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

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 a deal on a Tele I couldn't pass up, then learned what it was all about from there.
I was a Strat-cat and still am to a degree, but a Tele in the middle position is now one of my fave tones.

I didn't develop an appreciation for country music until the mid-1990s. By then I'd been playing guitar a good 15-plus years.

In fact, I really despised anything that smacked of country prior to that. But I was already a Tele-holic from my very first days playing.

When I did discover country music, it was by way of old pre-bluegrass, pre-WW2 country. From there I developed a knowledge and deep love of lots of styles of country music up through the outlaw stuff of the 70s.

As much as I enjoy Country music, I didn't buy a Tele because of it. It just feels comfortable and sounds like the sound I have in my head. I'm really more of a Rock or Blues guy.

I was never really into country music. A friend told me about the Telecaster. I didn't really believe him, but I trust the guy. He has BTDT since before I was born. Low and behold, he knew what he was talking about. Later on, after I could wrap my head around it, he told me about the Esquire. Now, I'm a fan of old school country music. So, I guess the converse is true for me. I "got" country music because of the Tele.

Steve Cropper, Roy B, Albert Collins, Jimmy Johnson (Muscle Shoals).

BB King and Gatemouth Brown played 'em.

jamie

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.

I'm definately into country but the tele came to me through Waylon Jennings at the start of the Dukes of Hazzard, Andy Summers on the Police videos in the late 70s, Keith Richards throwing cool shapes in the early 80s, Steve Cropper on Mum's old Stax records & my punk rock youth listening to Joe Strummer with The Clash. It's all a big melting pot.

Roy Buchanan is what inspired me to get a Tele I had an ES335 before that.

So Id say blues/rock more than country.

I never really listened to country music growing up, although I did play a little acoustic folk and bluegrass when I first learned acoustic. The only thing I played on electric was blues. I don't think I paid attention to any specifically Tele players before I got my first Tele. In fact I always thought Teles were a pretty homely guitar.

It took a major earthquake (literally) for me to get my first Tele, 20 years ago. But I still have it!

My wife (my fiance' back in 1992) bought my Tele when we went looking at our engagement "deal". I was looking for something different as a "backup" for my Les Paul Deluxe, and I just didn't care for Strat simply because EVERYONE was/and is playing a Strat! So...

pardon my french, what the heck does country have to do with a Telecaster?! :roll:

i still can't name more than 10 country songs but i bought my first tele when i was 13. (it's my avatar)

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

I don't listen to country music, but I have a Tele.

I'm not a big fan of straight country music. I became infatuated with the tele in the early '90s after realizing that both Frank Black and Gordon Gano were playing them.

Some of the guys I jammed with in the early '70's had teles, but we didn't play any country, mostly rock and blues. The first tele I bought was a slab board '60, so getting LZ I sounds was a piece of cake. The later models seemed more twang oriented, so I went with strats up to the turn of the century.

Now I've got different guitars for different sounds instead of trying to get everything out of a strat (although I still have six of them).

Never been a strong country fan (although I've come to appreciate it - or at least the history and significance of it). I think my first draw to the Tele was listening to James Burton and his early rock contributions. Added to that was the influence Muddy Waters had on me as I got into the blues. Now, I can't imagine a better electric guitar than the Tele - the middle and neck positions are my favorite sounds in amplified music.

Dean

Blues and blues-based rock. Not country. I don't hate country or anything, but back then, I wasn't listening to much of it.

I played a Strat forever, but a couple of years ago, I had two realizations about Strats. 1. I just didn't like the sounds anymore, and was never completely satisfied with them and 2. I only used the neck and bridge pups so why did I need that one in the middle. Moved to a Casino, but was quickly turned on to Teles via the Squier '51. It all happend very quickly. That's the short version.

I consider myself basically an English art-rock guy...

I am the lead guitarist in a musical based on the music of Queen, and I noticed that the BMG (the mass produced Red Special clone) nailed Brian's tone on everything but the solo from Crazy Little Thing. I picked up a Tele in a music store and played it on the neck pup, and there it was. (Of course it was one of Roger's Nocasters on the original recording).

Switched it to the lead pup, and started playing some dirty blues and it was all over - had to have one.

Radiohead had become a reference point for my clean tone, and my Strat wasn't really doin' it.... also I had been gravitating towards country-type picking and pedal steel bends in my leads.... I have 11 other guitars, and when I finished dialing, they would all end up sounding Tele-ish anyway. In short, there was a Tele-shaped hole in my arsenal - it was time.

Now it is the first thing I pick up. When I do a session I lay down a guide track with it that contains most of the rough ideas. Then I orchestrate with other guitars. But the Tele always stays in there somewhere. It has a toughness and immediacy nothing else has.

On the subject of British rock, although Mick Ronson was most famous for the LP Custom he used during his Bowie years, he played a Tele throughout the latter part of his life.

I must have been drawn to the Tele by the (mostly clean and relatively trebly sounding) tones and the music I heard from Steve Cropper and James Burton, which I didn't (and still don't) associate with country music or with Tele bridge pickup tone.

When I went looking for a guitar to get those tones I looked at both Teles and Strats, didn't realize the Tele was it and got sidetracked with a Strat. That wasn't entirely satisfying somehow, and I got sidetracked further by the allure of fat and overdriven humbuckerish tones and ended up with an ES-335. It was so pretty I kept it (still have it) but went back to acoustic to satisfy my interest in more clean and trebly tones for a few years. I finally managed to realize that the Tele was what I was looking for to get the tones I wanted in an electric.

After I had my Tele for several months and had landed here at TDPRI, I gained an appreciation of Tele bridge pickup tone by the music and playing of Jim Campilongo and Roy Buchanan (in that order).

I don't think of myself as a fan of country music, but there is country music I enjoy listening to just as there is other kinds of music I enjoy listening to. And I don't think of the Tele as best suited for country music.

I haven't gotten my Tele yet, but I got into them when I went into GC and all the good Strats were taken. I decided to pick up the Telecaster which I had always written off as a plain instrument with limited use. After that short session I decided that I had to have one. Unfortunately for me I don't have the financial means to meet this goal yet :sad:

I bought my Tele to play blues and classic rock- most of the music you hear guys play strats on like Jimi, Eric Clapton, SRV, etc. I didn't like the flashy look of the strat, I thought the tele had a more reserved appearance, and I bought a nashville deluxe thinking that the strat pickup would help me achieve some of the sound I wanted. Now I have my own sound and style and I play mostly on the bridge and neck pickups. I think the Tele sounds better than the strat, even on songs that were originally performed WITH a strat. Now I play punky, hard rock, classic rock, blues, and roots-rock (sometimes sounds a little country-y) on the tele. I still don't particularly like country music.

30 years ago, Richards, Springsteen, and Townshend - and their teles - were on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. If my three favorites played them, it's what I wanted. Since then Steve Cropper, Muddy Waters, and Albert Collins have been big bonuses!

Good work guys, these are the stories I was hoping to hear.

I in no way meant to intimate that I thought Tele's were ONLY for country.
I myself came to the Tele through Jeff Buckley and, probably subconsciously, Keef.

Keep 'em comin'

I'm not sure how to answer this question.

What is country music, exactly?

Y'know, Boris . . .

all the stuff Johnny Greenwood doesn't play ;-)

I do not come to the Tele because of country music. I've always been a Strat player and thought a Tele would be cool because Keith Richards plays one. Now I have a regular Tele and an SX Fat Tele (for that true KR vibe:lol:)

I like very little country music, but what I do like in the genre I really like.

I don't have anything against country music. However, by the time I started listening to country music, I had already come across the Telecaster via listening to Robbie Robertson. He plus Roy Buchanan steered me to the Tele. Then I found out that Michael Bloomfield played one with the Butterfield band, of course all the English guys played one in the early 1960's.

Then of course there was Buck Owens and Don Rich...

Interesting side note. Back in the old days (1950s) Roy Buchanan used to go and listen to Buck Owens play lead guitar on his Tele. As Buchanan said, "We didn't even know he could sing back then."

Today we have guys like Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, and Vince Gill playing great licks on their Teles.

I like good music... rock, blues, country, soul, whatever... especially if it's played on a Tele!

But I didn't come to the Tele via country music.

The closest album to country I own is Johnny Cash's American Recordings. Otherwise, I have no real exposure. And yet I only own Tele's. Guess the days when Teles were considered "country" guitars are gone.

Keith Richards with his Tele was a big reason for me wanting a Tele.

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

I was never a big country fan, so country music had zero impact on me wanting a Tele.

I dug Roy and Albert, but when I heard David Hidalgo of Los Lobos playing a "blistering" solo on the song "Just A Man" on a '69 Thinline, I got "it".

I know...you hear the phrase "blistering guitar solo" all the time; but this solo was just so soulful and heartbreaking, yet at the same time resolute and proud. It rode the crest of the wave and threatened to fall over the edge. I wanted to try to get somewhere close..so I bought a '69 Thinline reissue..

..Yep, I did come late to the party..

I don't listen to country music, but I have a Tele.

+1

I came to the Tele via Jonny Greenwood.

I don't know how Teles got to be synonymous with country music.
Country music's been around for thousands and thousands of years, or so I'm led to believe.
And Teles have only been around in one form or another, for 57 (math?) or so years.
Anyway, I had a 68 Les Paul Custom I used to play when I was in high school.
I also had a couple of cheap Japanese guitars, a Teisco & a Kent.
But in 1974, I think it was, I saw Bruce Springsteen at the Trenton War Memorial & I decided that if I was ever going to be even close to cool, I needed to have a Tele.
So I went out looking for one. And I got sidetracked along the way. And when I got to the music store, they had this Guild S300D hangin' on the wall.
Now this part was pretty cool...Steve, the owner of the store, let me give him a $20. deposit & take the guitar with me.
I took it & used it at a gig that night & decided I couldn't bear to part with it.
Yada yada...Got married, had a kid, sold the LP but kept the Guild, stopped playing seriously for a long time, saw an ad for a $69.99 Kramer Focus & bought one, got inspired, bought a real strat & then finally got my first Tele when, after discovering how hot some of the country singers were< I though I needed to have one in case I had the chance to play with one of them...never did, but kept accumulatin' guitars, about 25 total, 4 of which are Teles.
While I do love my Teles, I'm not strictly a Tele guy.
It always depends on the mood I'm in at any given time.
I still love my Strats & my Hamer Echotone, that old Guild still has a place in my heart. And I love some of those old cheapo cheesy 60s & 70s Japanese guitars too.

I was looking for a second guitar after forming a blues/r&b band. I tried about two dozen guitars, and then found a Tokai Tele for sale in a little guitar shop near my house. I had tried Fender Teles and always found the neck to be too wide for me. The Tokai felt just right. It was cheap and sounded great. I must have played it for about an hour in that shop, until the owner asked if I was going to make a decision. I told him I would come back that afternoon.
So, I came to my tele through a simple need for a guitar that I liked, not really because of any musical genre.

Jimmy Page and Albert Collins wised me up to the Tele.

phil guy, albert collins, muddy waters, and sue foley. don't much care for country music, but i have to admit, some of those fellahs can play hell out of their guitars.

What is this thing you speak of, country music?

I came to appreciate the Telecaster through Page, Beck, etc but especially Roy Buchanan who I was lucky enough to see. Roy wasn't playing much country at the gig I saw, mostly blues and rock.

Mike Bruce

I love guitars. Especially Telecasters. Good music is good music. It doesn't matter at all what someone else wants to call it.

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 ?

I have never been much of a country fan, although I have learned to respect the talent in "country" guitar players...I was always a classic rock guy. I got here because of Dan Baird and Keith Richards...primarily Dan.:wink:

When I picked up playing again after years, I went out and bought a Strat, LP, SG and a Tele. I figured I would play all of them and choose the one I liked the best. The Tele won ( and it was my fourth choice among the four I had bought ).

Keef and Cropper

I play blues and stonesy rock, but i do really dig country, and more and more, I find myself mixing in some twangy major pent stuff...

... I find myself mixing in some twangy major pent stuff...

I am not proficient at it, but I do double stops as part of my normal style now that I never did when I played in a band...I play alot cleaner too.

I got my first tele as a teenager because I liked its looks and because I wanted something different than the cheap begginners strat copy I had. If memory serves i wasn't aware about the tele relation to country as of late! I'm not into country but the tele is the guitar I like best. As has been said generally teles in Europe are not so related to country music as in the US.

Always been a rock and blues fan.
Recently sold my Gibson LP Standard and bought a new 2007 Tele MIM STD. Love it. I always thought Tele's were an "Old Man's" country guitar. Was I wrong. Awesome and versatile guitar.

I listen to country, but I don't play it. I bought a Tele because I like simplicity and versatility. I was playing a Strat in a blues band, but wanted a stronger sound. The Strat sounds laid back in comparison to a Tele, and I wanted that bolder sound of the Tele.

I was looking to buy a strat. I went to 2 Guitar Centers, a local music store and 2 Sam Ashs and played pretty much every strat anywhere near my price range and didn't find anything I really liked that much. Out of frustration in the 2nd Sam Ash I picked up a HWY 1 Texas Telecaster and immediately knew I had to have this guitar.

The Strat sounds laid back in comparison to a Tele, and I wanted that bolder sound of the Tele.

Great description!

I guess it was the sweet sounds of Petty & The Heartbreakers that made me pull the plug. There was no way I was going to be able to afford a Ricky, so I figured a tele would go a long way to getting that jangly folk-rock sound. I've never turned back since!

Of course early Page & Clapton, Muddy, Pete T and Keith would have also been influences and gone a long way into securing what is going to be a life long obsession.

So zero country influence really.

However I now have developed a fondness of the genre in part thanks to the Telecaster (it really just does sound well and truly at home chicn picn!) Then again it is one of the most versatile beasts out there.. :razz:

http://students.ou.edu/W/Matthew.R.Winkler-1/muddy_waters.jpg

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'd always played Strat and Strat-style guitars. Then I got a Tele for a "different" sound and realized it was the best Rock 'n Roll guitar I'd ever owned.

That's how the addiction started.

Via 1958 or 57 esquire in 1968, playing Rock and Roll ....traded in 1969 for a 62 strat, next tele 1974 model in 1981 playing Rock and Roll, Pop and a touch of country. Still have the 74, good guitar in spite of what is said of the era of production. Bought because of good value and opportunity.

In the early '70s I saw a used '69 thinline hanging on the wall at the Gus Zoppi Music Center on 8 Mile. I thought that f-hole would make my teen-aged self look even honkier than than Robbie Robertson in the photo on the second Band album. Bought it, on the spot, for $190 (Gus always had the best used prices in Detroit). Took it home, plugged it into my Super, and fell in love with the sound.

It was probably only a month or two until I put a 6 saddle bridge on it so I could tune the damned thing.

i wanted a single coil fender sound and the strat has flaws such as the volume knob postioning, the generic tone and it lacked something in tone. i play blues and the teles bridge pickup is aggressive and alot better for blues than a strat.

I have to confess - up to about 6 years ago I never liked/listened to any country music. Then I was on a long car trip - was looking for radio stations - and heard Paisley on the radio. The tone that I was hearing is what blew me away - and the guitar playing. And I kind of had a revelation - asked myself - why is it I don't like country music? I didn't have an answer - so I kept that station on and listened for a long time.

Long story short, I kind of started listening to Brad's stuff, which led to me listening to some other stuff, etc....and slowly I am gaining more appreciation for country - both old an new. I don't understand the rift between "true" country and "modern" country. As an outsider it just seems kind of weird - like a genre civil war that makes no sense - but I digress.

Anyways - because of BP I started trying out some Teles. Thought they were cool. Then I made the mistake of playing a really nice CS Tele about 2 years ago. I saved up some dough, ordered one to my specs - should be here in the next 4 weeks. I'm very excited to have my first Tele. :grin:

Yep - I guess I don't fit the OP's question - but here's the thing. I don't play any country or blues or blues rock. My band plays hard driving very heavily overdriven rock. The tele I tried out - I played through my exact rig at the store - an Orange RV50 and an Orange 4x12. I gotta say - the Tele through that set up was just phenomenal sounding! Just amazing. And in the intervening months since I placed my order, I picked up a Dr. Z Stingray and 2x12 cab with Blues for me start learning some clean playing when that Tele arrives. :cool:

I think that you could make the argument that the Tele brought ME to country music, not the other way 'round.

Bought my first Tele on a whim on ebay. I threw a bid down with around a half hour to go, not execting to win it, but got lucky and it's been my main guitar for 3+ years now.

Only recently have I gotten more into country music, so I pay more attention to Tele players as a result, much like djdeacon says above. I still don't care much for new country, but I have delved deeper into Western Swing, Waylon, Willie, Haggard, Twitty, Loretta Lynn, etc. I've always liked Hank Williams Sr.

I never thought much of Telecasters until I got my first one, and boy was I amazed.

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 don't get "I don't get" threads.

But to roughly attempt to answer both your questions, I love world music, including Australia aboriginal and American country. The less formalistic a style is, the more I appreciate it. So jazz, classical, and opera don't generally sound that interesting to me, but the stuff locals dance to on Saturday night, whether it's down in the bayou or in the slums of Kinhsasa (and it's all slums in Kinshasa), can get my undivided attention.

I like Teles not because I like country music (you can play country music on any guitar - look at Willie Nelson!), but because I love playing guitar, including electric guitar. Which is what a Tele is.

PS - Outside my own high school friends, the first person I ever noticed playing a Tele was Robbie Kreiger. The Doors were about as uncountry as anything on the radio then.

Saw a surf band about 1964-65 where the rhythm player was using a tele through a super reverb - loud and raw. Later on at a house party about the same time saw a player with an esquire with a Bigsby - loud and raw Brit Invasion, surf and R&B covers.

Then, Steve Cropper and Jesse Ed Davis. Not loud and raw.

To me, the sounds one wants to hear from an electric guitar. Versatile.

Burton, Cropper, Richards, Buchanan, Springsteen, etc. It's about tone, not the genre.

first encounter with a tele in real life was my friends cousins tele...they played rock...i liked it ever since...strangely my first geetar was a strat...but not the second which was a 72 tele custom RI...im more into 70/80s alternative/punk type stuff...not much country unless its old school country which is a recent thing ive been into

I got into Teles because of the GUITAR.

A few years back, I got a hankering for a Tele with a BIG FAT NECK -- which I hadn't seen in stores for at LEAST 10 years. The whole point was the neck, and I couldn't ever find one to play.

Asked the guys at GC about it, and they said they'd call Fender, do some research. A couple weeks later I walk in, and a young sales guy grabs me -- "We've got the Tele you want!!!" That was the Baja, which had just come out. A few minutes later, I bought it.

That is the only time I've ever bought a guitar without even looking at the price. I didn't care; it was perfect.

I didn't know from Teles, and over the next few weeks, I was floored to learn how versatile they are. Amazing array of sounds, from a couple pickups and a couple knobs!

I never really associated tele's with country music. I thought of them as rock guitars. Les Pauls and various semi-hollows were the axes the local bands played country with, so that's what always stuck in my mind.

Justin

I have never liked country and I still don't! I am into indie, grunge and shoegaze music with a few other styles in between!

Personally, I've always craved having a clean tone and versatile guitar that can also make a noise if required!...listening to Jeff Buckley and Graham Coxon persuaded me to become a fan of Teles. There are others that I like...Frank Black, Jim Campilongo and Jonny Greenwood for example.

I never really paid any attention to country music growing up in Canada so I never came to associate telecasters with it. I only got in to teles about 10 years ago over here in Ireland. Country music had nothing to do with it.

But since then I've played in wedding bands and I've learned how to play quite a few country licks...and this was obviously made a lot easier by using a telecaster. :grin:

i got into teles because of TDPRI.

was looking for modding advice on the internet re: a strat copy of my friend. one of the links on google was for a thread in this forum.

the rest, as people say, is history.

I listened to the Yardbirds (Beck), Page, Mike Stern, and Bill Frisell, before I realized that I was yearning for the Tele sound. Sure I listened to Country 'cause there are some gr8 players. In Pure Prairie League, Vince Gill was killer on a Tele.

No, not country and western music (either kind).

But musos do tend to listen to anything and everything.

I'm afraid that in the UK country and western music is about as popular as the ham sandwiches at a bar mitsza.

I got into guitar from late 50's and 60's pop music (as it was called then, all popular music lumped together), i.e. mostly mor mush but also rock&roll, jazz, blues, soul, R&B, rock, etc - but not what you'd call country music, and any yodelling emanating from the wireless was quickly shut off because it set the dog howling.

By the time I got a tele I was well aware of them and its sound and simplicity appealed to me.

got a tele because it looked cool; kept it because it sounds great.


the most country my musical taste gets is early wilco.

Albert Collins got me interested in them to start, but after that the model pretty much sold me on its own merits (playability, durability, versatility, simplicity, etc.) The fact that it can be heard in almost every genre of music using guitars and can be used by such a variety of artists from Albert to Keef to Muddy to Roy to Joe Strummer to John 5 to Paisley to T. Morrello is a testament to its enduring qualities.

Jimmy Johnson (Muscle Shoals).

jimmy johnson played a gretsch... so did joe south... duane allman played a strat... travis wammack played gibsons... i never figured out what albert lowe jr. played but eddie hinton, bobby womack and tommy cogbill all played telecasters... did charlie freeman ever make it to muscle shoals? he played teles too... tj

What interests me is the relationship between the telecaster guitar, the pedal steel and the lap steel. That range of sounds is so fantastic. Anything that falls between those brackets is interesting to me , call it country, classical, hillbilly, whatever. It's the sound that dragged me to the telecaster.

Not from Country here. I guess the first Tele's I clocked and admired were from Syd Barrett, Jimmy Page, Pete Townsend, and then Chrissie Hynde, Andy Summers and Joe Strummer. Rock and punk heritage for me.

I got to Tele's through loving British rock music - especially Status Quo - and have no interest in country music and the "twang" thing though I have a growing appreciation of the players thanks to some of the info, music and links posted on TDPRI.

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

Me too, same reasons why I got a Tele. But it didn't take long for me to get into country and when I did I had the perfect guitar for it.

I've been playing country for a dozen years now. I was always into country rock and folk, but the tele and country is the perfect match.

I wanted my Tele because I thought it's the classic american rock-n-roll guitar.

I had no idea teles were "country guitars" until a friend of mine joked about it when I said I wanted one. I was drawn to them mostly because I wanted a reliable, simple, single coil guitar that wasn't a strat. I really liked the looks of telecasters. I knew they were good for rock (Led Zeppelin I) and for blues (Mike Bloomfield) and I had also seen a lot of indie bands using them and figured I should try one out. Three teles later and I have still never played a lick of country on any of them. The bridge pickup is just about the best rock pickup I could imagine...its got the output to drive an amp, a great raw sound that cuts through the mix well, its a lot fatter sounding than a strat bridge pup and not muddy like a humbucker. Pretty much the perfect guitar as far as I am concerned.

I've been know to play a little folk-rock, but that's as close to country as I get.. I bought my tele under the influence of The Clash, Radiohead etc.. and a dear friend who's been a teleholic since before I could walk..

I admire country pickers, but can't name many. Chet Atkins was pretty special. The guys that plays in Alison Kraus' band 'Union Station' are really something IMHO. Doyle Dykes is someone I've met a couple of times, I'm not sure he'd be generally classified as country, but he knows how to pick..

But my route to a telecaster has not been influenced by country at all.

Firstly I like/prefer blues and classic rock and have never really tried to play country. I don't even know what a typical country chord progression is......... sorry!

Secondly I are an engineer and I have always admired the simplicity of the Telecaster design. It is for me the 'Little Nipper Mousetrap' of guitars. Easy to change, but hard to improve. However, I have only in the last few weeks found one (baja) that I liked enough to bring home. So after just over a decade of playing I am at last the proud owner of a Tele.

That doesn't mean I'm about to get rid of my Strat or my Les Paul, the Tele gives me something extra to play with and I really like it..

My dad used to play a tele. He always loved them. (I always played that other brand which here shall remain nameless :wink:) He put together a tele build last year which I borrowed to see how it played. I was curious, never having even played a tele that I could remember. Long story short, if my dad still wants a tele, he'll have to build another, I'm not giving this one back :smile:

I find the tele to be incredibly easy to relate to and understand. It's got a certain kind of attractive simplicity about it, yet its range of sound is deceptively complex -- it can give me more variety than any of my other guitars. I am amazed by its shimmer, purity and clarity, and its voice, and also by its drive and growl. It's become my #1 and everything else collects dust.

Anyway, to answer the original question, I didn't come to the tele through country, I came to the tele through realizing all that it can do.

-jm

I love guitars. Especially Telecasters. Good music is good music. It doesn't matter at all what someone else wants to call it.

True dat, my good man. True dat.

For me, this question is like "which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

I knew the SOUND of the Tele from the country music I'd been hearing since the day I was born (that's all my parents listened to). I became familiar with the NAME and LOOK of the Tele from seeing pictures of people like Joe Strummer and Keith Richards when I was around 14 and just starting to play music.

I can remember when I made the connection and realized it was the Telecaster that was used on all those Johnny Cash records... I was still 14, watching a country band playing outdoors at a fair with a friend of mine. The lead guitar player was using a Telecaster. It was the first time I learned to recognize a specific guitar's tone.

Excellent stuff guys . . .

I really do enjoy hearing the thoughts and stories of others on stuff like this. Some of your descriptions of the Tele sound and style are truly poetic (Fender marketing division may want a word with some of you !)

I certainly don't want anyone to think that I believe Tele's are just "country guitars".
It's just that here on the TDPRI it seems country music is ubiquitous ! ;-)
Being from a country that isn't the U.S.of A, country music just doesn't figure in our lives anything like it seems to for those born there.
Perhaps I didn't phrase my original question too well, but you are all giving me what I wanted to know.
Thanks for the stories, and keep 'em coming.

Pete

I used to play an Ibanez RG & hated the floyd rose thing.so I got me a guitar that was almost the complete polar opposite.
Oh yeah & the guys from Radiohead could have influenced me some as well.

Being from a country that isn't the U.S.of A, country music just doesn't figure in our lives anything like it seems to for those born there.

Country music in Australia is like Superman and Clark Kent.

If Keith Urban sung in his accent - he'd be folk/rock to Aussies. Same song with that Southern Drawl ... he's a superstar.

I'd sell out my own culture too, for a few million and Nicole Kidman. :mrgreen:

I got a Tele back in 1968 because my older brother said he could get it for me for $75 from his friend. I didn't know what a Tele was. Nobody in my world played one. In fact, the first time I ever saw one was when I opened the case on the one I'd just bought. They were nowhere near as popular back then as they are now. I didn't know much country music back then, other than watching Hee Haw. Which was also probably the only place I saw Teles other than my own.

I HEAVILY resisted even trying out a Tele because it was a 'country' guitar when I decided to get rid of my Ric in '63. The salesman practically had to force me to try one out.

Once I did, it was all over. That's all I've owned since (along with the occasional Esquire...).


-Michael
Charter Member S. Texas He-Man Emoticon Haters Local #316

mmmmmmmmetal and the blues. The tele actually turned me onto country stuff - chicken pickin', etc. It was sex shaped like a guitar and once we came together we explored all sorts of new sounds.

Never been Country, even when Country was "cool." :mrgreen:

The first known telecaster sounds to me were from Status Quo.
So I'm definitely in from the rock side, not country... :grin:

Australian Country Music.

H1iR2Wi3u5o

Imagine AC DC playing teles... :shock:

Yeah . . . imagine how well they might have gone then !!!

Thanks for the accadacca clip Nick.

For those interested; that was filmed in Swanston street here in my home town, Melbourne.
At the end of the clip, as the camera is pulling wide, you see a large church steeple (St. Pauls ???). Flinders Lane runs along the back of that church; and running off Flinders Lane is - ACDC Lane !!!

I came to the love of teles via James Black and the RocKwiz Orkestra. Sure Keef and Andy Summers played a part somewhere along the line, but it was Black who, week after week on the TV, showed me how versatile the tele could be.

I guess it was the sweet sounds of Petty & The Heartbreakers that made me pull the plug. There was no way I was going to be able to afford a Ricky, so I figured a tele would go a long way to getting that jangly folk-rock sound. I've never turned back since!

Tom plays a Tele on some of their songs, and Mike Campbell plays a Broadcaster on a lot of their stuff. I think Mike still uses that Broadcaster for recording. Amazing tele tone from both of them. I'm a big fan of both Petty, and Campbell. They were a large influence on my getting my Tele. Well them, and Keef.

CC

I started playing guitar in the 60's. Tele's looked ugly to me and I ignored them as dopey and country. In '96 I bought one (cuz you should have one) and pretty much ignored it.
In 2000 a friend in Chino, CA gave me an old beat up Tele and it was a tone monster! I loved it, but it was killed in a tragic recording accident.
I got my hands on a '52 reissue about 5 years ago and fell in love with Teles in general. I now have 4 and they are my favorite things to play. Sure, they're great for country, but they also kick ass on rock, blues... pretty much anything.

Dominic Troiano was the inspiration for my first Tele (in '72) ... i was poised to score one, then i heard Jim Messina's sound with Loggins & Messina, and that sealed the deal. it was three or four years afterward that i discovered country ... during the Great Disco Scare of the late '70s, a lot of rockers went to country-rock to be spared the agony of one-chord songs and polyester suits.

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 just think the Tele is easier for me to play. I like Strats but I hit the middle pickup too much while picking. The Les Paul is a bit too heavy. Flying Vs are a bit awkward.

Once I get the Burstbuckers in my Explorer that might get as much play as the Teles I have.

I do play a little country but not really leads.

I got away from Country right about the time of Roger Miller's passing.
Grew up with Buck Owens and Hank Williams, my Dad a Jazz Guy enjoyed the heck out of Buck and my Mom loved Patsy Cline and Hank.
I loved all the Folks from The 60's - to me that's Country Acme - I can't see it ever equaling let alone surpassing that high water mark - it may yield much larger earnings but it's merely a shadow of it's former self; my favorite analogy is usually "as goes Country Music so goes NASCAR."
Currently they both kinda SUCK - there's no "rough" in Country and there's no "personality" in NASCAR.

As for the Telecaster two people are responsible - Bill Broderick and Roy Buchanan.

When i was young, i disliked country-music for two reasons:
1. Very little country music swapped over the big pond to us germans, so it was never much more than Kenny Rogers or Dolly Parton
2. A german "country"-band, who got pretty famous among "older" people during the 80s convinced us (young rockin' boys) that this would be something we absolutely never would neither play nor listen to! :twisted:

The Telecaster was'nt more than "quite interesting" for me. Ok, Status Quo, Jeff Beck and Dave Gilmour played them, but for my ears they sounded too extreme and didn't give me enough variety in tone.

In 98 i got my first Tele-Partscaster (goldsparkle, HSH, painted headstock, just for the looks) for a TV show. The next one i built myself in 99, was more traditional, but not really what i was looking for. It had a rosewood fingerboard and Bill Lawrence Black Label pickups. The Fender Tele of a friend was much more twangy . . that's what i wanted. I found it last year! Somebody offered me a telecaster built of parts of unknown origin. Maple neck and vintage pickups . . WOW!

In 2006, when i planned my second trip to the US, i decided to tune into some american country-music. Started Winamp, found 1FM-Country and was instantly blown away by a Brad Paisley guitar solo! That's the way it goes . .

Today i like both, Telecasters and country music. Maybe for some things you just have to grow up. :wink:

Cheers

Albert

What I like first in the Tele is the guitar in itself (the sound, feel and simplicity of it). It fits with the music I play (blues, + some soul a la Stax), but I don't really associate it with a specific musical genre.

rock/blues crossover here. Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Danny Gatton, Roy Buchanan, and yes, even Prince. Plus a bunch of local rock players had some in our area.

My first longing for a tele actually came from Johnny Lang ( haha y'all can stoen me if you wanna). But I did not actually buy a tele style guitar until I started to get into Country music. Brad Paisley pushed me over the edge and I bought a Turser Tele! Ever since then it has been a gradual decline into obsession!

It's all been said, but my first electric was a Tele because it was just right. Love Strummer, Keef, Cropper, etc. I have never even owned a strat or an LP, just Teles and my Yamaha jazz box

My love of the Telecaster has nothing to do with Country music.

I fell for the guitar first, and then started noticing that a lot of people I liked (Beck, Page, Townshend, Harrison, among others...) had used Telecasters at some point in their careers.

I came to the Tele as an alternative to Strats which sound good but always sound like a Strat. I've come to love the variety of tones available on a Tele and its utter simplicity of design.

Blues for me.

Nobody inspired me to get into my telecaster. I played it and wanted it. I didn't have any intention of buying a telecaster.
I hate country music.

me. i was a grateful dead listening, closet fusion playing, currently in an indie rock band recent high school grad when i picked up my first tele.

i didn't really like any country music (outside of willie nelson) until i joined this board.

Mr. Muddy Waters is what made me want one.

Nope, not me. I really can't get into country, tried, but can't. I do like the odd country style songs from bands like the Stones or Black Crowes, etc. Don't get me started on "new" 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".

+1, I came here cause i bought myself one and my #1 influence mr page played a '58 tele in the zeppelin early days..

I came to love the tele, from watching Joe Strummer play the crap out of his.

I've always liked the Mellencamp sound but it was mostly due to John Fogerty's Premonition DVD. Love that sound!

This site and my growing love of the sound of my telecaster led the way for me being a selective fan of Country Music.

But, these days, Country music seems to be getting away from the tele and Rock music seems to be embracing it.

Rock junky reporting. I dig the single coil clarity and dynamics, but found the stratocaster to weak and was missing the punch. So I settled for a Tele. And a good thing I did!

im more of a blues/blues rock guy but i like jazz too...i dont like a lot of country except for the older traditional stuff...i like to control dynamics with single coil pups and i like a large neck that fills my hand...and i dont need a middle pup so a strat was not what i needed...a tele or esquire though...? just what the doctor ordered...

My first guitar (cheap Epiphone Les Paul junior) broke on me, and I "inherited" (made my dad give me a hand-me-down, he he) a tele and it's been love ever since!!

Being from a country that isn't the U.S.of A, country music just doesn't figure in our lives anything like it seems to for those born there.


Believe me, it only appeals to a particular subset of Americans too.

Australian Country Music.

H1iR2Wi3u5o

Lost me with the bagpipes. Run away, RUN AWAY!!!

I came to the Tele initially through getting a Fender Bullet, back in 81, as a gift. I then got a Telecaster from there, and another and a G&L ASAT. It was not because of Country, and I was playin in a Punk band(s) then. Nothing against country, though I am not sure what is meant by it exactly. I like Jerry Reed, and Neko Case, Little Willies, and some old Sun stuff like Cash and early Elvis, and things like what John Doe et al from X (like his solo stuff and The Knitters), I think referred to as American Roots music.

But anyway, the Telecaster has an attraction that goes beyond one music, for me at least.

j

As much as I enjoy Country music, I didn't buy a Tele because of it. It just feels comfortable and sounds like the sound I have in my head. I'm really more of a Rock or Blues guy.

+1, Preferred it to the Strat, and an SG costs WAY more around here. And of course finding TDPRI about a month before I bought a guitar didn't help either :mrgreen:

There has only been one guitar that I wanted simply because I saw someone play it and it looked cool. Before I actually started playing guitar, I was a bit of a KISS fan, and when I saw Paul Stanley with his Ibanez, I really wanted to have that guitar. I knew nothing about it, but the shape was just so cool (to a 15 yr old), that I had to have it.
http://www.islandmusic.co.uk/shop/img/productImages/ic400bk.jpg

I never did get one, but I've never again been so influenced by what a musician plays. Some of my favourite artists have played Teles, but I never really cared what guitar they played.

I came to the Tele initially through getting a Fender Bullet, back in 81, as a gift...
That's real interesting. I grew up watching Status Quo slinging Teles round, then seeing Muddy Waters, Rory Gallagher, Albert Collins playing Teles. But what really got me searching one out was trying to nail the solo in The Pretenders "Middle of the Road" on a mates Bullet. Then when I tried it on a Tele the little bell rang, and I realised how many great solos must have come out of that lump of wood and wire. And then I remembered images of Keef, Pete Townsend, Bruce Springsteen (yeah, I know... Esquire...),Wilko Johnson and Mick Green rockin' out big time on Teles. But what really sealed the deal was playing one and realising how many different colours there were in what seemed to be a limited palette. That was 1991. Getting into country was kinda later.

I appreciate country music a lot but I came to the Tele back in 1965 - 1966 when the lead player in a "garage" rock 'n roll band I was in bought one. I wanted one from that date till I bought my first one about the year 2000. That's a long time to wait. He still has that guitar.

@Dave_O regarding the Bullet experience.

Yeah, the Bullet definitely has its own sound but the feel was very telecaster like, and the neck is pretty much a Telecaster neck. Whenever I went trying out new guitars after that, I always came home with a Telecaster or ASAT. Got a Gibson once because I thought I needed that heavy humbucker sound, but that neck was really not for me.

j

I knew it was considered a country guitar, but I'm a big fan of The Pretenders, Radiohead, Cracker and Elvis Costello, all of whom I've seen onstage with Telecasters. It just seemed less "conventional" than a Les Paul or a Strat. Five years later, I can't always do Les Paul or Strat stuff with a Tele, but I can almost never do Tele stuff with those...

For me, it was Muddy Waters, and Albert Collins.
Later I started to discover Telecaster players from a number of styles, including country.

/ Tony

I got my tele for a couple reasons. 1.) Because I had a Epi Dot and wanted something as a counterpoint to its sound. 2.) Because Joe Strummer played one.

I sold the Epi.

Imagine AC DC playing teles... :shock:

Well, believe it or not, I read an interview of Angus Young some time ago, and he mentioned in it, that during the band's early days, both him and Malcom used a Tele between the two of them, as a backup guitar.

Country music has nothing to do with why I got into Teles. I may have been exposed to country music from a young age (courtesy of my dad, who eats the stuff up), but I've always been more of a metal head, indie, power pop, and occasional roots rock player (although I've goofed around with country licks for the fun of it off and on for a long time). The closest I've ever come to country, is country-rock, via The Outlaws (I'll never forget as a 19 year old guitar player back in 1983, seeing Hughie Thomasson tearing it up on "Green Grass and High Tides" with sunburst Tele - what a show!). I would say it was sort of an osmosis thing. My uncle (Guitar Generation #2 in the family) used to play a Tele in the early 70s. Some of the bands I listened to (Status Quo, Rory Gallagher, The Outlaws, and Cheap Trick come to mind), used them to one extent or another. I viewed Teles as something different from Strats, and maybe worth looking into (I've only owned one Strat in 30 years of playing - they just don't do it for me). I've always liked the simplicity of Teles and Esquires, and the way they could really have a biting sound when driven hard.

When I was in college in 1986, I almost bought a reissue Rosewood Tele (it was a good sounding guitar), but cold feet (I would have had to finance it, and didn't want to be seriously broke for the next several months afterwords) kept me from doing so. Teles weren't that common back in the 80s. In the 90s (when they were a bit more common), I was a full blown Gibson Girl. When I finally decided to get a Tele, I was in a strange (for me) situation. I hit a money crunch, and I had to literally sell off all of my gear in Aug. 2007, to help make ends meet. For the first time ever in 28 years, I was without a guitar (it was an unsettling feeling to say the least). A month later I had enough cash to buy a low cost electric (a friend of mine lent me a small practice amp). At a local Music Go Round, I found an overstock, candy apple red Squier Affinity Tele going for $130. I tried it out. The sound was a refreshing change from the typical humbucker guitars I normally played. So I bought it. But I guess it wasn't meant to be. After the honeymoon wore off, the guitar seemed to be soaked in country twang soundwise. This drove me up the wall. I replaced the stock bridge pickup with a hot, overwound, darker sounding pickup, and at high gain, it sounded like country-metal. So I ended up trading the guitar for an Epiphone Wildkat.

A few weeks ago, I decided to give Teles another chance. I wanted to get one to have a guitar for those stinging rock sounds that only a Tele seems to be able to do. I didn't want to spend a bundle on one, in case I ended up in the same situation I was in with my last Tele, not standing the sound of it. I was all set to buy a Thinline, when circumstances intervened (I got cluster headaches, which of course cost money to treat), forcing me to downscale my price range (and expectations of satisfactory Tele results). As a result, I ended up once again (with some trepidation) purchasing a Squier Affinity Tele. This time although, I got lucky. It's turned out to be a wonderful player. And, it has this wonderful snarl to it that my old Tele never had (although, I will admit, having a different amp nowadays helps too). I took my Tele to a jam session this weekend, and it stunned me by playing like a dream. It was a lean, mean, rock machine that cut through the mix with ease. This one's a keepr! I'm sold. Teles seriously rock, even at high gain!

Cool blues and rock sound. Jeff Lynne (ELO), Keith Richards, etc. I don't care much for country plus it's an easy guitar to build!

I'm a fan of Albert Collins.


Steve

I've always loved the look of Tele-style guitars and love Jimmy Page. I tried to buy myself a Strat a few years ago, but I could not warm up to one. I don't listen to country music and hate it when I see country artists with Teles.

Despite the fact that I'm a native Nashvillian, I've never been a huge fan of country music; in fact, it wasn't until I was well into my twenties that I garnered any true appreciation for country music. Even then, I only really liked the Owen Bradley-produced pop-country "Nashville Sound" of the late-'50s and early-'60s.

So, it stands to reason that I didn't come to the Tele by way of country music.

Having grown up the son and grandson of fundamentalist Christian pastors, I was exposed since Day One to rather lively gospel music and spirituals. The lyrics were Christian, but the music was an amalgam of rock 'n' roll, rockabilly-punk, and blues played on a typical complement of piano, Hammond B-3 organ, drums, electric bass, acoustic guitar, and, of course, an electric guitar or two.

One of my first memories, quite literally, is of the look and sound of a blond whiteguard 1958 Tele played by one particular guitarist in my father's church's ensemble whose talent was on par with that of Danny Gatton. Without a doubt, that poignant memory singularly compelled me to build my beloved '58 Tele replica (http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a296/DimeIV/IMG_0169_my58replicaangled.jpg) a few years ago. (Incidentally, the electric perfume of hot tubes/valves in amps evokes similar primordial memories.)

That influence, coupled with my later love for The Police's Andy Summers and an obsession with Fender guitars in general, pretty much sealed the deal.

Today, I own three Teles, even though the Stratocaster is my longtime guitar of choice, mainly because of its vibrato; however, I've rewired all of my Strats with three-way switches in order to get the Tele's bridge/bridge+neck/neck pickup combinations, which are all I've ever needed. The Strat's middle-pickup and "in-between/quack" sounds were never of much use to me; besides, the sound of the bridge+neck pickup combination is the very definition of "electric guitar" in my mind--something you can't get with a stock-wired Strat.

Joel

My Tele inspirations were James Burton when he backed Ricky Nelson on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriette and Steve Cropper.

I had a friend that played a Tele copy and I got one just like it in the early '80's and sold it about a year after I got it - I was too young and stupid at the time.

After playing everything but country music for decades, I came back to a Tele because after Ted Green's death last year I got his CD and fell in love with the Tele's jazz tones that the strat does not quite have.

Since putting together a Tele with Warmoth parts a few months ago I can honestly say that playing guitar is a whole lot more fun.

Having spent some time in Austin, I had a few of Redd's CDs and I love his playing - although the style is not quite a fit with me - toons like 'Tubin' are awesome though. I did download some music from the classic Tele players - and really got into Brent Mason's sort of 'Scotty Anderson meets George Benson all played as if Pat Martino' style - with a country bend to it. All very cool. So then I started having an open mind to country music and I'm finding that I really like the country toons that have a bit of a roiling rhythm to them.

G.E. Smith & the SNL Band made me want a blackguard fronting a horn band

Well it has that unique growling thing going on doesn't it:mrgreen:

From Muddy Waters to Joe Strummer ( en passant Pete & keith ;-)

I am more a blues -punk-rock type & found the Tele to be great for these types of music. You just don't get that delicious crunch with a Strat or LP:grin:

(die-hard country afficianodos, look away now)

I hate country, I like the the telecaster because it is versitale, sounds great, and it looks awesome! Great for blues, metal, rock, and even believe it or not, jazz!

(die-hard country afficianodos, look away now)

I hate country, I like the the telecaster because it is versitale, sounds great, and it looks awesome! Great for blues, metal, rock, and even believe it or not, jazz!

Ah :rolleyes:, to be young....

I just always wanted a Tele (bought a Gibson first) and it took me 20 years before I got one. Now I am happy.

I just bought one because it was the only model I had never owned.My first tele was an original '70s thinline,two buckers.It wasn't until I got my first single coil tele that I said "Oh......that's it!"

My Phase I desire to have a Tele (back in the 80s) came out of distinctly non-Country artists - Syd Barrett, Will Sargent of Echo & The Bunnymen, Robyn Hitchcock. THese were the influences that led me to get my black Japanese Squier in 1985 (now sold).

Phase II when I got my CIJ 62RI was in 2005 and was to some extent driven by country rock - James Burton on GP/Grievous Angel, Flying Burritto Bros - but also Graham Coxon's work with Blur and as a solo artist.

The Tele is far more prevalent in Britpop/indie music than the Strat, that's for sure.

For me it was James Burton (Ozzie and Harriet) Buck, Ray Davies (Kinks) and John McNally (Searchers). For my era, only Buck was country.

Well When I saw "The Who" on their "Farewell Tour" (wow-back in my Freshman year of H.S.) Pete was playing Teles, either Fender or Schecter customs, but it took until "Walk The Line" movie came out that I started to apprecaite awhole "new" form of music for me, and now Luther Perkins is in the personal top 5 of my faves of "all time".

I came to the Tele from a garage sale with a fender for 40 bucks, but i have wanted one for a long time because of the indie players, Social Distortion being the main.

Never been Country, even when Country was "cool." :mrgreen:

Oh, yeah. I remember. Deborah Winger, Travolta, Gilleys. No, I never watched that thing through.

I love the source of the old music, rural music played by unassuming people; I don't like the way the sounds and influences have been processed. These so called "country" stations play synthetic music with phony accents out front of it. No five or ten dollar words, no real pain or mystery allowed in the lyrics. Give me Porter Waggoner, Tom T. Hall and Eddy Arnold instead. Take this fake new stuff (played on Gibsons or PRS if there any guitars in it at all) and at give it a new name - and push it off a cliff.

Started listening to Punk & Blues. I enjoy a variety of music now, but country is not one of them. In fact I almost had a disdain for it. I think it was my rebelious side. I have a lot of respect for country guitarists though. As they seem to be very technically proficient. I'm a slob on the guitar. Kind of like Kurt Cobain/Joe Strummer, so I respect anyone that doesn't hack through a song like I do.

I was introduced to Danny Gatton's music about 10 years ago. Just got some Danny Gatton and Brent Mason CD's last week. I like Danny Gatton's style (country, jazzy) a lot. Brent Mason seems more like a Steve Vai of telecasters... (more progressive sounding). Not sure if either of these two are considered country...

To answer the question, I did not acquire a telecaster due to country music influences. Sidenote: I am definitely interested in learning some country style guitar playing: chicken pickin, finger pickin, flat picking.. there's always some sort of picking always going on in country... Pickin' and Grinnin'..

A waaaaaay back in 1978, playing R&R in clubs, I was looking to replace my typical 70s SG with a Strat. I did dig Springsteen and loved his live guitar sound (very subdued on his incredibly good early records), but my style was much more Clapton/Santana leads. I went to the local (New Haven) guitar store and started trying used Strats. Nothing struck me. Then the proprietor told me to try this Tele. I was very iffy . . . it was about a '72, blonde, maple neck with a white pickguard and looked very corny. Too happy and lightweight looking; I was 20 and wanted COOL. I started to play. It felt spectacular. It sounded spectacular. I walked out with that guitar (after paying!) and put a black guard on it to make it look cooler. But I knew it didn't matter. It was the COOLEST guitar ever! I have used Teles as my main guitar ever since.

I use a Tele because I like it's feel, it's minimalist look, and it's extraordinary sound. It definitely wasn't due to country music. When it comes to 90% of country music, I'd rather eat a barbed wire sandwich.

Nope - never been much for country twang. But my first Tele was purchased by a friend's father in 1958 who played it in a country band. I picked it up from him after I found I could not afford a new Strat.

I got into Telecasters from seeing great Blues artists like Muddy Waters, Albert Collins, Kenny Neal, and Phil Guy use 'em, as well as my favorite funkster, Prince

I bought one because of Clapton in Blind Faith.

I bought my first one because I liked the shape, and I've stuck with them despite occasional dalliances - it was my first electric guitar and I was pretty unsophisticated in my understanding of differences, up till then I'd only played a friend's Teisco thingy. I had no idea what country music was.

It was only when I started posting here that I got an idea of it - I still don't know what country music is but I will admit I like listening to Brad Paisley and Redd V's CDs and DVDs all of which came about from reading about them here. Before TDPRI I'd hardly even heard of them, or Danny Gatton, Roy Buchanan, Brent Mason, lots of the players that I have listened to post joining.

Yardbirds..

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

Most of my favorite artists have played Tele's one time or another thoughout their career...none of them were "country artists".
Bruce, Muddy, Keith....

+1 for Joe Strummer.

I loved the tones that the lead player in Counting Crows got on their first two albums and he looked so cool with a tele round his neck! (I know that a lot of their sound is Les Pauls as well but I seemed to see him with a tele more than an LP).

That plus Keith Richards style with a tele.........

first robbie robertson and mike bloomfield.
and then just the guitar itself.
country music had nothing to it, but i do like some of it

Since seeing Roy Clark doing flaminco music on the Tonight Show one night , I developed a new respect for the players of country music . Before that , it meant nothing to me . As far as the Telecaster , blame Leo Fender and his original stroke of genius , the P-Bass . Bought one in '76 and loved the simple , straight forward design . The honest sound cannot be hidden . It's versatility is supreme .

Well now, I got a tele because of a couple of people. Joe Strummer of the Clash, Elliott Easton of the Cars and Chrissie Hinde of the Pretenders. Country never factored into it until later I guess. To me A Tele is the most versatile guitar made. It can do so much unlike a Strat or LP both of which I own and love but the Tele is the go to guitar for most stuff..

Late to this party, but when I bought my first "good" guitar in the 70's, I flipped a coin between a Strat and a Tele. The Strat won. Played mostly Strats for the next 25 years but always wondered if the Tele would have won, how would I have liked it. Move to the 21st century and I got my first tele. Haven't looked back. Although I still have that first Strat, except for one other CS Strat, all the guitars in my current collection are Teles.

Never was a country music fan, although I'll listen to a little Waylon or Brad or Vince once in a while. I consider myself an Oldies but Goodies player, both with my music and my age. Works for me so far.

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk316/Brains0029/Prince1980.jpg

this is the first tele i remember seeing,
the next two were Bruce and then Keith
i wanted one ever since

Hearing Wilko Johnson and Albert Collins within a few weeks of each other when I was 17

I started to kinda grow up in DC during the '60s.

Roy B. and The Fallen Angels were the Georgetown Tele slingers.

Through Radiohead even though I don't listen to them at all really anymore.

Very glad I chose my Tele in almost blind ignorance 10 or so years ago. I had no idea how versatile it was at the time, just thought it looked cool and liked the sounds that Jonny and Ed were coaxing out of them.

I got my first tele when I was really into pop/punk and modernized hardcore. Then I got into metal and metalcore, and older hardcore. Now I'm much more into indie stuff, but more rock-ish indie. Still have teles and love em. So, that's...

pop/punk
hardcore (post-hardcore)
metal
indie rock

No country to be found.

Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum played a 72 Tele Custom, the kind with a Wide Range Humbucker in the neck and the Lestercaster wiring. I thought it looked cool. I told my wife. She got me a Tele that was my one electric guitar until about a year ago.

Always loved the Colonel. Always loved Prince. Got into Danny Gatton before owning an electric. But I like chicken pickin' and all that country stuff mostly because I'm a Tele owner. But it goes back to Soul Asylum for me.

I'll admit it - Prince led me to Teles. I always loved his sound and playing, especially his rhythm guitar work. A few years ago I found myself in a band that played a lot of funk and R&B, and so when I saw a deal on a Tele I jumped. That was 3 Teles and 1 Esquire ago.

Ironically, Teles led me to country via Jim Campilongo. Campilongo led to the Little Willies, which led to Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. I still can't take the "country" on the radio and TV, but I like the old stuff.

I'd been banging away on an acoustic for a couple of years,and my folks made me an offer I couldn't refuse:Get your grades up and you get an electric guitar.When NGD came(a couple of weeks after the Buddy Holly crash,as it happens),my dad took me to E.U. Wurlitzer in Boston.

I knew there was some budgeting being done,and had already figured out I wouldn't be taking a new Strat home.The choice was between a singlecut TV Les Paul Special and a Fender Esquire.Well,my late lamented hero Buddy didn't play an Esquire,but an Esquire looked sorta like what he DID play,so that decided it,and the Esquire came home that day,along with a tweed Champ.

At the time I didn't want to know about anything not played on East Coast top 40 rock and roll stations,so I didn't find out for many years that I was really a country-rocker at heart.

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

Me.

Though I was a music pro most of my working life, I've never been a music fan (this is not uncommon). I never went through the stage of trying to ape performers and guitar heroes.

The appeal of the Telecaster for me is totally in the quote attributed to Einstein:

"Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler."

The Telecaster design is a fine example of the applied parsimony.

As incredible as it may seem now, there was a long period in which Fenders, and Telecasters in specific, were not acceptable presentation in rock, which was mainly about Gibsons. Even then, when Telecasters were in the "Country" ghetto, I knew instinctively that eventually I'd be playing Telecasters at some point in the future because they made more sense for what I was trying to do. The Telecaster was simple, rugged and it got the job done.

I have many, many, many guitars and only a few Telecasters, but for the type of alt music I do, the sound of a Telecaster with both pickups on and full-open controls is the sound I usually want.

I got a telecaster because of my love of '70s punk bands like The Clash, the shape which screamed rock'n'roll like the Strat(also have...an HSS), and the fact it came highly recommended from several guitar playing friends....including one who plays a tele for an indie rock band based in NYC.

Now I have 2 of them:

A 2007 Sunburst MIM std and a 2009 Squier CV'50 . :cool:

Now to play them well enough so I stop scaring my downstairs neighbors even when unplugged...:mrgreen:

I bought a Tele copy in high school because it looked different and wasn't "metal." I just went to the big shop in Ft. Lauderdale and played a bunch and the Tele copy looked and sounded cool. And maybe because David Gilmour had an Esquire on the back cover of About Face. I had no idea what an Esquire was. Later, much later, I found out Andy Summers played a telecaster. I grew up without cable and thus wasn't influenced by band or performer images. I had no idea what guitars my favorite guitarists played unless there was a picture in the album art work. I had no idea Gilmour was more known for playing a Strat, etc.

KEEF.........

I grabbed my 1st Tele in about 65, I was playing Stones, Kinks, Who , basic Blues...

I didn 't even know who the Nashville pickers were...

t

It was PUNK RAWK that got me playing, my fave band was The Stranglers and Hugh Cornwell played a Tele....................... :cool:

The Clash (Joe Strummer) and Keef. But I do like a lot Elvis Costello who had made also a lot of country orientated music. I also like the last Cash album (more or less country). But I really like the British indie scene who uses also Telecasters ( Franz Ferdinand e.g.)

Blues rock led me to the telecaster! I used to go to see local blues bands and all the real Blues players had Tele's.

Musical Supply Catalog Pictures of '69 Thinline RI's brought me to the Tele... and the TDPRI... Still a #$% sexy looking guitar....

Sounds a little lame, but the first thing that made me fall in love with Teles was when I saw the movie Crossroads when I was like 12 years old.

Keith Richards was probably more of an influence than country music was for me as well.

I'm not sure how to answer this question.

What is country music, exactly?

Kinda what I wazs thinkin after reading the posts.
I went through a country phase during the early eighties to probably the early 90's.
After Rock turned to Metal and HM was just to much for me, no shuffle, no beat to tap your foot to, add a woman that liked country and that did it.
But country changed.
It went more Pop and I really prefered older country blues stuff.
Then I wised up of course and went back to mostly all blues.

The Tele, never really liked the looks of them when I was younger, always prefered the sleek look of the Strat. Something just clicked after getting a new to me tube amp and had to have one.

Wally

I came by my Tele through a different set circumstances then some. I was a Strat man for a long time but needed a guitar with a humbucker to better relate to the kids I was teaching and to get the sound they were hearing also.

I traded my Strat for a Pacifica but had no joy from it at all. One of my students had this Tele that was kinda beat up and I traded it for the Pacifica. At that point, after listlessly playing the Yamaha for months, I couldn't have cared less about humbuckers or their sound. I just wanted something that played well and sounded good. The Tele was it.

It's a mid 80's with a Squire decal on it but I believe that it was made in Japan with American made parts. In '85 Fender had no factory after CBS divested itself from the company but kept the factory for it's historical worth.

This Tele plays like no older Squire that I've ever played and sounds great. The neck is butter and outside of a few 'Squire like' appointments; cheap tuners and knobs, it's at least as good as a MIM.

I had no special love of Teles when I got this having had one back in 1970 that squealed like a pig so this was a big turn around for me. I have several other good guitars, 2 PRS among them, but I still go to the Tele first everyday.

You can hear it on the first song on my site;http://www.myspace.com/proazza

As to the side issue of country music, it's all in the ears of the listener. If it sounds good it is.

Chrissie Hynde + Joe Strummer + Keith Richards = my interest in the Telecaster.

For me, it was Muddy Waters, and Albert Collins.

/ Tony

A couple guys convinced me to move away from humbuckers and embrace the single-coil tone. Oddly, they were Strat guys: Gary Sanford on the first two Joe Jackson albums, and Robbie McIntosh on the third Pretenders album Learning To Crawl.

I never liked the Strat shape or feel, though, and two other guys influenced my taste for the nerdy Tele form factor: Andy Summers and Pete Townsend (with his early-'80s Schecters).

Joe Strummer, my youth hero.... and he still is

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:

My first good electric guitar was a blonde Fender Tele from the early seventies.

I sold it to a guitar shop in Wash. D.C. when I lost my job in the '80s. :cry:

In my case it was the only good guitar I could afford at the time. I bought it at a hock shop and wasn't really into country music at the time.

My first guitar teacher had an old 52 tele, he played jazz and country, then Ed Bickert the Toronto jazz player was my idol for many years but I didn't actually purchase a tele until revisiting Roy B. about 4 years ago. I hardly ever play the strat anymore. But I now do quite a few country gigs. So yeah the tele turned me onto country in a way.

It was 1989 or 90, and I got it because I liked it. None of my music "hero" types played one, really.

http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr297/superbadj/62Tele.jpg

I got into it because of it's ability to pull off pretty fat jazz sounds (ala Danny Gatton). I saw a Mike Stern clinic at my old school and that made me start thinking about it. Then I heard Gatton playing with a more straight ahead sound on some of his jazz stuff and that sealed it.

When I was 12 (waaaaay back when) I started playing guitar. First an acoustic, then wanted an electric. I found one at a garage sale for $75 so I bought it. It was a 1963 Tele, and I've had it for 38 years, been my #1 and only Tele I've ever owned.

I've played a bit of everything - classic rock (well it wasn't classic back then), southern rock, tons of blues, a bit of jazz, and yes, over the past 5 or 6 years, a bunch of country.

I really just started with the country stuff and still haven't got my head around the whole chicken pickin' thing, but I can hold my own.

It's more a coincidence that my band plays a fair amount of country and I happen to have a Tele - certainly never imagined that when I got it.

Cheers,
Doug

I always saw the Tele as the consummate bombproof Rock N' Roll rhythm guitar. I changed from keyboards to guitar recently and I knew I would never master lead playing at my age, so I went to the basic do-it-all axe.

Now, more than ever, I notice it when I hear and see Country, but that didn't play in to my decision. Love that chickin' pickin', but I can't do it.

I also just love the heft, feel, and sound of the Tele.

I got my feet wet with a BSB Squire and moved up to the AS Tele when I decided that, yes, I would continue to play.

I'm incredibly excited right now, because I may be able to start jamming with some folks and I have this incredible guitar to do it with.

I feel like a kid for the first time in a long while and I'm going with that.

Well my earliest interest in a Telecaster was my strange fascination with the instruments used by a band that played around at sock hops and dances when I was in junior high school. The band played the English and American garage band songs so common in the mid sixties, music of Them, Yardbirds, Animals, Jay and The Americans, Young Rascals, Beau Brummels, etc. The lead guitar player had a mid-fifties era Telecaster with the solid white pickguard and and the bass player had a matching Telecaster bass. While at that time, I thought they were the ugliest guitars ever, they sounded so good that I knew I was going to get one some day.

I was always drawn to the instrument and later was influenced by Robbie Robertson, Michael Bloomfield, Muddy Waters, and many other Tele players and was drawn almost against my will to the country music mostly because they used Telecasters frequently. Country for me was a love-hate-love thing. I now am firmly on the side of love of old country, but went through long periods of denying it to myself when thrashing it out in rock bands through much of the 1970s.

I got to it because I wanted to be Steve Cropper. Also guys like Marc Ribot.

I got a Tele because I saw a Muddy Waters model in a store and liked it. I never felt that Telecaster and Country Music were the same thing.

I got a tele after playing a Nocaster and 52RI in a music shop, the fat necks and bridge sound just felt way better to me than my Strat. I bought a 52RI within 6 months.


Joining this forum afterward is what got me listening to and playing some country music.

I just got bit cause' the first one I played was set up so well and sounded so good that I wasn't able to get it off my mind till I got one.
Which took about 6 years, money was tight.
I've been chasing that memory ever since that chance meeting in a dorm room 40 years ago.
I like country music n' all , but at the time all I was playing was Jazz and pop.

I saw a video of a live performance of "House of Cards" by Radiohead and Johnny Greenwood was doing something really bizarre with a Telecaster, so that's when I decided I wanted one. And then I found a really cheap one and jumped on it.

I'm largely a rock/blues guy with little taste for country music...particularly the modern stuff. If Jimmy Page played one it's certainly suitable for me.

I'd never really played one other than occasional noodling on the '78 that a friend kept under his bed and rarely pulled out. I mentioned once or twice that it needed to be played more...and, of course, volunteered to keep it at my place. At his going-away party prior to a move out of town he asked if I wanted to buy it. Sure. But what's a '78 Tele worth? I had no idea. Fortunately he threw out a number that was obviously below market value. A quick chat with the household's Secy. of the Exchequer and it was a done deal.

I'm about 4 years into it and still don't care for country music much. But I love the guitar.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c218/tight5er/With_Telesized-1.jpg

At the time I got my first Tele I knew that Steve Cropper, George Harrison and Jeff Beck played them. I thought that Carl Perkins played one too but I wasn't really sure.

The main thing I knew for sure at that time was that I was getting a real Fender guitar and that's what mattered!

Booker T & the MGs did it for me. Mr Cropper reeled me right in.

Joe Walsh. (liked the sounds many of those listed above, but didn't know what they were playing at the time)

People play country music on Teles? Learn somethin' new every day.

I'm with G.E., Page, The Boss, Albert Collins, Keef, David Hidalgo, Muddy, Petty/Campbell, Rich Robinson...well you get the idea.

Muddy, Bickert, Springsteen, Cropper, Beck, Clapton, and Buchanan (not necessarily in that order) are the main reasons I got mine. And I just love the attack of a hardtail. I rarely listen to 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".

With you 100% on that one!

For me it was Muddy, Clapton, Page, Springsteen, Keef Riffchards - originally.
More recently - Brett Scallions of Fuel, Josh Homme with Them Crooked Vultures, Albert Collins, Steve Cropper, Paul Weller.

Keef, Steve Cropper, and Bruce Springsteen, in that order.

My appreciation of country music is, shall we say, limited...

I was always a Strat guy. Just love the style, really. I have a Robin with HH, a Strat SSS, a Strat HHH (rails), a Delonge (sold that). I had a Roy B album long ago and liked it well enough but even so, Teles to me were for country guys. Never been a big Keef fan, either. Not Bruce so much either (came around later). Then I saw Jonny Lang a couple of years ago and he blew my doors off. Most of the show with a custom Tele. That was it. Bought a Squier Standard to see if I liked it--I did--upgraded that with noiseless pups, blackguard, chicken heads. Looks cool and plays great, quiet. But then those extra pickups on the shelf got me thinking, and all the lovely build threads here. Two guitars later I have the Squier, a black paulownia, and a La Cab tribute and I haven't even looked at the Strats. And I basically have you all to blame for it.

Joe Walsh and Mike Bloomfield.I went to get my first good guitar when I was 16 and I wanted a white Tele.I think it was $240 or something close to that.The sales man at the store (Joe Favas 8 mile and Greenfield in Detroit) saw me coming and sold me a NOS 65 or 66 Jazzmaster (binding with neck dots) for $350 telling me it was Fenders best guitar.Boy howdy it looked like a rocket ship and sounded like a banjo.I had a Ampeg Gemini 6 and between the Jazzmaster and the Ampeg we are talking nothing but clean.This was 1970 ,I want dirt.It wasn't until 1983 that I bought my first Tele a 1969 for $175.I traded it for a 76 Strat with a Rockinger whammy that was a piece of Poop.Since then I've had 3 other Tele's and loved all of them.

I saw Joe strummer playing one. Same nigh the opening band "One Man Army" (who were amazing) lead guitar player had a tele as well. Both of them sounded so good that my mind was made up. So I guess I came to teles through punk rock.

Richards,Paige,and Jennings; the theme intro he did for the Dukes of Hazzard keep that show going.

Chrissie Hynde, Jeff Buckley, Marc Ford, Prince (yeah, I know, it's not a Telecaster), Hellecasters...

Yeah; I've never been country. Even when it was cool.

It was the cheapest american guitar in the shop, so I bought it. Really that mercenary.

I would say that Country almost doesn't exsist here in Italy. I play jazz, and I started loving the look of the Tele after seeing Steve Cropper's Esquire in The Blues Brothers movie. I decided to go for one thanks to the TDPRI, some 22 years later. At last... it was time

I came to the Telecaster through my love of Graham Coxon's playing with Blur.
So, in 1995, at the tender age of 16, I bought by first ever electric guitar.
A Rockwood by Hohner LX80 Tele copy.
A basswood bodied maple necked beauty with a 3 saddle toploader bridge and rubbish pickups.
It was black with a white 3 ply scratchplate.
I loved it!

came via gatton and keith

I always liked the shape, but they never had the type of sound I was going for.
It all started when I got into Jeff Buckley, then I kind of wanted one, but only to test with, I didn't want to own one then.
Then I read somewhere that a lot of Population Override by Buckethead is recorded on a Tele, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back.
I still prefer the heavier sounds, but my Tele does a nice job of clean tones, which I'm starting to use more and more.

Playing in 8 -10 piece sould bands in the late 60's. Always called them Trashocasters when I was young and stupid. Had to have a Gibson hollow body, had to be humbuckers. We even made fun of a guy who got an old LP gold top ($75) because it was gold.

Anyway, had to borrow a Tele for a gig. OMG! The sound I had wanted forever. Sounded just right through the BF Bandmaster.

I was looking for a Strat. Played about 50 of them in different stores. Didn't find one I really liked. Picked up a HWY 1 Texas Tele and immediately knew I had to have that guitar. The neck was perfect.

I had been playing acoustic guitar for years and wanted an electric. I didn't know anything about it, but my older brother told me to buy a Telecaster. I thought it was ugly as hell, but then I found out that the guitarist in my favourite band played a Tele, so I ended up buying my red MIM std. Never cared much for country music.

I didn't get a tele for country, rather I got into country music because I ran across a great deal on a tele while I was looking for something else.

So I'm having a great time right now learning Roy Nichols, James Burton, Vince Gill, Jimmy Bryant, and so on. I'd think this stuff would be pretty hard to hate, from a player's viewpoint.

As a listener I guess it's not going to replace Jim Hall, Wes, or Earl Hooker for me, but it's really fun to play, and a real challenge too -- discovering some really great players, just transcribed some Zeke Campbell, didn't realize anyone was playing guitar that way mid-'30s.

Anyway... there's a big difference between a style as a body of musical/cultural knowledge, and a style as, I dunno, lifestyle affirmation or whatever. I've never been too much into the latter, and am pretty much never disappointed when I pursue the former ;) Right now, it's "country music".

All Keef`s fault.

Country? Nope.

I actually needed a guitar for some music in a sketch comedy troupe I was performing in! I bought my '83 Am/Stand in a pawn shop in Toronto in 1991. I liked the look, sound and neck profile of the Tele, it's neck was closest to the acoustic guitars I grew up playing and I loved that not everyone and his dog owned one like a Strat, especially the Super Strats that were so popular in the 80's and early 90's!

Not country for me.

It was her......

http://blogs.denverpost.com/reverb/wp-content/photos/pretenders_05.jpg


John

Ahh, Christie. No matter how extensive the list, I feel bad for leaving her off!! The Pretenders were one of the few great bands of the '80s. Anybody know what pedals to use to get that jangly sound she pulls of at the beginning of "Back On The Chain Gang"?

T'was blues got me to the Tele. It's still my fav...except I'm a bluegrasser now and haven't touched my electrics since last summer. Who'da'thunk'it?


Tom

Bloomfield and Page for me.

New Wave music. Wanted that sound, all the guys played Teles.

and y'know, Keef

came to own a tele for the rock

A quick search does not indicate a single person mentioned Denny Dias.

Is this really correct? If so, wtf??

++

Anyway, I just wanna say country music (meaning Clarence White, not pop music with hats) was very important in awakening and helping to sustain my interest in guitar based music against the onslaught of joke entertainment rock like KISS for example. There have been times when I have retreated there for safety, when pop rock had appeared to be all about makeup and light shows. I think a lot more guys my age were influenced by Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed than is fashionable to confess in some circles.

I'm not sure really how I ended up with a Tele... It's easy to say for my Rickenbacker: step forwards messers Townsend, Weller, Marr, Buck and McGuin.
I guess the Tele arrived 'cos I wanted a solidbody to complement the Ric, and didn't like Strats or Gibsons, but probably in addition I was influenced by guys like Graham Coxon, and Johnny Greenwood and assorted other Indy players.
Definitely no Country in there though - The first country music only arrived on my ipod within the last year or so..

I don't even like country music :mrgreen:

I played a Telecaster in the music store I work at and really enjoyed the playability and versatility. I also like the simplistic look. I play anything from jazz to metal on my Telecaster and it does everything with ease. I did switch the pickups for a Chopper T in the bridge and an Area T in the neck (both pickups from DiMarzio.)

It's always just seemed like a good all-purpose guitar. I noticed rockers using them first. Robbie Kreiger, Keith Richards.

Then I noticed that country and blues players liked them, too. Actually, the first country guy I saw playing one was David Nelson, New Riders of the Purple Sage. Now he's a jam-band rocker, but he still plays a Tele.

The second country guy I saw playing one was Bill Kirchen, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. He's stayed a little closer to the farm.

Never played country. Only country I listen to is Cash... Play blues, was a strat player until I felt the neck of my tele. Never touched the strat again.

I got mine when I was 13. I didn't really know much about guitars, I just thought the telecaster looked cool and it had good reviews on musiciansfriend. lol. Also, Jimmy Page played one.

I had no idea a lot of country players use it.

Got into the Tele through Bill Frisell's music.

Early Clapton, Beck, Yardbirds...

Well I got my 1st Tele in 65 from Rudy's music NYC, I was playing Stones, Kinks, Who, Beatles...

No Country for me until the early 70's...

When I bought a Tele in the early 80's, The thought of country music never entered my mind. I was playing mostly jazz at the time. I bought it because it felt good in my hands & the tone was so versitile.

When I started learning how to play the guitar in the mid-1990's, Guitar Player Magazine seemed to be on a mission to popularize the lowly Telecaster. One of the first issues I got with my subscription was the "Masters of the Telecaster" issue, with most, if not all, of the pros mentioned in this thread. And I've always been the contrary/obscure type, so I knew I had to avoid Strats. :wink: Peter Buck played a blackguard or two during R.E.M.'s formative years, and played a '72 Custom style (if only as a backup) in the early-to-mid-1980's, so that helped.

Although, now that Teles are getting such wide exceptance outside of the country world, it might be time to seek out less ubiquitous guitars. :twisted:

- Scott

I've never been into Country, I respect it and consider it to be on par as any music that I do like, it's just not my cup of tea.

I honestly got into Tele's because I loved the body / headstock style, got some killer deals on a couple, and after coming down off of a 3 year metal binge I was ready for something traditional with single coils, and playing at Church, Tele's are great for some of those lead licks, or even for strumming with my Nashville.

It was Andy Summers that did it for me.

whats country music??:confused:
anyways, me it was a guy named Bruce
Bruuuuuuuuuuuuucccce!!!!!!!!!!!

I got a tele-not because of country music. Look at alot of the old school rockers, and they seem to have one!!!!