Quote:
Originally Posted by Clouds
I'm an acoustic player and recently got a Telecaster. Just looking for some advice. When I strum (barre or open) chords, it sounds so rocky yet I've heard people on the tele getting clean tones. What am I doing wrong?
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I will not offer the opinion myself that one can't use techniques one uses on an acoustic on a Telecaster. I think otherwise. Of course there are and can be differences, but differences don't mean "it won't work."
I think Telecasters can work very well for this kind of thing. Your exact aims and techniques may very, and not hearing what you played it may be hard for us to suggest what to change. A lot of good guesses already upthread. The most obvious thing is the amp and how much gain you have going on. A nice clean setting gives a tone response more like an acoustic guitar than the kinds of sound useful in a lot of electric guitar playing.
Strings haven't been mentioned. If you are attacking typical electric guitar light strings with a lot of pick attack or a heavy strum you may not be getting a desirable sound. A set with a top E at .011 or even .012 top E will change things. A wound G string may come along with a heavier set. I currently keep a Tele with flatwound strings on it as my "think acoustic, play electric" guitar and I can strum it. Flatwound strings greatly reduce overtones from the wound strings, addressing another possible issue. The chimey overtones and some effects can be useful though--it depends on what you like and are aiming for.
The classic Telecaster design has three great sounds and most Teles have a very useful tone control for dialing things in soundwise. I often use the middle (neck and bridge) setting when playing "think acoustic" but you can try all three positions. Where you strum also has an impact as well things like pick choice and use.
I recently saw an online streaming event celebrating the work of Jeff Buckley, who recorded an fine EP with just his voice and a Telecaster into a clean amp. A large number of the participants used that electric guitar and voice combination as it was done when pandemic restrictions made it more difficult for bands to play together, and as a homage to that element of Buckley's career. Now of course it helps if one has Jeff Buckley's voice, but some of them could produce effective performances in that mode.
Here's a recording of that stream. The whole thing is 2 hours long, and may be overkill if you aren't a Jeff Buckley or modern indie music fan. One can skip around if that's the case. And no, I didn't think every indie (and often young) artist in the event hit it out of the park, but there are examples here of strumming an electric outside of a band context working IMHO.