Telecaster: Were all the great guitar heroes wrong?

[blue]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

Some of us knew this all along: a 3-PU Gretsch semi, a blue-light Bugera V22 - just guitar/cable/amp and a Cool Cat trem pedal - and I'm good to go for just about any style/setting...

And some of us have pictures of ourselves in front of full stacks wearing a fishnet dayglo green tank top. After a particularly "festive" night, a tribute band that played only Ted Nugent and Aerosmith sounded like a GREAT idea! Wang Dang Sweet Emotion! How could it fail!

It took us a while to get here.

[blue]

Originally Posted by Ian111

No one is going to explicitly say Hendrix should have used a Tele or that Page should have stuck with the Tele either.

There's a conspiracy theory that Hendrix used a Tele on purple haze... Wake up Sheeple!

But seriously. There are many who believe he did on that song.

[Ian111]

We live in different times. Back then our guitar heroes grew up in a world when acquiring or buying a real American made Fender or Gibson was a big deal. You had one guitar and often it was the only one you had. Today almost everyone into guitars have a desire to have one of everything and with good affordable foreign made copies its possible. Keith Williams of Five Watt World did an interesting video https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oIr9Jew9rF0. How many guitars do you need. The Les Paul and Strat were the hot guitars of the day back then and they made it work for them and they weren’t interested in hopping from guitar to guitar. Different attitude back then. Maybe there’s something to that too.

[FrankHudson]

I have no idea how one would measure the most popular guitar for "the greats" through four decades.* First off, a great many of the most notable players used multiple guitar models, particularly if you spread it out of such a long time. As Bob Womack points out, there is a fashion element where particular models and associated technology seem to have heydays.

I don't know that what would be found in such a survey would indicate that it's settled what is "right" in the creative decision of what guitar to play personally or as a recommendation to others. Yes, models with long term popularity deserve respect. In rock music that means if someone was to make the argument that the classic design Les Paul, Stratocaster, and Telecaster are worthless for rock music that they are trolling. There's just too many examples that would make that statement indefensible.**

But did Lonnie Mack ignore the right choice when he used that Flying V? Gee I kind of like Tom Verlaine on that Television LP, would I have liked him better on a Les Paul than that Jazzmaster. Too obscure? As we all know, the Beatles were insignificant and not popular at all until they choose to use one of those big three models about a year to two before they broke up. There are dozens of examples of exceptions that rocked.

People who like their guitars tend to talk them up and claim that they have the most important qualities that the instrument should have. I'm not sure that Telecasters players are unlike any other guitar model players in this regard--other than they are right of course.



*Actually I'm nerdy, and I would have a rough idea of how one might determine that, but it'd a be time-consuming process and still subject to a lot of "noise" in the data which increases over time.

**I was going to add the ES-335, and then I fell into a whirlpool thinking, well what about the SG, the LP Jr, what Gretsch model, does the Casino make it, Rick 12-strings, and so on.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by blue

...some of us have pictures of ourselves in front of full stacks wearing a fishnet dayglo green tank top...

It took us a while to get here.

Had the pleasure of playing through two of the iconic powerhouses - Ampeg SVT and the rare 200W Marshall Major (of Ritchie Blackmore fame) - back in the '70s;...

John Fogerty-approved work shirt, Wranglers, Frye boots - no leather/fishnet/spandex...

Where a Bassman 2x15" or 100W Plexi would be running out of clean headroom, these babies weren't even breaking a sweat...

Also took some passes in a dragster a couple years ago - same feeling of effortless raw power...

As some of my now permanently-impaired musician friends have belatedly discovered, I value my hearing - and my hindquarters - too highly to make a full-time pursuit of either one...

[Dru Edwards]

Here's a good book to learn about the Tele heroes. It's on my bookshelf:

[BoneDigger]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Mike Bloomfield, Roy Buchanan, Danny Gatton, Jeff Beck, B.B. King, Jimmy Page, Syd Barett, David Gilmour, Jeff Buckley, James Burton, Mike Campbell, Jim Campilongo, Steve Cropper, Denny Diaz, Noel Gallagher, Vince Gill, George Harrison, Steve Howe, Chrissie Hynde,Albert Lee, Mike Oldfield, Bruce Springsteen, Joe Strummer, Tommy Tedesco, Joe Walsh, Clarence White, need I list more people who did significant work with the Tele?

We must come to recognize that guitars, like clothes, jewelry, hair, furs, etc., are fashion items. More, HERE.

Be like David Gilmour: the right tool for the job, whatever it is.

Bob

Just thinking out loud, but if a specific artist used a tele at some point but later adapted a different guitar as their main guitar, does that speak well of the tele or does it detract from it? For instance BB King started on tele but once he played the Gibson he dropped the tele for good. I think I tend to agree that for some musicians, any guitar could be made to work well, but the one they choose becomes as much accessory as tool?

[raysachs]

Lotta great players have used (and do use) teles. A lot more great players don't, preferring other options. It's a fine guitar, one of several. People who say it's the most versatile guitar in captivity are just expressing a personal preference, IMHO. Arguably a strat is more versatile. Almost IN-arguably a semi hollow or Les Paul or SG or something similar is AS versatile. It's just what you like.

I love teles. If there were no strats, I'm pretty sure I'd play a tele 90% of the time, instead of playing a strat 90% of the time. In my guitar room, there's no room for a tele if there's a strat there too, and there's ALWAYS a strat there. So I don't have any teles. I have had. And on the rare occasion I didn't have a strat, a tele would quickly become my #1. But when there's a strat there, I never reach for the tele, so now there isn't one. I gotta have something with P90s, preferably something with more of a Gibson like neck setup. These days and for the foreseeable future, that's an Epiphone SG. I actually DO play that sometimes, in addition to my strat. P-90s are the only thing that can compete for a small amount of playing time with a strat in my world. Teles couldn't, humbuckers couldn't, nothing else has. Except for an acoustic, but that's a whole different thing.

Teles are fine guitars, one among several. No more, no less.

-Ray

[Coop47]

Originally Posted by Ian111

But there are plenty of Youtube videos and internet posts saying Tele is all anyone needs, Leo should have stopped with the Tele, etc etc. I follow this stuff too. Like I said in my previous post their fans “seem to imply” how anyone can choose a Tele over a Strat for example when the Tele is so superior.

Maybe this thread should be titled "Telecaster: Were all the great guitar heroes wrong and all the YouTube and internet posters right"?

[The Watchman]

As if looks has no importance? I look way cooler in the mirror with my LP slung low, than with my Tele.

[Ian111]

Originally Posted by Coop47

Maybe this thread should be titled "Telecaster: Were all the great guitar heroes wrong and all the YouTube and internet posters right"?

Nah, it should actually be “I want to add a traditional single coil bridge equipped Telecaster to my collection but I’m trying to talk myself out of it.”

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by BoneDigger

Just thinking out loud, but if a specific artist used a tele at some point but later adapted a different guitar as their main guitar, does that speak well of the tele or does it detract from it? For instance BB King started on tele but once he played the Gibson he dropped the tele for good. I think I tend to agree that for some musicians, any guitar could be made to work well, but the one they choose becomes as much accessory as tool?

If they are subjects of style and fad, it only need speak to a change in the style and fad. For instance, Jeff Beck traded his Esquire to Seymour Duncan and now considers it "the one that got away." He also went through a Les Paul period, before settling in with his modified Strat. But he still returns to Teles and LPs on occasion.

Bob

[Steev]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Mike Bloomfield, Roy Buchanan, Danny Gatton, Jeff Beck, B.B. King, Jimmy Page, Syd Barett, David Gilmour, Jeff Buckley, James Burton, Mike Campbell, Jim Campilongo, Steve Cropper, Denny Diaz, Noel Gallagher, Vince Gill, George Harrison, Steve Howe, Chrissie Hynde,Albert Lee, Mike Oldfield, Bruce Springsteen, Joe Strummer, Tommy Tedesco, Joe Walsh, Clarence White, need I list more people who did significant work with the Tele?

Bob

[blue]

Originally Posted by Steev

Fenders were an "austerity" move for him because of addiction. He was back on the Gibby train as quickly as he could afford a ticket.

No shade. I have more Joe in my Itunes than any other solo guitarist.

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by blue

Fenders were an "austerity" move for him because of addiction. He was back on the Gibby train as quickly as he could afford a ticket.

No shade. I have more Joe in my Itunes than any other solo guitarist.

Ed Bickert's pretty interesting.