Telecaster vs. Stratocaster

Originally Posted by jseth

One big thing, for me, is that when I play acoustic guitar, I'm likely to sing and play a song I really love.

Keep enjoying your guitar journey, keep checking out different guitars and brands and having fun with it all... try not to get trapped by the "it's far easier to spend time talking about it than actually doing it" modality...

Me, too. I am learning and playing guitar primarily to accompany myself singing no matter how badly I do it. I think my guitar playing is improving at a really nice clip. The singing leaves a lot to be desired, but also provides more opportunity to continue to learn and grow. The acoustic is a more versatile instrument for solo song stylists, such as ourselves.

I am lucky at the moment to have a lot of time to dedicate to learning guitar, as perhaps you can tell by how often I'm posting lately on AGF. Some might call this "long term unemployment," but I am thinking of it as "trial early retirement." I'm a "full time guitar student" and a "home maker" at the moment. It's very nice! I am married to an extremely wonderful husband who has no interest in guitars but supports me in my crazy obsession with them.

[gmr]

It is so nice to have that kind of support in your journey. I have two dream acoustics and both are gifts from my wife. I do a lot of window shopping but the reality of my own abilities as a player make it hard for me to justify a high end guitar in my own mind. Keep in mind that in today’s market you can get a fine enough electric and good sounding amp for playing at home for a pretty modest budget limitation. Major brand imports like Squier, Epiphone, and lower end Gretsch, Ibanez, Guild. So many choices for nice electric guitars for low money. Also, those Fender necks are so much different than your acoustics. Epiphone Gretsch, and others have nut widths very similar to an acoustic guitar’s

Originally Posted by gmr

It is so nice to have that kind of support in your journey. I have two dream acoustics and both are gifts from my wife. I do a lot of window shopping but the reality of my own abilities as a player make it hard for me to justify a high end guitar in my own mind. Keep in mind that in today’s market you can get a fine enough electric and good sounding amp for playing at home for a pretty modest budget limitation. Major brand imports like Squier, Epiphone, and lower end Gretsch, Ibanez, Guild. So many choices for nice electric guitars for low money. Also, those Fender necks are so much different than your acoustics. Epiphone Gretsch, and others have nut widths very similar to an acoustic guitar’s

When I get back around to electric guitar again, I'm going to try some of the other brands. Also, I may look at the arch tops again. But for now, more practice with the acoustic.

[fpuhan]

I sometimes get busy with work and life's little idiosyncrasies, but I enjoy reading these threads. Janine's walk is much like so many others, and the feedback is truly awesome. I'm often inspired to respond, but then I sometimes feel like I'm a party-crasher because I'm not on here every day.

There's less advice I have to give than confirmation. I often find myself nodding in agreement, both with Janine's observations and the replies she gets. Reading this thread, and learning of Janine's D-28, I was reminded of Bob Dylan. The story of how Dylan went from acoustic "folkie" to Strat-wielding rocker is a page from the history books. In fact, history.com has an article on it!

The Day Dylan Went Electric

So, it's not just us.

Originally Posted by fpuhan

I sometimes get busy with work and life's little idiosyncrasies, but I enjoy reading these threads. Janine's walk is much like so many others, and the feedback is truly awesome. I'm often inspired to respond, but then I sometimes feel like I'm a party-crasher because I'm not on here every day.

There's less advice I have to give than confirmation. I often find myself nodding in agreement, both with Janine's observations and the replies she gets. Reading this thread, and learning of Janine's D-28, I was reminded of Bob Dylan. The story of how Dylan went from acoustic "folkie" to Strat-wielding rocker is a page from the history books. In fact, history.com has an article on it!

The Day Dylan Went Electric

So, it's not just us.

There are no crashers at this guitar party! It's a never ending free for all of good times and good music and everyone is always invited! Life and work have an annoying way of interrupting the really important things like guitar playing and other fun stuff.

I love that you are enjoying my posts and hope that I am adding some value to these discussions even with my limited experience. What I lack in years of playing, I try to make up for in enthusiasm. I'm putting in a lot of time practicing, trying to catch up with all of you veteran guitarists, and get back some of the many years I could have been playing when I was younger.

I love the sound of that: "Janine's D-28." Not quite yet, but as soon as I can swing it! It's funny how you go to the guitar store for X, but you always seem to come out with Y. I guess it's a thing.

Thank you for posting the story about Bob Dylan. Looking forward to reading it. I'm a big fan of all the different phases of his music, any which way he plays it. His talent is just endless.

[Kbonger]

Hi! I had a tele and never played it. And it was a nice one, too. Sawa cool vid with a Les and a Strat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTbycjXBy6A&t=4s

[rollypolly]

I'd vote for getting a tele. I said this in the other thread, but to me teles are more comfy and easier to play, especially going from acoustic to electric. I love to fingerpick on my tele, whereas when I had Strats it was a little more awkward. Of course, it may be completely different for you. Also, just like on an acoustic, electrics needs setups too, so factor that in when you're trying them in the store. I don't find going from on to the other, and I think having them setup correctly is a big part of that.

[nostatic]

One note on the Strat vs Tele sound - I just picked up an American Ultra that has the S1 switch that brings in the neck pickup when in position 1 (bridge) and position 2 (bridge + middle). It does a pretty decent Tele impersonation.

Over the many years I've owned way more Strats than Teles for a couple of reasons (that have been mentioned by others):

Comfort - especially the forearm contour
the quack from position 2 and 4
the neck pickup - think Trower and others
wammy bar - I use it a lot, usually very subtly, but it is part of how I play
Hendrix played one

single coil vs hum bucker is thankfully a different discussion, I definitely am in the single coil camp for anything not jazz. I do appreciate the "purity of essence" of a Tele though, recently had a Larivee (neck didn't suit me), and may go back to my roots and find a Tele Deluxe as that was my first "good" electric when I was a young teen. I'm totally not a young teen now

[abn556]

A note on Fenders. Older Fenders with the 7.25” radius force you to sacrifice action height to keep it from fretting out on two step bends. I currently have 3 Strats and a real 1968 Pink Paisley Tele in my music room (not some kind of reissue). The Paisley has the old 7.25” neck radius and low frets. Its almost unplayable for me. My Strats either came with 9.5” radius necks or were re-radiused.

+

[perttime]

Originally Posted by nostatic

...
Over the many years I've owned way more Strats than Teles for a couple of reasons (that have been mentioned by others):

Comfort - especially the forearm contour
the quack from position 2 and 4
the neck pickup - think Trower and others
wammy bar - I use it a lot, usually very subtly, but it is part of how I play
Hendrix played one

...

- I love the Strat body design for comfort and balance
- but don't really get along with the quack positions
- you can put a strat neck pickup on a tele, and a tele bridge pickup is often much "stronger" than a strat one
- if I have a bar on a guitar, I over-use it -and/or go out of tune when bending with my fretting hand
- can't argue about Hendrix but lots of great players have used teles too.

So