Please Educate Me: Why Tele Is The Most Versatile

I just stumbled across this promo from G.E. Smith on his (then new) Fender signature Tele. Never really heard much of his stuff other than SNL, but found this to be the best promo for a tele I've come across, and he's a great story teller.

 

”Please educate me: why tele is the most versatile”

Tele to the masses

 

The bridge pickup is a bit hotter than a strat and the tone control can be used on it.

I think ES-335 type guitars are more versatile. You can't get that country tele twang, but you can play jazz, blues, punk, metal, rockabilly, etc., and the tone is much better for those styles than the tele in many cases, not that you can't use any guitar to play any style.

 

I keep Hearing how uncomfortable the tele is,well how much more uncomfortable is an acoustic then ? C’mon people it is only 2 inches wide. Are we not men ? The men and women in our military carry forty pounds of stuff all over their bodies. I think we can deal with a slab body guitar. I love the tele body shape without the belly cuts. I would prefer all strats to have the same tele body shape. I would like strats a lot better then. I know Fender came out with the strat tele model but I already have two strats I like.


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In summary. Less can be More. It is what it is, use a Deluxe, Twin or Super Reverb to dial in just about any tone imaginable.

 

I think people (me included) say Teles are super versatile is because it is one of the few guitars that can do spanky and chimey cleans on middle/neck position, while also having the ability to twang and give full roaring distortion tones from bridge.

 

People with bellies like to complain.

 

Tele+ EQ Pedal = all you need

You can even get sounds like in position 2 and 4 of a Strat or a Humbucker Sound

 

Les Is More --Gibson

 

If One Hundred Dollar bills are versatile (buy whatever you like with 'em) then why do some wiseguys insist on having so many of them?

Why do some people own 35 apartment units when they can only live in one? Why have 14 pairs of jeans when jeans can be worn to install a fence, or to wear going out for dinner?

I don't have to feed a guitar, nor take it to the doctor, nor take it for a walk. When not in use it just (it appears) appreciate in value. How does owning multiples of them connect in any meaningful way to what you can or cannot do with the instrument once you're plugged in and playing?

I guess some people get distracted from their practicing and start tinkering and more guitars = more opportunities to tinker. OK. I will grant you that.

 

Actually iI dont think that it is versatile, instead it has a very characteristic sound, very unique and suitable for different genders of music.

But keep in mind that tone is in your fingers so you can find tele players everywhere doing all kinds of music.

 

Isn't an instrument that's suitable for different genres of music, the very definition of versatile? I see nothing incompatible with a guitar having a distinct personality, but also being useful in almost any musical setting. At least, that's the way I've always used the term "versatile".

I do really respect the way Telecasters have a distinctive voice and yet each different player can readily coax out his own sound. Personally I think the basic S-T two single coils Telecaster is an optimal blend of being very musically "flavorful" but the flavors don't intrude enough to mess with the sound that different genres are supposed traditionally to possess. Although in some cases I would say the Telecaster was already there when some of these genres were born and so they're infused with "Tele-ness" because the Tele was such a ubiquitous tool already.

 

And...a canoe paddle.

 

Well said!

 

The magic is in the bridge pickup. It's voiced in such a way that clean and low-gain gives "twang"; higher gain is full like a humbucker but with an "edge" to it.

 

It's not. Its player may be versatile, but the Telecaster is just another 2 pickup guitar. I like my Carvin. It has two pickups also.

 

Agree with those pointing out the balance and voicing of the two pickups. 30 year strat guy who almost always had a tele neck pickup in them. The strat is no slouch but it does have a pretty weak bridge pickup. Versatility is a big issue with me and although it took me a long time to get here, I'm in. I always thought of strats being sports cars and tele being the old rusty pickup truck... you can just do so much with them... All this said I butchered my tele to give it more sounds...

 

It's actually all three things, mostly (#1.) player ( we definitely agree on that ) but the (#2.) AMP pedals/effects AND the (#3.) Guitar make up " the sound ". THE TELE will most certainly be able in most cases to deliver unique tones and tember given a quality nocaster bridge pickup. But no matter how much I play, eat, and sleep with it; can I expect to wake up and be Roy Buchanan? ..
Unlikely!

They are ELECTRIC guitars and are mostly all ( all types) able to provide a huge pallet of sounds.

I think we may be starting to beat a dead horse here.

 

When I was 18 and had three guitars my dad said why do you need so many guitars, you can only play one at a time and you never made a dollar from them. So I replied, why do you need so many golf clubs, you can only play one at a time and you’ve never made a dollar from them.
Individual golf clubs sure aren’t versatile .


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Even Roy Buchanan can’t wake up and be Roy anymore , so that would really be beating the dead horse, just my warped
Sense of humor.


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