How many here NOT come to the Tele via country music?

Learnt to play on a Strat copy and never really payed attention to guitars until I decided it was time for a new one. Looked online and pretty much loved them from the first look. After that I noticed quite a few of the people I look up to on guitar play them, coincidence? :)

I started playing a Strat.. Not real long ago.. I'm still a bit of a git nOOb..
I decided it was time to take my love for guitar seriously and went out looking for a guitar.. fully expecting to come home with another strat.. about ten minutes playing I fell in love with the Tele! I come from a solid rock and roll backround. Rock drummer for 30 + years.

LOVE my Telecaster!

I don't mind Country Music, but I initially wanted a Fender (my friend plays a strat). Anyway, being primarily a vocalist I never paid attention to the guitars that were being played. I basically chose between a Tele and Strat. Once I decided I like the Tele better, internet searches lead me first to Arlen Roth (I was blown away) and then Brent Mason, Albert Lee, Albert Collins, and a host of others.

Now I enjoy watching Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Vince Gill, and a bunch of other country artist whom I had never paid attention to what guitar they were playing.

So since I like country music, maybe it had caught my ear, but Arlen Roth was the real clincher since I had basically decided on it, but when I heard him play it I it really cinched the deal.

Keith Richards and Rich Robinson spoke to me; they told me to buy a Telecaster.
That, and they look real purty.

My first record deal was in country music, but oddly enough I never picked up a Tele till I left the country genre and started playing the blues. It was an 83 MIJ Fender and I regret I ever sold it.

I bought a tele THEN got into country music. Because I was interested in what other people were doing with teles I started to listen to that style more. You see/hear a lot on CMC although how country some of that is I'm not sure (they do wear cowboy hats a lot though).

When I think back I am sure the original inspiration was seeing (on film) Jimmy Page doing Dazed & Confused.

I got my first tele about six months ago after 35 years of playing guitar in bands and on the road. I`ve always wanted a tele, but I`ve always been primarily an acoustic guitar player so it really wasn`t a priority. The last 15 years or so I`ve gotten into old jazz and the tele works great! Now it`s the first guitar I pick up.

I was a humbucking kinda guy, but started thinking my PRS sounded a bit to much like my Gibson. I put the PRS out for sale. Swapped it for a tele and some cash, just to try out something different. Now it's my main guitar, and I never play the Gibbo!

Jimmy Page & Wilco Johnson for me. And of course just
seeing Muddy with one :cool: Bob Wooten, Steve Cropper.
Status Quo.

I don't know what's happened to Country, but the stuff on
CMC is putrid. Nashvegas :lol: Its like Stylists & Image
have taken over. Most of the clips are comedy. Where's
the Hard Core Honky Tonk gone ?

Try Marty Stuart's new Cd "Ghost Train", the studio B sessions. You won't be disappointed. Kenny Vaughn's work on the Tele is an extra bonus!

Decades ago had an SG and decided to try a single coil Fender. Saw an add for a used Tele and got to play it while the guys band was rehearsing. My playing instantly catapulted to a new level. I knew it had a reputation for being a country guitar in my locale but it just worked so dang good on everything I played it has stuck since.

My private teacher last year was the first one I saw use a telecaster in a jazz setting, and through him I got into his biggest influence, a master of jazz guitar and telecaster user Ed Bickert:

mz_knJy1p1E

I came via a great deal on CL. $150 for a 1998-ish MIM standard. Of course, I knew tele's were used in country AND rock, so??

Robert Smith, of the Cure, playing one in the In Orange video was another big reason.

What better reason is there to own one?!!! :razz:

I'm not into country in the slightest, I loved the sound and feel of my Tele and so many of the bands I love play them.

What better reason is there to own one!!! :razz:

I'm not into country in the slightest, I loved the sound and feel of my Tele and so many of the bands I love play them.

Yup I was and still love Gibsons ,but a Tele is the most versitile guitar out there, it rocks it rolls and does just about everything else :razz:

I was always into Strats (from generic basic Strats all the way up to superstrats with humbuckers and Floyds, etc.)... Then when I first heard the Hellecasters' version of "Orange Blossom Special" that just blew me away and got me curious about Teles.

Now... if I had to get rid of all my guitars save one... I'd keep my Tele. It's a simple design, yet it's the most versatile guitar you could possibly have. From jazz to country to metal... she does it all.

You don't really NEED another guitar.

Except maybe a couple more Teles? :)

I did not come to the Tele via country music, but I did come to country music via the Tele.

It's never been my main bag, but the Tele has given me a great appreciation of the good old twang and chicken pickin' style of playing, picking with the thumb and fingers and all. Even though I'm from more of that Rock Blues background, I took the time to learn a fair amount of this trad country guitar style just because I thought it sounded so cool.

I came to the Tele when I realized how expressive these guitars could be. I think Strats are almost as good, but I think the Tele still has them beat. I can play any genre of music on a regular Tele and it sounds authentic (I even filled in on guitar in a metal band one year).

And like many other players, I like a guitar that fights back some. Les Pauls and 335s make me incredibly lazy and a little more inarticulate.

Via soul music - Cornell Dupree, Steve Cropper

Not country AT ALL. I've always seen the Tele as a classic guitar like a Les Paul or Strat, so why not consider it when shopping? I used to know a guy who had a horribly beaten-up Tele, and he was the one who made me realise that a Tele can do a LOT of sounds. It's just a very cool guitar!

Not via country music. A few months ago I read in a jazz guitar forum that telecasters were great for jazz. I went into a few guitar stores, and the premise was proved right.
Bought a tele american deluxe. I love the sound and, as my first solid body, the lack of worries about humidity and other vulnerabilities that hollowbody guitars suffer. It's a tank.

Oh no - Kieth Richards and the Stones was my route in

I wanted the sound Keith Richards got on "Sympathy For The Devil" so I got a TELE, then I found out how much easier it was to make more money pickin Country toons, then that turned me around like many of the other pickers the TELE brought me to country music....

I wanted the sound Keith Richards got on "Sympathy For The Devil" so I got a TELE, then I found out how much easier it was to make more money pickin Country toons, then that turned me around like many of the other pickers the TELE brought me to country music....

Surely Richards used a Gibson for "Sympathy"? I'd guess either the Les Paul Custom or an LP Special.

Hmh. I was looking for a new sound, and as I needed a new instrument anyway, I just started to test different ones. Until I found Tele. And liked it :) As I play mainly blues, rock and folk rock, it felt right, and now I'm in love. Country isn't really main thing I thought, even I play some :)

Keith Richards, then Page, then Tele, then country.

Ted Greene! The man, the legend, the Telecaster Master.

That's who got me into the Tele.

http://www.gcmseye.com/images/TedGreene2-10-1990.jpg
Absolutely - since the 1970's I've been intrigued by Tele's because of Ted Greene - when he died I picked one up and switched to them for my main guitars - what a great move it's been...

Jazz on a Tele - who'd thunk it?

"So how many got a Tele for reasons other than country music."

Norman Greenbaum, George Harrison, Terry Kath, Mark Knopfler, Lou Reed, and Susan Tedeschi influenced be to take up the tele. It's tone is pure. Leo got it right.

Rick

It wasn't really country music that got me into using a Tele but country influenced forumites who kept expounding on the virtues of a good Tele did. ;)

-DJ

I never came to the Tele, the Tele found ME...

I play in a soul music group. One of our members pointed me to a song called "Funky Mama" of a certain Danny Gatton. Never heard of before. Then I started listening on youtube and was so amazed by his playing, really incredible.

So I listened some more and more and thought that maybe a Tele might be a guitar I'd like. So I bought one, and yes I like it :)

ive always been a lespaul guy, then one day i was given a 50's telecaster (no not reissue, the real damn thing :O) and cant get myself to play anything else than that :)

I orignially bought a Tele for lead guitar in a contemporary worship band because it cuts through the band just fine. I now use it for blues-rock jams. A very fine all-around guitar and a very good complement to my ES-335.

I grew up wanting a Strat due to Eric Clapton. I finally got a '91 Am. Std. Strat new and it was my only guitar for 8 years. I was in a rock band in '98 and kept having issues with the Strat breaking strings at gigs. I found a very cheap used '94 MIM Tele in agave blue and bought it as a back up. Over the next year I found myself using the Tele more and the Strat less and eventually the Tele became my main guitar.

I had to sell all of my guitars in 2002 due to medical bills. In 2004 my wife bought me an '04 agave blue MIM Telecaster and I've had it ever since as my main guitar. I've got an Epiphone Dot and a PRS Custom 22 SE as well. I use the Epi as my Open G tuned guitar and I rarely play the PRS. Tele's are the best by far. And as for influences, I'd have to say Keith Richards is the biggest.

I'm not sure why the tele is linked to country. I think you play the guitar you like and you can play about anything you like on any guitar. Provided you have the efects you need. I hate country music by the way

I'll admit i never listen to country if i do it might be brad paisley simply because well he is a great guitarist but i got a tele because jimmy page and jeff beck played one ;)

Albert Collins. Love that tone. I listened to three songs from 'Cold Snap', looked at the blurred picture of Albert with his tele on the album cover, and then went out and bought my first guitar, a squier telecaster (which I still own).

Although there are many non-country tele-players that have had a large influence on me, I think its the fact that the telecaster is such a good platform for any and all kind of music. Laid-back surf to aggressive metal, blues and r&b to prog-rock. It's even carved out quite a niche in the jazz realm. All this in addition to having established a phenomenal sound in country music. They just got it right the first time!

I come from many styles, among which are prog rock, hard rock, metal, instrumental guitar shredding, but also psychedelic, art-rock and so on. No country so far (except for tastefully packed into a rock/jazz-rock tunes, think Dixie Dregs/Steve Morse Band).

That means often playing with overdrive, needing high output humbuckers, a thin flat neck and a whammy bar with cutaway - one might think.

And yet I'm very happy to have found Ron Kirn, who has really made me a Tele admirer (I would have never even thought of buying today's Fender again) - it fits in there beautifully, does the job great AND sounds unique compared to the usual heavy superstrats outthere.

I was curious about the Blacktop series and tried one. I really want it now.

There's a fairly limited range of country music I can stand. Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and Joe Strummer got me interested in Teles.

A trip to the USA last year and the chance to get one for half of what I pay in Australia got me one. I'll find it hard to want anything else again. And they are great fun to mod.

I would agree with someone above who said "I didn't come to the Tele, the Tele came to me." This might go a bit off topic, but I think the underlying statement of this thread was "anti country" so I'll offer this testimony.

I've played all styles of music...I always played a Westone HSS guitar with a Floyd Rose that was the first electric guitar my dad bought me when I was 15. I took a job several years ago as karaoke DJ and found that the majority of the songs people were singing and requesting was country. Although country music generally speaking (there are many exceptions) accounts for most of the "cheesy" or "corny" songs that become poplar in all of music lyrically, the music and instrumentation itself is often incredible in my musicians opinion. So, after hearing country music more and more, especially hearing cuts that featured players such as Brent Mason, Pete Anderson, and Brad Paisley, I started to realize that I was listening to some seriously scary guitar work and the honest "In your face even without heavy distortion tone" of the Tele came out and tickled my ear p#%+y. I got bitten... hard. Aside from that, listening to rock music for such a long time (which I am not knocking and still love) I think my ears had started to get bored with hearing music that was almost always just guitar, bass, and drums. As a musician and music lover in general, liked the fact that I was now starting to hear music that not only had guitar bass and drums, but also violin, mandolin, harmonica, lap steel, piano, organ, pedal steel, dobro, and banjo. Some of my favorite country tunes are ones where the outros were a sort of jam out with all the melody instrument players trading 8 bar rides. Take Alan Jackson's "Who's Cheatin who" for example. Lyrics... A bit corny, instrumentation.... badass, especially Brent Mason's sick Tele chops. When it comes to lyrics though, I think honesty is the hallmark of country music songwriting and I think that most country music says the exact same things that other kinds of music hides behind the cloak of metaphorical ambiguity. Bottom line though is the lyrics have to fit the "mood" of the song.

I think most people who weren't raised listening to country music and who are turned off by it is largely to do with the fact that pop country music is the first and usually the only form of it they are exposed to and the cheesy corny stuff is what sells and is commercially successful. For me it has always been about the music above the lyrics and I wanted to learn how to play the style because the "chicken pickin" style was the only style of guitar playing had ever heard that I couldn't "visualize" how it was being played. It just boggled my mind, especially before I learned what a b-bender was. I still listen to tracks like Dwight Yoakam's remake of "Little Sister" and still try to figure out just what in the hell Pete Anderson is doing at the end of the second solo.

Anyhow, I got more and more into it, even learned how to dance (which has proven to be very effective in landing hott chicks.... And I don't care who you are or what kinda music you like, Texas country girls are the sexiest women I've ever seen!) . Not to stray from my point though, the pop stuff bridged the gap for me between the pop Nashville country and the music I have come to fall in love with... That is this great fusion of country, Americana, blues, southern rock, and folk we that we here in Texas call country... Or red dirt or whatever you wanna call it. Since I got my first Tele in my hands it's been the only one that stays there.

As far as the Tele being associated with country music, while I think the Tele is arguably the most veratile guitar ever designed, what I really think it is is that country music singers tend to be twangy and what better guitar than a Tele to match that?

Dude, don't know if I should say this but I bought my first tele because of Francis Rossi!!

Man, be proud of that fact. I did exactly the same, long live the quo.

I "came to the Tele" after owning a Strat for rock/blues & loving the sound, but hating the tuning hassles of the tremolo.

Of course, I'm *aware* of Country, and truly love great Country Tele players - but its not what "brought" me to the Tele, nor does it bother me some people think I must be a Country player because of the type of guitar I own. With a Tele - Its all good.

I was *gasp* an IBANEZ guy playing super strats. John Petrucci was my fav player, & I read he loved Steve Morse. I got real into the Dixie Dregs, back when Steve played that Franken-Tele. So it began!

Actually, the Telecaster led me to an appreciation of country music, not vice versa.

The records Steve Cropper played on were a huge influence on me, and I definitely became aware of the Telecaster through him. But when it came down to it, I think it was mostly the Telecaster that led me to the Telecaster.

I came to the dark side when I realized how much I preferred the string spacing on acoustics over my strat then tried a thinline tele and fell in love, bought it on the spot. Super comfortable for my pancake sized hands, awesome action, great resonation, snappy tone, real easy on the back, string through body and NO TREMOLO!!!!!!

My despise of country music (except the real stuff like Johnny cash) still stands strong as the day I picked up the telecaster. But the only thing that keeps me from modern country is the lyrics. I hate listening to people complain and try to tell the world how awesome hick life truly is lol. At mud bogs, rodeos, camping and 4-wheeling on Oregon mountains I always bring my iPod;)

I was a Gibson snob since I started playing (coming from a punk rock childhood). I don't know why I wanted one, it just felt like the thing to do. So I bought a thinline figuring I'd try it out. I'm obsessed now. Sold the thinline, got a smoking deal on an amstd, and am building a shortscale partscaster. I thought itd be something I'd fool around with and move on, like many others, but I love the thing.

I'm also of the camp where the Tele led me to appreciate country music like I didn't before. I think Jerry Donahue was the guy that started my love of twang, with his version of The Claw. I just couldn't get enough of that sound, and those incredible bends. The way the rhythm and syncopation came out so well, though, really drew me in. Once I got one, and realized how versatile it was and how well it cut through a band mix, not to mention how comfortable it was to play, that was it.

Now I'm thinking of getting a James Burton Signature instead of another Strat. Gives me the sounds I love in a Tele package.

I sold off a guitar (Larivee electric) to go see the Who. I wanted a versatile guitar and the Tele IMO is the most versatile. About two weeks after the show I found this 1973 beauty in a guitar shop and bought it! I've had it ever since and that was in 1989. I'm not influenced by who plays what type of guitar.

Me, I'm not so into the country music. I appreaciate some artists, but its just not my bag.

I grew up around country music but have just as many rock influences. The Telecaster is just good for everything.

I came to the Tele thru Jeff Beck in his Yardbirds / Esquire days. Everything kinda snowballed from there and the more I heard Teles the more I wanted to hear Teles so I am kind if a late comer (so to speak) to country but I do like a lot of it (but not all!) - Brad Paisley for the newer stuff, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash - love 'em!!! Lots of Tele love there!!!!

I do not even know country music well enough to understand it properly.

That being said, I came to Tele via punk music! And I mean bands like the Clash, The Toy Dolls - old stuff in general. They played Telecasters. That's what made me a fan of Tele. Plus the fact that it's just an awesome guitar!

PS. First post in almost 4 years! :grin:

Alas, no country for me either. I came because my first four guitars were an EpiLP (bleah), then a Strat AmSpl, then a Schecter Demian, and a Tele AmStd. The one I always wanted to play was the Tele. I returned the EpiLP to get the Tele. I sold the Strat to buy another Tele. I have the Schecter 'cause I won't get anything from it and it's fine being lonely.

Once drawn to the Tele I discovered Keith Richards and Open-G. Now all I want is more-more-more. No other guitar has anything for me. Oh ... and 7.25" fretboards rule when you're mostly strumming and don't have (yet) strong enough fingers to flatten them out to barre!

Most definitely have 0 interest in country or cheesy slapback stuff. A lot of people here seem to be into the whole cover band thing or church players too. Definitely not my bag!

Stuff like drive like jehu/hot snakes/random indie/posthardcore/punk brought me to the tele

I was playing punk at the time and I needed a guitar that could stand the pressure...

Jazz (fusion), blues...that's me...for the most part.
Nope, cannot abide most C&W. Although I once heard a great one - 'There Ain't Enough Whiskey To Drink The Ugly Outta You.'

Actually the tele is pushing me towards country a bit! I'm moving a bit away from bendy blues playing to country style, note runs, up and down the neck playing, since I bought it. I got a tele just because it's one of those guitars you should play at some point. I just can't believe how much less I now like my strat...

Well, then again...I think of the Stones as a country band for the most part.
:)

Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead and his tele plus was the only reason i even thought of buying a tele, then it began...

Well it started with Bluegrass for me. In 1980 I bought my D-28 Martin new for a grand total of 650.00 and really enjoyed the sound of a Martin but my wife sang for a living and I was with her at her gig and a local guitar picker showed up this night to hear her band and during the night he mention that he was going to sell his 1966 Tele with a Bigbsy and a Peavey Session 400 amp for 250.00 dollars. The next night the guy showed up with the Tele and amp and I bought it but really never like playing the Tele so I play the Martin all these years until about 4 years ago and my wife ask me to get serious about learning to play Tele so about 2 years ago we started our own group with a great local drummer and bass player and we are having a ball. Now i still love my bluegrass but I love my Tele's and right now I'm playing a custom shop Strat that my wife gave to me for Christmas.

My dad played drums with Jimmy Bryant in the late '40s and '50s. The first electric guitar I ever picked up was at his house so it must have been a Tele. There was also a much smaller version I got to hold he said they made for his son....never thought much about it till now! Hell, I was only about 6 or so!

I've never been into country music (don't hate it, it's just not my thing). I didn't even know that Teles were associated with country when I bought my first one.

I went to my local guitar shop with a wad of cash not sure what I was looking for. My tele pretty much chose me. It looked good, felt solid and comfortable to play and it sounded great. It was also reassuringly expensive but still in the realms of affordable. I've never liked Strats and couldn't afford a Les Paul at the time (I have since acquired a nice Les Paul and still much prefer my Tele).

Jimmy Page, Joe Strummer and one given to me age 9 before I knew what one was.

I think it would have been Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead) who inspired me to want a Telecaster. Later as I expanded my musical horizons Richard Thompson and Joe Strummer reinforced the desire fro a guitar with that "bite" that the bridge pup on a Tele brings. The country sound never occurred to me until I started playing myself, strumming away and I thought "Aargh! Too much twang!".

'Keef' did it for me - he made that guitar look so cool. My older brother listened to the stones all the time and I figured if I got a Tele I'd be able to sound just like them.
Still trying.....

No country but everyone that influenced me musically just seemed to play a Tele. I got a Roy Buchanan album once and just loved this airbrushed image of 'Nancy' flying over the valley on the cover. That guitar looked so beat but beautiful. It looked like something that fit like a glove; something dependable. And then I listened to the album... Wow.
Being a teenager in the 80s I was a Prince fan and there he was playing his Hohner Tele; being an Aussie, I was into INXS, and there was Tim Farris with a few Teles and Thinlines in easy reach. Same with Dave Faulkner from the Hoodoo Gurus. By late teens and early 20s I was a huge folk rock fan, especially Crosby Stills and Nash, and I remember watching Steve Stills on a video playing For What it's Worth solo on a sweet sounding Esquire. Of course Dylan went electric on a Tele. I've seen James Taylor play one. Tom Petty and Mike Campbell are big Tele users; Keef plays one; and on it goes.
It just seemed that everyone I was into, played a Tele at either some point, as part of their arsenal or as their main guitar. The sound was in my head; and I love the look of them. Now I have one.

This guy did.

I was a teenager in the 80s too and so U2 was it. I didnt like the Explorer thing but loved all the Edge did with a Strat. I always wanted a Strat and a few months ago was set to buy one until I was watching a youTube demo of Deluxe Strat vs Deluxe Tele.
My daughter said the Tele had a way better tone, well I didnt wanna hear that because I had always thought of the Tele as an 'old' & 'ugly' guitar. Anyhows in the music shop I tried the Strat and thought why not try a Tele just to make sure I was right.
Well, I was wrong and the Tele just seemed to be in a different zone, a 'proper' guitar.
To cut it short I decided to listen with my ears and throw out my plans because honestly the Tele tone / feel / pick-up combinations was like coming home.

So the nearest I got to Country was watching the Blues Brothers dvd where they play in the club with both types of music - 'Country' and 'Western'. I had no idea that the Tele was even used for Country before joining TPDRI. Anyhow thats that - BTW Ive since bagged a DRRI but I dont know if they use that for Country either? - Anyway I like it.

I think the first time I took notice of a tele was when I saw izzy stradlin playing one with gnr on youtube.

So how many got a Tele for reasons other than country music.

(... and feel free to elaborate.):grin:

I did. I got a tele to play blues because the bridge pickup has a great sound. and I like strats so what the heck I parts one togeather and was drawn to this site because of the amp DIY forum. So, it was the amp more than the guitar that got me here.

Jimmy Page>Jeff Beck>Roy Buchanan>Danny Gatton>Buck & Don…

But, Roy Buchanan was the first to hip me to what a Tele can really sound like.

Black Francis of the Pixies made me aware of the Tele!

For me it was Muddy Waters, and Albert Collins.

/ Tony

Keef and Rich Robinson. Teles have a reserved and tasteful appearance and a sound to match, if played properly. I will always keep a Tele and a LP.

For me lack of choice in lefthanded guitars made me buy a tele. Tele got me hooked on tele. Chrissie Hinde helped drive the hook a little deeper.

http://blog.nj.com/entertainment_impact_music/2009/03/large_bruce_guitar.jpg

Danny Gatton! Hearing him play inspires. That and a Squier 51, a mahogany Strat, and forever muddy humbuckers...

For me it was Joe Strummer, Jimmy Page and Keith Richards. I knew I'd want a single coil pickup in the bridge position for punk music and I ended up getting a classic vibe thinline tele mostly because of how cool those guys looked with their teles and I'm happy with it, I can play almost anything, even some metal, with it and it sounds great.

I came to the tele by accident. A friend got me one in the early Nineties. Prior to that I was all Strats ....Jimi, Clapton, Buddy Guy, SRV etc. Once I played the Tele it harkened up all those old sounds of my early years, Jerry Reed, Stones, Buck Owens, James Burton, Waylon.

At that point I realized There was
[ A ]sound in my head that the Tele evoked, one that was stuck inside since being just a small boy. Then I discovered Roy, Danny, etc.


However, the Telecaster has been associated with Country music since its inception.

Fender made Steel guitars prior to the genesis of the solid body electric guitar. The whole design if you will was to get the Spanish guitar out in front with the steel for Western Swing bands. The first solid body electric guitar hero was Jimmy Bryant! Even Les Paul himself started as Rhubarb Red a C&W act, and was aproached by Leo but Les aready had the LP in the works with Gibson. Historically C&W music was the Pop music of the day in the late 40's early 50's. Suffice to say even if you dislike the genre you cannot disassociate the solid body electric from Country. and if not for the success of the Tele amongst Western Swing bands Gibson would not have gotten on board as they originally saw no market worth re-tooling there factory that had made acoustic guitars for decades. No Les Paul, no Strat, no amps, no effects, no Rock and Roll. Although tonally Rock owes alot to the blues. Equipment wise it owes credit to Country.

Mike Stern turned me on to Tele's, Playing Fat Time, and Back seat Betty, Miles Davis Band.

Me too! After that was Danny Gatton and through him I was hipped to Lenny Breau and then (after the shock wore off) that opened me up to whole new world of guitar possibilities...

I've heard some good country, but nothing that ever really moved me or inspired me enough to spend years fixating on it, as I have with most other genres.

Got mine because of my user name.. :)

I dig Andy's jazz & fusion playing.

you tube Scotty Anderson, then Texas Troubadours-Rhodes-Bud boogie. Danny Gatton -Heartaches by the number.

Me too! After that was Danny Gatton and through him I was hipped to Lenny Breau and then (after the shock wore off) that opened me up to whole new world of guitar possibilities...

I've heard some good country, but nothing that ever really moved me or inspired me enough to spend years fixating on it, as I have with most other genres.

When I was 18, my parents said they'd buy me any guitar within reason. It was down between a Tele and a Les Paul Studio. Naturally, as an idiot youth, I picked the Les Paul. It took me a decade, but this year I got my Tele thanks to my wife.

As a teenager I hated country. No rational reason, same as picking the LP. I just like the way it felt and sounded and looked. Now I just love the way it plays and quite frankly, appreciate it's history of modification and messing-about-with.

As a kid I was a huge springsteen fan. (Still am despite being in a metal band) My first electric was a squier tele cause I was broke, but I wanted to emulate the boss. Learned a lot about repair because of that guitar as it was always falling apart. One of these days I'm gonna pony up the cash to get a 50's reissue.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/175/471352010_e43c272053.jpg

I will give someone Props if they can tell me the name of this band.

Hint: The band is Canadian.

I like all kinds of music, but rock is my favorite.

ROY BUCHANAN... is to be "blamed" for :lol:

Greetings
PIT... :cool:

Three people pointed me towards the Tele.

early David Gilmour
Jonny Greenwood
Albert Collins

Pretty much covers my musical tastes. Playing some Floyd, nailing a Radiohead song, and ripping a Collins-esque blues solo - this is my guitar dream.

Jimmy Page on the 1st Led Zeppelin album, and later Robin Ford. Had to have one!

I came to the Tele because we worshipped the Butterfield Band with Mike Bloomfield (that's how old I am!) and my brother had a '57 and picked up a 67 in LPB for me when I was 16 after I went through an Epi solid body and a Mustang that had warped necks! BTW, he still has his '57 and I've still got my '67!

Not that new pop country. I don't think they know what a Telecaster is

It was several years into my guitar playing life that I came to appreciate country music, and now it's my opinion that an excellent country player can play circles around just about anyone.

However, what set the gravitational pull of the Telecaster world in my direction was seeing Albert Collins live in the early 80's; after that I just had to have one.


Kane

I really wanted a Tele back in the early-70's when I was playing in a high school basement band. I just thought they had a brighter sound that worked better for my ears and not many rock guitarist were using them, (All Strats and Gibson LPs), so I wanted to be different. I then quit playing and when I started back up in '06 bought my Tele. The thing is now many Indie and Rock band members play Teles. Guess I had my chance way back there to be unique and Teles kind of caught on in the Rock arena.

If I had to pick musicians that I associated with the Tele that made me appreciate it, I'd say early Jimmy Page and Syd Barret (Esquire).

I was thinking of the Tele more as a great guitar for psychedelic twang by the time I bought one.

Punk rock. My favorite band, a little known melodic punk band from the 90's called slick shoes had an amazing guitar player named Jackson mould. He had a great sound and played mostly a tele. I had to have his sound, so I had to buy a tele. And then there was this guy from this British punk band whose last name had something to do with guitar playing.

I mostly became aware of it through guys like Sonic Youth and Elvis Costello (same with the Jazzmaster) but I do love country, and have since started listening to more Tele-oriented guys like Merle Haggard.

Players with teles I liked were Bruce Springsteen, George Harrison, on his 1985 album, and caught a pic of Joe Perry with a tele in a magizine. I was a bass player then and have been in recovery for 12 years.

Mike Bloomfield played one on the first Butterfield album. Thats it for me. Tommy Tedesco played one too. Yeah man!

I inherited 74' Deluxe. I played A ragged SG before that. Now I have four telestyle and I'm building another one. I loved Zep and Floyd before I knew they used tele's..wish Neil Young did.

Ed Bickert.

I never really thought of the tele as being strictly associated with country music - sure lots of country players use them, but so do a lot of rock, blues, punk, etc. players.

And oddley enough at the time I played in a country band, I had an SG.

I first got a tele when I was playing in an "oldies" type band - Stray Cats kind of stuff.

As far as who influenced me to get it, it was actually my bass player. We were in a music store one day trying guitars and he said "You should try a tele". I did, it felt right and sounded good, so I bought it.

Page, Keef and Andy Summers made me want a tele. Paisley and Bill Frisell pushed me over the edge and convinced me it was a crime not to have one.

Billy Corgan made me want a strat. So did Mark Knopfler. Then we couldn't afford one so I got a tele and YEAH.

The movie "crossroads" got me into tele's \m/
as 80' metal as that sounds it was the unique dirty tele Neck pickup sound that i fell in love with. Country Music came later. So when i put some Sd quater pounders in my american tele my tone wishes came true. (not that i don't like other tele pup sets)

The Stranglers, The Clash, The Pretenders and the Police of course all pointed me in the Tele direction (eventually).

Played drums and some guitar in a band with a guy who owned one, played his, loved it, bought one when I got the money.

I play punk rockabilly blues so it's great fit....kind of a Zoot Horn Rollo type thing...

Country?
Dude, get real
http://earmusic.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Born-To-Run.jpg

My first good electric guitar (after my Epi Les Paul Special) was a 72 Thinline Reissue mim when i was 17. I played 90% acoustic at the time and could never really grasp the electric (granted my gear sucked). I remember when I first plugged in the thinline and it was a breath of fresh air compared to my junker. I got it mostly because I thought it looked awesome, I always liked the tele shape and look, and at the time I thought buckers were cooler than singles.....A few years later I finally grasped the electric playing style a bit through playing at church and forcing myself to learn and my worship leader buddy had a highway one tele with standard pickups and wiring....I plugged in and in comparison to my thinline (with new volume pots) and just loved the clarity of the single coils. I couldn't admit it then because it wasn't my guitar, but I liked it so much more.....many months later I traded that guitar for a very nice warmoth tele with standard pickups and wiring and haven't looked back since. I came to like country music by going to Nashville a few times and realizing how astounding the players are and Darius Rucker's new stuff helped. I started out a rocker though and came to love teles in that period. I now love country as well rock (mainly older stuff sans Paisley and Darius Rucker) and I consider the country playing style and sound an added bonus that the tele possesses as well as rock, jazz, whatever. Nothing captures the country sound like a tele, or biting rock with clarity. I am even trying to sell my amazing G&L USA Legacy Strat (another product of single coil love) because I cannot put down the telecaster in hopes of maybe getting an asat or something.

What can I say, I am hooked on teles, and it's not because of country music. For me, country music is because of the tele.

I was a kid in HS in Washington DC and was playing a cheap strat copy. My dad turned me on to Danny Gatton and Roy Buchanan. Got to see Gatton live a couple of times playing little bars in DC.
When my dad suggested we make a guitar, no question it was gonna be a Tele. Its cherry and heavy as hell but still my main guitar.

I guess DG played a little country but this was the late 80s and early 90s. Did people even really play country music during that time?

KEEF

The Black Keys

http://www.clashmusic.com/files/imagecache/big_node_view/files/images/black-keys.jpg

Blues rock > Country

I know many, many of you have, and my thoughts are that "country" music is more of an American cultural thing.
Don't get me wrong . . . I don't hate country or anything, I just don't "get it".

So how many got a Tele for reasons other than country music.

(... and feel free to elaborate.):grin:


ME . . . :wink:

The only country i own is Johnny Cash and Hank III :twisted:

For me, it was because of Richie Kotzen, in the 90's, and it was also at the same time (no internet in those days) that found out that the entire Led Zep I was done with only a Tele.
THAT was just too much for me not to want/respect a Tele.

Even though i am not a fan of their songs, i do like the vibe that Status Quo have in their live performances, and that unmistakable Tele into Marshall stack tone.
But if i have to hear "What Ever You Want/Rocking All Over The World", one more time, i will kill someone.

I feel i just have to mention the guy in my avatar : Judah Bauer from Jon Spencer Blues Explosion...a massive Tele lover and plays only Teles with that band.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/33/43625924_c76ccdb91e.jpg

The Black Keys

http://www.clashmusic.com/files/imagecache/big_node_view/files/images/black-keys.jpg

Blues rock > Country

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE their earlier work, but i was into Teles long before they came around.
He aslo use dual blade humbuckers from DiMarzio in that JD Tele.

Disclaimer : not a fan of their last two albums :cry:

Bring back Thickfreakness and Rubber Factory tones please :twisted: + :twisted:

I don't listen to country

Blues guy here....a little rock....I liked the simplicity of a Tele so I got one...!

Blues guy here....a little rock....I liked the simplicity of a Tele so I got one...!



Slightly OT :


It is because of it's simplicity that i am getting a LP Jr, w single P90 soon :twisted:


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HTpcwx1BDqE/S6LjlmbAmmI/AAAAAAAACOQ/f1qWn3sw_Bo/s400/56_Les_Paul_Junior_613070combo.jpg

Slightly OT :


It is because of it's simplicity that i am getting a LP Jr, w single P90 soon :twisted:


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HTpcwx1BDqE/S6LjlmbAmmI/AAAAAAAACOQ/f1qWn3sw_Bo/s400/56_Les_Paul_Junior_613070combo.jpg

Looks awesome!

I hate country - it gives me saddle sores!

Seriously, I was drawn to the Tele by numerous Brit pop artists like Graham Coxon of Blur and Johnnie Greenwood of Radiohead. I also like the Teleblasters in Bloc Party and Coldplay.

But the final push was hearing the Edge play one on Vertigo.

A girl I dated in High Schools dad bought her a Tele for her birthday. I Had a Epi Les paul that was beaten and tired. When my Epi broke I borrowed her white on white Tele for an upcoming show. I was playing in a punk band and figured it was goingto sound like crap, but was better than nothing. I was blown away once I played it. We broke up not long after and I had to give the tele back. I was flat broke and was able to re sodder my Epi and getting working.

It took a lot of years to get my hands on anther Tele. Now I will never go without one.

And of couse Joe Strummer rocked a Tele. As have countless other non country rockers.

I got my first tele because...
...um...
Shoot, I didn't even know how to play guitar when I got it. Just looked cool I guess.

but it was a good choice for a kid who didn't know anything about guitars. :cool:

I saw people like Scotty Anderson and Larry Carlton playing Jazz on telecasters, and the cheesy 80's movie "Crossroads" didn't hurt! I mainly love them becasue they are deceptively simple, reliable, and can do anything YOU can make them do.

my first guitar was a black squier strat, and since then, I've just had no appetite for them. got into bass, but lately been much more partial to guitar. enter the Washburn Idol WI14, which has the single cutaway and is reminiscent of the fantastic telecaster body style. I grew past the guitarand needed something new, and after probably 60 guitars at various shops not quite being what I wanted, I got a MIM Fender Blacktop in black. the humbuckers were a taste of the familiar, the tele body style was the look I wanted.
which leads me to stripping my Washburn, refinishing, routing, etc. to make it loveable again, and gave me the bug to build an actual tele with single coil pickups. a trip to the lumber store later, I've got a beautiful piece of curly maple ready to be turned into my dream telecaster, full of all the twang and joy they are :P

BUT I didn't get to the telecaster through country music. born and raised in Alberta my whole life, you think I'd have gotten used to it, but to no avail!
as I saw a few posts mentioned, I am (slowly) getting into country because of the telecaster, but not vice versa. but bluegrass can be pretty awesome!

I saw people like Scotty Anderson and Larry Carlton playing Jazz on telecasters, and the cheesy 80's movie "Crossroads" didn't hurt! I mainly love them becasue they are deceptively simple, reliable, and can do anything YOU can make them do.

Scotty & Larry....both players made quite an impact on me as well. Just watched a newer vid of Carlton....He's still playing so great! "Crossroads'' that's with Vai right?

Slightly OT :


It is because of it's simplicity that i am getting a LP Jr, w single P90 soon :twisted:


http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HTpcwx1BDqE/S6LjlmbAmmI/AAAAAAAACOQ/f1qWn3sw_Bo/s400/56_Les_Paul_Junior_613070combo.jpg

Those, along with SGs, seem to be the Gibsons that appeal to Telecaster players the most.

I inherited my first one, a 1974 Deluxe, from my Grandfather. He bought it new in 75'. I had a raggedy old SG, and a lawsuit Ibanez LP. Thought I'd always play something from that camp... Now I play anything and everything, but mostly something Fenderstyle. Lately my lefty Squier Strat and my Electra Tele Custom, or an Alvarez 12 string Acoustic.

Oh yeah... Jimmy Page, Roy Buchannon, Andy Summers, and my Grampa.

i got a steal on one, ive always liked the way they look

but once i got one i realized how good they are at classic rock tones aswell as blues and very nice cleans too

i just cant get over how uncomfy they are on the forarm i play my jazzmaster alot and it just sits perfectly on my shoulder and the tele well just fights me the whole time

I started after seeing a tele in Widespread Panic

The first Tele I ever saw was in the hands of a family member who was a great country recording artist until his death in 1989. But the reason I keep a Tele is because of G.E. Smith and Muddy Waters. I also like them because no one else does. Every one I grew up with was all about Strats or Les Pauls. So I looked for something different. Now I am on the look out for a duel humbucker Tele. Can't decide on a blacktop or a deluxe. I found a Squire deluxe for a good price but am afraid I won't be happy with a squire. Oh well the search goes on.

while, country/ blues music turned me on to the tele mostly, a huge part of what turned me on to the tele' was listening to Jeff Buckley as a youngster.

I never cared about country music at all.

I got a tele because it's light, affordable and it doesn't require a lot of maintainance.

Keep the stories comin' folks . . . I'm loving every one !


And thank you to all for taking the time; this is a real fun thread to go back through every once in a while.
I hope you're all enjoying it as much as i am.

Cheers. :grin:

Started out playin' Punk on my Tele in 1980.

Keef said a tele is like a Sten gun. And i like the Sten gun...

For me it was primarily through blues (Muddy Waters) and r&b players (Steve Cropper) who played them in the 60's. The guitarist in my first band also played one so I bought one too. Later on it was mostly through country rock that I stayed with them. Bernie Leadon used a Tele on a lot of the early Eagles songs.

I'm here via the ' tele, my first good guitar as a kid, love it's simple elegance.

I love country but don't play it too well. I use my Tele primarily for Sabbath and doom metal and it's not even the right guitar!! Haha!!

Mine was a strange journey. When I went to buy my first electric, I knew what I DIDN'T want. I didn't want a PRS, a fancy Les Paul or any of those 'super' Strats with humbuckers. My influences at the time (Radiohead, Smiths, Blur) guided me towards the Telecaster. I've since gained love for ES guitars (I owned an ES-135) and classic LPs (preferably with P90s) among others, but I still hold the Telecaster as the benchmark instrument.

After spending years playing with my Framus acoustic, I had a hankering for an electric again ( had a Columbus strat copy back in '82) and decided on an Epi LP special, and ordered one at a great price from Germany. They were out of stock so cancelled my order and looked around for something else. For some reason I seemed to see Telecasters as if for the first time and was hooked !
And because I'm an inveterate 'fiddler' I love the notion of modding and somehow stumbled across TDPRI, where I saw the guitar giveaway prizes demo'd by Redd Volkheart and he blew me away ! I think he's amazing, and if that's country music , count me in y'all ! So that's my story.........
Dave

I still part of the "I don't have a Tele yet, but it's next on the list" group. I don't have anything against country music, but it's just not what I like listening to. I reckon Jimmy Page is the genesis for my Tele GAS. Years ago, and before the internet made stuff like this a snap, when I started actually paying attention to what I was hearing, I remember listening to some early Zeppelin and thinking, "OK, there is no way that's coming from a Les Paul." Did some digging, and found out that a good portion of some great stuff from Zeppelin was recorded on Strats, Teles, Danelectros, and such." From there, I was hooked on wanting a Tele, but went off the rails for a while.

I picked primarily acoustics. I decided I wanted an electric, so I bought a G&L ASAT. Good move! As an economy, I also bought a 15 W Peavy solid state POS amp. REALLY Bad move! I wanted a Les Paul, so I bought an Epi LP. Bad move too! That lasted a few months, and I wanted a Gibson, so I traded in both the Epi LP and the G&L. 1/2 move! Man I wish I still had that G&L. Got a Strat later, but both the LP and the Strat sounded horrible through the crap amp, and I returned to acoustic for years. OK move, but not satisfying my cravings.

So, about a week and a half ago, I woke up and said, "Man, I HAVE to get back into electrics." But I was faced with a problem - that crap amp!

So here's me over last weekend. Tele? Amp? Tele? Amp!? Teleampteleamp???

The amp won - just bought a Blues Jr. with the Jensen speaker. Good move!! Got a fresh set-up on the LP. Plugged her in to the new amp. Holy mother of Gawd! I'm not sure when I'll pick up the acoustic again.

And yes, kids, there is a Tele in the future. Just have to save up some $$ again.

That's my story, and I'm sticking with it. Reading this thread, I have a lot of youtubin' to do as well!

I guess it was Tom Petty, as I grew up in Reseda CA playing blues on a Gibson Les Paul Junior and Tom Had a squeaky high end Tele. I later saw Crossroads and bought a Pignose so that I could get that mobile concert jam going. We would set up a lil jam behind Wolf and Wristmillers Country Club on Sherman Way and hang out with homeless guys who taught a few of us open tunings in exchange for beer. Goodtimes.! So yeah..Blues. Didnt get into Country until I was 34 and moved to Texas. Played in a cover band that suggested I learn some Hank Williams..in Baptist country area you need to play Hank or Jimmy Reed in order to sit in . I still play lost of Muddy Waters ..IE: Muddy Waters invented electricty in the South just for playing Blues.

I came to playing a Tele shape guitar simply because i have always liked the shape and look. I have mainly played in metal"core" and pop punk bands :P

I've played Les Paul Historic Reissues pretty much exclusively for the last ten years. I have a American Standard Strat but I mainly used it for rhythm tracks. That all changed earlier this year. I retired my Carr Rambler in favor of a 65 Twin Reverb Reissue. All of a sudden the Strat came alive. I switched the pickups for Lollars and that was it. I sold some gear and got a Tele 52 Reissue and have never looked back. It's become my number one guitar. I don't play country at all. I'm a rock/blues player who plays jazz standards, if that makes sense. The Tele has the fattest sound ever but with a focus that you just don't get with humbuckers. Then, in a final act of GAS, I traded a Carr Mercury for a Fender 57 Twin Reissue. Now I'm a Fender guy to the max!

I came a long way, got a tele from a friend of my father but as a teenager and a metalhead it's not what you want.
Sold it to buy my first BC Rich Mockingbird (Japan), awesome guitar have sold it but i have my pride and glory a Mockingbird Supreme made USA
Got more into punk/betonrock/hardcore, and switched to Fender Lonestar Strat, swapped the pups with a Screamin Demon and 2 hot rails and of i go my mainbeater for a very long time.
After that i bought guitars by the dozens, Gibson's, Gretsch 6120, PRS, Jackson's (no floyd for me ever) etc..all nice but the lonestar still was my main axe.

During the past 6 years i got kids and liked to build them a partscaster.
They have choosed the color, just for fun. As a humbucker guy i chose for Mahogony and maple top and some not so tele twisted things

Tele purists, please close your eyes ;-)
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-nlPxmIBC_CI/Tt_DCdbyW-I/AAAAAAAACzg/MwpXGBt25ic/s720/DSC6376.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-YbanhQiQzm0/Tt_Cd3mBcTI/AAAAAAAACwg/A6Q-7743VGQ/s600/100_2652.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-VZ_aGkenmbk/Tt-IeQ45_xI/AAAAAAAACoE/FjkIFSNkb5A/s640/100_5177.JPG


During the projects i did research and found run into the Cabronita :lol::razz::lol:,. This was the one that convinced me to step over to Tele's for serieus and not only for fun. I even sold my Gretsch 6120 to provide me with cash for building 2 cabronita's.

Gas was still kicking on my door and i'm getting closer to a authentic tele kind of guitar every step i take. Bought me a Vester Tradition Tele for a set of Nocasters and bought two Squier CV for hotrodding and esquiring.

Nowadays my single pup cabronita is my main guitar.

In the back of my mind i always had these musicians in mind and always feel somehow related to them.

* Joe Strummer (The Clash)
* F. Rossi R. Parfitt (Quo)
* Bruce Springsteen
* Keith (Stones

For me Rossi/ Parfitt, Keith, Summers, Chrissie,(the guy that played rhythm in the Banditz IRL), Pete Townsend, Bruce, TDPRI, Daniel Castro, Arlo west.
As they say "Its not the gun its the gunner".

Have to be Jonny Greenwood most innovative guitarist, brilliant sounds and playing style from his tele.(radiohead)
Frank Black's devotion to teles.
My first touch as well, the total comfort and ease to play plus the light weight thinline what a great package.

My first Tele was a creme Epiphone Tele I bought from a local pawnshop. Back then I was into heavy music and when I get the guitar home I was deeply disappointed with the single coil sound. I wanted balls to the wall distortion and the weak pickups weren't cutting it. I just happend to have a Dimarzio X2N sitting around so I commenced to taking the guitar apart and modding it "EVH style" if you will. I used a grinder to grind the pickup opening in the bridge plate to make room for the humbucker. Then I got a stanley chisel out of my Dad's toolbox and made room for the pickup lol. After it was all said and done, the guitar played okay but it sounded awful. It prob had 250k pots in it and at the time I had no idea they needed to be changed for humbuckers. This was back before the internet. Frustrated and tired I gave up and took the guitar back to the pawnshop. If only I knew then what I knew now lol.

My path to a Tele was blues and rock - Mike Bloomfield, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. Love Country pickers and rockabilly screamers but it always seems to come back blues for me.

I wanted a Tele because Luther Perkins played one!

I do not listen to Country Music really at all. The Telecaster is just as known in Rock Music IMHO and that is what lead me to the Tele. Springsteen, Richards, Petty, Gilmore, Harrison, Page, Strummer, Townshend just to name a few...

I also have a few Stratocasters as well, just a "Fender Guy" I guess...

I am a huge fan of country music, and I've spent almost every waking moment of practice since I got my tele into trying to get down chicken pickin' and western swing style stuff.

with that being said some of my favorite musicians outside of country music use tele's: johnny greenwood, jeff buckley and a lot of new indie/ guys are using using them. not to mention all the classic rock guys like keith richards, joe strummer, andy summers etc.

on top of that all I love the feel of a tele as well. and the simplicity of it helps me focus less no knob tweaking and more on music

I do like some country music, but it was Steve Cropper from his days with Booker T & the MGs that made me go out and buy my first Tele in 1969.

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n191/guitarguy_01/theMGs.jpg

There was a long selection process, but I didn't select because of the country association.
I am not really a strict genre kind of player and will listen/play many styles and mix them. I knew I wanted a single coil kind of sound (i'm not into the humbucker thing - I wanted no muddy sounds and I'm nota fanatic about crunch).I wanted to be capable of soaring clarity, crystal crisp sounds and that put me in Fender territory. I nearly went for a Strat but then I read somewhere (I'm not sure if it is true) that Teles had become the Fender solid body guitars most often used by jazz musicians, so I listened to some Bill Frisell and tried out some Teles and some Strats side by side. The Teles, to my ears, had more character. They had voice-like qualities, seemed more responsive to the way you made contact with the strings. The strats seemed to offer more predictability, but I like accident and expressiveness in playing, so tele got onto the short list. The other possibility I considered was a Jaguar. The Jaguar is capable of a very great array of tones because of the switches, but then I thought that if you added a couple of effect pedals and your amp, you would need to be aware of about 20 switches/dials every time you played a song. Too complex, I thought. So the Tele's simplicity and minimal moving parts became a main attraction. Tele it was and have not looked back.

I came to the Tele through listening to rock, blues and jazz, and above all Keith.

Owning a Tele has had an impact on my listening, though: having never really listened to much country outside of Gram Parsons, now I can't get enough. Country music to me sounds a bit like jazz with fewer chords, or blues in a major key, all tied up with great stories and humour and heart. Learning about country music has definitely helped my playing, and I have my Tele to thank for pointing me in that direction.

Keef!!!

I always liked the look of a Tele and the fact that Keef,Gilmour,Springsteen,and Chrissie Hynde all have played or play them lead me to buy my first Tele. I saw it hanging on the wall at a local pawn shop and at the time my knowledge of the instrument was limited. I did however know that it was a 1995 MIM and in decent shape. It was marked at $300 and I offered them $175, they accepted my offer and I was the proud new owner. I upgraded it with a Wilkinson bridge,new pickups,new nut.pots ect. I ended up selling it and still regret it.

I'm here because I love Blues Rockers who use(d) them like Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and Joe Bonamassa. I am especially a fan of flashy Thinlines like Joe's Gigliotti.

Muddy Waters... then Keef ... then Joe Strummer

started with floyd rose equiped"super strats",when gained a little more age and wisdom,I fell in love with the strat,that led to a tele,which now has led me to discover the magic of an esquire into a sweet old vibro champ,genre of music has nothing to do with it,all came from the blues anyways
I'd Like to think Leo Fender led me here

I have a thinline, and I think they're great. I don't listen to country.

I build a tele while I was going through Luthier school, I sold that one. I regretted selling the guitar. So this time I bought a 60 anv. tele. I would trade back for my built tele in a hart beat. As far a country music goes it not a major influnce on my playing. Blues and rock are.

Telecaster, yes. Country, umm, NO!

Beck & Page started me on the Tele path when I was a wee punk, and they live out in the country, in Western Europe I believe.

So yeah... C&W.

My path to the Tele was via Mick Green from the Pirates, and Wilco Johnson from his Dr Feelgood days. It was only years after buying my Tele that I was converted to some forms of Country by a dear friend who happens to be a great country singer.

Keith Richards, John Frusciante, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Frank Black. None of them are country artists. All of them play/have played telecasters.

I bought my Tele because it was Pink Paisley and it looked great in the shop. Never touched one before. Fell in love with it as soon as I picked it up for the first time, and that was 28 years ago.
I play progressive rock, a bit of psychedelic stuff, and some punk. Don't really go anywhere near country with it.
I've also got a '64 Fender 400 PSG - again, not for country, but for the beautiful Pink Floyd type sounds I can get from it.

One of my favourite Telecaster players - Hugh Cornwell, ex Stranglers.

I first got a Tele because of Death Cab for Cutie. I'd seen them live several times around 2000-2001. There was always a Tele present...I got my first Tele shortly after that.

Keef and mike Campbell. Country.... Not so much...

I came to the tele because it was the first type of guitar i played. Never left it since!!

No music style particularly influenced my choice of guitar, but Page is a favorite, and he plays a tele so :)

1981 - In a little blues club in Tucson Az, I sat two feet in front of an 8 inch high stage, and got my eardrums assaulted by a Tele, a Fender amp on 10, and the immense talent, music, and charisma of Albert Collins.

That was it. I've had at least one, and often more than one, Tele in my quiver ever since.

Kane

George Harrison, Jonny Greenwood, and Graham Coxon were my main reasons 11 years ago when I bought my first telecaster.

Country Music Died.
George Strait & Hank Williams Jr (and similar)
are the last of the real Country Men.

Toppscore

I had a very crappy guitar, went to the guitar shop, tried a bunch. First tried some strat's, and i liked them, until the shop owner gave me a tele, i LOVED that one. Only after that i found a lot of country is played on it. I didnt know that, i'm from holland lol. I just loved the sound and i play mainly funk/reggae kinda stuff.

Keef, Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead), Graham Coxon (Blur) all infuenced my telecaster affinity. I do not like country, although I can admire the skills utilised in the performances.

First time I played one (1987?) I vaguely recall attempting to imitate Prince!

Oh, how much I dislike country music! Born and raised in Europe, country would be my last choice of music.

Neither like blues, find Bonamassa the most boring player on Earth.

But I like guitars, and Fender, although not a fan of Strats.. Teles look beautiful, simple and straight to the point, that's why I'm here.

I just thought it was a cool looking guitar. When I started playing guitar 20 years ago I listened to a lot of southern soul and it seemed that a lot of the guitar players were using teles. Then I sort of rediscovered the Stones and that led me to Gram Parsons and after that I realized that there was something good about country music after all.

was the sounds that Rossi and Parfitt ,Springsteen and of course Keef that made me get a telecaster

and the fact they look soo damn cool

I bought a telecaster not for country but for rock. Alot of indi/alternative bands play tele's now. Alot of bands used tele's its no longer just country thing.

+1

I know many, many of you have, and my thoughts are that "country" music is more of an American cultural thing.
Don't get me wrong . . . I don't hate country or anything, I just don't "get it".

So how many got a Tele for reasons other than country music.

(... and feel free to elaborate.):grin:

I got tp Teles, then here, via blues, really. The electric blues of Michael Bloomfield, et al. Teles played a big part in their sound. I found that the sound of teles had a place in most genres of music, most of which I enjoy to some extend. Except, strangely enough, really twangy country. Funny, that.

I know many, many of you have, and my thoughts are that "country" music is more of an American cultural thing.
Don't get me wrong . . . I don't hate country or anything, I just don't "get it".

So how many got a Tele for reasons other than country music.

(... and feel free to elaborate.):grin:

Hey guys, I will be bold and admit: I really HATE country and western music. The telecaster found its way to me very late and via Sheryl Crow.

For the most part, I don't care for country at all. I like a little Johnny Cash now and then, or some of the older (50s-60s) stuff, but that's about it.

The first time I remember seeing a Tele and knowing it was a Tele was around 1990-1991 when I had first started playing. I was watching an old Rush concert video my stepfather has (from the Grace Under Pressure tour) and Alex Lifeson busted out a Tele on one of the songs.

I think a big part of the reason I bought one though was that basically everyone I knew who had a guitar back then had a Strat or some goofy metal guitar like an Ibanez RG series or a Jackson, and I didn't like any of those. The metal guitars sounded like poop and Strats felt weird. A big part of me probably also wanted to be different than everyone else. When I went to the big local music store with my $400-something saved up, I went right for something that didn't look like Strat-based (and wasn't a $2000 Les Paul), and the first thing I picked up was my LPB MIM Tele. I tried two other Teles and none of them felt as good as the LPB, so I bought it. Been a "Tele guy" ever since.

I usually break out in a bad rash whenever my wife plays country.

Got a Tele to play blues and rock'n roll.
Also, it doen't hurt that Sheryl Crow plays one (I know I'm shallow with a dirty mind)

Ciao

I saw an old picture of Johnny Guitar Watson holding a tele, then a week or two later an old picture of Clarence Gatemouth Brown holding a tele. That is what kicked off my tele lust.

Nope, definitely not here via country music. Probably my first experience of Teles was Status Quo, then started to notice how, unlike most other guitars, rock players tended to hold their Teles almost like weapons, attacking the chords - look how Springsteen or Joe Stummer held theirs. Somethingabout that shape just gets under your skin.

Not a country player.

My brother tried to convince me to get a Tele back in the mid '60s but I was more of an SG type. I did briefly own a '66 but sold it back to the seller for an additional $25 and bought an SG.

I now own three Teles and one Tele-like guitar.

Do I regret selling that '66? No. I'm not a fan of vintage radius necks and that Tele had been poory repainted with red spray paint.

I don't listen to country music at all.

I think to this point I've owned every brand and style of guitar imaginealbe. Over the 4 years I've been playing my style and taste in guitars has changed drastically. I went from liking Ibanez and flashy flame tops to realizing they weren't my style. I now find that I perfer a flat chunk of wood with some strings attached. When I started playing I thought the Tele was one of the ugliest guitars on the market (now I love them). Strats were visually appealing to me but after owning several, I couldn't find one I bonded with. I ended up picking up a Tele in trade and was really suprised. I get that great glassy sound from the neck pickup that I LOVE and the bridge pickup is hot and also twangs. Guess I learned a good lesson about judging a book by it's cover.

i got my first tele because i didn't like the look and feel of a strat but i didn't really like the sound of anything from the gibson camp. so i asked for an affinity series tele for christmas, and when i got it christmas morning i was hooked on it. then i found out that alot of my favorite guitarists played teles and that was the sound that i just kept hearing. i just bought my second one last week, a reclaimed pine body esquire and it plays and sounds amazing, every guitar i buy just leads me back to the tele besides my resonator.

Got the tele because of a great deal and thought it was cool because of Jimmy Page at first. Then I discovered more and more tele players, eventually gaining a real appreciation for country because of the telecaster!

Bill Frisell led me this way.

Two things got me into playing a Tele. First, when I was 17 and just starting to play, I told a friend of mine I wanted a Strat, and he just said, "Telecasters sound better."

The second thing was all the pictures of Ray and Dave Davies playing them in the booklets for the Kinks albums I bought (even though I'm not sure how often teles were actually played on the albums).

Springsteen, Steve cropper, Robbie Robertson, the funk guys....

I'm a metalhead and at one point I thought that teles were not cool guitars. Then I started to listen to some blues, and all of a sudden I saw teles everywhere on all kinds of music, then I played one.

I got a tele cuz of Roy Buchanan and Kieth Richards. I can't stand country music.

Lots of Stones music has country influence in it.

I didn't think I wanted to play country until I got a tele, I got a tele for the blues tones I was able to pull from it.

Cheers,
Benjamin

I love country but my tele was because of Saint Joe Strummer.

First Tele god I fell in love with was D. boon!

never saw my faves marty robbins or ernest tubb holding a telecaster, but jimmy page ripped it up pretty good on the first american tour.

James Burton backing Ricky Nelson... Curtis Mayfield with the Impressions... Steve Cropper... Tele figured prominently in early 60s non-country hits.

I am a total 180 from Country with one teensy exception... my love of the blues puts me in the close neighborhood where I wouldn't mind treating a lapsteel like a theremin or even the fact that simplicity and tone are synonymous with both.

I like fuzz and heavy overdrive a lot but the mere fact I own a tele has infected my style with even more neck pickup playing and even more rolled back volume passages.

I was a doubter that tele vs strat was even a perceptible difference until I really sat down with a thinline and then an american tele... finally a few months later they put out a fresh American Std hand rubbed ash Blonde... it was/is so very nice. Even the finish of the neck looks twice as a good as my American Special... <3 it.

My hippie side is telling me that Telecasters have a place in guitar history that every player must at least explore to decide if they want to master it. And the very thought you are playing a tele with influence your hands to produce a little more twang... maybe even moreso over a flat slab of swamp ash.

I got a Tele after hearin' Green Onions. I had a Univox 335 copy and was talkin' to an older musician and said that's what I want my guitar to sound like. He told me that's Steve Cropper and you need a Tele. So I got one.

Jim Campilongo

Jimmy Page

I was not influenced to buy a Telecaster because of country music. I wanted a guitar with bright sound and it fit the bill.

Keith.
Need I say more?

Keith.
Need I say more?

+1. I believe it's spelled "k-e-e-f" though.... ;) haha

I started playing guitar at church and all I had was my ESP KH-2 and my first, a crappy Peavy S style. I didn't think the skulls and crossbones inlays would go over well, so I decided I needed something else. I always thought teles were stupid before (although I had never really played one) but everyone at church loved them and I thought they sounded good, so I decided to give one a try. THEN I got into country, and fortunately had the perfect guitar for it.

I arrived at the Tele via:

Keef
Andy Summers
Peter Buck
Johnny Marr
Jimmy Page
Black Francis
The Boss

Bauhaus were (and still are) 'my band' and Daniel Ash often played one. The sounds he made captivated me even though I was only young and their music was what just what I wanted after the punk explosion had died down a bit.
Robert Smith plays them for The Cure too.
And Andy Summers of course!

Hi, new guy here. Rock guy, but love country, too. Tele arrived at via LP>SG>some kinda Guild solid body I forget what but it was srsly great>Tele. I needed a guitar at the time and the tele stole my heart. Played it through a Twin Reverb for years. Sadly, that tele and twin are no longer with me, but I now have a Warmoth telebeast I slapped together. I am whole again.

Springsteen and Petty.

I can't say why, but most country music have no appeal to me.
It's kind of OK, and I can listen to it, but I don't if there is a
choice. So country music didn't have anything to do with me
getting a tele.

But, but... TDPRI has a large part in it though. :grin:
I stumbled on this forum quite some time ago and started to lurk.
The thought of adding a tele to the guitar collection slowly grew on
me, until I finally gave in. :grin:

My first exposure to the tele was George Harrison playing his rosewood during "Let It Be". Then I met a kid who owned one, and I liked the look of it. Olympic white, with a maple fretboad. I suppose that is why I bought my tele in that color and fretboard.
As far as country music goes, I listen to a little of it, but mostly I'm into rock, blues, and jazz.

Nothing to do with country at all.

the first time i recall seeing a picture of a telecaster was in the early 90's in the liner notes for Radiohead's album Pablo Honey. Johnny Greenwood was playing it in the picture. I thought "man, what a plain looking, ugly guitar. Why would anyone want one of those?" Unfortunately i had that attitude for many more years. Then a few years ago i saw that Graham Coxon plays the tele, and Nixon Boyd of my favourite new-ish band, Hollerado played them as well, and they became beautiful to me. Pretty soon i was obsessed and had to have one. I got a Blacktop (black w/ maple fretboard) because i was a poor college student. I liked it, but i wanted that real single coil tele sound. Where i then worked allowed me to get a decent staff discount on an American Special (TSB). and since i've also gotten the VB and BSB CV50's, put together a mediocre partscaster, and just last week i got a BSB Affinity that i'm in the middle of Esquire-ing. It's now the most beautiful guitar to me. Can't get enough of them!

Good grief! - is this thread still running?




To reiterate my earlier post of many moons ago, "country music" is an alien art-form right pond, we have no cultural references to it and it doesn't travel well.

It's something of a specialist audience over here, very little air play. Musicians are probably better informed than the general public because we (should) listen to everything.

I got into Teles from William Bonney

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCkMHzZPxPs

Rich Robinson

Good grief! - is this thread still running?




To reiterate my earlier post of many moons ago, "country music" is an alien art-form right pond, we have no cultural references to it and it doesn't travel well.

It's something of a specialist audience over here, very little air play. Musicians are probably better informed than the general public because we (should) listen to everything.

Never been there and would like to someday. The Beatles were fans of Buck Owens so some country filtered over there somehow.

I've always been more of a rocker - but loved the look of a tele since seeing I can remember. After 20+ years of playing, I got my first tele in October - a black road worn with a SD 59 in the neck.......Its the most comfortable guitar I've ever owned - everything about it seems "right"! I use it for 70's, 80's, 90's and current rock.

I'm a big Blues fan, so Roy Buchanon and Albert Collins were a definite influence. Also, Danny Gatton & Muddy Waters. Later on, I began to appreciate Country music for its clean pure sound. That got me listening to Waylon Jennings & Merle Haggard. Recently I've come to appreciate Buck Owens, Don Rich, & Luther Perkins. Then, of course, there's James Burton...

I thought teles were always country guitars until I found this website. I learned so much, and then got my first tele two weeks ago. The more I play it, the more I love it, and the more my strat sits in the corner and frowns.

I never really associated the Tele with country any more than any other guitar. If I had, I would have been pushed away from it toward another stratocaster as I was Ozzie when Ozzie wasn't cool.

I bought a tele after I blocked out the wammy on my then current strat and liked it WAY better, so next time the piggy bank was full I picked up my first ever brand new guitar, my Telecaster.

And I have learned some country, but only because the old rock songs I knew started filtering into country music. I don't mind that like some people do, Rock borrowed alot of country music too.

She changed the lock on my back door, now my key don't fit no more- Hank Williams and like about a dozen rock bands since.

I didn't really know Country,although Rockabilly in the 50's had country roots. I've always
been attracted to the look and sound of Teles and Esquiers.

Despite browsing the forum for about 6 months now, I just discovered I had never registered! So here I am, not far away from pulling the trigger on a new Am. Deluxe tele... the question is tungsten or aged cherry?

Back to topic - it was these guys http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poS8X25bgtg who provided my Tele introduction. Some American folk may have heard of them under the name Pacifier (they changed names in an attempt to crack the US market... apparently Shihad sounded too similar to jihad...). One of the best live acts out there - almost a religious following in NZ (my homeland :) ), and I'm off to see them in 10 days for what will be nearing the 30th time. :)

I always what GAC stood for on my Dish TV guide stood for so I watched a little. GAC - God Awful Country

Me

i came via grunge... when i was in my teens in the 90's in australia, there weren't abundant jazzmasters, jaguars and mustangs around. a MIM tele was $2300. i went to the local shop, and played a number of squires... strats were clearly for hair metal wankas (sorry... grunge era)... NO ONE played a tele... i played a blonde squire (i dont remember the model, but it was the best squire) and got it for a "steal" at $900.

last year, after a long while away, i got the jag....

just had both rebuilt, with a fender neck as the squire one was just too small for adult me... both posted before

http://i769.photobucket.com/albums/xx333/furtherpale/IMG_1636.jpg

I came via boredom. I'm a guitar nut just like all of you.

I don't own a tele, or even a Fender anymore, but If I ever get a Fender again, it'll be a tele. Just sold my Strat for another Gibson in fact, I'm on sabbatical from my usual hang out spot on the interwebz. I'm not a troll, in fact I despise them... but, to all of you, I am a new guy, so I'm just sayin' hello and I come in peace.

I like alternative rock, but I would be lying if I told me my time in Lexington, KY hasn't influenced me obtaining a Telecaster...

Bought a Tele after watching Status Quo, Jeff Lynne and Paul Weller playing them.
Have now come to appreciate them as a music icon and all that a guitar needs to be.

Never been a country player. I got a tele for classic rock and blues. Great guitar for blues and Rolling Stones cover tunes...

There was not much country music to hear in Finland where i grew up in early 60`s, when i got really interested in music. Guess it was rock and pop, mainly british rock in 1960-66 which made me aware of electric guitars and Teles, or Esquires, because i was fan of Kinks and Yardbirds.:cool: That, and i thought Duane Eddy played Tele, though he could have done that, not too much difference in twangy sound between his Guild and Tele.:mrgreen:
Later i became aware of country & western music, i liked Buck Owens and Johnny Cash` lead guitarist.:grin:
Also The Police was big for me in 80`s, Andy Summers tone, not to forget Sting too, later with his Tele bass, but that is another thing.:oops:
I have 6 Telecasters now.

Edit: ...yes, i have quite wide musical tastes, from rock of most periods to be-bop of 40`s, from 1800`s classical orchestra to Japanese girl groups and visual key rock, from 50-60`s Nashville country to worst European metal of today.:wink:
Now, am i breaking against some unwritten law, maybe?:confused:

I know many, many of you have, and my thoughts are that "country" music is more of an American cultural thing.
Don't get me wrong . . . I don't hate country or anything, I just don't "get it".

So how many got a Tele for reasons other than country music.

(... and feel free to elaborate.):grin:


I did not come via country music, but I enjoy hearing it sometimes, in small doses.

I came via Syd Barret. My love for country came as I got older.

Grew up as a teenager in the 90s listening to Graham Coxon of Blur and Radiohead's Johnny Greenwood and Thom Yorke playing Teles. Loads of British alternatieve bands were using them back then, and of course Black Francis os the Pixies. I got a great Fenix Tele copy that I played for years. It's been Telecasters on and off since then.

Later I got into Joe Strummer, Springsteen, Keith, etc. Later on the Tele got me into Brad Paisley and from there I got more into country...

Now my fav guitar is my Fender 50s Classic Series Tele.

The Eagles is as close to country as I go, and that ain't very close.

i came to love the telecaster through, roy buchanan, mick green, danny gatton, keith richards, albert collins, steve cropper.

Keith, Bruce, and others made the guitar look so cool, so I came by mine via a friend telling me I needed one, and then getting a cheap Squire. Loving it so much ended up with a G&L USA ASAT. So I came by my teles by life's experiences.

I came to the telecasters through guitar forums. :o)

I hope I will not be burned here, but I never liked the look and the shape of the tele, liked the strat much more. also, never tried one, played Ibanez and Jackson superstrats.
maybe it comes with the age, when I first tried a tele last year with a maple fingerboard (never tried before, all my guitars had rosewood fingerboard), and I was very impressed.
it was love at first sight, Squier classic vibe 50s blonde, with an extremely good neck (1.8 mm action at 12th fret on the qc), went home with the guitar although that was not my plan. I am very happy playing blues and some rock.

there are players I respect and like to listen using the tele, Andy Summers, Billy Gibbons,

Me! Waaay, me.

So many tones in a tele, you've just got to play about with the pickups and tone knob. I got one because I fell in love with the look of the thing and the sheer playability of the neck, I don't think I've played a more comfortable neck. Mine goes through a blackstar stack and I really don't think I need another guitar, I've got some and will get more, but just a tele is good enough for every type of music. I'm a British guitar player so country has never been my thing so I never saw the connection, only that Keef and Joe Strummer played them so they must be cool. And they are.

I've got a few demos on soundcloud (search ali connor) if you want to hear non twangy tele goodness, they're mostly tele instrumentals, apart from the acoustic guitar ones.

Thanks for reading my post

I have always loved the sound and playability of teles. Started out with a strat, but got a wicked deal on a tele I had to jump on. All downhill from there. Rock sounds just too awesome coming from a tele. Not knocking on country, but I just can't listen to it.

This guy's to blame:

vCnT8prUqFY

Started many, many, many years ago on a Strat but couldn't handle the middle pickup position and where the volume knob is located. I was forever hitting it and turning the volume down. Picked up a Tele and have never looked back. I like country but really am more blues, R&B and rock and always loved Albert Collins and Michael Bloomfield's sound on the tele.

Robbie Robertson. His sound on Dylan's 66 Tour blew my mind, and his work with The Band in their peak years convinced me that I need a Tele.

Still waiting for it to arrive though, I only ordered it yesterday!

Ed Bickert and Ted Greene... Robbie Robertson and Mike Bloomfield...
Curtis Mayfield and Tony Maiden.
Sorry, but i has no country roots. I like the music, but it's not my bag.

Here's a taste of Tony Maiden gettin' funkayyy !
http://youtu.be/mUkBPLG-CB0

well i first got into teles through a rock band called lostprophets one of the guitarists usually uses a regular standard tele . and another band called paramore got me into the double humbucker 78 style tells :) I've wanted a real thin line tele with humbuckers ( 2 tone , two vol . 3 way toggle )for quite a while since seeing one in the " the way she feesl" music video by 'between the trees' but instead i settled for a cheap cruiser tele with the regualer single coil layout