I still don't get the difference between a Strat and a Tele.

(I'm probably opening a can of worms here, right? )
I've seen many an argument about which is better, but I don't get the difference between the two.

If anyone can, please explain what the difference is please? Thank you.

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"While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

My dad said, "I'm going to miss you."
I said, "Well, now that I broke that sight off your rifle..." (Emo Philips)

Hi Lady VA,that's a topic that's been flogged to death more times than I can count.The short answer is there is no best or worse in this case. Both guitars have their attributes and drawbacks(although few).The Tele having just 2 pups (in Standard form)isn't as versatile as the Strat but it's twangy treble is able to cut through any mix.Although largely thought of as a "country"guitar it has been used quite successfully for the blues(Albert Collins)jazz,(Ed Rickert,Canadian jazz great)and rock(Keith Richards, Jimmy Page).Of course the Strat with it's unmistakable "quack"has been a fixture in the rock guitarists arsenal since Buddy Holly picked one up and of course when Jimi Hendrix used it as his guitar of choice Strat sales skyrocketed.As with the Tele the Strat is suited to many genres of music and with the vibrato and 3 pups has a broader tonal range and versatility than the Tele.Having said all that every player should have at least one of each.I hope this answers some of your questions of course others will fill you in on anything I may have missed.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

i'll put it as rough as clapton did

tele
Twang, many treble and some bass. The tele's neck pu may resemble the strat's neck pu.

strat
Middle, can go from one soft spot to the other.

Both guitars can turn piss into gasoline or sound awfull. Now you go, walk into a store and pick them up.

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'when the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace' - James Marshall Hendrix

It really is a personal choice. Strat vs. Tele there is no black and white answer. Try to find some and play them. I will be honest, I do not care for the look of most Telecaster's headstocks. But that is just an asthetic thing for me, but I lov e the tones you can get from them. When you get the chance, try to play as many models in both series (and other guitars within your price range) and "the one" will reveal itself to you. Hopefully things start to quiet down for you so you can have some free time to yourself to go out and play some soon. Good luck.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

Thanks. I was looking for some technical reasons for tele and strats, and I'm glad I heard it here. I'm looking more for a guitar I can play hard rock on, and since I have a Squier strat, I'll probably be looking at some strats (I'm open to anything though). I was looking at the '72 line tele, but I don't like the neck. I'm a bit partial to the rosewood on the neck.

Thanks for the input.

_________________
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

My dad said, "I'm going to miss you."
I said, "Well, now that I broke that sight off your rifle..." (Emo Philips)

Hey LVA how are you today? Here's a trick that I use when I try guitars. Take at least one Strat and one Tele. Close your eyes and play with the volume and tone at maximum on the guitar. Play the bridge pickup for two minutes and the neck pickup for two minutes, then switch guitars. If at any time you feel the neck to be uncomfortable then change the guitar for a model with another neck type if possible. Don't mess around with the tone, the tremolo or the middle pickup. Try both guitars with the Tele as the reference. Anything you prefer on one of these will tell you wich one to buy. Now that is the logical way to do it, but if you fall in love with something that doesn't fit with your logic table then you get to decide what you do next, but expect to live with the consequences of your choice. But then what would life be if we had only logical choices to make in life?
When I started to build my rig, I first bought a Strat because it had more tonal choices and I thought that I would buy only one guitar. My second guitar was a Tele because I wanted something different than a Strat. Good luck LVA. See ya.
Claude.

I'm so so. Threw my back out and having spasms. So now listening to Ozzy's "Let Me Hear You Scream".

Great advice Claude ( have to look up what exactly the tremolo is--I know what the neck and bridge pickups are. I can figure that out on the 'lever' but not a switch since I've never used one of those).

This is like being in Ollivander's from Harry Potter, but picking out guitars instead of wands.

_________________
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

My dad said, "I'm going to miss you."
I said, "Well, now that I broke that sight off your rifle..." (Emo Philips)

You can deff play hard rock on a tele. For me its feel of the guitar. I am comfy with most strats but few teles feel right to me but there have been a few. Back in the mid 70,s I had a tele with a dimazio humbucker in it and it kicked but. So pick them up and play them when you get the chance and you might get suprised.

LVA,

Not to instill my opinions or anything; however, you know I do not generally like the Tele headstock, right? Here is my dream Tele and I plan on getting one some day...

I really like the walnut option and it will pull off Hard Rock:

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/prod ... sku=511141


This one for Metal, again the headstock seems wimpy but I know it rocks:

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/prod ... sku=514652

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

Tremolo or whammy bar.
Claude.

or a stick shift

go look at the new john5 tele. thats the one for metal.

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/prod ... sku=511592

Ah, the whammy bar. Duh, should've known that. Thanks, Claude. (My, "boy I feel stupid face)
I don't use it that much anyway.

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"While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

My dad said, "I'm going to miss you."
I said, "Well, now that I broke that sight off your rifle..." (Emo Philips)

Hello LadyVendettaAngel,

If I understand correctly you are interested in Hvy Metal/ Hard Rock.

I think I have a Solution for you. Find a Fender dealer and play a HWY 1 Strat and Tele. Certain HWY1s come with a hum bucker in the bridge. They have very hot pickups for more modern players and big jumbo frets for great string bending.

I own a black HWY1 with 3 single coil pickups and I love it.
Here is the link to a WHY1 Demo
http://fender.com/features/highwayone/
The technical differences:
Teles have a brighter tone. The Tele is a more meat and potatoes, work horse guitar
Strats have a warmer tone. The Strat has more color and mid-range.

I hope this helps and good luck!

Paris

There are definitely a few notable exceptions and some have been mentioned already but the truth is Fender guitars are not widely know as heavy metal, kick butt hard rock, glam rock, what have you, instruments. Count the total number of heavy rock bands there have been over history and count how many have used Fender guitars. Pondering it brings the OP question into tight focus and raises a new question.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.