Leo got it so right

monquixote

There is a reason I called my son Leo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wrZ_G6Sch4

Telecaster into some vintage Fender amps.

Just awesome playing from @PeachyJack ;

Also when I stuck the video on my wife said: "Is that Elijah Wood?" 

stickyfiddle

Man I gotta get me a Deluxe reverb of some sort. 

Agreed on @PeachyJack as ever. Really nice melodic rock & roll sort of vibe and miles more interesting than endless pentatonics like you get from most demos.

dindude

Yeah I watched that, Fender on Fender with Jack at the helm is a good recipe.

I’ve never quite taken to the Tele bridge pickup “clang” but like what others do with it.

TTBZ

dindude said:

Yeah I watched that, Fender on Fender with Jack at the helm is a good recipe.

I’ve never quite taken to the Tele bridge pickup “clang” but like what others do with it.

Yeah it's too much metallic twang and clang for me, and I don't find it that versatile like everyone on the internet says. It always sounds like a Tele which I find distracting. I used to play in a band with a guy who just played a Tele into a JCM800 and it was the best guitar tone I've heard in person, but for whatever reason I can't get it to work well for me.

I get on much better with a P90 LP/SG Junior or Special for that "raw stripped back guitar" thing. Love the simplicity of a Tele though and the middle position is great for chimey edge of breakup chordy stuff.

rze99

It’s a classic combo. 

I have loads of Teles and a 65 DRRI.  

That combo is mostly what I use and the real trick is to get all in that cooking zone with the output valves. 

For home and studio getting an attenuator is vital so that you can crank it. Then dial guitar volume back a little for cleaner parts and boost for solos. Records great too. I use an old THD Hotplate and it works great. Even better to stand in front of it full blast. 

ICBM

TTBZ said:

It always sounds like a Tele which I find distracting. I used to play in a band with a guy who just played a Tele into a JCM800 and it was the best guitar tone I've heard in person, but for whatever reason I can't get it to work well for me.

I’m like that with Strats. I get on well with Teles, apart from the position of the switch. (And if they have brass saddles...)

Leo Fender is my hero too - he had an instinctive genius for design and making things work right. He wouldn’t be happy with us saying he got it right first time though! He preferred his later, more evolved designs, even though he did return to some of the elements of the Tele and Strat with G&L. He also liked solid-state amps.

monquixote

ICBM said:

TTBZ said:

It always sounds like a Tele which I find distracting. I used to play in a band with a guy who just played a Tele into a JCM800 and it was the best guitar tone I've heard in person, but for whatever reason I can't get it to work well for me.

I’m like that with Strats. I get on well with Teles, apart from the position of the switch. (And if they have brass saddles...)

Leo Fender is my hero too - he had an instinctive genius for design and making things work right. He wouldn’t be happy with us saying he got it right first time though! He preferred his later, more evolved designs, even though he did return to some of the elements of the Tele and Strat with G&L. He also liked solid-state amps.

I deliberately didn't write "Got it right first time" because even though I just bought a 50's style Tele one of the main things I like about Leo is that everything could be improved and refined.

I really like G&L guitars. I was watching a video with Jerry Cantrell where he was saying about how the Rampage that he plays was designed to be an improvement on the Van Halen Frankenstrats that everyone was playing in the early 80's so he was still innovating right to the end.

ThePrettyDamned

ICBM said:

TTBZ said:

It always sounds like a Tele which I find distracting. I used to play in a band with a guy who just played a Tele into a JCM800 and it was the best guitar tone I've heard in person, but for whatever reason I can't get it to work well for me.

I’m like that with Strats. I get on well with Teles, apart from the position of the switch. (And if they have brass saddles...)

Leo Fender is my hero too - he had an instinctive genius for design and making things work right. He wouldn’t be happy with us saying he got it right first time though! He preferred his later, more evolved designs, even though he did return to some of the elements of the Tele and Strat with G&L. He also liked solid-state amps.

I think the jag and jazzmaster are the very pinnacle of guitar design. They're so comfortable and hold tuning so well, while being easy to play and easy to make them sound good. 

The body shapes are so comfy - I don't think it's surprising Jim root has a jazz master sig (though with a Gibson style bridge). The design is still there, though. 

TTBZ

ThePrettyDamned said:

I think the jag and jazzmaster are the very pinnacle of guitar design. They're so comfortable and hold tuning so well, while being easy to play and easy to make them sound good. 

The body shapes are so comfy - I don't think it's surprising Jim root has a jazz master sig (though with a Gibson style bridge). The design is still there, though. 

Yeah I love that offset shape, really comfy. Not so much into the tones or the trem. I wish they'd made that Powercaster with the normal Jaguar body and kept the scale length at 24.75" as the rest of the specs are so close to what I want out of a Fender (though would probably prefer a stoptail PRS style bridge). That new Squier Toronado is kinda cool too but again I'd rather just have those specs on a normal Jag body!

SteveRobinson

The thing about the Telecaster is that to make music you don't need anything more fancy or complicated. 

Everything else is an optional add-on.

Redlester

TTBZ said:

dindude said:

Yeah I watched that, Fender on Fender with Jack at the helm is a good recipe.

I’ve never quite taken to the Tele bridge pickup “clang” but like what others do with it.

Yeah it's too much metallic twang and clang for me, and I don't find it that versatile like everyone on the internet says. It always sounds like a Tele which I find distracting. I used to play in a band with a guy who just played a Tele into a JCM800 and it was the best guitar tone I've heard in person, but for whatever reason I can't get it to work well for me.

I get on much better with a P90 LP/SG Junior or Special for that "raw stripped back guitar" thing. Love the simplicity of a Tele though and the middle position is great for chimey edge of breakup chordy stuff.

I'm tempted to reach for a cliche and say "the tone's all in the fingers", but modify it by adding this: "The tone's in the fingers, as in using your fingers to tame the tone control back- on the amp as well as the guitar". 

TTBZ

Redlester said:

I'm tempted to reach for a cliche and say "the tone's all in the fingers", but modify it by adding this: "The tone's in the fingers, as in using your fingers to tame the tone control back- on the amp as well as the guitar". 

It's not just a brightness thing, it's a thickness/mid range and output thing as well which tone control doesn't fully help with. A hotter more middy Tele pickup that's more like a P90 would probably work for me but I don't like the typical hollow Fender singlecoil tones for what I play. I'm really just too set in the Gibson world to fully get into Fender guitars but I appreciate the design and function of it all.

Hattigol

ThePrettyDamned said:

ICBM said:

TTBZ said:

It always sounds like a Tele which I find distracting. I used to play in a band with a guy who just played a Tele into a JCM800 and it was the best guitar tone I've heard in person, but for whatever reason I can't get it to work well for me.

I’m like that with Strats. I get on well with Teles, apart from the position of the switch. (And if they have brass saddles...)

Leo Fender is my hero too - he had an instinctive genius for design and making things work right. He wouldn’t be happy with us saying he got it right first time though! He preferred his later, more evolved designs, even though he did return to some of the elements of the Tele and Strat with G&L. He also liked solid-state amps.

I think the jag and jazzmaster are the very pinnacle of guitar design. They're so comfortable and hold tuning so well, while being easy to play and easy to make them sound good. 

The body shapes are so comfy - I don't think it's surprising Jim root has a jazz master sig (though with a Gibson style bridge). The design is still there, though. 

100% agree.

If the Jazzmaster came out now (61 years or so after it was first launched), I still think people would say 'wow'. Such a cool design classic.

earwighoney

SteveRobinson said:

The thing about the Telecaster is that to make music you don't need anything more fancy or complicated. 

Everything else is an optional add-on.

Agree.

With 'standard' pickups (eg Alnico 5, 42awg at the bridge, 43awg at the neck), one pickup is bright, the other darker, in between there's a very useable mid point, if you want something darker/brighter flick the switch. If a wire (aside from the grounding wire) comes loose, it can be fixed without needing to take off all the strings. The 3 saddle bridge for adjusting string height takes less time then with 6 saddle bridges. Uncompensated saddles might have a little off intonation for some, but I found I have never had any issues with them but I always use a wound G.

Lebarque

Sounds great, but the video doesn't capture quite how hissy these amps are. I wasn't impressed by the build quality either. The cynic in me presumes Peach have got a bunch of these to shift. I preferred the blackface version when I tried both.

monquixote

Lebarque said:

Sounds great, but the video doesn't capture quite how hissy these amps are. I wasn't impressed by the build quality either. The cynic in me presumes Peach have got a bunch of these to shift. I preferred the blackface version when I tried both.

I had the Princeton briefly, but it was faulty so I returned it.

Sounded pretty good to me though I've always preferred the DRRI to the PRRI.

the_jaffa

I’ve had my 68 Custom Vibrolux for just over 5 years now and I love it

chrisj1602

Lebarque said:

Sounds great, but the video doesn't capture quite how hissy these amps are. I wasn't impressed by the build quality either. The cynic in me presumes Peach have got a bunch of these to shift. I preferred the blackface version when I tried both.

My Princeton doesn’t hiss but I had to wedge some card in between the control panel and baffle to stop vibration on the low notes.  They are bassy, apparently the 68 with bass on 0 is the equivalent of the 65 with bass on 4.

ThePrettyDamned

the_jaffa said:

I’ve had my 68 Custom Vibrolux for just over 5 years now and I love it

Proper want one of these. 

I tried one of the old custom vibroluxes and it sounded absolutely brilliant, but holy cow was it hissy! 

ICBM

ThePrettyDamned said:

I tried one of the old custom vibroluxes and it sounded absolutely brilliant, but holy cow was it hissy! 

They can be modded to reduce that quite easily - you need to restore the negative feedback on the power stage, which was removed to make it break up earlier... a foolish idea in my opinion, since it was still loud - just sounded spiky cranked up and was hissy when you turned it down.

Even the '68 Custom version isn't quite the proper blackface/silverface circuit for these, but it's also easy enough to fix.

Loobs

I have the '68 vibrolux reissue. I never thought it sounded that amazing - maybe it needs better speakers.