A Tale of Telecasters

[treymonfauntre]

"But Sunday afternoon found me driving home with an American Deluxe Ash in the back of the SUV."

freedom at its finest

 

[cephus]

I play roots music and have been in need of a tele for a while - or so I thought. My bass player bought one and I had fun beating on it at his house. He's had it for 3 years or so and it was $450 bought from his friend who owns a music store. This was a super good deal. I assumed it was an American tele, but even 3 years ago, I don't knwo if you could get an american tele for $450. The neck is really light (not "vintaged") and it has the flat bridge with the 6 saddles.

Anyway, it sounds like a tele, for sure. I thought I was going to be able to find use for it. Unfortunately, just like when I tried les paul-esque quitars, I couldn't get an all-night good rhythm tone from it. They have a fairly distinctive tone that doesn't drop back out of the spotlight easily.

I just dropped a couple humbuckers in a strat and was immediately able to use it playing out. I am wondering if undertaking a strat project with a tele bridge to get that tele sound.

I'm spoiled by strats. Can't play anything else.

 

[lesterpaul]

cheap....

if you want tele tone on the cheap get the 150$ Squire, it's worth it if you are wanting to get close to teh tele tone. Be warned once you become intimate with the tele no other guitar will compare. I have 2 LPs had a strat (MIA) ES-330, flying V, numerous others. My Esquire (1986 MIJ) and Tele (1996 MIA B bender) gets the love.
Just for the record the 96 MIA has the 6 saddle bridge, but as soon as I can find a good 3 saddle it will get changed, the Esquire has it and I love the 3 saddle.

 

[freshmattyp]

I have 3, 2 Japanese 62 Reissues and a Mexican 50's Classic Esquire.

If you really want true tele tone, you need a 3 saddle bridge. The American ones intonate better, but don't quite get the sound. I have compensated brass on all mine, and they have no issues playing in tune up the neck.

 

[Zaphod B]

So, Matty, since you are using compensated saddles, are you saying the tone difference is because the saddles are made of brass? Or because of the physical construction of the saddles and adjusters?

On my tele, the six saddles are chromed brass.

 

[freshmattyp]

I believe it's both. Unplated brass saddles and the 3 saddle bridge seem (to me anyway) to contribute to that telecaster twang, bite and snap they are known for. In my experience, you get less of that with the modern bridge.

Now, that being said, the one you bought is the right one for you, and it's a fantastic instrument to be sure. The American Deluxe Telecasters are well made, great guitars. I happen to prefer the vintage style. You could always order one of these:

http://www.glendaleguitars.com/americanstandard.htm

 

[Zaphod B]

Cool stuff, Matty.

I think I'll leave it unaltered for the time being. From what I can tell so far, it's got tone out the ass.

.

 

[cephus]

I believe it's both. Unplated brass saddles and the 3 saddle bridge seem (to me anyway) to contribute to that telecaster twang, bite and snap they are known for. In my experience, you get less of that with the modern bridge.]

What about the difference between string throughs and top-loading?

Now that I think about it, it may help the bridge pickup twang, but it would certainly hurt the other PU combos as far as emulating anything else.

the reason why I am asking is because I was playing some teles the other day and really was digging on the strat-ish tele with the middle pickup. It was like $550 at GC. I just bought a guitar and they are starting to be leaned on every goddamned thing in the house, but it was hard not to have him wrap it up.

I have a homemade monster guitar that has a jaguar pickup at the bridge. I thought it'd be cool to get a surfey sound, so that's why I put it in there. It just sounds like crap for everything else. I was gonna hack out some more wood and put in a P90, which would be good for something. But I think it's be tits to get rid of the strat trem bridge and mount up a tele bridge/PU. I know it would looking f-ing CRAZY and if it would leave my other PU combinations intact tone-wise, I'd totally do it for a bad-ass authentic tele growl at the flip of a switch.

Three saddles, compensated? Sounds good to me but I have come to rely a bit on the piezos in the current strat bridge on the thing. I think I'm looking at getting the whole fishman or whoever bridge assembly. I'm not gonna do all that unless I'm confident that it'll sound like a tele when I'm done. Anyone have one of those piezo tele bridges? Does it make your guitar souns un tele like?

Last hurdle is that the thing has a hole cut in it for the tremelo block. I never cut out the springs and the thing interference fits (mostly). I was just leaving room for future expansion and I already had a couple strat bridges laying around when I built it. A top loader one would be great because then I can try it on and see how it works before over commiting to the process. I like the idea of being able to buy all the crap and screwing it on and trying it out in like 4 or 5 hours and a six pack. It doesn't have to look pretty, but it has to at least be as good as it sounds now, which is PFG.

I guess the reason I'm going on about it is because you guys are all gear heads and you probably do shit like this yourself and can say "Hey, dood, you should get one of these here lead PUs and wire this kind of switching yada yada"

 

[Anfontan]

What about the difference between string throughs and top-loading?

Now that I think about it, it may help the bridge pickup twang, but it would certainly hurt the other PU combos as far as emulating anything else.

I wondered the same thing about string through myself so I took a string through and top loaded set of Teles to a gig about a month back. Rhythm wise both sounded fairly similar but when I took leads the top loader just couldn't sustain or sound clear and clean on the higher frets...like above the 10th fret or so. Needless to say, I stuck with the string thru for 80% of the gig, the top loader just bummed me out!
By the way, within the month I had converted the top loader to string thru with the help of a drill press, it plays very sweet now...