Why does a telecaster sound so much different from a strat?

Snoogles

Snoogles

Cranky-dologist
is it the tremolo assembly? is it the pickups? What is the difference between the pickups, besides a strat having 3 single coils, and a tele having 2 singles, and the chrome-covered-neck?
is it the body-wood? or is it the shape of the body?

sorry for being a clueless noob

also, i hear a lot of talk about the stratocaster bridge pickup being entirely useless
and at the same time i also hear talk of the telecaster's bridge pickup being the "be-all, end-all" of guitar tone.
why doesn't someone replace a stratocaster bridge pickup with a telecaster bridge pickup ?
 
Re: Why does a telecaster sound so much different from a strat?

IMO the main difference in tone is in the different bridges, and the close second is in the pickups. I would not chalk it up to the body shapes or woods, though some people do.

I don't find the Strat bridge pickup useless. It is my favorite of the three. People just need to crank their amps and/or make it so that they can use their tone knob for the bridge pickup. Mainly crank the amp, though.

People have put Tele bridge pickups into Strats.
 
Re: Why does a telecaster sound so much different from a strat?

In a nutshell:

1. Pickups (easily the #1 difference)
2. String-through hardtail bridge
3. The fact that the bridge pickup is mounted to the steel bridge plate

Anyone who says the Strat's bridge pickup is useless just hasn't played a good Strat. Either that or they're a ****ty guitarist.

As for replacing the Strat bridge pickup with a Tele bridge pickup, it's been done plenty of times. That's what the SD Twangbanger is.
 
Re: Why does a telecaster sound so much different from a strat?

Cranky-d said:
is it the tremolo assembly? is it the pickups? What is the difference between the pickups, besides a strat having 3 single coils, and a tele having 2 singles, and the chrome-covered-neck?
is it the body-wood? or is it the shape of the body?

sorry for being a clueless noob

also, i hear a lot of talk about the stratocaster bridge pickup being entirely useless
and at the same time i also hear talk of the telecaster's bridge pickup being the "be-all, end-all" of guitar tone.
why doesn't someone replace a stratocaster bridge pickup with a telecaster bridge pickup ?
Click to expand...

One big difference is the big sustain block in the trem. Even if blocked that is a major difference to a bell-like tone and less earthy and twangy than strings through the wood.

Then there is the neck joint with a lot more mass around the neck in the Tele and the fact that the tele body is just a square piece. The large upper horn and wobbled out by the belly cut make the Strat body resonate differently.

The Tele bridge pickup doesn't only have a baseplate. The whole thing is mounted in a magnetic frame. That pancakes out the magnetic field and covers more of the low frequencies and makes the pickup's view much less narrow.

The pickups in the Tele also have much stronger mounts. The Strat pickups are 2-screw mounted onto a piece of sheet plastic.

The larger headplate probably makes a difference, too, at least with the large head CBS strats.

The Strat bridge pickup isn't useless if you feed it into the right rig. Blackmore and Gilmour seem to have little difficulty.
 
Re: Why does a telecaster sound so much different from a strat?

I think the biggest things are the bridge and the pickups...

I've played hardtail Strats...they still sound like Strats

I've put Tele pickups in Strats...they still sound like Strats

I've played Tele's with Tele pickups but w/o the trad Tele bridge...they sorta of sound like Tele's but not completely

Put a Tele pickup in that box metal bridge and nail it to a 2x4 and it'll still sound mostly like a Tele!
 
Re: Why does a telecaster sound so much different from a strat?

Ok, come on. The wood at the neck joint has nothing to do with it. If you took a Tele body, routed it for a complete Strat setup - I mean everything - bridge, pickups, etc. I would bet real money you would not be able to differentiate the tone from a regular Strat.

The Telecaster sound is rooted in the bridge pickup combined with the bridge. The bridge plate actually surrounds and has the pickup mounted to it. It's not necessarily the base plate on the pickup because not all Tele pickups have a base plate (the American Standard pickups do not).

As for the neck pickup, the metal cover is what makes it sound the way it does. Take off the cover and you'll have a much more open sounding pickup - very similar to a Strat neck pickup.
 
Re: Why does a telecaster sound so much different from a strat?

Great posts and info all....One thing I do notice...The 2 guitars sit differently across one's body while playing it..Slightly changes my overall playing style when I Play a Tele..
 
Re: Why does a telecaster sound so much different from a strat?

STRATDELUXER97 said:
Great posts and info all....One thing I do notice...The 2 guitars sit differently across one's body while playing it..Slightly changes my overall playing style when I Play a Tele..
Click to expand...

Yeah, I found that too. The Tele likes to sit very level with the floor. It's well balanced that way - it will always go perpendicular to your body.

Strats hug in more - it's much easier to pull them up to a 45º angle and they'll stay there.
 
Re: Why does a telecaster sound so much different from a strat?

Neck pickups aren't really a world apart in tone either, but there is a slight difference.

I have a fetish for great neck pickup tones, and my consistent favorite at a particular guitar center is always the same highway 1 tele. Gets crazy good wailing neck tones.

The style! I think good musicians tend to 'milk' their instruments for what they're good at, a well versed guitar player will bust out the stacatto country runs on a tele, and perhaps milk the trem on the strat and use notch positions plenty to utilize the 'trademarks' of those instruments. I believe that one builds a vocabulary of styles from various motivations, one of them being the quirks and strengths of a particular guitar.

For example, I play differently after having an affair with 2 LP customs because I tended to cater towards what those guitars do well. Now I play like that on my strat as well and I remember the flavor of the LP inspired playing a bit.
 
Re: Why does a telecaster sound so much different from a strat?

Tele/Strat diferences:

Tele body: swamp Ash..... Strat body: Alder(early models were swamp ash also)

Tele Pickups: 2 singles, three way switch... Strat pickups: 3 singles 5 way switch(Huge difference)

Tele Bridge: 3 brass barrels(best IMHO) Strat bridge: Whammy (Huge difference here)

Tele Body shape vrs Strat body shape: I prefer a Strat as I can play this all night. With a Tele my right arm gets fatigued after about an hour from where it rests on the body.

The scale on these two models is the same which makes them play similar but I naturally feel more comfortable with a Strat but Teles; when you NEED that sound there is nothing else that will do. They are a must have IMHO!
 
Re: Why does a telecaster sound so much different from a strat?

Dave both of my Teles are alder....They are fun guitars to play on..You can't hide crappy playing on one,but they do sound cool...
 
Re: Why does a telecaster sound so much different from a strat?

Cranky-d said:
is it the tremolo assembly? is it the pickups? What is the difference between the pickups, besides a strat having 3 single coils, and a tele having 2 singles, and the chrome-covered-neck?
is it the body-wood? or is it the shape of the body?
Click to expand...

yep yep yep yep yep
 
Re: Why does a telecaster sound so much different from a strat?

IMO it has the largest part to do with the bridge. The pickups play a part, but not as much as the bridge assemblies do. The wood does as well, but less then both the others do, again this is all IMHO, YMMV and all those other disclaimers...
 
Re: Why does a telecaster sound so much different from a strat?

FWIW I find that Tele necks tend to have a much higher probability of having a vintage style light single truss rod with no graphite bars and whatever the hell else they invented lately to wreck necks.

On a Strat with a trem the neck become very important from my observation.
 
Re: Why does a telecaster sound so much different from a strat?

It's the headstock shape. Also, the color of the decal on the headstock is very important.
And lets not forget the what the tonal effects can be if you have the wrong srews mounting the neck to the body. :eyecrazy:






Seriously though, it's the bridge assembly and body shape.
 
Re: Why does a telecaster sound so much different from a strat?

Tele bridge on a strat with tele pickups...sounds like a tele. A well blocked strat bridge with a tele bridge pickup should get close though.
 
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