Originally Posted by JonesKY
"The original Tele design is an enduring classic and will always have its respected place in music history, but the improvements made over the years to bring the Tele into our "modern, high-volume, effects-heavy stage environment" are also worth serious consideration. The Tele simply wasn't designed with those factors in mind -- they didn't even exist back in 1952!"
Wasn't it Socrates who said "Necessity is the mother of invention..."?
Just because the Tele was designed 50 years ago around different musical styles shouldn't be a reason for not exploring solutions which would retain the original characteristics of the instrument! However, the answer begins with 1) defining the fundamental "Tele characteristics" sought, then 2) addressing details which may include a combination of changes instead of a single element to arrive at a desired conclusion.
For some, the "Tele" is characterized simply by body shape. For others, it comes down to the details of era-correct woods, pickups, & bridge design. And for the OCD-types, it even comes down to finishes, pickguard materials, capacitors types, 60Hz hum in all positions, etc.
IMHO... much of what makes a Tele tonally unique is the interaction between the bridge design & the pickup; moreso than even the body & fingerboard wood differences. The hardtail, barrel saddles, and diving-board design of being anchored at one end and floating on the other significantly contribute to the harmonic structure of a "Tele". That's a lot of the reason why a hardtail strat w/a baseplated bridge pickup (or even an Anderson Tele) falls short of yielding "that tone" (not that the others are necessarily "bad"...).
That said, my journey...
1) "noiseless" pups (by duncan, dimarzio, lawrence, kinman) that were noisey & microphonic because of a ferrous bridge interferring with the magnetic flux of the pickup.
2) non-ferrous Gotoh & Fender bridges w/noiseless pups for good sound, but "too solid" and harmonically "duller" - goodbye tele-tone (sounded more like my Robert Cray strat; good, but not a Tele).
3) back to std single-coil pup (many varieties & impedances) w/std bridge, for consistently good, "Tele" tone, but w/60-hz hum (all were better than 1 & 2).
4) Non-ferrous vintage-style bridge (ala Glendale) with modern stacked pup (Dimarzio, Lawrence, Kinman, etc) = "Tele" tone w/o hum. This combo (non-ferrous "vintage style" bridge + stacked pup) offers the best of both worlds, sans OCD. Can get clean twang to Dumble gain without 60hz hum.
Hope this helps a bit, and incidently... My Disclaimer: I have no endorsement with Glendale or Dimarzio.
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