Telecaster Guitar Forum - View Single Post

Will Ferrule · November 15th, 2006, 02:25 PM

Greetings all:

This is my first post as a member of this distinguished community, inspired by becoming for the first time (as of 9:30am yesterday) a Telecaster owner.

I had been thinking about getting one for decades, and seriously looking for about a year. I had found a great '73 that I was hesitating over because it was $3000. Then this '83 showed up on Elderly's website for $800, which made it an easy buy. When it arrived, it was one of the best guitars I'd played in 36 years of playing: great weight and balance, perfect (for me) neck profile, and without question the loudest, most resonant and downright twangy unamplified solidbody I've ever played.

What's my beef? I got a guitar that I really like and that makes me want to pick it up and play. So shut up and play, right?

I very nearly didn't buy it because of the toploading bridge that comes on the '83-4 models. The conventional wisdom is that the "string-through" bridge gets more of the true Telecaster tone. I'd really like to know if this is true. I thought the vibration of the string is transferred to the body at the saddle. The portion of the string between the saddle and the string anchor doesn't vibrate significantly if at all, so how can it affect tone?

We guitar players sometimes believe the myths about guitars instead of the facts. That's because we are emotional, sensitive and intuitive types. Maybe I think my '83 is great because the guitar-myth-loving part of me expected it be a tone-sucking boat anchor.

Anyone else had similar experience? Either with toploaders or guitar myths?

November 15th, 2006, 02:25 PM	#1 (permalink)
Will Ferrule TDPRI Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Canada Posts: 41	Are toploaders truly evil??? Greetings all: This is my first post as a member of this distinguished community, inspired by becoming for the first time (as of 9:30am yesterday) a Telecaster owner. I had been thinking about getting one for decades, and seriously looking for about a year. I had found a great '73 that I was hesitating over because it was $3000. Then this '83 showed up on Elderly's website for $800, which made it an easy buy. When it arrived, it was one of the best guitars I'd played in 36 years of playing: great weight and balance, perfect (for me) neck profile, and without question the loudest, most resonant and downright twangy unamplified solidbody I've ever played. What's my beef? I got a guitar that I really like and that makes me want to pick it up and play. So shut up and play, right? I very nearly didn't buy it because of the toploading bridge that comes on the '83-4 models. The conventional wisdom is that the "string-through" bridge gets more of the true Telecaster tone. I'd really like to know if this is true. I thought the vibration of the string is transferred to the body at the saddle. The portion of the string between the saddle and the string anchor doesn't vibrate significantly if at all, so how can it affect tone? We guitar players sometimes believe the myths about guitars instead of the facts. That's because we are emotional, sensitive and intuitive types. Maybe I think my '83 is great because the guitar-myth-loving part of me expected it be a tone-sucking boat anchor. Anyone else had similar experience? Either with toploaders or guitar myths?