introduction to the Tele Guitar

[G Stone496]

Saw Teles in vids when I was 12 or 13 and thought they looked cool. Not in a country music context though. Although I’m starting to like some country now. I saw vids of Christie Hynde playing one, Billy Gibbons, George Harrison, Keith Richards, Muddy Waters, Andy Summers, Joe Strummer and had to have one.

 

[fenderchamp]

I've told this story before... I was in the Marine Corps and had just got back from being overseas. While deployed I had been listening to a lot of Jeff Buckley and had also learned that Jimmy Page played one...

Anyway I got back to base in Hawaii and I had a fairly large wad of cash burning a hole in my pocket, having not spent any of it. I knew I wanted a Tele, so one day while in downtown Honolulu I thought I'd stop by a guitar shop. The guy behind the counter informed be they were closing in 5, I said it won't take that long. I asked where the "Mexican Teles" were, he pointed out a handful on the wall. I walked over, decided I liked the sunburst finish the most, so I took it down and said "this one please", totally unplayed. Then I asked for a cheap combo amp and he suggested the Fender GDEC. Sure! I had a new rig and it took all of three minutes and I think $900 or so out the door.

The first time I plugged it in was back on base and man, it was just so different from my humbucker guitars! I don't know how I went 10 years without really playing single coils, but it was instant love. My induction into the church or 60 cycle hum.

Anyway, I did sell that guitar to a friend, but it started the love affair with "the plank" and is the reason my number 1 for the past 5 years has been an Esquire with... drum roll please... A Don Mare 2-Speed StangRay!

View attachment 1044427
Edit: The friend I sold her to was kind enough to snap a pic of my first Tele, so here she is!.

that's one sexy guitar. What kind of strings do you have on there, and how did you get all of those winds on those posts?

 

[fenderchamp]

my first solid body electric was an AIms tele copy. I was 13 or 14 maybe? I just, correctly, thought they looked cool, and Bruce had one, and that was enough for me really. I had to learn to embrace the screaming treble of a single coil pickup in the bridge of a tele pretty early on as a result. I remember it was kind of a shock to me any many ways.

 

[Hodgo88]

that's one sexy guitar. What kind of strings do you have on there, and how did you get all of those winds on those posts?

I was honestly hoping nobody would notice, LOL

The strings on that guitar are an experiment I wanted to try - they are GHS Boomers in 11-15-18-26-32-50, a balanced tension setup for Open E slide tuning.

When they showed up in the mail, I couldn't find my snips and in my hurry to play with the new thing just decided to bury them in the Klusons. I promise I won't be a crazy person the next time I string it up.

BTW, I've said it a few times on this site, Don's StangRay is the bees knees on an Esquire. A3 magnet, 42awg 5.4k first tap, 43awg 10k second tap. Two distinct and very usable sounds from one pickup, one a little cleaner and country, the other a little more greasy, a little more lap steel.

 

[GuitarRod]

To my ears, my introduction to Telecasters were the following three players of my '70s childhood: Muddy Waters, Steve Cropper and Reggie Young but as far as playing Telecasters well that didn't happen until my first time around with a Squier VM Telecaster 8yrs ago although it wasn't set up properly but 3yrs later I gave it another go with a Fender Classic 50s Telecaster directly in a 2x12 Hot Rod DeVille... OMG WHOA JACK! Both pickups sounded like my reconfigured Strat!

(22yrs prior to this 50-minute experience, my MIM '95 Strat Special was my gateway to 'Telecasterville'; the splittable humbucker was unpleasantly dark on 2 so i moved the RWRP PU to the neck position. I always kept the outer coil linked to it cancelling the inner coil and my special tone was born at this point.)

Then i played a Nashville Telecaster for less than 10 minutes; only thing I like about it were the noiseless pickups but it was set up like a Strat (go figure!) so I couldn't get the neck and bridge PU's together.

The Tele experiences happened at GC and it was the second one that really had an impact on me so much that I left the store feeling rejuvenated knowing that the traditional Telecaster vibe was the way to go for me and also at that point the love was enhanced more from the experience alone so much that all my Strats (except the Hendrix homage) now carry the Tele homage proudly in addition to the Teles themselves... LUVEM!

 

[fenderchamp]

I was honestly hoping nobody would notice, LOL

The strings on that guitar are an experiment I wanted to try - they are GHS Boomers in 11-15-18-26-32-50, a balanced tension setup for Open E slide tuning.

When they showed up in the mail, I couldn't find my snips and in my hurry to play with the new thing just decided to bury them in the Klusons. I promise I won't be a crazy person the next time I string it up.

BTW, I've said it a few times on this site, Don's StangRay is the bees knees on an Esquire. A3 magnet, 42awg 5.4k first tap, 43awg 10k second tap. Two distinct and very usable sounds from one pickup, one a little cleaner and country, the other a little more greasy, a little more lap steel.

I have an esquire with a tapped pickup too, it's q's pickup though, not a Mare, I'm sure that Don's tapped pickup is tops . The Q in my esquire is a 5/2 and I think it's a little hotter than that 13/6 maybe. I love Esquires!!

I have a Cavalier tapped tele bridge pickup too. I haven't finished the guitar that it's going in yet though. When I get busy on it, I'll of course, start a thread in the Home Depot.

 

[Twang-ineer]

I am at my heart a bass player. Guitar is just a more amusing instrument to play alone. I have always had problems with anything with a trem. I have many guitars, and only one with a trem I like.

In the 90's when guitar started to become an interest, I had plenty of friends guitars to spend time with. The first Tele that I touched just made sense to me. It was like a tiny Jazz bass, with a funky bridge that I thought of as Leo Quan, but flat and long.... again, my point of reference was as a bassist.

The tele that I got in the early 90's that I had for more than a decade was an 80's MIJ Tele, Olympic white with Rosewood that some fantastic soul had already taken a belt sander to giving it a forearm and belly contour. The exposed wood had gun oil rubbed on it and the neck was amazing (I still have that).

At the time I put heavy flats on it and had a luthier friend set it up as low as it could go. I rarely ventured off of the neck pickup, and only had an interest in single line runs and practicing scales/modes. It was just way easier to drag around than a bass, and easier to just pick up and enjoy.

 

[mr natural]

My main guitar for many years was a ‘63 Gibson Melody Maker. I started wanting something with more balls and that would stay in tune better and would be hard to break. Wasn’t looking for a Tele specifically. Tried every guitar that I could get my hands on for a couple of years. I did a consulting gig that put some extra cash in my pocket. Bought a brand new 2003 American Series Tele in natural because it met my specs. I have modified it since then with a rosewood board, very chunky Allparts Strat neck, forearm cut, phase switch and pickguard painted by me.

 

[jdl57]

Did he though?

I remember my older sister reading something about M.N. in some publication, and he was quoted saying that after getting the part, he practiced really hard for six months to prepare himself. My mind immediately went to the intro of "Valerie", and I thought...not!, and we didn't even use that phrase back then. I'm pretty sure Louis Shelton played that part.

 

[lammie200]

Working in NYC in the early ‘80s. I only had one guitar which was an Ibanez acoustic that actually hated. Went to Rudy’s on a Saturday and I think that I paid $299 for a black USA made Tele with a plastic HSC. Just had to have it. Strats were more money and I thought Teles were sexier anyway. Also bought a $99 Rockman headphone amp. Don’t remember how but I got rid of the Ibanez a short while afterward. I kept the Tele for about 10 years and then started building partscasters.

 

[Dik Ellis]

It's a Carvin TL60 and it won the Guitar Player Tele shootout in 1995. It cost me $600, and was my 1st Tele style guitar. It's

 

[Lucius Paisley]

I remember my older sister reading something about M.N. in some publication, and he was quoted saying that after getting the part, he practiced really hard for six months to prepare himself. My mind immediately went to the intro of "Valerie", and I thought...not!, and we didn't even use that phrase back then. I'm pretty sure Louis Shelton played that part.

I'm sure Nez learnt it eventually. And being Texan, I'm sure he dabbled.

 

[omahaaudio]

Wandered into Manny's in the early-80s and they had Squier Teles (the early MIJ versions) for around $150 including a gig bag. I bought one. It was excellent. Darn shame it was stolen during a break-in a few years later.

 

[Masmus]

I’m a little surprised by my own story. I never thought a Tele was a guitar for me. I never played one, never thought about getting one just no interest. I had never even played a Tele type. At a guitar show I spotted a 50 Broadcaster with original electronics and bought it. That was the first one I ever played. I came here and realized I was missing out and then bought a Telecaster and feel that I was missing out all those years.

 

[Sparky2]

It was December of 1975. Dothan, Alabama.
My teenage garage-band-mates and I were at the lip of the stage waiting for Foghat to appear.
The opening act had been great, but this was the main event.

The roadies were thumpity-thump sound-checking the drums while most of the concert attendees were off using the bathroom and getting fresh drinks. Not us young rockers though. We were glued to the activity on the darkened stage, while some vintage Led Zeppelin played thru the house PA.

At one point, one of the roadies began tuning and sound-checking Rod Price's guitars while another did a quick check of Tony Stevens' bass. One guy walked out, strapped on Lonesome Dave's Les Paul Junior and did a quick run-thru, and then picked up a purple metallic Fender Telecaster.

I guess the guitar volume was rolled all the way up, because when the tech cracked into a crisp, heavily-distorted A chord, he nearly blew the roof off the place. It was gorgeous, it was loud, and the tech just grinned as he held that one chord into a satisfying, harmonic feed-back. Then he rolled the volume knob off, set the guitar in the stand, and walked offstage.

The concert began scant minutes later, and it was fantastic. Lonesome Dave played that Tele exactly once, but it rocked every bit as nicely as his Gibsons.

From that moment on, I knew two things;
* You don't need humbuckers to rock
and,
* Someday I would own a Telecaster

It took me 37 years to find my first Telecaster, and I have since bought and sold a few more.
I own just one now, and it's a keeper.
2004 Standard Telecaster, in a beat-up blue agave finish.

 

[hemingway]

Roy Buchanan. That's it.

 

[Crafty Fox]

There was a small guitar shop in the heart of my hometown Glasgow in the late '60s and a teenage Crafty pressed his nose to their window every Saturday hoping to catch the scent of that original Paisley Fender Telecaster.

Fast forward some years and I had returned from a back packing trip around France, Italy, Greece, Germany etc with some cash I had put aside for emergencies. I had taken my acoustic and felt it must be time to go ELECTRIC!
I lived in Oxfordshire, England by then and went to a small Andertons in Reading to buy a Tele but they didn't have one so I purchased a new 79 hardtail Stratocaster which I still have.

Fast forward again, and I'm now in Perth, Western Australia and needing some cheering up after a broken marriage. Found a used '52 Reissue (1988 USA) and it followed me home. And I will never part with that Tele.

I have a thing for Thinlines and I've built 5 now.
Here is the latest:

 

[burtonfan]

A group of us went to see The Rolling Stones' "Let's Spend The Night Together" at the local movie theater... I believe it was about 1982.

After watching 90 minutes of Keef and all his teles on the big screen, I had to have one!

 

[Festofish]

I thought Teles looked dumb. I don’t remember my first. I do know that my #1 and #2 are both “Teles”.
I trade a bunch of stuff with this guy I found on Craigslist. Every few months we’d text and see what was moving. The first trade is a bunch of stuff and included a Schecter PT HH in a gold top. Twenty years old and I
love it!
The second came along when I won an Oly Wht Vintera Road Worn deluxe right here on TDPRI. I’m starting to think Teles with buckers are my jam.

 

[Telecaster88]

It was Spring of 1989. I was 20 years old, and had been playing guitar for four years or so, a bright yellow Ibanez Roadstar II Strat copy. I was into punk and underground music and I began to notice that some of my favorite musicians (Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum, Robyn Hitchcock) played Teles. I had a vague idea that they were "country" guitars, but/and their simple, utilitarian nature began to be really appealing to me. Seemed like a good guitar to use for punk rock. And it was about as far from the eighties/hair metal superstrat as possible.

I was in the local shop and they had one of the brand new 1988 American Standard Teles on the wall, in vintage white (cream). At the time my dad ran a '55 Chevy in cream and white, and I thought it was the most beautiful color combination I'd ever seen.

I borrowed some money from a friend and brought it home, and it's been my main guitar ever since. Nowadays I have a bunch of different guitars, and they all have their unique qualities and tones, and I love em all, but the sound of a Tele into a Fender amp is what I hear in my head when I think of "my music."