Can't take this girl anywhere... NGD

[Davis Webb]

Swell! I never get to use that word, but it works here. That is swell!

I have a Tele that I bought recently and it has changed my life. I give testimony before the Farmer's Market congregation every week now.

You can spank it on the bridge pickup to get down home twang.

But....if one plays it with the tone knob set halfway, which I do, all the pickups reveal magic unbeknownst to man. You can do weird half synthesizer sounding stuff by stroking the strings near the bridge pickup, shimmer shimmer.

You can swap it to the neck pickup and forget the jazz (which begs to be played here) and just strum and chicken pick the notes using palm muting. The neck pickup has the most bass. Thumpa thumpa. Now for the chorus, you want an acoustic guitar sound with big open strumming. That's time for the middle pickup. Just tweak the tone knob. Every mm. of turn gives you a brand new instrument.

Now, one turns on the overdrive and another thing happens. Phil Spector emanates from your instrument as the entire mid range fills with a wall of clean sustain.

I could go on and on and on..as is my wont....

And yes, you must succumb to the instrument. You don't jump in there and tell the Tele what to do. It will horse kick you into der der land. Nope, you gotta seduce her, take her out for dinner, bring some flowers and learn her intricacies. Shes got more than you can imagine inside, but it don't come easy. Any mistake you make in picking style, pressure, attack, are all amplified until you sound like a cat yanking at an acoustic fretboard. But set the rudder by your compass and read the wind and there is NOTHING she cannot do.

Then you can always unplug it, plug in the Strat and wail

And yeh, you can do mean Hendrix on a Tele, or Zep, or anything, but you have to play by HER rules. Its quite the trip.

Me, I use it for country solo, and the audience frickin loves it. I play my acoustic at the Farmer's Market, I get a dime an hour. I plug in the tele, my hat filleth over. The Tele.......ah....the Tele.

Now go play you some Merle Haggart!

[Bob Womack]

You know, Davis, that's what I'm discovering. You really need to be willing to tame the bright icepick pretty steeply with the tone control before you really start figuring out the character of the instrument. I sat for an hour in overdrive land yesterday with the tone down at about half, tweaking up, tweaking down, and seeing the fascinating subtle nuances that were available. It reminded me very much of the ES-335 in that it is a real chameleon when you learn to ride the tone control with comprehension.

Bob

[Davis Webb]

Yeh exactly. I roll that tone down and its impressive how much a small turn does eh? There is a sweet spot for each song, I seldom run it wide open, especially on the bridge. I find the middle position gives plenty of spank and just a small turn on it brings out the desire twang. I find using the neck pickup, my ears have to adjust to the muted tone, then I rely on it for bass for a backing strum. Then I swap to middle at chorus sometimes, to open it up.

The pick position is another whole thing I find. When I want really singing strings I play close to the neck, then I tweak the tone by moving it ever so much toward the bridge. Tight to the bridge it takes on a really cool, hard to describe tone, which of course changes with pickup and tone. You do this on all guitars, but on the Tele, its really sensitive to that, and that opens up a few more tonal palettes. YUM!

A last note on my meanderings, I fake chicken pick using muted palm cross picking, when I choke the notes off I get a great percussive tone.

I am using 9s. I am going to put on 10s. Will report back. What gauge are you using Bob?

[Davis Webb]

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by Davis Webb

I am using 9s. I am going to put on 10s. Will report back. What gauge are you using Bob?

I'm going with the 9s that came on it for now. I use 9s on everything electric except lap steels right now.

Bob

[alnico5]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

You really need to be willing to tame the bright icepick pretty steeply with the tone control before you really start figuring out the character of the instrument.

Bob

The tone control may be the defining character of the instrument.

I'm going to consider a ToneStyler tone pot for my Telecaster. Maybe a SD Hot Rails bridge PU at some point in the future.