telecasters. you views on the standard guitars for rock/metal playing.

just wanted your opinions of them to be honest.how do you find them for the styles of music that you play. i have been changing my mind about whether to save for a road bike or a new guitar/amp.have finally settled on getting a guitar (as i don’t currently have my own guitar/amp).i was planning on saving up for one of the new fender pawn shop mustang special guitars.but have been thinking also about getting something cheaper.hence my question. i came across this squier classic vibe tele whilst reading someone’s thread on musicradar forum (just got pic from google) i must admit to always loving the telecaster (especially the butterscotch versions).have had a few teles in the past,but they all had at least 1 humbucker on them.as i “attempt” to play rock/metal am worried that the single coils won’t be enough.also a bit wary of only having 21 frets (as i have always had a guitar with 22).i am really taken with this guitar though,and it seems to have rave reviews from people who have played one (on youtube videos also).should i consider getting one,or would i be better getting something else? thanks 🙂

I love Teles, few bands using them for rock and metal… John 5 from Marilyn Manson has a signature tele! Though, more often Customs with humbuckers in. Just a fashion thing, SGs and PRS singlecuts are allowed for metal but Teles aren’t.

Mine has a Hot Rails, and a Quarter Pounder in the bridge… Loses some of the classic Tele-ness, but the Hotrails coiltaps nicely enough. Sounds lovely, shame I can’t play really!

I love tele’s

I don’t play loads of rock these days – but mine makes lots of the right noises if I crank uo the distortion

if you are worrying about loosing the 22nd fret though, maybe it;s not for you (I can’t remember the last time I ventured past fret 16 or so)

I have 3 teles. I play in a rock band, where we have teles, jazzmasters, a 69 mustang, strat and a les Paul. The teles and the jazz seem to work best for us. The teles we favour are modded. My favourite is a mex fender standard with a Seymour Duncan sm1 in the neck, 375k pots and an ashtray bridge. My singer favours a squier tele custom with a p90 in the neck and a hum bucker at the bridge. I would suggest looking at the j mascis squier jazzmaster. Looks amazing for the money. A proper jazzmaster for 350 quid!! I have a fender classic player jazz which feels fantastic. It’s perfect for rock music as is the tele. The pickups are pretty hot in both the tele and the jazz. Probably more so in jazz, and push my amp nicely into overdrive. The jazz is so versatile. The tele is perfect in its simplicity. The mustang was a bit of a let down. The pickups are pretty weak and it’s so light that it feels likes a toy. Mine differs a lot from the pawn shop one though. They look stunning though. We have a duo sonic we use on occasion which is pretty good, but if I could only keep one, it would be the jazz.

i like teles for the sound that they have. don’t really see the point in altering them, just buy a different guitar in the first place. unless of course you like the feel or look of them. i’m with the op, the butterscotch ones are a design classic.

do they work for rock ? depends if you want to play rock that sounds like a it’s being played on a tele.

i used to have one playing lead in a reggae band and it sounded great for palm damping lines but always found that it never really sounded right with the band when playing lead riffs.

i always thought that it was an ideal indy sounding guitar tbh.

If it was good enough for Wilko Johnson…

Ah, here we go…

Likes his Teles.

Telecasters no good for rock?

Hmm…

These are nice:

Squire Tele Custom 11 – link.

Nice Tele feel, a little more flexibility with the sound (p90’s, everything from jazz to punk).
Cheap too!

Buy one of these cheap, great sounding little amps as well:
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and you might still be able to buy a road bike too 🙂

went to buy a Les Paul, came back with a tele. Lovely guitar, bomb proof, just dos what its supposed to.

I know what you mean:

I looked at all sorts – proper Fenders, PRS SE’s, Gibbos, ESP’s.
Kept going back to the cheap Squire, ‘cos of the sound and the feel of the neck.
So that’s the one I bought 🙂

Odd cove, Johnny guitar.

Same with amps TBH, I’ve also got a nice Vox modelling amp, but never use it since I bought the £90.00 Chinese Fender Champ.

i always liked the sound that hugh cornwell made with his.

The first Led Zep album was a tele (I think anyways) don’t come much more rawk than that!

Some of those new tele’s look great. I was looking for one with a hum bucker in the neck but the only thing available at the time was the vintage hotrod. Not that you would like it, it being butterscotch blonde an all…
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I like tele’s also got a deluxe plus which is different for a tele.

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Go play one see if you like it, if you do buy one… It’s simple really… 😉

Whilst I’m not really a Fender player I think my ideal tele would be one of those black customs with a maple fingerboard and large 70s strat style headstock. Oh and Bareknuckle P90s 🙂 Don’t mind normal teles but prefer p90s to normal singlecoils.

my son is selling a black tele copy with amp for £65 if anyone is interested

and large 70s strat style headstock

Noooooooo, they look ugly! The tele headstock is much nicer 😀

Or the small strat headstock if you must. But it must have the noodle logo…

This is mine, sorry about the poor pic

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8/365[/url] by rOcKeTdOgUk[/url], on Flickr

voodoo chile – if it’s left handed I would be interested! Fat chance….

Amongst about ten other guitars,I’ve got three,a 2009 US standard,a recent(2007/2008ish?) ’68 custom re-issue and a Jay Turser custom jobbie, they’ve all got single coils and they’re all ace. I probably play those three more than all the others put together and I’d recommend a Tele for anybody. You just plug ’em in, turn ’em up and play ’em.

Tele’s are great for rock stuff – if by metal you mean full on Vai-style tapping and hammer ons then maybe not but just about every other shade of rock it will be ok. the lipstick pickups are fine, keep the volume and tone high on the guitar and get good quality leads (don’t screw your leads in a ball, wind them carefully) and this will prevent sounding too ‘scratchy’ that can happen with fenders

thanks everyone for your replies.have finally decided on what guitar i will be saving up for (and i am sticking to this 😉 will be one of these (squier tele standard antique burst rw 😀 the reason i have made my mind up was an e-mail reply from bare knuckle pickups (i had enquired about if they did tele pickups that could do higher gain sounds) i think (after listening to sound samples of the piledriver pickups he recommended back to me) the answer is a definite YES! http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/main/pickups.php?cat=teles&sub=vintage_hot&pickup=piledriver (just go to the sound samples link) BY THE GODS!! 😯 😀 i never would have guessed in amillion years that it was a single coiled tele making those sounds.i replied quick sharp to mr bare knuckle,that as soon as i had the guitar (and some money) i would be back to him post haste,to buy a set.man i cannot wait to be able to get this axe/an amp (and pickups installed).let the mayhem begin!!! 😀

Stratocaster is more comfortable and versatile IMO

keep the volume and tone high on the guitar and get good quality leads (don’t screw your leads in a ball, wind them carefully) and this will prevent sounding too ‘scratchy’ that can happen with fenders

I think it’s the opposite actually seeing as good cables and tone/vol all the way up prevent higher frequencies from rolling off as much.. Quality cables is good advice though, get something with neutrik jacks so it actually lasts.

raceface you won’t be disappointed with Bareknuckle Pickups. I have 2 sets in my Les Pauls (Mules and a MQ neck/Pig 90 bridge combo) and they sound amazing 🙂