i am about to add yet a nother guitar to my collection and i was just wondering which is better for blues. tele or strat?

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Telecaster custom
MIM stratocaster
American Deluxe Strat
1952 reissue telecaster

Welcome to the Forum carsonb10! Both guitars are excellent for blues, the question would be, "what style of blues are you playing?" then you can try the guitars and see which one you prefer.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

+1

Also, look at who your favorite blues guitars are and what they play. Do you like Albert Collins' tone? You might want to look into a Telecaster. Eric Clapton? Maybe you'd be better off with a Strat.

Personally I think the Stratocaster would give you more tonal variety, but the best Telecaster tone you can get is still from a Telecaster. The bottom line is that they're both great, and you're the only one who can decide which you like best.

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A very interesting question. I'd had my Tele (standard mexican) for about a year when I decided I wanted a Strat to help me get a better blues sound. So I got a Strat (standard mexican). Now that I have both I find I tend to play more rock and classic rock with the Strat and use the Tele for blues as I find the neck pickup on the Tele gives me that nice fat bluesy tone.

But as the others have said, try them both and decide what sounds best to YOU. Afterall what might be my ideal blues tone could sound totally offensive to someone elses ears!

Cheers and good luck.

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MIM Std Tele, MIM HSS Strat, Homemade Mongrel Tele, Blues Jr, Champ600, coupla pedals...sweeeet!

Welcome to the forum, pal.

This will probably be the first time I have bored you with my drizzle for my favorite instrument:

The Fender Hardtail Strat

Youze gots da blues by the short hairs with this one...oh, yes you do. You can bend strings 'til the cows come home and stay in tune...even do those double string tele-style bends that would send the trem-block set to adding springs, or just blocking the trem cavity with a block of wood ala slowhand.

I like the Robert Cray Hardtail:

http://www.fender.com/products/search.p ... 0139100326

You might wnt to consider a used American Standard as well. They have 22 frets instead of 21 like the Cray. I play 2004 hardtails.

Both of them are good. I sometimes play blues on strat and sometimes on tele.

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Not a simple solutionKeep in mind that each of these body types is available in a wide variety of woods, internal construction, pickup styles and combinations, neck and fretboards. You need to decide which of the two is more comfortable for you with respect to body design and neck options, and then audition sound.

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"Another day in paradise!"

It is your choice, look at the great Blues artist of the past. What do you see most of them playing? Is it either of what you mentioned?

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Define what you mean by "better" ?

Easier to bend whole steps, better sounding on turnarounds, best wood used in the bodies and necks, best fret sizes, radius, pickups....

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

My Teles and Strats would all be a bit different (given a particular amp setting) -- so you've already heard it too much but yep, no way out of trying them for yourself. Just for example, my Hwy 1 Tele has a deep somewhat muddy tone. I'd envision doing something like "Blues in the Night" with a mellow jazz orchestra.

But the 83 US Tele although also deep, has some Tele "spank" to it. I might do the same tune, but with a quartet and some groove going on. Bring in the 04 AmStd, and I have a bright (some might call it "classic") Tele tone that suggests modern Delta blues.

The 72 RI -- warm, seems happiest finger picked, so now perhaps we're sittin' on a porch in rural Georgia circa 1929. But not the 69 RI, which takes us back to a brighter Tele tone with more bite to it.

Finally, there's your amp, settings, volume, etc. If you already have one and plan to keep it, try your candidates through that or a very similar one. If you like to play on 8 through a solid state amp, you're not going to hear your sound with my setting (for instance) -- 3 on a tube amp. If you're getting a new amp, then consider your ultimate purchase a matched set that should work well together.

Dont forget, Albert Collins had a humbucker on that Tele.

Hey Stratobobster- I took the whammy bar off my Am Dlx Strat. It came with the heel of the bridge down on the deck anywayz, so I could only go down. My guitar tech wanted to set it up the right way, but I had him just remove the bar.

It was perfect the way it was....