Best Tele Toners

[effzee]

I'd put the Boss way up there in this list in the rock category. His tone is a distillation of the finest Telecaster elixir.




And in the rhythm and blues category, the Iceman himself

 

[effzee]

Michael Bloomfield

Oh man I forgot about him. Great call!

Love this video

 

[tele pickin']

James Burton and Clarence White

 

[Jim W]

Mike Bloomfield
Jesse Ed Davis
Kenny Neal
Muddy Waters
Jim Weider
Brewer Phillips

 

[Maguchi]

What tele player, in your opinion, has/had the best tone. John 5, Brad Paisley, James Burton, Jim Root, etc.

Outta those guys, James Burton.

 

[Maguchi]

In no particular order:
James Burton
Mike Bloomfield
Muddy Waters
Clarence White
Steve Cropper
Roy Buchanan
Jimmy Page
Jim Campilongo
Joe Walsh

 

[ndcaster]

Bill Kirchen



Duke Levine, Jim Campilongo, Tab Benoit...

 

[effzee]

Bill Kirchen



Duke Levine, Jim Campilongo, Tab Benoit...

I like how they used Keith as the thumbnail

Also love the song!

 

[Skyhook]

Jim Root

Jim Root?!
Not to put down Mr. Root's abilities, but I would hardly consider his sound to be "Tele tone".
Were you thinking about his work with Slipknot or his stint in Stone Sour?

Hell.. I wouldn't even consider his Tele to be anything but an EMG fuelled TSO.

 

[pbenn]

Steve Cropper:

 

[horseman308]

Too many options in too many genres. Being a rock guy at heart....

Izzy Stradlin.
Rich Robinson.
Jimmy Page.
Mike Campbell.
Billy Gibbons.
Keef, of course.

Blues-
Tab Benoit.
Johnny Lang.

Jeff Buckley had a beautiful tone.

As important as guys like Burton, Buchanon, Gill and so forth are, their sound was something I had to grow into. Despite growing up in Nashville during the 80s and 90s (or maybe because of it), I hated all things country music and wanted music that was gritty, swampy, and angry in addition to being sad. So grunge, alternative, and blues was where it was at. It was only when I realized several of my favorite players used Teles at all that began to come around to where I am now.

 

[golfnut]

Ray Flacke has always been my favorite Tele tone.

 

[Fenderdad1950]

Not the John 5 .... unless you play metal. Uber hot pups

 

[Wayne Alexander]

Pretty fond of Keith Richards, Andy Summers, Bruce Springsteen, Jason Isbell.

 

[effzee]

This thread is a tone goldmine, lots of playlists ensuing!

But I think a lot of posts are straying from the tone theme and simply mentioning good players who happen to use a Tele (?)

 

[Nick Fanis]

Bill Frissel,Manuel Galban,Graham Coxon and Kenny Vaughn,all of them masters in getting a killer Tele tone (no slouches in the chops department either)

 

[pippoman]

Marty Stuart

My favorite, and Kenny Vaughan ain’t too shabby either. Red Volkeart is on equal standing (and Vince Gill, Brent Mason, Brad Paisley, etc. etc). There’s so many great Tele masters out there, it’s an unfair question! All the ones mentioned are on my Tele-toner list actually.

 

[pippoman]

This thread is a tone goldmine, lots of playlists ensuing!

But I think a lot of posts are straying from the tone theme and simply mentioning good players who happen to use a Tele (?)

I think you’re right. After reading that I went back and edited my comments.

 

[jumpturn]

Bill Frisell.

“I’m not sure I can even play it.” Then he crushes it!

 

[Bruxist]

He is not my favourite player, though I do like him a good bit, but Jim Campilongo's tone wows me whenever I hear it.

Would also put the Iceman in there, even though it is far from a stereotypical tele tone.