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Post subject: Questions about the Telecaster.
Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 8:28 pm
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Hello there, whoever!

I have never had or played a Telecaster but I like SOME of the sounds I hear certain
guitarists achieve. I like the Blues but I am not particularly fond of the high pitch sound
that comes from the 'soap bar' type pickups. I was wondering if the humbuckers on some
tele's are a little warmer and can still play the Blues well? And, does one HAVE to but the
expensive ones or can one get by with approx. 5-6 hundred dollars for a tele? And does it
make a difference about the plain type neck or the rosewood fingerboard?

Just Curious, KW


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Post subject: Re: Questions about the Telecaster.
Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 3:50 am
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Welcome to the forum. Telecasters with humbuckers do exist. You can even get one with buckers and a set neck. You should know that those guitars don't sound much like Telecasters, though.

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Post subject: Re: Questions about the Telecaster.
Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 6:57 pm
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BMW-KTM makes a good point BluesMan1kw. But we can definitely expand on this further.

I take it you want a tele for 2 reasons, 1 because of the looks and 2 because of the sound.

Now looks, totally with you there, I dig it! But as for as sounds go you mentioned you like "the blues" and you don't like "high pitched" sounding pickups and you're questioning "humbucking pickups" for blues.

So, lets break it down.

1) The Blues without High Pitched sounding pickups

So, when most people think of the blues and electric guitar playing, they think of the broad tone style of SRV, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck, John Mayer (yeah I said John mayer) etc. Now these guys had completely different tones but what I'm getting at is their BLUES tones revolve around a Strat sound into a clean/slightly driven amp (yes Beck used a tele in his earlier days and they all used differnt rigs, I'm talking generally here). These blues tones are easily replicated on a single coil tele, ANY single coil will do, front pickup selected and maybe a touch of drive on the amp (or a overdrive pedal infront of the amp, like a TS808 or similar). For your amp you're looking to get a blackface fender sorta sound, push the highs and lows on the eq a bit, pull back a fair bit on the mids (scoop the mids) and you should get a nice Bell like tone that screams single coil blues.

You can get this on any tele and any amp, but at the end of the day, you get what you paid for. I love the sound I get out of my Amercian Special tele, with the texas specials pickup, for blues but thats great for my ears, I've heard Classic Serie's 60's teles rip it up at my local blues club. I've seen a Squire Tele loaded with Custom Shop pickups sound like a $5000 guitar. Their's many ways to get it, but teles single coil neck into clean/slightly driven amp, you're golden.

1) The Blues with humbuckers

Here I'm thinking Gary Moore, Joe Bonnamasa, Peter Green, Warren Haynes, Billy Gibbons, Eric clapton falls into this category for his early work. The thing to note here, all of these guys are noted for playing Les Pauls. Playing a tele with humbucking pickups aren't going to give you a les paul sound, it'll get you close, but I find tele's loaded with humbuckers have more of a MID bite than the rounder, "thicker" les paul tone. This probably has more to do with thicker mahogany bodys of the les paul verses thinner brighter sounding tele bodys.

Now when you're talking about this style of blues, you're talking OverDriven searing blues solos, so you want more of a higher gain sound. Again if you're using a tele (like a blacktop, road warn etc) pick the bridge pickup for its warmer tones and MAYBE roll off the tone knob a bit. Keep the highs level on your amp, along with the mids and boost your lows a bit and it should beef up the lower registars a bit.

Either of those options should give you something close to a bluesy sound, whether its overdriven rock (use a humbucker) or the cleaner bluesy numbers (use a single coil), and you should be able to nail it. The more you spend the better chance you'll have of nailing it, but for starters I'd look at a MIM tele with either pickup combination as a great financial entry point that can take you from the bedroom out to gigs with no problems.

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Post subject: Re: Questions about the Telecaster.
Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 7:06 pm
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perfect example of both options at work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEEfDdJyxPY

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Post subject: Re: Questions about the Telecaster.
Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 7:44 pm
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Actually a better example of both is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZBeerUD-zc

You can definitley heres the bigger mid punch in jeffs tele (thats his seymour duncan tele but it'll give you an idea of single coils vs humbs in fender shaped guitars).

Interesting to see if you think either of these guys tones in this clip are too "high pitched" for ya?

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Post subject: Re: Questions about the Telecaster.
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 8:59 am
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I love the telecaster I play it more than any other guitar even for blues ..more than my strat!

Check out a couple of my videos here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYnffcPoeM8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBk-sIUTisc

:D


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Post subject: Re: Questions about the Telecaster.
Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2011 6:36 pm
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I too like the blues. My favorite teles have always been one's with a humbucker on the neck and single coil at the bridge, makes for some really bluesy sounds. But wait, this was up until the time I got my MIM Blacktop Telecaster with the two humbuckers. That thing will get just about any sound I'm looking for and came at a very reasonable price. I prefer the maple neck and can't really tell any difference in the sound but I believe that is just a personal preference thing. :idea:

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