Telecasters: tell me everything

[Groo]

I just acquired a 2004-2005 Mexican Telecaster with a Seymour Duncan Hot Rail Humbucker in the bridge. It's nice, I like how it plays.

 

Now, I realize that I know nothing about electric guitars/telecasters, and I want to know everything about them. I've already been furiously googling for information, but I feel like there's some stuff I'm missing. What are some things I should know about my Tele? I don't know anything about electric guitar strings, which ones are good to get?

 

I love the Tele tone, and the pickup in the bridge right now isn't the best for acquiring that tone. I'm planning on replacing the pickups with the Fender single coil noiseless Tele pickups. Is there anything else I should replace while I'm at it? The bridge plate? What kind of mods do people usually make to these guitars, and what are the best ones to do?

 

I'm also going to pick up a Fender Blues Jr. or Pro Jr. to complement this new guitar. Are there any pedals that are pretty much a must have? I feel like I should get a Tube Screamer and a Compressor, although I'm not 100% sure if I need them.

[Gobias Industries]

Get brass saddles. They're great if you want the Tele tone.

 

Look up the Highway Texas Telecaster, see what mods it has, and go from there. I've heard the Highway Texas Teles pretty much even eclipse their American Telecaster brothers...

[Groo]

Get brass saddles. They're great if you want the Tele tone.

 

Don't these have some disadvantages as far as setup/intonation goes?

[jimmyjimmy]

I know your looking for input and suggestions on how to use your Tele to achieve that classic bright crisp sound but if you really want to know everything about Telecasters may I suggest...

 

 

The Guitar Book:A Handbook for Electric and Acoustic Guitarists Revised and Enlarged Edition By Tom Wheeler

and

American Guitars Revised Edition:An Illustrated History also by Wheeler

 

Both delve into the history of Fender and the origins and evolution of the Tele in great detail. Neat books.

[rockinrob]

It all depends on what kind of player you are. My saying is that if an electric guitar plays well and sounds gtreat unplugged, you have a good start on finding your tone. There are literally thousands of options for were you could take that guitar, and it all depends on what you are going to be doing with it. I personally do not like any of the modern conviences on my teles. I like vintage kluson tuners on them, 3 saddle brass bridges, vintage style pickups, paper foil and oil capacitors, so on and so forth. But there are so many cool things they have developed for teles. You should put an electro static input jack in, regular jacks are known for shorting out, and the elctrostatic ones stop this. They make a 4 way pickup selector that lets you select both pickups in series or parallel (sounds like a bad ass humbucker), and there are many more that you could do from there, like switching the control plate around so that the switch is towards the bottom. If you want to pm me, I'll give you a call and Ill tell you a bunch of cool stuff that I know of for teles.

 

Just remember what matters the most is how you play and what you are looking for. Everyones needs are different!!!

[sean Patrick]

tell you everything. huh?

ok.

they are one of the best guitars on the planet.

and everyone good plays them.

you are automatically better if you play a tele! why you ask?

because. fact.

[Groo]

So, I went down to Guitar Center last night, on a mission to buy some pickups and an amp. They didn't have the amp or the pickups I was looking for. But, they're shipping the amp (Fender Pro Junior) to my house, and they gave me a discount on a similar set of pickups. The pickups that I got the Fender Hot Rod Samarium Cobalt pickups. Does anyone know anything about these?

I know your looking for input and suggestions on how to use your Tele to achieve that classic bright crisp sound but if you really want to know everything about Telecasters may I suggest... The Guitar Book:A Handbook for Electric and Acoustic Guitarists Revised and Enlarged Edition By Tom WheelerandAmerican Guitars Revised Edition:An Illustrated History also by WheelerBoth delve into the history of Fender and the origins and evolution of the Tele in great detail. Neat books.

I will definitely look into those, thanks!

[a.miller]

Purchase a Tube Screamer and also a Boss Tremolo. Those are the best two pedals you can have for my $$. I have the Fender Blues Deluxe reissue, which is basically just a higher-wattage amp with the same features you're getting in the Blues Jr. Let me tell you -- those amps are AWESOME sounding. As far as strings go, I use 10 gauge D'addario XL on my Fender and Gibson. They're pretty durable, sound good and that gauge gives a little more sustain than a 9 gauge string.

[ginandcigarettes]

There's probably more voodoo surrounding the tele than any other guitar. That's not to say that it's unwarranted just that almost everything in that went into the original nocaster is reputed to be essential in getting great tele tone. A whole boutique industry has popped up based on the voodoo. Whether the voodoo is true is totally up to your own ear and I won't seek to dispel any of it, but here are some thoughts on the things that were mentioned and some stuff that wasn't:

 

Brass saddles are generally considered part of the tele voodoo supposedly because the extra mass provides more sustain and the fact that two strings rather than one are pushing down on the saddle supposedly gives a stronger connection between the saddle and the body. If intonation is a problem, get a compensated set, which are angled just slightly to match the standard string stagger on individual saddles. Stew-mac.com sells a set. Remember you need a new bridge if you want to drop it into a Mexican tele. James Burton did not have brass saddles (he had smaller diameter threaded nickel-steel); Danny Gatton did have brass saddles. Take your pick.

 

I dunno about noiseless pickups. I've heard good things about Fender's new line of SCN pups, but I tend to think that you need a bit of 60-cycle hum and microphonics to nail that 50's tele tone (I had a set of Kinmans that I felt were missing something). I love Seymour Duncan Antiquities, and some people swear by Fender's Nocaster bridge pup. SD's Alnico 2 neck pup is quite popular.

 

Mexican teles have either alder or poplar bodies, which have become the standard woods since the 60's for teles. 50's teles were typically swamp ash and a lot of voodoo has sprung up around that -- in a nutshell, swamp ash is supposedly THE tele tone, and the lighter the body, the better. Don Rich probably played with alder bodies, though, but I don't know for sure.

 

Highway One teles are prized because they have a couple of modern appointments with some vintage stuff, too. They have the three saddle bridge, and the body is finished in lacquer (though, they don't advertise that it is not, in fact, vintage-correct nitrocellulose lacquer). They also have a more modern nut width (1 11/16), radius (9 1/2), and medium jumbo frets. I personally love big frets, but I hate wide, flat necks (I like narrow, curvy necks with deep, chunky profiles).

 

I tend to think that the pickups and the amp play the biggest role in getting the tele sound. Spend money on both and work on the rest later.

 

For all things tele-related, check out the Telecaster Discussion Page Re-Issue: www.tdpri.com

They have dedicated forums for each of these things and I've generally found that everyone there will bend over backwards to help.

 

 

I hope this helps!

[Groo]

post

 

Wow, thanks, exactly what I was looking for!

[ginandcigarettes]

Purchase a Tube Screamer and also a Boss Tremolo. Those are the best two pedals you can have for my $$. I have the Fender Blues Deluxe reissue, which is basically just a higher-wattage amp with the same features you're getting in the Blues Jr. Let me tell you -- those amps are AWESOME sounding. As far as strings go, I use 10 gauge D'addario XL on my Fender and Gibson. They're pretty durable, sound good and that gauge gives a little more sustain than a 9 gauge string.

 

Good points, all! A Tube Screamer and its clones (Full-Drive, Route 66, 4,000 others) are industry standard for any rock guitar gig (though I recently replaced my Full-Drive because I got kinda tired of that creamy sound and went in a more AC30 direction). A tremolo is something to have, but don't ignore the cheap Danelectro Tuna Melt ($20 or so on ebay) -- It's good enough for Bill Kirchen.

 

Strings are right up there with pickups and amps; 10's will get you a good twangy sound, though whether this is the tele tone you have in mind depends on your tele heroes: James Burton uses a hybrid set with banjo strings: 9, 10, 12, 24, 32, 36; Clarence White from the Byrds supposedly used 9's with a 12 for the G string).

 

The Fender Blues Deluxe is well-loved for getting a vintage Fender sound with modern conveniences like an overdrive channel. My friend uses one in his band and sounds great, and when our two bands went for a psuedo tour to Las Vegas, we shared his amp to save space (I brought my tele and pedalboard including tubescreamer). Let me tell you, I hated everything about that amp. No matter how I tweaked it it sounded harsh with an ice-pick-in-the-ear character. It didn't compress how I wanted it to (solid-state rectifier?) and just felt really unmusical like it was fighting me. Greg plays through = great! James plays through it = crap. All this to say, as with any piece of equipment, your mileage might vary; try it out with your guitar and your pedals (this is important) at gig volume (Tele into Carl Martin AC-Tone through Deluxe Reverb at bedroom volumes = crap; Tele into Carl Martin AC-Tone through Deluxe Reverb at gig volumes = God.

 

That said, I really like the musicality of the Fender Pro Junior, but I don't feel that the Blues Jr or Blues Deluxe are just louder versions of it.

 

Also, a lot has been said about Fender amps, but don't ignore Vox amps such as the AC30 and AC15 and their clones (Laney VC30, VC15). The honk in the upper midrange and the compression of the AlNiCo speakers compliment teles quite well. Mike Campbell from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers uses a Broadcaster with an AC30, and Brad Paisely (I know, I know, but he sounds great) uses a Dr. Z amp that is based on the AC 30.

[a.miller]

Ginandcigarettes (or James) -- fantastic write-up. What pedal are you using to achieve your AC30 tone? When I've done recordings I've been using some pretty tweaked Amplitube settings to get that great Vox sound, but would love a live solution.

 

EDIT: I want a telecaster.

[Groo]

Compensated bronze saddles w/bridge and electrosocket jack ordered. I just got an e-mail from my guitar guy, and he says there might be an issue with the bridge not fitting correctly. That would suck. Hopefully everything will work out once the parts come in.

[ginandcigarettes]

Ginandcigarettes (or James) -- fantastic write-up. What pedal are you using to achieve your AC30 tone? When I've done recordings I've been using some pretty tweaked Amplitube settings to get that great Vox sound, but would love a live solution.

 

EDIT: I want a telecaster.

 

Thanks! I use the Carl Martin AC-Tone. There's a youtube video of it done by one of the editors at guitar player magazine. I'd link to it but youtube is being uncooperative (though the sound quality of youtube is so bad that I'm not sure if it's the best way to evaluate a pedal -- you just have to kinda take the guy's word for it).

 

I think it's a wonderful pedal -- it's got 2 identically voiced channels that you can set for different levels of gain plus a clean boost switch that works independently of the overdrive so you can boost either of the overdrive channels or just your un-effected tone. I set the first channel for just a touch of grit so that it only gets hairy when you really lay into the strings. The second channel I set up for a more singing overdriven sound.

 

It's not cheap or even really affordable, but I found a B-stock unit on ebay that made it affordable-adjacent.

 

It seems to need an amp with a fair amount of headroom (your Blues Deluxe's clean channel should be fine). My friend tried one out on an old Fender Champ and it just broke up too fast to tell that it was Vox-y. Even the minimum grit was too much. It sounds great on my Pro Junior and Deluxe Reverb Reissue.

 

I was also eyeing the tube-powered Vox Over the Top Boost, but it seemed less versatile. I never got to try it out.

 

[ginandcigarettes]

Compensated bronze saddles w/bridge and electrosocket jack ordered. I just got an e-mail from my guitar guy, and he says there might be an issue with the bridge not fitting correctly. That would suck. Hopefully everything will work out once the parts come in.

 

I think you'll be fine. The vintage "ashtray" bridge has the same four-screw mouting spacing as the Mexican tele. I think American teles use three screws, and squiers use all sorts of different combinations. I was able to swap the vintage style bridge from stew-mac with the bridge in my MIM Nashville tele with no problem.

[In a little rowboat]

The two-on bronze saddles do (to my ears) sound better, but they are by their design, very difficult to get exact intonation because you cannot adjust each string individually. You shoudn't have much of an issue with this however, though it is best to make sure you have a string tree for strings 1 and 2 (the break angle on the headstock is very important to pitch). Bronze saddles will, over time, wear down faster under the strings than chrome, again not a huge issue.

 

 

jobu

[Sid Hartha]

I think you'll be fine. The vintage "ashtray" bridge has the same four-screw mouting spacing as the Mexican tele...

I can verify this. I got a Mexican standard Tele about 7 years ago, and have since modified it to '50s specs, more or less:

 

"Vintage" tailpiece (with threaded steel saddles - better sustain in my opinion), USA '52 "Nocaster" replacement neck (U-shape profile, nitro finish), Fender USA Vintage pups, Klusion tuners. To top it off, I switched to flatwound strings (d'Addario Chromes .010-49). Unbelievable tone on this thing - it's my favorite guitar.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/scopdom/IMG_1402.jpg

 

My son actually made his own Telecaster using the extra parts I had laying around, plus some stuff he got on ebay. His is pretty unique:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/scopdom/nutele1.jpg

^note the GFS dual rail humbucker in the bridge. When the coil's tapped, it sounds just like a Tele pickup. When both coils are on, it wails like a Gibson. He did a similar trick by wiring two Tele neck pickups together.

[Groo]

I can verify this. I got a Mexican standard Tele about 7 years ago, and have since modified it to '50s specs, more or less:

 

"Vintage" tailpiece (with threaded steel saddles - better sustain in my opinion), USA '52 "Nocaster" replacement neck (U-shape profile, nitro finish), Fender USA Vintage pups, Klusion tuners. To top it off, I switched to flatwound strings (d'Addario Chromes .010-49). Unbelievable tone on this thing - it's my favorite guitar.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/scopdom/IMG_1402.jpg

 

My son actually made his own Telecaster using the extra parts I had laying around, plus some stuff he got on ebay. His is pretty unique:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/scopdom/nutele1.jpg

^note the GFS dual rail humbucker in the bridge. When the coil's tapped, it sounds just like a Tele pickup. When both coils are on, it wails like a Gibson. He did a similar trick by wiring two Tele neck pickups together.

 

Wow, very nice.

[Sid Hartha]

thanks.

 

here's a good source for info on all things Telecaster:

 

http://www.provide.net/~cfh/fender2.html#tele

 

...or if you have any questions, there's a whole army of Telecaster geeks ready to chime in here:

 

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaster-discussion-forum/

[Gobias Industries]

I can verify this. I got a Mexican standard Tele about 7 years ago, and have since modified it to '50s specs, more or less:

 

"Vintage" tailpiece (with threaded steel saddles - better sustain in my opinion), USA '52 "Nocaster" replacement neck (U-shape profile, nitro finish), Fender USA Vintage pups, Klusion tuners. To top it off, I switched to flatwound strings (d'Addario Chromes .010-49). Unbelievable tone on this thing - it's my favorite guitar.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/scopdom/IMG_1402.jpg

 

My son actually made his own Telecaster using the extra parts I had laying around, plus some stuff he got on ebay. His is pretty unique:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/scopdom/nutele1.jpg

^note the GFS dual rail humbucker in the bridge. When the coil's tapped, it sounds just like a Tele pickup. When both coils are on, it wails like a Gibson. He did a similar trick by wiring two Tele neck pickups together.

 

Those are two of the sexiest guitars I have ever seen.

[Groo]

I got my bridge in yesterday. I lined it up on top of the one currently installed, and it looks like it will fit. Hooray! That's good. Now all I need to do is give my guitar guy a call, and get this thing all set up.

[Sid Hartha]

I got my bridge in yesterday. I lined it up on top of the one currently installed, and it looks like it will fit. Hooray! That's good. Now all I need to do is give my guitar guy a call, and get this thing all set up.

That's great news!

 

Before you call that guitar guy, you should read this: http://www.fender.com/support/telecaster.php

 

If you still feel uncomfortable about doing it yourself, definitely go with a good tech (especially if you have a guy you trust). But it's not nearly as complicated as people make it out to be.

[Groo]

That's great news!

 

Before you call that guitar guy, you should read this: http://www.fender.com/support/telecaster.php

 

If you still feel uncomfortable about doing it yourself, definitely go with a good tech (especially if you have a guy you trust). But it's not nearly as complicated as people make it out to be.

 

I really trust this guy. He does a fantastic job, for a very reasonable price. The time/frustration and money I'd put into tools for doing the same work makes it worth it to just have him do it, especially since he does such a great job. I figure that he will get everything together much better than I could, much faster.

 

But thanks for the link, though! It will come in handy at some point, I'm sure.

[Groo]

Just took it over to him last night. It took him a couple hours, but here it is:

 

 

 

For some reason, these pictures turned out really dark. The color of the guitar is a Midnight Wine.

 

Here are my impressions:

 

The guitar sounds a lot louder unplugged with the new saddles. It sustains for miles, and sounds GREAT unplugged. And I love the look of the bronze saddles with the Midnight Wine.

 

Intonation is a bit off (according to the tuner) but it still sounds pretty much dead on to my ear. The guitar plays a LOT nicer after the setup, but I'm not too crazy about the neck, especially when comparing it to the American Telecasters I've played (the Highway 1 is my favorite). The guitar tech spent a lot of time working all the buzz out of the guitar while setting it up, and it still has tendency to buzz if I'm not RIGHT ON the string. It feels kind of cheap, almost like a Squier neck. Is there anything I can do about this without breaking the bank?

 

I had the guy put 9s on it, which is a lot smaller than I'm used to (acoustic player here, 12s is the smallest I've gone). It's taking some time to get used to, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.

 

I haven't had the opportunity to plug it in to an amp and really jam out on it (my Pro Jr still isn't here yet), but the pickups sound good from what I've heard. Definitely noiseless, but I think that kills a little bit of the personality. The neck pickup sounds gorgeous. I can't wait to really try these out.

 

The Elecrosocket jack is fantastic, a great, deal, and a quick install. Highly recomended.

[jimmyjimmy]

It feels kind of cheap, almost like a Squier neck. Is there anything I can do about this without breaking the bank?

 

Doubt it. As an acoustic player I'm assuming the radius/width isn't the problem for you. Is it the shape and profile; (C-D shape?).

You can go aftermarket replacement, which is probably your best bet but that'd be something you'd really have to hold in your hands to make a judgment on. You can have the profile altered by a luthier if the two of you can come to a consensus of what shape your really going after. But then you'd have to deal with the issue of the finish on the back of the neck.

 

PS. I really dig that little decal in the center of the pickgard+ that wine color. Nice looking Tele. You guys with all this Tele talk have got me seriously looking at a Baja with a v-profile neck. *here*