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Our Telecaster Love Affairs.

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GassageGassage Frets: 30825
edited October 2021 in Guitar
When I first starting playing, I could never really get or understand telecasters.

They all seemed ugly, cumbersome, thin and reedy sounding. Some weighed as much as Pluto, some sounded worse than Pluto the dog.

Then, one day I found my 1966 Custom and suddenly I 'got it'. It was an epiphany.

Here was the most resonant, light, powerful yet simple thing with the most tactile and gorgeous neck I've ever held, separation on the strings, incredible sustain and every single thing Id ever wanted in my main guitar.

Why is it so hard to find a great one? Is it the simplicity that underpins the fact it's two SCs and nothing else? Does it rely more on wood and natural resonance? Are they incredibly pickup and electronics sensitive?

I have never found one to compare or to come close to it- not even original blackguards.

Why is it so difficult to find an amazing tele?

*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.

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Comments

  • I assembled mine from a GSPBASSES piece of woodworking. Turned out nice. Ultra light, quite pretty and sounds great with oil city pickups. 

     
    I really like it, superlight! 
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  • GavRichListGavRichList Frets: 7142
    edited October 2021
    I've had 8, including the two I now own.

    Chronologically (I think)

    • MIM Standard, 3TS 
    • MIM Telecaster Custom, black
    • MIK Lite Ash Telecaster
    • USA Standard, vintage blonde
    • USA Standard, LPB
    • MIM Classic Series Telecaster Custom, 3TS
    • American Original Telecaster Custom, Vintage blonde 
    • Custom Shop 70th Anniversary Broadcaster
    I can't see me ever parting with the last two to be truthful; I've come to accept that Teles are just better than anything else. I love my Jaguar like family, and the Rickenbacker 330 has a unique charm... but the utter saturation of offsets has dulled the appeal somewhat and the Ric is niche, and the bare facts are that for almost every part I find that a Telecaster just sounds better than the alternatives. There's something more rewarding in playing them too - no other guitar has the immediacy or encourages you to dig in and have fun as much as a tele does.  


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  • GassageGassage Frets: 30825
    Gav, I could not agree more. Also, when you pick up a more complicated guitar, you find things like your vibrato has improved hugely due to the lack of things like big frets and trems on the tele- so you have to learn to do things right on them......


    *An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.

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  • Can’t say as I’ve noticed my playing improve yet :D
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  • carloscarlos Frets: 3426
    Never played one I liked, but I should try to more of them. I do like the bridge single coil - I found it more versatile than most say it is. Shame the neck is usually so poorly balanced.
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  • ThePrettyDamnedThePrettyDamned Frets: 7472
    edited October 2021
    Should say one of the best bits about a tele - it's the easiest guitar to play. It gets out of the way. Low action, rock solid bridge, nothing to go wrong. Just brilliance in design.

    Mine has only been played for a year but the finish is wearing in some spots - mostly because wudtone isn't the toughest finish around, but partly because it's the guitar I tend to pick up most of the time. It's super loud unplugged as well, so no need for an amp of an evening!

    Mine has pretty big frets @Gassage - little frets are an inconvenience for what I play, and I'd not consider any guitar with anything smaller than medium jumbo frets. 
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  • GassageGassage Frets: 30825
    carlos said:
    Never played one I liked, but I should try to more of them. I do like the bridge single coil - I found it more versatile than most say it is. Shame the neck is usually so poorly balanced.

    I was watching an interview with Vince Gill about his white/blonde 53. Said the neck pup was broken for 22 years and he never bothered having it fixed!

    *An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.

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  • a driven Telecaster bridge (as uncontroversial statement as this is) is my favourite pickup full stop. What surprised me the most was how great the neck pickup is on the Broadcaster - I was fully prepared to basically never use it, but its a beautiful sounding thing. 
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  • proggyproggy Frets: 5827
    I started out as a bass player. When my last band decided to call it a day I kind of gave up playing, sold most of my basses but kept my two Fender Jazzes and just messed about on them now and again.
    After a couple of years of not playing - I was walking down Denmark Street and saw this guitar in the window of Rockers, it really caught my eye, a beautiful three colour sunburst Fender Telecaster. I walked in and bought it. The assistant went to plug it in for me, but being as I couldn't really play guitar I said, "it's ok mate, I'll just take it anyway". He looked at me a bit funny and said "ok". After a few weeks of playing about with it, I decided to learn what the two skinny strings were for, bought a few tutorial books and have never looked back.
    I still have the Tele, but it has now been refinished in metallic goldburst, thanks to Richard.
    I also have eleven other guitars too.
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  • GassageGassage Frets: 30825


    There's our very own @jamesoliver1234 doing my Dreamcaster some justice. It didn't want to come home after a day in his hands after my hamfisted attempts.....

    *An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.

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  • tanihhiavlttanihhiavlt Frets: 659
    edited October 2021
    I've had 5 telecasters... I was surprised by that.. (I've had 4 strats - 2 sentimental keepers but not bette4r instruments) each time I've sold a tele I've boot-strapped to a better model (from a £50 in the worlds first £100 challenge) and now I'm down to swapping in parts. 

    I mean if  new body (same pickups and neck, bridge etc) counts as a new guitar we're at number 6. 

    But as it stands this is version 5.1.2  


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  • ChuffolaChuffola Frets: 2014
    When I have a Tele, it's the one that gets picked up to play. I love everything about them, particularly the bridge pickup with a little gain. 

    On that basis, I don't really need any other electrics which I why when I have more than one I get a bit twitchy.  Tele really can do almost everything - and usually better than anything else. 
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  • I played guitar in my teens, but never owned anything of quality. Then moved to bass and found myself really enjoying a simplified playing style.

    When I got back into guitar a few years ago, it was my dream to own a good Tele - an idea borne from the guitarists and their tones that I admired during my youth.

    I went through four attempts but couldn't make it work until I got my Custom Shop, which absolutely hit the sweet spot for me. Sad that it had to be a high end guitar, but it really did the trick. @Gassage; as you have said, when it happens, it really happens. I can echo pretty much the same - it is light, resonant, tactile, gorgeous neck, gritty, chimey, clear and dirty and has a neck pickup that gives me a woody Strattyness within a Tele bite. It's just great...

    A photo I have shared before - but any excuse eh ?!!?





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  • GassageGassage Frets: 30825
    @SPECTRUM001 - that is bloody gorgeous.

    *An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.

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  • I never got on with neck pickups in teles, but oil city wound me one that's higher output and uses great bit lumps of metal (so that cover doesn't actually fit on!). It sounds much more like a stratty/p90 almost. Maybe @OilCityPickups can remember what it was. Pairs lovely with the bridge, which is also hefty in output but honestly just sounds like a classic tele to me (but louder!). 
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  • GassageGassage Frets: 30825
    I never got on with neck pickups in teles, but oil city wound me one that's higher output and uses great bit lumps of metal (so that cover doesn't actually fit on!). It sounds much more like a stratty/p90 almost. Maybe @OilCityPickups can remember what it was. Pairs lovely with the bridge, which is also hefty in output but honestly just sounds like a classic tele to me (but louder!). 
    I love the one Ash does with the oversized poles. Can't recall its name, but it won't fit inside the chrome cover.....

    *An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.

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  • stonevibestonevibe Frets: 7080
    Most of my guitars are Telecasters or variations on the theme. I like gigging with a Tele, as they just work, and cut through a band mix nicely whilst leaving plenty of space for everyone else in the band.

    Win a Cort G250 SE Guitar in our Guitar Bomb Free UK Giveaway 


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  • One ive posted before too… but here’s the neck pickup on my CS on a first day doodle. 

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  • Gassage said:
    I never got on with neck pickups in teles, but oil city wound me one that's higher output and uses great bit lumps of metal (so that cover doesn't actually fit on!). It sounds much more like a stratty/p90 almost. Maybe @OilCityPickups can remember what it was. Pairs lovely with the bridge, which is also hefty in output but honestly just sounds like a classic tele to me (but louder!). 
    I love the one Ash does with the oversized poles. Can't recall its name, but it won't fit inside the chrome cover.....
    Yeah that's the one. Sounds like a strat, tele and p90 pickups had too much to drink and wound up at a dimarzio super distortion's flat for the night... 

    Super clear sounding, no mud. Works great for me at least! 
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  • greejngreejn Frets: 127
    For myself, can't beat a Charlie Christian in the neck position on a Tele. Tim Lerch knows a thing or two...!
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