What am I missing - strats and teles

dindude

Ubiquitous not boring. They sound fucking amazing, just listen to rock/pop history. 

rossi

HilditchGuitars said:

Found myself flicking through the rate my guitar thread, and wondering to myself "what am I missing, about what makes strats and teles so popular?"
They're just so plain and boring, i dont get it.
So...
What am i missing? 

Silly boy

Nitefly

In fifty-odd years of playing, I've never had a Telecaster (never fancied one), and only had one Stratocaster.  I loved its looks (Strat Plus in CAR with maple neck), but the bloody volume knob is in the wrong place for me, so it went.

Caffeine_Vampire

A Tele is a beautiful woman without all the complicated underwear.


I'm not entirely sure what that makes a Strat... maybe a lingerie catalogue?

thegummy

Aesthetic preference and taste doesn't work like that - there can't be a concept that can be explained to you that will make you like the way something looks.

In other words, there's not some secret I know about Fenders that makes me prefer the look of them to guitars you'd probably not describe as boring, we just have different tastes.

thegummy

Nitefly said:

In fifty-odd years of playing, I've never had a Telecaster (never fancied one), and only had one Stratocaster.  I loved its looks (Strat Plus in CAR with maple neck), but the bloody volume knob is in the wrong place for me, so it went.

For me the Tele is one of the most beautiful guitars of all time, it's a work of art.

But its thing - the bright twang thing - doesn't appeal to me so I'll never have one. A hot baseplated Strat bridge pickup is as close as I'd ever want to get to the Tele bridge sound.

I'd never tire of looking at them though.

Nerine

A Strat (or Les Paul, Tele, SG etc - any of the classic/iconic guitars) can never be dull or boring. 

Too much of history has been written or imagined or affected by and with the help of these instruments. 

They are of an era that has aged gracefully, that seemed so much simpler and that seemed to have fewer boundaries. 

A Strat (et al) can never be dull. It has too much attached to it. It’s the pinnacle of blue collar. It is so much more than the familiar shape of the body and the headstock. It’s character. It’s personality. 

It’s an instrument that reacts directly proportionally to what you put in. 

It’s the smoky bars, the sweaty rehearsals, the big stages, the sweetness, the screaming rasp, (one of) the instrument(s) that perfectly encapsulates and embodies everything that is good with the world. It’s an enabler of many things. It’s the quintessential tool of the story teller, the creator, the virtuoso, the beginner. It’s like a time machine that takes you to a place of feeling like you are at one with musical history. 

A Strat has its flaws. But that makes it human. That’s what gives it it’s soul. 

It’s ok to not find them easy to play. They can seem cumbersome at times, but when you play a good one, everything just seems to make sense. 

A Strat can never be dull. Common? Yes. Dull? Never. 

Cranky

HilditchGuitars

But any of the things mentioned can applied to any guitar (except history). You play a guitar, it develops character. And why can you get them with humbuckers in the bridge now? That's changing the sound is it not? Hell, I could build an LP and make it sound like a strat, and even use the same control setup, bridge, neck shape. What then? 

Musicwolf

chrisj1602 said:

Each to their own I guess. I don’t like vinegar on my chips but most people do.

Right stop this - it's gone too far.

I can put up with someone not 'getting' a Strat or the PRS hating and the whole valves vs modelling handbags at 5 paces that goes on on this forum, but this has overstepped the mark.

Heretic !!!!!

Hattigol

I often think whilst watching Hendrix play a Strat, this is 'plain and boring'.

......said nobody. Ever.

paulmapp8306

@HilditchGuitars ;;;;;

https://imgur.com/SBQe5yc

mine..

stickyfiddle

You don't have to like everything. I like Strats & Teles but not pointy or metally stuff. It'd be rubbish if everyone liked the same stuff.

meltedbuzzbox

paulmapp8306 said:

@HilditchGuitars ;;;;;

https://imgur.com/SBQe5yc

mine..

Thats not strengthened the case for the strat fella

drofluf

I like Tele's for their classic simplicity. It's just an iconic elegant design

paulmapp8306

meltedbuzzbox said:

paulmapp8306 said:

@HilditchGuitars ;;;;;

https://imgur.com/SBQe5yc

mine..

Thats not strengthened the case for the strat fella

Its the only Strat Ive ever found I like the look of. i cant stand block colours - I need to see wood, though it doenst have to be overly blingy.

The pic wasnt to "strengthen" the strat cause lol - it was to show the OP you CAN get them more aesthetically pleasing should you wish.  

ICBM

I like both of them, they are masterpieces of design given when they were created, and they’ve been used on countless classic records, including many of my favourites... but they’re not the be-all and end-all of guitars, they do have design flaws, and I’m not personally interested in owning either of them without some improvements.

Grumpyrocker

Strats and Teles have never appealed to me. They seem very mass market knocked together things - designed to be made as cheaply as possible. Which makes the very expensive versions seem very odd. 

But they have loads of history, lots of people love them, so horses for courses. 

fretfinder

tone1 said:

 ‘When a man is tired of a Strat, he is tired of life.’ Samuel Johnson.

And The Deer Hunter, sort of.

merlin

tone1 said:

 ‘When a man is tired of a Strat, he is tired of life.’ Samuel Johnson.

"When a man is tired of a Strat, he is tired of a Strat."

Merlin