How did you end up getting hooked on a Tele?

[SteveY]

Originally Posted by Platefire

...I love tube amps...

Yeah me too. Especially small light ones!

I'm on kind of an anti-distortion kick right now, so transistor amps will suffice, but my Mesa/Boogie Subway Blues gets clean enough for most volume levels I play at these days, and is pretty light (for a Boogie).
Then when I want the crunch and sustain again, it will do that too.

I go through seasonal sound changes (it's a psychiatric disorder).

[hutch]

the first time i heard Jeff Buckley play a song called
"Je N' en connais pas la fin" from the "live at Sin-e" ep
it blew me away.
To transcribe a technical piano piece for guitar, then play and sing it in two different languages is just breathtaking!

After i heard JB i had to have fender telecasters!

Do yourself a favor and get a copy of this song, any music lover will love it! [/img]

[Hotrat]

I picked one up

[Platefire]

[quote]I'm on kind of an anti-distortion kick right now, so transistor amps will suffice[quote]

Yeah, for crystal clear clean tone transistors are hard to beat. For my tele playing I do a lot of string bending and
steel like swells(except when our steel player shows up) with the volume control and my main sound is clean too.
My tube amps provide the extra smear or clean compression I like. I've tried using a compressor and I never can get the thing set right to please me. The tube
amp does it more naturally with your dynamics of pick attack. I really haven't tried the new transistor tube simulated circuits so I can't comment on them. For my distortion I use a distortion or OD pedal with the amps clean sound. I've always wondered about Polytone, never had access to one.

When I first started playing my friends 69 Tele and really started getting into that ax I was playing through a 1990 SS Peavy Bandit (Before Transtube). It gave that Tele a real steely sound like the old Jame Bond theme songs. And thats what I love about the tele is that steely sound but you can also mellow them out with a little tone tweaking.

[Platefire]

[quote]I'm on kind of an anti-distortion kick right now, so transistor amps will suffice[quote]

Yeah, for crystal clear clean tone transistors are hard to beat. For my tele playing I do a lot of string bending and
steel like swells(except when our steel player shows up) with the volume control and my main sound is clean too.
My tube amps provide the extra smear or clean compression I like. I've tried using a compressor and I never can get the thing set right to please me. The tube
amp does it more naturally with your dynamics of pick attack. I really haven't tried the new transistor tube simulated circuits so I can't comment on them. For my distortion I use a distortion or OD pedal with the amps clean sound. I've always wondered about Polytone, never had access to one.

When I first started playing my friends 69 Tele and really started getting into that ax I was playing through a 1990 SS Peavy Bandit (Before Transtube). It gave that Tele a real steely sound like the old Jame Bond theme songs. And thats what I love about the tele is that steely sound but you can also mellow them out with a little tone tweaking.

[boogaloo]

I've told this story on this board before but I never tire of telling it (or remembering it either!)

I had about $200-$250.00 in my pocket- I "thought" I'd get a beater acoustic guitar or a backpacker as I was working with the church youth group and we were doing a lot of outdoor events, camping etc.

Anyway I walk into the George's music store in North Wales Pa. ..it's Nov. 1997. I spy a 72 Tele Custom RI on the wall. I take it down, play it, play about three or four other teles, go back to the 72 Custom. Buy it and take it home. The guitar spoke to me! My wife (God bless her) says "Well...OK...but are you going to be able to use that guitar with the youth group?" I tell her I don't know why, but I KNOW I need this guitar.

By March of 1998 I'm assuming the lead guitar part in an originals band-Christian Rock music, and we were together for 6 years total. My wife remarked that she felt indeed, I needed the guitar..

BTW- it was a CIJ and I traded it on a G&L Legacy cause the Legacy fit my body profile better at the time. I've since lost weight...am playing Teles for the past few years, and I MISS THE HECK OUTA THAT CIJ!

Someday I will break down and order one from Isibashi. Yes, IT HAS TO BE A CIJ!!! Did I mention I miss that axe?

Brian

[The String King]

My guitar teacher had one, and every time I was at my lesson, he would pull out his MIM Tele, and I would pull out my MIC Aria. His guitar would go "Twang" and mine would go "pfft". So I popped into a shop and played a few guitars. I played an SG and thought wow, but then played a Squier Tele and it blew me away! Still got her, she's my first "real" guitar. By real I mean a guitar that isn't just a cheap knock off. A year later I joined TDPRI and now I have 3! My favourite at the moment is Mojo Jo Jo. She is a MIM 99 Thinline... And she really sings!

[John Thigpen]

In 1972, I had been playing guitar about three years, starting on acoustic, and going through a couple of crappy (at the time) imports such as a Kent. I wanted a sunburst stratocaster just like the one on the front of Eric Clapton's solo album and the back of Derek & the Domino's Layla (both of which I later learned were the strat named "Brownie"). My father drove me to a store in Greenville, SC called Dixieland Music that supposedly had great prices, but it turned out to be mostly a warehouse with very limited stock. They didn't have any strats...the only new Fender was a blond 1972 Tele with white guard, but I was so impatient I couldn't wait. There was also a guy there with an Eastern European accent telling me "I play jass, and when you play jass you play the best, which is a Telecaster."

I actually regretting not having bought a strat for years, until I finally realized I could never find a strat that sounded as good as the Tele. It also took me years to figure out to back off the tone control on the guitar, and that the bass and treble on Fender amplifiers did not have to be set to 10.

I've had lots of guitars in the last 34 years, but just last year a friend commented that I always sound best on a Tele.

John

[kenoflife]

I started with a les paul copy when I was about 11...sometime around 14? another high school student in a local cover band sold me his tele custom - I went through a variety of pickups (humbucker/single coil) and
amps....took it to college....began to realize I had something unique in the tele - didn't want a strat or something else anymore....

finally sold it....got another tele custom after a year, this time I knew what pickups I wanted..more bad amps....had children...and THEN...in
my 30's (about 8 years ago)....I discovered...The TELECASTER DISCUSSION PAGE!!!!

Started with thinking I want a MIM Tele....more research...a connection getting a new 52RI with a neck from a different 52RI...all about 6 1/2 pounds...heaven!
Then figuring out the amp - Vibrolux -69 blackfaced...and finally! tone! Then pickups - back and forth - settling on Barden neck, Broadcaster SD on bridge, new plate for cord input, angled slot do-dads....
Then I was good for 3 years...

And now you can find me on the stomp page, figuring out the nuances of stomps that goose and stomps that push.

It's been fun, thanks to the TDP....(now TDPRI)!

[SteveY]

Originally Posted by Platefire

...I've always wondered about Polytone, never had access to one...

Welp, they are a staple of Jazz guys because they are very dry sounding, so they won't make your jazz-box howl and feedback the body like a Fender will.
But somehow they also work great for Tele's because they don't add much color from the amp itself.
Polytones are one of the few early transistor amps that sounded ok. Most sounded like dog dirt, IMHO.
You can find old ones (like mine) for $75!

New ones are $695 and up. None of them are especially reliable, but they work for a while between repairs before the heat gets to 'em again (they use a closed box to limit speaker excursion).
For short periods like 1/2 hour or one hour church services duty, you could prolly get one to last 50 years mean-time-between-failures!

As regards proccessors ability to model tube-like compression, they're getting better all the time (IMHO, the Roland Cube 30's & 60's are almost there), but they're more like a Blackface with diodes in the power supply, than tweed, if y'know what I mean.

[jlino56]

I bought a squire tele while on vacation as I was jonesin' to play. Cheap, nice feeling neck, cheap, did I say cheap?
I later decided to put some SD virtual stacks in and took it out to a gig. Played it thru a Bogner Metropolis & was totally hooked! Unfortunately, the thing would not stay in tune so; new Klusons, a new nut, and now the wiring is really bugging me. I will not spend one more dime on this guit but will be picking up a Hwy 1 in the next couple weeks. Can't wait!

Anyone play their tele thru Native Instruments AC Combo plug in?

Jim

[Platefire]

Jim

I got a three tone surnburst Hwy 1 last year and figured
after a month or two I would probably go back to my previous #1 MIJ 50's reissue strat but the Hwy 1 is still holding 1st place. Still all stock. I'm thinking locking tuners and compensating brass bridge but pretty happy as is.

My ax's
USA Hwy 1 Tele
MIJ 50's Strat Re-issue
MIK 87 Squire Bullet
MIK 95 Ibanez RG-450
MIG 70's Hoyer Les Paul
USA 50's Harmony Lap Steel
USA Tacoma Acoustic
MIC Kona Acoustic
USA/MIJ DIY Flying V
?Series 10 strat

[Rick J]

It was around 1968 or thereabouts, around 11 at night and I was in bed, half asleep, listening to the legendary BBC DJ John Peel's late night show.

Suddenly, out of the blue, he just said "If you want to know what an electric guitar is supposed to sound like, listen to this!" He then played a blues guitar track which woke me right up. Best guitar sound I had ever heard. Had to find out who it was, stayed awake to hear the back announcment that it was .... Roy Buchanan. No idea what the track was but it had all the tricks, and great, great tone. Checked things out the next day, (not as easy as I thought it would be!) and eventually found out that RB played a Telecaster.

Had a "thing" for Teles ever since that moment, although it was quite a while before I got my first one. (Fenders cost a fortune in the UK in the 60's, - you could buy a decent used car for less).

I keep listening out to see if I can find that track again, no luck so far, BBC don't have records going back that far.

Rick J

[xStonr]

Lots of songs that were played during my youth were made using Teles. So I always had that sound in my head. Then when I played one at GC and made those sounds, that was it for me. I had to have one so I got one.

[Platefire]

It's weird! I started playing about 1964 and played a borrowed tele from time to time for a night or two over the years when I had problems with my regular guitar. To me then it was just another guitar. Sometime in the late 80's I started noticing tele's in country music radio and got to where I could pick them out, not a hard feat,
but just suddenly became aware of that tone seperate from all the other guitar sounds. Then came the 90's and my bass playing friend Kenny encouraged me to play his old 69 tele. I started off just to please him to say, "Yeah I tried your guitar". Somehow I keep coming back to that thing until I was playing it a lot. What can I say, the thing fits like a glove with wonderful action and tone, Yep it's a guitar legend. Plate

[Buckocaster51]

With me it was a perfect storm.

I started playing while a senior in HS. Completely self-taught, didn't know much then, and maybe don't know much now - except that I LOVE MUSIC.

I got interested in Johnny Cash and see his guitar player playing this real plain-Jane looking white guitar.

Elvis came back from where-ever he had to come back from and soon HIS guitar player is playing a not so plain looking guitar that looks the same as Luther's!

Then I find out that although JB's hair is longer, he is the guy I used to watch on the Ricky Nelson TV Show (that was actually called The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) and he is the one that played that fantastic lead to Hello Mary Lou! Maybe the best guitar break EVER!

In the 60s there was NO BIGGER C&W star then Buck Owens. Gee, he and his sidekick played a guitar that looked like Luther's except it was different. (Okay, okay...there were other stars AS BIG as Buck, but NONE were bigger. I remember reading once, around '66-'67, that Buck Owens was spending around a quarter million a year on ADVERTISING alone. They were huge. In my world they were bigger than the Beatles and Beach Boys combined.)

Then there was this REALLY cutting edge guy that used to play with Buddy Holly that had the SAME GUITAR, except his was covered with black and white leather.

It took me a bit of time, but I finally figured out that they were all playing the same guitar!

So I started hanging around TerHark's Studio Store in Freeport IL, dreaming about those Telecasters that I couldn't afford - a new one cost like $300 - until one day George gets a '67 in on trade - or maybe the kid that bought it couldn't make the payments - I don't know - but it did have a hippy Flower Power flower decal (or two) on it. I picked it and a SFSR up for $250 or so, drag it home, buff off the decal (or two) with some rubbing compound, and I became a Telecaster owner.

If that '67 was the only one I owned, I would be more than happy.

Hubba-hubba!

[Joel Terry]

A twice-told tale.

Joel