Keep Tele or Strat?

Keep the tele and refinish it in aztec gold.

 

Nashville Tele. Add a middle pickup and swiching so you can get Strat or Tele sounds from the Tele.

Or..put a Twang Banger in the Strat.

 

+2 Yup, best answer and solution. You won't miss much and still have the two fulfilling tone collections that's you love.

 

I’d say you got all the answers you needed. I sum of some of what I read…

A) You know that if you sell now a guitar you love and plan to buy it again later, chances are you’ll lose money in the process. (This one I haven’t read so far, but it’s true nonetheless).

B) If you have to sell, but want to have a tele and a strat, what everybody else suggested is sound: sell both, and get two top-of-the-line mexicans. The Classic Player / Vintera Modified series would be your direct replacement … a Baja tele and a CP 50s strat, both used, would keep you very well equipped and free the money you need.

C) If it comes to choosing either one or the other, no-one can make that call for you. It’s entirely subjective. The only question is: which one do you like more?

There’s a theme coming up a lot in the thread and it’s “a tele can’t do strat, but a strat can do tele” or some of it. I respectfully disagree. A strat neck pickup is wonderful but not as suited for, say, jazz or swing as a tele neck pickup. Nor is the strat bridge pickup the equal of the tele pickup in all things country and twang. And I could go on and on about specific tele and strat tones I love in rock and blues.

A tele and a strat are each its own thing. There is overlap and similarity, so if we talk very in general they are to an extent substitutable. But if you are very specific in your tone wants and preferences, neither can do what the other does. IMHO and YMMV of course.

 

Well, the question, strat or tele, is not a good question in the first place. The question is: are those guitars really good ones. I mean there are guitars that make you play better, longer, that seem to produce the right tone each time. Those really good guitars you should never sell, because you might never find the same again.

If you are talking about guitars that are just nice guitars, sell both. There are plenty and cheaper.

 

The strat is more flexible, for sure. But if you play mostly tele sounds, keep the tele. Also, Affinity versions of both are available and cheap. Sorry you have to make this choice!

 

When I want a tele I have to look long and hard to find one, while strats are everywhere. I'd say the tele will be harder to replace than the strat, so I'd sell the strat if it were me. But only because it's the easier guitar to replace. In the interest of full disclosure - I have multiple versions of each, but my teles are my favorites so that likely plays into my opinion.

 

That’s a tough quandary. I would not be so presumptuous as to tell YOU what to do but I have lots of guitars...Fenders, Gibsons, Martin, etc...and I know, if I had to choose and could only keep one, it would be a Telecaster. Not so much because it’s any better/worse than my other guitars, but because it’s always right for whatever music I might be playing. A Tele works for me on pretty much any gig I’d ever play.

 

Was a Strat player for 30 years...

20 years in I bought a tele and it hung on my wall for 10 years. I’d take it down and strum a few chords and hang it back up.

One day I took it down and never hung it back up again. Sold all my strats and haven’t looked back. No idea why it took 10 years?

For my musical tastes the tele is far more versatile for me. The tele bridge pickup is way more useful to me than a strats.

What I get out of my tele is Blues/Jazz tones from the neck pickup. Motown from the middle position and Led Zeppelin from the bridge alone. No Strat I have ever had can do all those tones convincingly like my current tele can.

When I played strats I loved the neck and neck & middle only. The rest were unusable for me...

Strats are great but they have limited use for me in my world...

In fact all I have right now is an Underwood tele...

 

You ask us to keep tele or strat?

Please remove account.

 

Sell kidney. Keep guitars.

 

That's a tough one. I own both and play both as well as a LP Standard. For me, as a working musician with a dedicated band and a lot of pickup jobs, it depends on the genre of music I'm asked to play. If it's Country/Americana, the Tele is the first choice with the Strat next if I break a string but always happy with both. If I had to get rid of one of my guitars, it would be the Les Paul.

 

there is a twisted wisdom to this that resonates with me...there are many more guitars that I remember wistfully than there are women...

however - I am acutely aware that the right woman is worth more than the sum total of all of the guitars I’ve ever given up

There is no right or wrong here - it comes down to what’s in your heart. It’s not perfectly balanced, but for me, I’ve got several guitars that all see a fair amount of play.

 

Op, I feel for you.

Do you have a friend that you can sell the guitar to, and buy back from? That would be the best.
While you could get "equal" instruments cheaper (like the vintage Tokai), it'll never quite feel the same.

What do you need the money for? How much? If you don't mind me asking...

-Matt

ps. After I get my workshop together, I'm hoping to build my dream electric--a strat bodied tele with 5 positions.

 

My girl buys me guitars so im all good , mind you she did destroy a strat of mine 20yrs ago so its ting and yang I guess.

 

I've found that Strats are more fungible than other types of guitars. There are so many of them out there that it's easier to find one that speaks to you than most other guitar types. My suggestion would be sell the Strat and keep the Tele because of that.

 

It's always been my thought that a strat can do everything a tele can but NOT vice versa. I might get a beat-down here.

 

Keep one Tele, one Strat.

Then start collecting offsets...

 

Here’s a consideration......all opinions aside, I have owned a 1964 Stratocaster for years and it was the only electric I played.
Then a few years ago I purchased a new AVRI 64 Telecaster in vintage white. Very nice guitar for sure, but in the interest of keeping it clean I put together a couple of T style guitars.

The one I play the most has a Lollar Vintage T in the bridge and a Lollar Royal T in the neck position. For those unaware, the Royal T is wound like a Strat pickup but has the same foot print as a Tele neck pickup.

It really does the trick for me, and if you don’t need/want the in between sound of the bridge and middle pickups of a Strat, you may want to give it a try

 

I play snd own several types of guitars, and have been around others who also play and own a number of guitars. Situations come and go, and I’ve seen friends regret selling guitars they believed they had to sell at the time. I understand the idea that selling a guitar can be a stopgap solution. Yet, in retrospect, you may realize you actually could have kept both.
I’m not a fan of selling guitars you like to play. For me, it’s all of them. Find a way to keep the guitars. Work out the money another way. You obviously want them both.

Keep them.