Is this tele a fake?

Sassafras

ICBM said:

Sassafras said:

Do the toploaders play as well as the through strung Teles?

A little differently. The strings feel looser - and if they aren't set up well (too flat so there's not enough pressure on them, which often needs the neck shimming to avoid), sometimes extreme bending can make the saddles tip up onto one screw. They also have a bit of a tendency to rattle and the height screws work loose if you don't threadlock them - it's not the top-loading that's the problem, it's those particular cheap alloy saddles.

That's almost exactly what I would expect of those toploading bridges as well as reduced resonance.

blueskunk

Iv had a top loading tele and it was mega resonant and zingy

Iv got a g&l fallout at the mo, thats a top loader and again very resonant

ICBM

It's the bridge saddles which make top-loaders good or bad. A three-saddle top-loader is hard to tell apart from a through-body except by the feel when bending notes. The vintage-style 6-saddles are good too - it's just those L-shaped alloy ones which aren't, and even they work OK as long as you maximise the string pressure on them.

HAL9000

Sassafras said:

ICBM said:

Sassafras said:

Do the toploaders play as well as the through strung Teles?

A little differently. The strings feel looser - and if they aren't set up well (too flat so there's not enough pressure on them, which often needs the neck shimming to avoid), sometimes extreme bending can make the saddles tip up onto one screw. They also have a bit of a tendency to rattle and the height screws work loose if you don't threadlock them - it's not the top-loading that's the problem, it's those particular cheap alloy saddles.

That's almost exactly what I would expect of those toploading bridges as well as reduced resonance.

Why would you expect reduced resonance? The 'thru body' portion of the string isn't the bit that's vibrating. My experience of toploaders is that they feel 'slinkier' and that they still sound exactly like a Tele. I'm pretty sure that the prevailing wisdom that 'string-thru is better' is a dubious at best though I'm sure someone will be along shortly to put me straight.

Sassafras

There must have been some advantage to through stringing, why would Leo Fender, always keen to save a few cents, have chosen it over top loaders which are easier to manufacture?

littlethoughts

Sassafras said:

There must have been some advantage to through stringing, why would Leo Fender, always keen to save a few cents, have chosen it over top loaders which are easier to manufacture?

Might be easier to machine a bridge plate for through stringing than top loading, since you only need to drill from top down rather than from the side as well? You've got to drill holes for the pickup and to screw it down anyway, so putting in 6 extra ones isn't much more work, whereas flipping it up to do the top loader holes probably takes a bit of effort and realignment.

ICBM

Sassafras said:

There must have been some advantage to through stringing, why would Leo Fender, always keen to save a few cents, have chosen it over top loaders which are easier to manufacture?

Fender did in fact switch to top-loading in around 1959 for a short period. I'm not sure why they switched back.

littlethoughts said:

Might be easier to machine a bridge plate for through stringing than top loading, since you only need to drill from top down rather than from the side as well? You've got to drill holes for the pickup and to screw it down anyway, so putting in 6 extra ones isn't much more work, whereas flipping it up to do the top loader holes probably takes a bit of effort and realignment.

I would guess this might have something to do with it, since the number of operations in a machining process has a large impact on the unit cost.

The only real difference from a playing point of view is that the break angle over the saddles is slightly greater on a through-body.

GuitarMonkey

littlethoughts said:

Sassafras said:

There must have been some advantage to through stringing, why would Leo Fender, always keen to save a few cents, have chosen it over top loaders which are easier to manufacture?

Might be easier to machine a bridge plate for through stringing than top loading, since you only need to drill from top down rather than from the side as well? You've got to drill holes for the pickup and to screw it down anyway, so putting in 6 extra ones isn't much more work, whereas flipping it up to do the top loader holes probably takes a bit of effort and realignment.

I would think that all the holes are drilled before the plate is bent. The hole for the pickup certainly is, you can tell from the shape of the plate at the edges of the hole.

Sassafras

More work in through strung guitars. You've got to drill holes in the body and fit ferrules as well as drilling through the bridge anyway.