My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

[philthis]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

As someone with 2 Strats and 2 Teles I must say I would go Strat for a couple of reasons. Firstly, you don't have a trem equipped guitar in your arsenal. Whammys are fun! Secondly, I think there is more tonal range in the Stratocaster, more guitar for your buck. I love my Teles but I had to mod them heavily to be able to squeeze a larger palette of tones out of them.

I'm with Securb on this. I have had both-strats and a very nice Tele with 3 pickups. In the end I loved the clean tones on both guitars but I found they lend themselves wonderfully to a trem. So wonderfully infact that I begen being frusterated I didnt have a trem on the Tele. I suppose you could always put a Bigsby Trem on a Tele-many do-and it may be what you want. For me the strat clean tones where awesome as is and the trem just made it even better.

 

[philthis]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

I'm an avid, die hard tele fan. That being said, if you don't have a SSS equipped strat with a whammy in your arsenal yet, this is a great time to go for one. Theres a whole bunch of sounds that you can only get on strats, whereas the number of unique tones on a tele is much smaller. It might be the whole Jimmy Page thing, secretly using a tele on the first two albums, but a tele is more or less just a Les Paul with a bit less girth and more twang. You already have a guitar that does 90% of the tele thing. A strat is more useful as a straight up tonal tool.

good advice from TimmyPage here.

 

[philthis]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

Hehe don't need an LP as I have one of these View attachment 55714

with those P90's that guitar is simply righteous!

 

[dominus]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

Figure out which one is more comfortable to play. You can make one sound like the other.

This.

Twangbanger in a strat or strat singles in a tele.

Or do what I do. Get both, and install a high output humbucker in the bridge and nothing else.

 

[tubecrunch]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

I'm an lp guy. Discovered I love tele's, couldn't get used to how they feel standing up. Made one of these...
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[Mad-Max]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

I'm an lp guy. Discovered I love tele's, couldn't get used to how they feel standing up. Made one of these...
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That looks really killer! I've always loved that single coil Tele bridge. It has an extremely distinctive tone. It can also get plenty aggressive when you want it to.

 

[Mr Wolf]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

Only one?

When I have my own house, good car and everything else to make life comfortable then in all fairness there will be a les Paul, gretsch hollowbody, and a nice range of amps to annoy my other half with.

 

[Mr Wolf]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

I'm an lp guy. Discovered I love tele's, couldn't get used to how they feel standing up. Made one of these...
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Now that is an interesting guitar. Love it that it is just the one pickup too. Is the neck Gibson scaled or fender?

 

[Mr Wolf]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

with those P90's that guitar is simply righteous!

Thanks man. It will sound like sacrilege on a forum famous for people swapping and changing pickups and so on however I have no desire to change anything on this guitar. It is just right as it is. Other guitars now have duncans, BKP's which are now greater than before but this one is just fine.

Thanks loads guys for chiming in. Has given me a lot of food for thought. Main thing now is to go play a load of guitars I'd say! If I find a great example of one or the other I don't think I can go too far wrong.

 

[Wolferine92]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

Imho get both, in the long run !

I have been toying with the idea of getting a strat or a tele but jn the end I got a Charvel, a Viper and a second Les Paul and am still waiting for turning to one.

Tele and strat both are pretty different beasts. Both are great

 

[NecroPolo]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

I'm sure you know it but check the '51 out in person in case you missed that. If you like the feel maybe it is a solution of some sort:

http://www.fender.com/en-HU/squier/...squier-51-maple-fingerboard-2-color-sunburst/

With a Pearly or a CC bridge it is a blast.

 

[playas]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

Is hardtail / trem important to you?

You can change pickup configs to get (at least close to) the sounds of both in one guitar. 3 pickup Tele / strat with a twangbanger etc.

 

[blueman335]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

How is everyone using a strat "way overdone?" haha. It's a good design, they play well and sound good. That's why they are used so much. And if we are going to start saying that people who play popular styles of guitars are following the herd, we can pretty much throw in the 3 major Gibson designs too... so between Fender and Gibson, 75% of guitarists just follow the herd. That was a great statement. Quite open minded Rick.

Many Strat players don't know how to EQ their instruments and get a decent EQ, at least not in the blues and classic rock worlds. I've heard more songs ruined by schreechy Strats, on CD and live, than every other kind of guitar put together. Some of the great Strat players have 'sold' countless Strats, guys like Hendrix, Trower, Blackmore, & Healey, but a lot of the guys that buy them have no clue how to get tones anything like their heroes. Hence the damage inflicted on my ears over the years. It's one thing to pick a popular guitar, fine; it's another to simply follow the herd and then be unable to get more than thin, shrill, piercing tones out of it. There's no excuse for all the painful Strat tones I've heard, when other guys get theirs sounding so good. Not really the instrument's fault, but it apparently takes some secret skill to dial them in. The clip you posted a couple years ago with your Strat sounded really nice. Oh how I wish more Strat players had tones like that. Why do some guys have to have that nails-on-a-chalkboard sound? As Wah Wah said here: 'Strats don't suffer fools lightly.'

And this is why I give a resounding vote for a Tele for Mr. Wolf! Less chance of him doing damage with it.

 

[Mr Wolf]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

Well, after work yesterday I ended up jamming with a colleague. We had been talking music and so on for a while. Anyhow he had a pair of rather nice Japanese strats. Anyway sorry Blueman335 but I now feel it has to be a strat type setup! Trems are fun, plus they sounded so good, especially when I was butchering SRV songs!

I will eventually get a tele, i'm sure of it. Now I just need need to play a load to find my one

 

[Securb]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

Many Strat players don't know how to EQ their instruments and get a decent EQ, at least not in the blues and classic rock worlds.

The same can be said for many guitar players. I don't think instrument brand or style is a factor here. You might be more sensitive to it in the blues and classic rock worlds because you are around those styles more. If someone is going to dial in a bad tone (which is very subjective) they can do it just as easily on a Telecaster or Les Paul as they can a Stratocaster. Lets assume the OP knows what he is doing and will enjoy years of great playing and fantastic tone from whatever instrument he buys.

There's no excuse for all the painful Strat tones I've heard, when other guys get theirs sounding so good. Not really the instrument's fault, but it apparently takes some secret skill to dial them in. The clip you posted a couple years ago with your Strat sounded really nice. Oh how I wish more Strat players had tones like that. Why do some guys have to have that nails-on-a-chalkboard sound? As Wah Wah said here: 'Strats don't suffer fools lightly.'

Not thin, shrill or piercing

 

[Mr Wolf]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

Lets assume the OP knows what he is doing

Brave assumption! Anyway Blueman, worst comes to the worst I am in London, you are in Florida so hopefully you won't have to suffer my horrible Strat tones! If I do get one that is.

Cheers

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

IMO, you should get one of each, ultimately. But if you have to pick just one, get the Strat. That's my vote because you already have a dual single coil guitar without a vibrato. If you did not (e.g. if you had a Les Paul or SG with humbuckers instead of the archtop), I would say to get the Tele.

 

[DreX]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

Some low to medium output Strat pickups are harder to EQ than others, depending on spiky the resonant peak is. Texas Specials are more difficult to EQ well because the peak is spiky, so it's like you either hear it and it sounds awful, or it sounds good, but you can't really hear it. But if you find the sweet spot, it will give you a very responsive tone and feel you can't get from other pickups. Other single coils, such as Fralins or SD Ant II's are flatter in their response, and it's relatively effortless to get a good, loud sound out of them without becoming shrill, but overall are not quite as pick sensitive. IMO, that's a trait of a good Strat pickup worth paying extra for; it works for you rather than you having to work for it.

 

[Mr Wolf]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

IMO, you should get one of each, ultimately. But if you have to pick just one, get the Strat. That's my vote because you already have a dual single coil guitar without a vibrato. If you did not (e.g. if you had a Les Paul or SG instead of the archtop), I would say to get the Tele.

In the end I probably will get both eventually. Ultimately I will also have a les Paul, explorer, gretsch and several other things as well given half a chance! Yesterday's jam with my colleague's strats was a lot of fun, plus playing with the trem made me realise I have that missing in my stable so logic pretty much pulls me towards the Strat.

Still though... Teles are cool guitars, and I have played some good ones. If I founds one for a good price that I liked, I swear I would grab a john 5 tele (with 3HB's and trem), then replace the pickups with a full Strat set up!

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: My mind says "Strat", my heart says "Tele"

I like the simplicity of teles, I think they are straight up cool guitars and plus I have been listening to a lot of Rolling Stones so that sort of sways me at the moment!

It took me years and a few different strats to realize that I'm a telecaster guy. As I grew as a player, I realized that simplified controls, less pickups and the steel bridge design were all defining features for me. I never though I'd like the limited upper fret access or the lack of a trem or not having 6 adjustable saddles, but the traditional 60's tele design just ended up hitting all the right spots. The single biggest difference to me though, was the richness of the bridge pickup. While I could never gel with strat bridge pickups, teles just have that aggressiveness and punch and they just seem to be inherently beefier than strat bridges. Oddly enough, I do believe part of the "magic" of tele pickups is the fact that the traditional ones don't have that middle single coil taking away from the pull from the other two pickups and I find the middle position on a tele 3 way switch can get "quacky" like a good strat, anyhow.

I do like the refinements of strats too though. They also have the extra pickup in the middle as well which does add an extra dimension that I like, and none of my current guitars have a tremolo.

Try enough of both out and you'll figure out how important those features are for you as a player. I can tell you I thought I wasn't going to like teles years ago because the strats had more options and I liked the double cut design. I always thought I would just pickup the trem and start doing cool stuff with it, but the reality is that I never learned how to really use it other than for some subtle vibrato and while most have stayed in tune pretty well, hardtails are just more consistent with staying in tune. Some folks are also going to find they need those notch positions and the versatility is going to reel in folks. It's hard to argue about just how expressive the instrument can be when you have folks like Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck using them.

Ultimately I think I will go with what ever I come across as the guitar that speaks to me, be it a tele or Strat.

You can't lose with that logic. :fing2: It's hard to argue with either one. They're both iconic for a reason! I'll gladly take a Fender over a Gibson any day (unless we're talking about acoustics, of course).