Tele or Esquire

[Esquire Jones]

Been playing guitar for decades but had never come across an Esquire in the wild. I got really interested when the 70th anniversary model came out. So I took a chance and bought one. Mainly I was pulled in by the light weight pine body.

The Esquire just manifests itself as a different guitar experience. As a player I love the looseness, the rawness, the primitive perfection. Not a dis on the tele in any way. I love them both.

 

[Old Deaf Roadie]

I play both. My go-to right now is the Ess-Kwire (a homebuild), but it's the Tele that goes to jam nite. I guess that is because the Tele is a bit more useful in a situation where you don't have any clue what's going to happen until it starts to happen.

 

[haggardfan1]

I've only played one Esquire and I really liked it. So very different from a Tele, maybe there's something to the "magnetic pull from neck pickup " theory, because it sustained for days.

I have two Affinity Teles, and if I ever have a little money extra, I intend to convert one to an Esquire.

 

[whetherkings]

Without wishing to muddy the waters, you could combine the two.

I recently built an Esquire but really it’s a Tele as it has a Seymour Duncan Brad Paisley Secret Agent hidden neck pickup.

I’m also using a no-load tone pot for some additional sounds too.

It’s a completely different experience to playing my other Teles - just the combination of pickups and wirings. I sometimes play with an ashtray bridge cover on too and I really like how that subtly changes the sound me makes me play slightly closer to the neck.

 

[Dukex]

Tele for me.

But I'd love a snakehead Esquire...with a P-90 stuffed in it.

 

[hockey guy]

I just purchased a 70th anniversary Esquire and I think it's a great playing guitar. It sounds wonderful too. I love it.

 

[Telecaster1954]

Brad Paisley Esquire.

 

[TelePlank]

Esquire. You can always add a 2nd pup if you miss it. I forget who, but they said I'd rather have a 2 pickup Esquire than a 1 pickup Tele. Can't go wrong either way though. The reason I love it is because if how simple an Esquire is.

 

[telemnemonics]

To answer this question I had to spend 20 years assembling parts Fenders with four five and six pickups.
What I found was that I like a single bridge pickup combined with picking & muting for a range of tones and responses.
Just a volume pot too, no tone control needed if the pickup is perfect and the amp is set bright but technique is practiced to get warm tones from a bright rig.
Then in a spit second you can change your tone from one note to the next without fiddling with knobs or switches.

 

[PomPomPudding]

If you're a rocker, I don't think you need a neck pup on any guitars. That said, I love the pretty tone from the tele neck pup and both in parallel.

 

[fenderchamp]

Wired correctly, an esquire can be as versatile as a Tele. Just don't use the original Fender wiring.

I like the original fender wiring. we are all only limited by our own technique and creativity.

Play whatever guitar you have, how you want to play it, as well as you can. the player is everything the guitar is just a tool, or in many cases a distraction or worse yet an excuse. A tone capacitor and a resistor are nothing, neck pickup even less, in the trajectory of an inspired musician.

 

[EsquireOK]

If you almost always use the bridge pickup, the Esquire allows you to control it faster or more finely, and allows you to operate with various tonal pre-sets on the same pickup, which is very helpful in fast-paced live situations.

If you love the neck pickup, and/or the in-between position (post-'67 "modern" wiring), get a Tele.

I have primarily played guitar in hard rock, classic heavy metal, blues, surf, and "general rock" bands – leaning more toward rhythm and riffs than soloing. My primary live axe since 2002 has been my Custom Shop white guard/brass-saddle Desert Sand Esquire (in my avatar with a black guard). For recording? Jazzmaster, Strat, Gibson, and sometimes Tele. Versatility is helpful there, and there's time to fiddle. But the speed of tonal control, and the "just flip between pre-sets" mentality on the Esquire are superior to me for playing live.

...and FWIW, I backed it up with another Esquire, or a Les Paul Junior.

 

[EsquireOK]

add a no-load tone pot if you want the no-tone control sound. If you want the darker sound, you can turn down the tone control. Not much that an esquire offers that can’t be matched, or very close to it, by a Tele.

It's not always just about what you can get from a guitar; it's sometimes about how you get there.

Those who say that the 1st position on an Esquire is really about having "no load," in and of itself, don't get it. The point of the "no load" setting on an Esquire isn't just a boneheaded: "Look ma! No load! Look at all the extra treble!" It is, in fact, indiscernible from tone control being on 10, in the real world of live and recorded mixes, listened to in real-world venues.

Its design purpose on the Esquire wasn't to give you the nearly inaudible extra treble vs. having the tone pot on 10. It was to allow you to flip back and forth between the equivalent of a dimed tone pot, and a pre-set tone knob, without needing to change where your tone knob is set.

Yes, you can install a no-load pot. But: 1) It really doesn't do anything for you that 10 on your tone pot doesn't do, and 2) It doesn't replace the Esquire's ability to leave your tone knob right where it is, when going to full treble, and then flip back to it, unchanged...which is the entire point of the 1st position on an Esquire.

Again, it's not just about getting the tone, but the path you take to get it.

I find not having to re-locate my sweet spot on the tone knob to be quite useful...as I'm sure anybody would, if they stopped and thought about it that way, or actually put a hearty amount of play time on an Esquire, instead of just counting the number of tones on paper, and theorizing that "more tones" must mean "better for everything" or "it can do everything the one with fewer tones can do."

Another note: Until late 1967, the Esquire was the ONLY way you got a tone control on the Tele-style bridge pickup, from the factory. On a Tele, the tone only acted on the neck pickup.

The Tele and Esquire were more than just higher end and lower end versions of the same guitar. They were also companions to each other, each offering different control over different pickups, on opposite ends of the tonal spectrum. The Tele was targeted toward those for whom the neck pickup was home base, and the Esquire was targeted toward those for whom the bridge pickup was home base. The Esquire actually gave the user greater control of the bridge pickup than the Tele did...plus a snarlier and snappier "dark" position – it being achieved with the bridge pickup, as opposed to the neck pickup, as on the Tele.

 

[gimmeatele]

All I can say is wish I got an esquire sooner

 

[AviA]

Time for NGD. Which one and why?

Why would anyone choose a T over an E or vs?

Yes 2 PUs instead of 1. What else?

I own a 70th Ann' Esquire for about a year now (see my profile pic).
Yesterday I placed an order for a neck pickup at Sweetwater (actually it's a set, but I Will only use the neck pup).

Hope this answer your question.

 

[Reedo]

Never owned an Esquire, but the temptation is there. I love Teles though.

 

[PCollen]

Time for NGD. Which one and why?

Why would anyone choose a T over an E or vs?

Yes 2 PUs instead of 1. What else?

Why would anyone give up the neck pickup when all they have to do is not use it ? Ah...but what they REALLY want is the LOOK, right ?

 

[PCollen]

If you don't have a Tele, get a Tele, unless you really want an Esquire.

If you do have a Tele, get an Esquire.

Get a Tele and make it an Esquire...you can always revert back later if you so desire.

 

[eddiewagner]

My electric stable: Tennessee Rose, SG

Then tele

 

[hockey guy]

I have the 70th anniversary Esquire and find that it's a perfect guitar. I love it. It' a total pleasure to play.