what ...EXACTLY...is the vintage tele sound

[getbent]

Originally Posted by tdowns

This is vintage Tele in my mind. But, what the heck do I know.

Vintage Tele

Agreed and, shamefully, to add when I needn't I would pick for a full range of good tele pickup sounds...

"Drift Away" by Dobie Gray.. if you want to hear the full range of great telecaster sounds..... this song has it along with TBTT

[jpkusa]

Originally Posted by SteveY

I agree, and would add a tube amp.

Yeah but what about rosewood boards/steel saddles? You'll need that if by "vintage" you mean Steve Cropper or Mike Bloomfield.

But for 50's tele, I love the Buchanan. Arlen Roth's Tele video, and the Jim Weider videos, have great 50's Tele tones.

[chickenpicker]

Originally Posted by benbo

...cant quite get it out through my fingers :? :? :x

Maybe only players with the right vintage of fingers can achieve the sound. Did I tell you about this amazing guy who can manipulate an ordinary player's fingers, and after a few sessions you can really hear the difference in their tone? Of course, he charges top dollar, but the results are fantastic...

[Heather Anne Peel]

To me, my Tele Deluxe and Tele Custom RIs through my Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 50 tube half stack is a "vintage" tone. For someone else, maybe it's a 1950s Tele through a 1950s Fender tweed amp. I can dig that, I like that "vintage", as well!
8) Heather

[zombywoof]

Well, this one has been beat to death but one more observation
Vintage tone = two scatterwound singe coils on a solid body guitar in one hand and an amp in the other. If ya need to make more than one trip from the car to the stage, you may be searching a long time for the answer to this post.

[crawdad]

Originally Posted by zombywoof

If ya need to make more than one trip from the car to the stage, you may be searching a long time for the answer to this post.

That made me smile! Lot of truth in that statement. I began playing when effect meant reverb and maybe vibrato on the amp. It sounded great then and it sounds great now. Go figure.

[jjw43]

Steve Cropper put up some classics with Booker T and Jim Messina dialed it in too.

[nonvintage]

Mike Campbell on his and Don Henley's Boy's of Summer.

[LOTF]

Any Tele can produce vintage tone if the player knows what he/she is doing. The beauty of the Telecaster is that, more than any other model of guitar, it has created its own, specific playing style. Unless it's being played by a total klutz, you can always tell when a Tele is being played.

I play my SG. My Tele plays me.

[firefrets]

Lots of interesting opinions.I thought this would get you all thinking.After hearing people talking about,and aching for,the so called "elusive"vintage tone,i'm slowly coming to the opinion that there is infactno such thing,lol I guess when all the pickup manufacturers advertise their pups as vintage,they are selling us THEIR OWN concept of what it is....which is?...exactly.
I'm still to find 2 pieces of music from 2 different guitar players,that sound identicaland in my opinion,the only thing i can recognise as being..say...FIFTIES...is the actual vibethat's going down.Could this be more to do with recording tecniques,and fifties studio equipment,than it could ever be to do with the guitars themselves? :D

[azfenderman]

Originally Posted by tdowns

This is vintage Tele in my mind. But, what the heck do I know.

Vintage Tele

'Vintage' certainly is in the ear of the beholder :-)

Terry, I would agree that your clip probably nails 'vintage' pretty well, but the clean Tele tone of Jerry Donahue in this and other clips is really sweet to my ears.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRLBq...erry%20Donahue

AZ~

[Schnauzer]

Mr. Downs I believe has played the ultimate trump card. Thank you Terry you lonesome fugitive you.

[mdahearn]

I think Jim Campilongo has defined for me what separates the Tele sound from the rest of guitar makes. Check out the song "Bustin Up" on the album "Loose". His "Harlem Nocturn" on the same album is Tele incarnate as well. A vintage Tele sound cuts like a knife with a clean clear top end but has an unmistakable meat and growl without even when not overdriven. A Tele always cuts through the band without the need for signal processing tricks (compression, overdrive etc.) and never takes up room in a mix...it sits exactly where an electric guitar should in an arrangement. In contrast, a Strat is by nature glassy, bell-like and "polite" sounding. Gibsons are distinguished by a thickness which sometimes sounds like you have a blanket over the amp, and Gibsons are sonically mix hogs. I can't tell you how many times (I'm an ex-record producer) I've told bands armed with multiple Gibsons to use only 1 Les Paul/Marshall in the arrangement (for the rhythm part(s)... and pull it back in the mix!), then do the cool parts on top with a Tele, with a small wattage tube amp whacked up if you are going for the big sound. The only guitar that rivals a Tele for Mojo is a Gretsch, with that unique "knock"...The Gretsch sound is kinda like an archtop Tele, and I think of them as brothers sonically.

[scarb]

Originally Posted by firefrets

I've seen every tele maker and pickup manufacturer under the sun write about it.I've heard every twanger talk about it.I've even spent week's trying to decide which pickup's to choose for my first tele and never once stopped and asked myself the question...what..EXACTLY..is the vintage tele soundthat thousands of player's crave for?....You see..i'm a strat/gibson player,who's never took much notice of the telecaster,and it's history,untill i heard a few great twanger's and thought..."yeah"..i'm gonna build a tele and give it a whirl.I never gave the vintage thing a second thought.I've heard great modern players since,and they all sound different(as expected),and i've listened to some old stuff,and in my opinion...they too,sound different.So i'm trying to get my head around what people CLASS as the VINTAGE tele sound.Surely they didn't share the same amp,so there must be specifics regarding the guitar which give that particular vibe.would someone like to give me an example of maybe a recording,or ?
Sure...i've got my own ideas about it,but it would be interesting to hear what you guys & girls think. :D

What made you want a tele??? Thats the VS for you.

peace
scarb

[Roli]

Originally Posted by getbent

"Drift Away" by Dobie Gray.. if you want to hear the full range of great telecaster sounds..... this song has it along with TBTT

I also thought it's a Tele... was I wrong! From this site:

VG: What guitar did you use on “Drift Away?”

Reggie Young: It was a ’69 goldtop Les Paul with the mini humbuckers. That guitar is in the Country Music Hall of Fame. I performed with Dobie Gray not too long ago at 3rd & Lindsley (a Nashville club) with Lonnie Mack. I had to go out and get the CD and re-learn “Drift Away” (laughs).

[getbent]

Originally Posted by Roli

I also thought it's a Tele... was I wrong! From this site:

VG: What guitar did you use on “Drift Away?”

Reggie Young: It was a ’69 goldtop Les Paul with the mini humbuckers. That guitar is in the Country Music Hall of Fame. I performed with Dobie Gray not too long ago at 3rd & Lindsley (a Nashville club) with Lonnie Mack. I had to go out and get the CD and re-learn “Drift Away” (laughs).

SWEET! HA HA! Vintage Tele tone from a Les Paul! I would defy just about anyone (this will allow for the obligatory post from someones with better ears) to tell me that ain't a tele! I was convinced for years that Gerry McGhee used a tele on "Blue Moon with Heartache" but found out from John B. that he was playing a les pau as well...

I've thought more than once of posting a clip touting vintage tele genes on a shred mochine... Well, thanks for that and for the link, I had not read that article...

Thanks for the clarification and I stand dutifully corrected... I assumed that Reggie was playing his modded tele.... it is what happens when I assume!

[Telemarkman]

Love the story 'bout Reggie Young using a Les Paul w/minibuckers for "Drift Away". But It doesn't really shock me, 'cause I used exactly the same model for playing country music in the 70s, at a time when I didn't have any Teles.

I think it kind of "proves" my earlier statement :

I think it would be fair to say that any vintage type Tele - whether old or reissue - through a vintage type amp, will have a vintage Tele sound - however different that may be. (You could also add any other guitar that can mimic these sounds).

And I still agree with most posters ! :D

[tdowns]

Here is some more "vintage Tele" in my liddlo mind.


Roy Nichols - Whooper Snooper

[SteveY]

OOO!

Tks fer that one!
Whooper Snooper is da bomb!

[5digits6strings]

Generally speaking, "vintage" or "traditional" Tele sound can be acheived with a low output Tele pickup in a three saddle Tele bridge. If you go six saddle and/or go with high output pickups, you may have a less recognizable "Tele" tone.

[crawdad]

Originally Posted by 5digits6strings

Generally speaking, "vintage" or "traditional" Tele sound can be acheived with a low output Tele pickup in a three saddle Tele bridge. If you go six saddle and/or go with high output pickups, you may have a less recognizable "Tele" tone.

If you would have heard my 70 ash/maple neck with a Lawrence 280 bridge pu and a Barden neck pu, six saddle brass bridge through my Allen Old Flame tonight at a concert I played, you would have heard a very recognizable Tele tone. No question. Twang, chime, bite and Tele tone in spades. Heck, it even surprised me how amazing and--dare I say it--"vintage"--that guitar sounded tonight. Maybe the Fender gods were benevolent tonight, lol!

[TG]

Early James Burton.
Gene Vincent and the Bluecaps when Johnny Meeks was with them.
Early Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.
Roy Buchanan's first 2 albums.

If that lot doesn't show what a vintage tele sounds like then nothing will.

Danny Gatton's Sun Medley is my favorite example of a classic telecaster sound. Twang, snap, spank, sparkle, grunt...
Pick a tele-adjective and it's in there.

[firefrets]

scarb wrote

What made you want a tele??? Thats the VS for you.

What made me want a tele was upon hearin the lap steel.That was a sound i loved,and before you ask me why i don't buy a lap,it wouldn't sound great in my hands for a long time,lol.
I started listening to more players and discovered the guitarists that they played with.After time went buy,i heard different sounds that i liked,and decided it was time to incorporate that into my playing.I lean on the more melodic style of blues,through to texas/swing,so figured some twang chops would open my playing up,and the telesound would sound great for blues.After hearing gattons harlem nocturne(bluesy twang),i figured that was that.I got wiplash in a smash,and my hands went numb for a while,(15 months so far,lol)so i thought i'd build my own to get me playing.2 teles were born...long story lol...and should be ready once i get the pups. :D i'm wondering why more players don't use them for blues