Please Teach me about Rock Telecasters

[Jet-Jaguar]

She blew my nose, and then, she blew my mind.

So, yeah, telecasters.  I always thought of them as "Hee Haw" guitars. In the past year or so, it seems I'm seeing them in places I've never noticed them before. They were there before, I just didn't notice them. Keith Richards, Joe Strummer, Black Francis, all kinds of ska bands.  So now, I kinda have this idea that I want to build a Telecaster, which is a mistake for many reasons, but mainly because I'm a horrible, horrible guitar player and I already own four guitars.

Does this go feeling away after a while?

Right now, Wymore Guitars is having a sale, 'cause John wants to retire. I impulsively ordered a tapped SD Quarter Pound bridge and a '59 neck because I though I remembered reading somewhere on the web that you could get a "micawber" type sound with that combo.  For the life of me, I cannot find that post anywhere so I may have just dreamed it up. But the pickups arrived today, and I have questions.

Every mention of Micawber I've come across says the body was made of ash. I suspect this means hard ash, as opposed to swamp ash ... is that true?  I'd imagine there's a difference if you were making a baseball bat with them; is there much of a difference in sound?

Also, I notice that you can order the tele bridge on non-tele bodies. Is this considered a good idea? Teles don't look that comfortable, and I was thinking my next guitar would be a Z-body or Musiclander.  Plus, I wouldn't feel like I belonged on Hee Haw.

Bridges: I really like my Hipshot tremolo.  They also make a tele bridge.  Would this fit the Warmoth tele route?

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Warmoth does the Vintage Tele Bridge route and American Standard bridge route.  Hipshot offers a Tele bridge for both.  The American Standard has 3 mounting holes and the string thru holes are in front of the mounting screws.  The Vintage Tele bridge route has 4 holes and the string thru holes are behind the mounting holes.  There's no shortage of aftermarket bridges for both routes, but the Vintage Tele bridge route has a few more options from boutique hardware places.

I'm hardly the Tele purist, but if you've never owned one, the mystique is more than just the body shape.  It's the uncontoured (and uncomfortable) body, the hum of the single coil pickups, the bridge plate with slanted pickup mounted in it, and so on.  Again, if you've never owned one and choose to go with a trem, bridge humbucker, and non-traditional body wood, then IMO you still will not have experienced what a Tele is.

 

[drewfx]

Well, Led Zeppelin I (not to mention the Stairway solo), and early Jeff Beck ain't exactly Hee Haw...

 

[imminentG]

If you ask ME, the entire appeal of a telecaster is 'HEE-HAW'. I never liked them because I never saw them in their element.
NOW, it has become just repulsive and uninspiring to me as a guitar in general when I see it in other circles.
Like, what do you even want with a trebly microphonic tone machine if the real intent is to pretend it's some other guitar?
I absolutely do not point that question at anyone (but myself).

 

[Jet-Jaguar]

If you ask ME, the entire appeal of a telecaster is 'HEE-HAW'. I never liked them because I never saw them in their element.
NOW, it has become just repulsive and uninspiring to me as a guitar in general when I see it in other circles.
Like, what do you even want with a trebly microphonic tone machine if the real intent is to pretend it's some other guitar?
I absolutely do not point that question at anyone (but myself).

See, I was going for the rock that has been created by the telecaster. And the ska. At first, I thought a stratocaster would get that tone, but not so much.

I'm hardly the Tele purist, but if you've never owned one, the mystique is more than just the body shape.  It's the uncontoured (and uncomfortable) body, the hum of the single coil pickups, the bridge plate with slanted pickup mounted in it, and so on.  Again, if you've never owned one and choose to go with a trem, bridge humbucker, and non-traditional body wood, then IMO you still will not have experienced what a Tele is.

I'll definitely be going with the modern tele bridge, single-coil tele bridge pickup (the aforementioned Quarterpound) humbucker neck (the aforementioned '59) and a blend knob to blend them (another reason why I want to go with a different body style is that I can use three pots - blend, master tone, master volume, and maybe use a 5-way blade switch to control the tap in the quarter Pound.)  Open G tuning.

I don't need to be totally pure. I don't play with or for other people, so I don't care if it looks weird. If I can get my Stones fix, I'm okay with that.

 

[Death by Uberschall]

I can give you examples of a rock Tele.  :laughing7:

 

[mayfly]

The telecaster is a great sleeper guitar.  It is simple as a brick, but it is the most versatile guitar I have ever played.  It is incredibly touch responsive and uniquely expressive.

The big trick to different tones on the tele is the height of the bridge pickup.  stack it up high, and you'll get those ice-pick highs with lots of cluck.  Move it down low, the ice and cluck go away and are replaced with a big midrange.  Dial it in the middle, and you can get either on demand. 

have a look/listen:  Heavy tones happen later.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5YDaetGaS4[/youtube]

 

[Jet-Jaguar]

Oh, yeah, I forgot, in my first post, to blame Mayfly as well for my current fascination.

Any opinions on the Hard ash/soft ash subject?

 

[Death by Uberschall]

Take a look at RobR's Tele.

http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=4655.0

 

[mayfly]

Oh, yeah, I forgot, in my first post, to blame Mayfly as well for my current fascination.

Any opinions on the Hard ash/soft ash subject?

go with the soft (swamp) ash.  But you know what, I don't really think there is much difference.  I've got ash and alder teles, and I really can't determine a noticeable difference.

 

[Cagey]

I've got ash and alder teles, and I really can't determine a noticeable difference.

On a body with that much mass, I'm not surprised. And in fact, the whole "tone wood" thing is overblown with electrics. I'm not saying you can't hear differences, but it's not as dramatic as it is with acoustics. For a given body design the strings, pickups and playing style will have much more effect than anything else.

 

[OzziePete]

The first big gig I ever went to (way back when....) was a Status Quo gig. 1975.

Within 5 minutes of dual Telecasters pounding out 12 bar blues through a stack of Marshalls, and well, I'm sorry, but you kinda forgot the Tele was supposed to be all country and twang!

After songs like Down Down, Roll Over Lay Down & 4500 times, and having my hair parted with the sheer volume and hit between the eyes attitude that Quo put out in their prime, yeah, converted.

I found out later that a Tele pickup is one sensitive little beastie and you have to be very careful about feedback, but if you learn how to control the squeals and squawks they are a very useful tool at high volume, he he  :evil4: .

I have owned a Tele bridge pickup since those 70s and I wouldn't part with it for any money. In fact, when I tired of trying to make it fit the guiatr it was initially installed in, I took it out, put it in storage and waited til I could get a decent Tele to put it in.

Years later I found Warmoth, got a Showcase Butterscotch Blonde Swamp Ash body that weighed nearly 6 lbs. and built a guitar around that pickup. Initially had it configured as an Esquire (1 pickup Tele, if you will), but prersently in pieces waiting for me to install the Guild Humbucker that has accompanied the Tele bridge pickup since the 70s.

I would suggest if you go the humbucker in the neck position and Tele bridge pickup set up, that you consider the relative low power of the Tele bridge pickup and consider getting an older humbucker style with a PAF type rating on the low side....

 

[-CB-]

Hmm rock telecaster....

Keef, EC, JB, JP, and Roy Buchanan come to mind.

Then there's Steve Cropper, McKinley Morganfield...JD... lots of rock'n blues there.

 

[exaN]

This one screems rock n roll to me :headbang:

 

[Cagey]

I don't know why, but every time I see a piece of spalted maple I get this urge to make a clock out of it. Must be an association in the depths of my deflicted brain that I'm not consciously aware of <grin>

 

[Patrick]

your grandfather had a clock made of spalted maple that you loved as a child?  :dontknow:  :laughing7:

 

[Nightclub Dwight]

I don't know why, but every time I see a piece of spalted maple I get this urge to make a clock out of it. Must be an association in the depths of my deflicted brain that I'm not consciously aware of <grin>

You can always make a teleclocker!

In all seriousness, I grew up on teles way back in the day.  Its still the sweetest guitar I've ever played, and I've pleyed lots of them.

 

[SustainerPlayer]

This one rocks.

 

[Patrick]

i love chrome pickguards on black guitars

 

[bigguspickus]

This one rocks.

I'm blind!