What did you play before you realized the greatness of the tele?

[slap dat]

'65 Fender Jaguar
'75 Fender Stratocaster
'82 Gibson Les Paul Custom
'93 Fender SRV Stratocaster
'80 Gibson ES Artist
and finally
'62 RI Fender Custom Telecaster CIJ
and
'07 Limited Edition Highway One Telecaster

It took about thirty years, but I got there.

[bloodbeard]

Lets see...Strat, Jaguar, Telecaster.

I found the Telecaster early and immediately felt at home.

[BGTele]

I played Martins and other acoustics professionally for years. Secretly I wanted to
play silky smooth like Steve Cropper. I read somewhere years ago, someone claimed
that Telecasters were the Martins of electric guitar. Didn't know what that meant
but I like to think that just as Martins were the archetype of American acoustic sounds
that Teles are the same for electrics. The original tone.

[LaExpatriot]

Hohner L75 (LP custom copy). Played it for 3 years and then lucked into my 77 Tele for $400 with the original case and strap. Local player was selling ot to get an Ibanez Strat copy. I think I came out on top on that one. It has been my main guitar ever since. 16 years.

[P Thought]

I wish someone had told me when I was 20 how much fun electric guitars were to play. I wasted my life until a couple-three years ago, when I bought a Takamine GX-200T (had to nail down the bridge, though, so no more tremolo.) I still like it and I play it now and then, but I'm fast coming to prefer my tele's singlewound pickups and wide fretboard.

[Bill]

I played several electrics before the Tele. The only two I bonded with were a Gibson ES-347 and a '56 Strat.

[bpaulsen]

Full disclosure. First I played cello (still do) then electric bass (P-bass). First guitar was a Danelectro, then bolt on and neck thru superstrats/frankenstrats (metal phase). Then LP. Then a real Strat. Then gibson knock off semihollow. And finally, just last year, I got my first Tele. The tele was like reaching some sort of enlightenment.

[Geoff738]

Mostly Strats.

Despite having way more of my fave players playing Strats or other non-Teles, I don't think I can go back.

I still want to bond with a Lester or at least something with humbuckers. I keep trying. it keeps not happening.

I do wonder though what would have happened had my first partscaster been a dud? Anyways, I'm just thankful it wasn't.

Cheers,
geoff

[skay]

My only guitar was a Rickenbacker 330 that I rehearsed, gigged and recorded with for a few years, and even though I loved the clean sound and the excellent build quality, I just couldn't get any decent overdrive out of it and it was a struggle to play any lead guitar with it.

After going through a few amps and many pedals to find an overdriven sound I liked, I accepted it was the guitar that was the problem, and went on my search.

I was anti-strats around this time (they reminded me of Eric Clapton who I didn't like) and my friend had a Les Paul, so I didn't want to copy him. The Tele looked like it would do the 'kerchang!' of the Rickenbacker but also allow me to play some overdriven rhythm and lead stuff on it.

I tried a secondhand Jerry Donahue Tele in a local music shop and fell in love with the telecaster, the action was slinky and the overdriven sound was just what I was looking for. This led me onto buying another 3 teles, but it was that tele that opened the door for me.

I would say that nowadys, even with my lovely Les Paul '57 Goldtop, '61 SG, Epiphone JL 1965 casino and Rickenbacker, I am at heart a Tele man

[spiteface]

My first guitar, like a lot of people, was a Squier Affinity strat, which I got in the christmas of 1997. Apparently my parents argued like hell over whether or not to buy it for me because they thought it would be a phase I went through for a few months, then it would gather dust in my room. The longest i went without playing that thing was when I managed to break a string on Christmas day. Not the first time I broke a stringed instrument first time I got it. I played the violin for a while before that (I was awful at it) and broke a string almost as soon as I took it home.

After that, my next "main" guitar was an Epiphone Les Paul Standard. Some of my heroes played Les Pauls (primarily Noel Gallagher and James Dean Bradfield from the Manic Street Preachers)

Most of my subsequent purchases of guitars tended to be humbuckers, as that was what I found I got along with better than single coils. The only SC guitar I bought was a jazzmaster. I had a mexican tele for about a year, I didn't get along with it as well as I'd have hoped. It got traded in when I needed to finance the purchase of an amp.

Later on, I found the JM somewhat lacking, when I was experimenting with lower gain than the Big Muffs I tended to favour at that point. I also realised that so many of the tones I liked came from Teles. I especially liked Graham Coxon's late 90's stuff with Blur (their self-titled album and it's follow-up "13") and Mogwai (Stuart Braithwaite for a long time almost exclusively used tele).

So, this year I decided to get a tele. I ended up buying a Squier Classic Vibe telecaster. I love it, I love the sound a tele makes now. I might get another Tele next year as well.

This was gonna be a longer post, but I've shortened it.

[skay]

I like it when people give a little bit of background to why they play a telecaster. Even though we all play fundamentally the same guitar, (Hey that's why we're all here right?) we probably have reference points of how a tele sounds and looks that are a million miles apart as we are from different age groups in different countries etc.

I guess the only Tele player I knew at the time of buying my first tele (1997) was Graham Coxon in Blur as this was the era of Brit pop and there were mainly only Rickenbackers and semi-acoustics everywhere, then Noel from Oasis and John Squire of The Stone Roses went on to popularise the les paul, but there were not many teles around if I remember correctly.

The indie crowd got into teles soon after I got mine it seems, or maybe I only started to notice them, but I like to think I influenced a generation

[fivenote]

My electric guitar history is relatively uncomplicated...

(1) First electric... Peavy T-15 with amp built into the case. Yuk. Soon realized I needed something else.

(2) Bought a new 1985 Les Paul "Studio Standard" (It was a Zep thing). Beautiful, smooth player. There was a limited run (1984-87) of Studios with sunbursts and binding. Kept it until I built my Tele and realized I wasn't into the Les Paul sound anymore. Used the money to invest in "tone" (pedals & stuff) for the Tele.

(3) Partscaster strat. Built in 2002. It was my first step away from the Les Paul sound. After the tele was built, the strat was sold as parts.

(4) My 58 tele clone. Built over 2007-2008. When done, there was no going back.

[Tele295]

1968 Gibson ES-330

[thunderbyrd]

i have played mostly strats and les pauls for years, but i am in the process of converting to telecasters. i rented a new standard mim tele last week and this guitar kicks booty. when i play a note, the note is THERE in a way it ain't on a strat.

then to make matters worse, i played a new american standard today. this guitar was perfectly balanced, gushing with chime and ringing like a bell. i love it, i want it, i gotta have it.

i know that the bridge and saddles and etc on the am standard isn't considered the "classic" telecaster, but i don't care. that guitar is right. i'm selling my strat and bringing that baby home.

[redstringuitar]

Pocket billiards.

[BritishBluesBoy]

'82 Smith Strat that I bought when I was 16 (in 1984). I still have it - in fact I was playing it earlier today.

[thepassivevoice]

Originally Posted by FenderJunkee

Tele Meister,

I was in an auto accident last year, messed one of my legs up real bad, wasn't able to play the Bud.

Picked up a Hwy One Strat and a James Burton Tele and started in on 6 string. Haven't gotten back to pedal guitar yet. Hardly ever touch the Strat anymore either.

Sorry to hear that. IMHO the world would be better off without automobiles. I hope your able to return to the Sho Bud soon.

I play bender Teles mainly for second-rate pedal steel effects. Hence my comment about the Sho Bud. I'm now also using the Tele for amateurish attempts at jazz. But otherwise, I use another brand of guitar.

[porknblue]

Early '70s to 1992 (when I got the MIM Standard) a '62 SG. Probably would still be playing it but a baggage handler back in New Jersey broke the neck in half getting it from the plane to the terminal. That was in 1981. I was coming home from my first, three year tour across the pond.

Still got the SG. It's still broke...

[garrett]

The Tele is my latest electric guitar purchase. Prior to that: Stratocasters and Paul Reed Smiths. I still rotate between those and the Tele depending on mood, desired tone & feel, etc, but the Tele has gotten most of my time for over 2 1/2 years now.

[Gary in Boston]

I'll tell this story again.

My first electric was a Tele, 1967 in fact. For reasons not known to me sustaining notes in the high end was not easy. I was plinking along thinking it's the guitar, not me........ Anyway I bought a 1959 Les Paul Jr. That guitar played itself. You could plug it into a vacume cleaner and it sounded great. Sustain? Like a violin. It taught me allot.
I felt vindicated it was the Tele not me. Then one day I picked up that Tele and all of a sudden I could play it. I could get sustain out of the high end notes. No more plinks.

What's up with that I thought. Anyway sadly I sold both those guitars along the way but I will never forget that lesson.

Gary

[boris bubbanov]

I was whining bad, leading into one Christmas, that my Harmony sucked ( boy howdy it sucked!! ) and my parents where gonna spring for a used Fender 6 string "tele" for me. I got one.

Used '66 Fender 6 string student steel guitar. The one with screw on, "Tele"scoping legs. Nice, but no Tele-caster. For a good long while I thought I could play it pretty good, until I heard the country boys.

Uh-oh. I screwed up.