Your Favorite Telecaster Tones

[Si G X]

Here's a tale about tone....

 

[effzee]

This old thread from the archives has quite a few good examples of a wide variety of Telecaster tones, highly recommended:

Tele Toners

 

[TCA117]

fortunate to see Duke Levine several times, truly a master of the telecaster.

 

[smoothrecluse]

Like others have mentioned before, the Telecaster is a pretty versatile instrument, especially since they come set up in so many configurations - single coils, humbuckers, heck, some metal players use them - Jim Root plays a tele-shaped thing, and John 5 plays some heavy, heavy metal and bluegrass. My favorite Tele tones though probably come from Pete Anderson.

 

[JesterR]

Some older videos, which still has a great Tele tones:




And a newer ones:

 

[jkingma]

When I think "Tele Tone", Roy Buchanan is the first person to pop into my head.

 

[nickmm]

 

[telemnemonics]

Mike Campbell with Tom Petty is a good example of iconic Tele tones we may not think of as all about the Telecaster because 1) they serve and fit the music so well, 2) there is not so much THE ONE Tele sound as the greatly expressive range, and the cause being: 3) while other iconic guitars have the same bridge and neck pickups, the Tele has a very dark neck pickup and a very bright bridge pickup, which further forces the player to pick and think different for each pickup, so the range is broader.

Strat and LP bridge & neck pickup tones are just brighter and darker versions of the same basic pickup sound, which is not a bad thing but makes them easier to identify and characterize.

Which Tele pickup can we identify as "THE Tele sound"?

 

[telemnemonics]

Interesting though, the old iconic Tele players tend to have worked with the two very different pickups, while today the gear aftermarket, hobby modding, and gear forum chat option anxiety: has led to popularizing brighter nickel silver covered Tele neck pickups and darker hotter over wound Tele bridge pickups, losing the originals broad range and making the Tele just another body shape/ modding platform.

 

[effzee]

I just remembered I posted this short clip many many years ago for a friend who wanted to hear my guitar.

This is my Texas Tele with the Super Paul Bunyans, played through my H&K EL84 20W 12" combo on the drive channel. Recorded on whatever phone I had at the time.

I really really dig this tone

 

[msalama]

Try to beat this with your Tele, or whichever guitar, tone and I'll bet you're going to lose.

 

[Telecaster88]

Mike Campbell with Tom Petty is a good example of iconic Tele tones we may not think of as all about the Telecaster because 1) they serve and fit the music so well, 2) there is not so much THE ONE Tele sound as the greatly expressive range, and the cause being: 3) while other iconic guitars have the same bridge and neck pickups, the Tele has a very dark neck pickup and a very bright bridge pickup, which further forces the player to pick and think different for each pickup, so the range is broader.

One of the things I love about the Robben Ford video I posted above (Quoting it below for convenience) is it's a master class in picking at different places on the strings to get a broader range of tones out of each pickup setting -- from up by the bridge for a tighter, brighter sound, and -- one of my favorite spots-- right where the fretboard meets the body for a super warm, thick woody sound.

I've watched this video a bajillion times.

 

[DoubleTall]

kind of a shame to mention "white lies" and not link to this performance. KLLR

 

[Slippery Jack]

The Stranglers

 

[Slippery Jack]

Dave Gilmour - Don't.

There sounds like many effects but it is a tele, an old one.

 

[Stratohacker]

Bernie Leadon's playing on those early Eagles albums was great

 

[Stratohacker]

 

[Stratohacker]

 

[Stratohacker]

Mike Campbell's tele tone

 

[Eddiebaby1]

I've got Twisted Teles in my AmPro2 Tele and I amazed at the variety of tones I can get into a quite distorted amp by using the tone and volume. I certainly use them a lot more than I do on my Strat as the effect is so much greater.
I can't think of anything I can't get a passable sound for...



Heres a bit of rock...