For lean and clean you can't beat a Tele for sure. For heavy stuff, it takes some tweaking but you can get there. MY 85 MIJ Tele has really thin sounding pickups but with enough compression and gain i get get some good screams out of it. I love the sound of an overdriven tele in the neck position, something about it is so distinctive.
Before you go buying a cheapo Fender check out some old Peavey tele copies. I have an old "Reactor" that's American made and mostly high quality (some of the hardware sux), the pickups are better than my fender and the neck is a supurb one piece maple job. You can pick one up for under $200 almost anywhere, very underappreciated. It would give you a chance to "try out" the telecaster sound/feel without buying into the whole overpriced Fender thing.