 3576
    I've a hardtail strat and two teles. The higher power punch of a tele and the bridge plate feature make for a very different sound and response. Both guitars are very giggable and cover lots of styles, but each only does it's own thing exclusively. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • My main guitar is a hardtail strat. In terms of tone and feel it is, undoubtedly and unapologetically, a strat. I regard a tele as a very different beast, whereas I'd see getting a trem strat as a minor variation. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • My main guitar is a Tele and the closest I’ve found is my Musicman Albert Lee which is effectively a hard tail Strat with a bridge pickup that has a base plate.
    Feel and sounds are as close as I’ve got.
    For a while I had a Tele with 3 pickups (Nashville style), but the 5 way switching gave me neck & bridge in position 3. As a Tele player that was about the best compromise. All 3 Tele selections with the 2 strat ones that matter.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    I've never played a hardtail Strat that I actually liked.
    I can't even deck the trem on a regular Strat, the first thing I try to do is full up on it to get some warble.

    YMMV of course but IMHO to get something approximating a Tele sound and feel you need a base plate and a tele bridge, ideally with 3 saddles.

    My advice is don't try to make a guitar into something it is not.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 2reaction image Wisdom
  • My input, based on being a tele player most of my life, and latterly, eventually, finding a strat that I liked (2002 highway one - possibly the bridge spacing was what won me over)...  Have you tried a squire 51?  I picked one up that had been modded with a 3 saddle tele bridge and found it was a perfect mashup of the two.  Amazing guitar.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • My input, based on being a tele player most of my life, and latterly, eventually, finding a strat that I liked (2002 highway one - possibly the bridge spacing was what won me over)...  Have you tried a squire 51?  I picked one up that had been modded with a 3 saddle tele bridge and found it was a perfect mashup of the two.  Amazing guitar.
    That's funny @MooseAboot , I did buy one but it was the older model without the string through body so I moved it on but I am thinking of getting the later model and changing the neck to something akin to a Baja. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • crunchmancrunchman Frets: 11414
    Mounting the pickup in the bridge plate is a key part of the Tele sound.  Don't think it will ever sound like a Tele without a Tele bridge.  @ThorpyFX built a set net SG style guitar with a Tele bridge, and bridge pickup.  Don't know how close that sounds to a Tele.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • 57Deluxe57Deluxe Frets: 7329
    edited January 2019
    Hardtail Strats bear absolutely no resemblance to Teles in tone, playing, dynamics or looks!


    <Vintage BOSS Upgrades>
    __________________________________
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • DrBobDrBob Frets: 2998
    PhilKing said:
    I have a couple of hardtail strats.  One is a Bravewood copy of my 57 Strat, but with a hardtail.  It has BK Veneer Board pickups (even though it has a maple neck), as Tim suggested they would work well in a hardtail.  The other is this Tele/Strat Hybrid:


    It has string through the body and a tele neck.  Both of them have a different attack and tone to a trem Strat, but neither of them sounds like a Tele.  They also feel like Strats when you play them, partly due to how they sit (just like a strat), and the string tension is different in the one with the hardtail Strat bridge.
    See I am understand why a hardtail Strat wouldn’t sound like a Tele. Bridge is different, pickup is different, method of mounting pickup is different etc etc.
    But it does surprise me that this one doesn’t sound like a Tele because other than the silhouette and the neck & middle pickups it is essentially a Tele in terms of construction, pickups etc. Does the body shape really change the sound that much ? 
    I get it more with say a V where the wood around the bridge area is radically different but on this one other than the edge contouring it’s fundamentally the same 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
Sign In or Register to comment.