Who got you hooked on the Telecaster? Mine was Marty Stuart

Springsteen

when I was 13 "Born in the USA" came out, my dad got some tickets to 2 shows in Providence, unfortunately I did not get to go (10 hour drive one way) but he brought me back a shirt from the show. I wore the thing out. That guitar was so cool...Then when I was 16 or so my dad said I should try guitar, he never played but had a deep liking for music, one that I had too...my choice was a guitar like Bruce's. Of course it was a tele that I got and I still play only a tele today.

 

Country Music

When i discovered the country music i had had a Fernandes 335 ( great guitar ) . So i started playing country music with that baby.. WIth the time i discovered the twang thing, and i thought that i should change it for a telecaster. So i sold it and buy one tele.
Then i discovered people like James Burton or Danny Gatton and i have felt in love with it.

 

Same here. His too-bright, out-of-control sound is still a Tele benchmark to me.

 

Billy Hancock

My first guitar guitar teacher was Billy Hancock, a Fairfax VA native, singer and bassist for Danny & the Fatboys, elected to the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

When I took lessons from him in 1979/80 he had some old Tele with the body covered in tooled leather. The picture below is a bit more recent.

 

Hooked by...........

Roy Buchanan, from the PBS special in 1971. That showed the guitar I'd been hearing on AM radio in the hands of James Burton, Steve Cropper, etc. on countless top 40 hits.

 

Paul Burlison of Johnny Burnette's R'n'R Trio

 

George Harrison & Roy Buchanan!!!

 

A sales guy in a music shop in Bristol, England about 15 years ago. I was looking around for a fiesta red 60's reissue strat (my dream at the time - mainly for the looks ) but a friend of mine came along too and was looking at teles. The sales guy said "we've got a proper tele out the back, are you interested?". My friend said yes and out came a lovely JV in butterscotch with a blackguard which the salesman claimed was the best tele they'd had for a while. He began (what I later found to be) chicken pickin' and unison bending the heck out of the thing (through an old SFTR) and that was it for me. My friend beat me to that guitar but I knew where I was going from then on.

 

Nobody, really...

The guitar sold itself to me. I didn't know how different guitars could sound. The more learn to listen, the more I find that great players' styles are what make them unique. I still think it's more the player than the instrument. Between a Strat, a LP, and a Tele, though, a Tele sounds the most identifiable as being what it is. I'm sure anybody with some real talent could trick me into thinkin something else was a tele, but they'd have to try awful hard to make it sound like one.
I'm still underexposed to the great country and blues players out there. I was a metalhead from 13-25 so everything was ESP, B.C. Rich, Ibanez, Jackson, Hamer, and Strats. I wanted really badly to break from being that closed-minded about there only being this one thing. You all keep giving me more and more great stuff to listen to.

I also always saw Elvis Costello and Chrissie Hynde and Christopher Thorne (Blind Melon) with Teles.

 

I'd always known it as the "twangy" guitar, and when I decided to really learn electric guitar in my increased age, I wanted twang. Can't really credit one person though, although I remember when I sealed the deal at the music store, Dave (the owner) said "Waylon is looking down and smiling."

The more I learn though, the more versatile I realize the Telecaster is. It's got a delectable blues flavor, which I never would have thought (although I must admit my only previous blues has been "consumer" blues in the likes of SRV and ZZ Top, and I've only recently been digging farther back.)

 

The price

I wish I could say there was one individual who inspired me to pick up the Tele, but my musical heroes didn't really play Teles. Back in 1964 I needed a new guitar to replace the old Silvertone in a case/amp guitar. I had little money and was really into the British sound... Beatles, Stones, Hollies, Searchers, etc.
I couldn't afford Gibsons, or Rickenbackers, and the strat was more expensive, so I ended up with a basic blonde Telecaster w/rosewood neck, $150 out the door, brand new.

No..... I don't still have it, sold it in 1967 for $100 (hard kick to posterior)
Yes.... I wish I had held on to it (second hard kick to posterior)

 

Joe Strummer , Hugh Cornwall , Keef, mainly..........

 

Keith, etc.

Keith Richards, Pete Townshend (circa '66), Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp to name a few. Keith was numero uno, and remains my fave guitarist of all time.
8) Heather

 

EAST BAY RAY!!!

 

1. Buck
2. Muddy
3. Clarence

 

My first tele inspirations came from Keef when I saw them on the 1981 Still Life tour and Townshend...even though he was playing a lot of Schecter copies. But he played a beautiful Fender one in the Rough Boys video and You Better You Bet and Don't Let Go The Coat Who videos. It was the guitar sound that Pete got on his Empty Glass album that really intrigued me. That sound opened the door for me to Albert Collins, Steve Cropper, Roy and Danny...etc....
And even though I have strats and epiphones and other whatnots...I always come back to the Telecasters in my collection. Yeah...capital T.

 

Seeing George Harrison playing that rosewood tele in the Let It Be movie also helped.

 

+1

for blues the iceman albert collins

country roy buchanan, danny gatton, brad paisley

 

jesse lacey from brand new, mostly cause i was amazed at the beatings a tele can take. but what made me take the hot rails out and make it sound like a telecaster again was keef. i hope i'm that cool when i'm 200 years old.
-jeramy

 

Had to be Waylon . . . and the older Johnny Cash . . . but mostly Waylon - been trying to copy that sound for a couple of years

Dega