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Post subject: Help me understand the Tele
Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 5:31 am
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I've never owned a Tele but I've heard great tone come out of more than a few. A friend left his Frankenstein, maladjusted Tele at my house. It plays so poorly that it's hard to determine whether I like it or not, but when I just look at the guitar (compared to my Strat), it has the angled single coil bridge pickup, and the single coil neck pick up. It just doesn't have the middle pickup like a Strat. I wouldn't expect it to sound any different than a Strat because they are so similar. If indeed it does sound different than a Strat, why?


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Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 6:57 am
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A Tele will sound a bit different than a Strat because a Telecaster has a different bridge than a Strat. The major difference between a Strat bridge PU and a Tele bridge PU is that the Tele Bridge PU usually has a metal plate, usually copper, underneath it, which gives the Tele its twang. A Strat bridge PU does not has a metal plate underneath it, so it will not sound exactly like a Tele bridge PU.

The Tele neck PU typically has a metal cover over it, while a Strat neck PU does not, and this again will lead to a different sound.

Also many Teles, like you noted, do not have a middle pickup, so thats 2 less pickup combos that a Strat, and that obviously means 2 different sounds for a Strat than a Tele.

So those are a few reasons as to why Teles and Strats, for the most part, do not sound similar to one another, even though they look like they might...

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Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 12:52 pm
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bowlfreshener wrote:
A Tele will sound a bit different than a Strat because a Telecaster has a different bridge than a Strat. The major difference between a Strat bridge PU and a Tele bridge PU is that the Tele Bridge PU usually has a metal plate, usually copper, underneath it, which gives the Tele its twang. A Strat bridge PU does not has a metal plate underneath it, so it will not sound exactly like a Tele bridge PU.

The Tele neck PU typically has a metal cover over it, while a Strat neck PU does not, and this again will lead to a different sound.

Also many Teles, like you noted, do not have a middle pickup, so thats 2 less pickup combos that a Strat, and that obviously means 2 different sounds for a Strat than a Tele.

So those are a few reasons as to why Teles and Strats, for the most part, do not sound similar to one another, even though they look like they might...


Thank you for the informative response. In the back of my mind I was always wondering what that pan that the bridge pickup sits in was.

I hope this isn't blasphemy but I want to use mine plugged into a Marshall JCM800, roll the tone control off a bit, and hopefully get that kick butt searing crunch. I'm pretty sure Pete Townshend used a Tele for a lot of his earlier work, and now that CSI seems to get watched a lot around the house, I keep hearing (I think it's) "Won't Get Fooled Again"...now that is some serious tone.


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Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2009 11:54 pm
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He used a tele for a reason :wink: Never let anyone tell you a tele is less adequate than a strat.


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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 10:25 am
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another thing to consider is that its pretty difficult to say "this is what a tele sounds like", given the large variety of configurations that they come in. A 72 thinline, with its semi hollow body and dual humbuckers, will sound much different than a standard.


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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 11:12 am
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Skel wrote:
I'm pretty sure Pete Townshend used a Tele for a lot of his earlier work, and now that CSI seems to get watched a lot around the house, I keep hearing (I think it's) "Won't Get Fooled Again"...now that is some serious tone.


Yes, that CSI intro is "Won't Get Fooled Again." But it's not a Telecaster, or even a solid-body guitar. That sound is a big Gretsch 6120 hollow body p[lugged into a Bandmaster 3x10.

No, I'm not kidding.

http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gretsch.htm

Once again, it is proven: the mental image gjuitar players have of "tone" is largely created by photographs of guitar players. The Gretsch was too light and unstable for stage work, so nobody ever saw Pete with, so... that sound has to be one of the guitar's I've seen him with.

Guitar players listen with their eyes. Hence the endless "maple is bright/rosewood is dark" rigamarole.


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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 1:32 pm
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plus, when you are doing the windmill with your arm...having a tremelo is a bad thing.


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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 6:00 pm
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It sounds like you're after a tone similiar to this :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7eyyt98 ... L&index=13

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