The Watering Hole

I've been playing guitar - well OK, TRYING to play guitar (lol) for some 38 years now. I've currently got three Fender Stratocasters (bought my third one last week), a PRS Custom 24, and a Gibson Les Paul Custom - all great guitars but suffering from a hack like me attempting to make them sound like they should! And lets face it - for looks there's nothing sexier than a Strat, for rock 'n roll raunch a Les Paul is where its at, and a PRS - well, just a top quality (if overpriced), beautifully made all round working guitar.

But a guitar I've never really thought that much about until recently was the good old bread & butter simply designed Fender Telecaster. I'd tried a friends one when I was 17 & plucked away at one a few times since but told myself it was too bright and too clean for me. Great for country etc but not that versatile.

But over recent months I've been listening to a lot of stuff where the guitar used was a straight basic stock Telecaster & I've been amazed at the variety of tones coming from an instrument that hasn't changed from when Leo Fender brought out the 'Broadcaster' - the first solid body production guitar - in 1950. Because Gretsch had a drumkit called the BroadKaster, Leo agreed to stop using the name and for about 6 months or so there was no name on the guitar, just the Fender logo. Now famously dubbed 'nocasters' in that period, Leo finally settled on the name Telecaster.

Anyway, enough of the boring history lesson that you probably know anyway. So, I thought I owed it to Leo & myself to really try one out properly & just bought my first Telecaster and picked it up today. I figured if I didn't like it, I could always sell it, right? Anyay, it's a lovely immaculate 1989 USA Telecaster in metalic teal (or dark turquoise) with a white scratch plate and rosewood neck. The strings were knackered (a technical expression! lol) and it had some minor string buzz through being set up badly. So first thing I did this morning after picking it up from the post office was to restring it with some 009-042 GHS Boomers, & set it up properly.

To cut a long story short, it plays and sounds like a dream .....and I just have NOT been able to put this lovely guitar down all afternoon. It sounds glorious with every amp I have and it gets nuances out of my AD120VTX Valvetronix that no other guitar ever has. Why its taken me this long to 'discover' such a magical guitar I'll never know! Maybe its because I'm a bit more experienced now and can appreciate the brilliance of Leo's original design better.

Now, I realise that I'm probably just on a 'honeymoon' period - but I've been playing long enough to know when something 'magical' happens and something just feels and sounds so right in your hands immediately. And this just does - like the Heineken beer advert, this guitar reaches parts that other guitars can't reach. There's just something really special about that spanky Telecaster tone and that incredible 'hollow sounding' middle position that you simply can't get from anything else.

Anyway, thought I'd share my revelation with you guys, & maybe I'll put up a you-tube clip with it over the next month or so if I get time.

Rich  (oh, some pics below)

I agree 100% with that Rich. I bought a new fender tele a few weeks ago, and it just has something that you can't get from any other guitar. I love it !

I didn't use one when I was young for a much more stupid reason: I thought it was a fugly guitar.  So I ended up with a '76 Les Paul and that was that.

Enjoy!  :)

CraigBert — May 16, 2010I didn't use one when I was young for a much more stupid reason: I thought it was a fugly guitar.  So I ended up with a '76 Les Paul and that was that.

Enjoy!  :)

Actually, that's the very same reason that I never had one when I was young...just had no design appeal to it at all !

Who don't love the MOTHER of all electric guitars ?  ;)


Ciao !
Marco

Thanks for the "revelation" Rich.

Thanks to your post, I've decided that when I finally sell my gear I'll be on the hunt for a Levinson Tele to go with my Levinson Strat.

I also now know the colour of my Fender Strat Plus that I'm selling. (Also an '89 by coincidence).

BTW, Here's a link to the gear I do have up for sale.

http://www.musicradar.com/forum/showthread.php?t=59212

spud — May 16, 2010Thanks for the "revelation" Rich.

Thanks to your post, I've decided that when I finally sell my gear I'll be on the hunt for a Levinson Tele to go with my Levinson Strat.

I also now know the colour of my Fender Strat Plus that I'm selling. (Also an '89 by coincidence).

Hey Andy, hows it going!  Thank my wife for that one - she says its Teal & after over 27 yrs of marriage I've learned not to argue with her! (well sometimes, anyway!) ;D

Re the Strat Plus, you might be lucky but prices are really deflated at the moment.  I just bought a 3 mth old pure mint never used Limited Edition (Daphne blue, matching headstock) USA Standard Stratocaster with Fender hardcase, tags, and all the case candy that sell in the shops today for around £879.  I paid £460 inc delivery!  You can get genuine USA strats for as low as £400 at the moment!  



Rich  ;)

Nice Tele Rich, did you ever hear Roy Buchanan play a Telecaster? If you can get a hold of his Second album called "Roy Buchanan Second Album" and his first effort just called "Roy Buchanan" By all means do so, huff up some 'erb, and put it on in a room where you have no distractions, and see what a master Telecaster player can do with one.

By the way I used to have a fifties Telecaster, I sold it long ago for $350, the guy gave me 3 bills and never gave me the last fifty. Oh well. water under the bridge.

desertbluesman — May 16, 2010Nice Tele Rich, did you ever hear Roy Buchanan play a Telecaster? If you can get a hold of his Second album called "Roy Buchanan Second Album" and his first effort just called "Roy Buchanan" By all means do so, huff up some 'erb, and put it on in a room where you have no distractions, and see what a master Telecaster player can do with one.

By the way I used to have a fifties Telecaster, I sold it long ago for $350, the guy gave me 3 bills and never gave me the last fifty. Oh well. water under the bridge.

I've heard Roy - amazing player!  Looking back on letting go of that 50's Tele - that's gotta be painful!  I know, cos I sold my Marshall 1954 without knowing what it was!  :(

voxman — May 17, 2010Looking back on letting go of that 50's Tele - that's gotta be painful!  I know, cos I sold my Marshall 1954 without knowing what it was!  :(

I don't know, it is all water under the bridge, as nice as that stuff was, it ain't near as good as the modern stuff, although the collectors value is much more on the old stuff.

desertbluesman — May 17, 2010[quote author=voxman link=1274018924/0#9 date=1274077463]Looking back on letting go of that 50's Tele - that's gotta be painful!  I know, cos I sold my Marshall 1954 without knowing what it was!  :(

I don't know, it is all water under the bridge, as nice as that stuff was, it ain't near as good as the modern stuff, although the collectors value is much more on the old stuff.


You ain't kidding - that 1954 amp? £7,500-10,000 now!!  I feel sick even thinking about it.  :( :'( :'(

voxman — May 17, 2010[quote author=desertbluesman link=1274018924/0#8 date=1274052966]Nice Tele Rich, did you ever hear Roy Buchanan play a Telecaster? If you can get a hold of his Second album called "Roy Buchanan Second Album" and his first effort just called "Roy Buchanan" By all means do so, huff up some 'erb, and put it on in a room where you have no distractions, and see what a master Telecaster player can do with one.

By the way I used to have a fifties Telecaster, I sold it long ago for $350, the guy gave me 3 bills and never gave me the last fifty. Oh well. water under the bridge.

I've heard Roy - amazing player!  Looking back on letting go of that 50's Tele - that's gotta be painful!  I know, cos I sold my Marshall 1954 without knowing what it was!  :(

I think anyone over the age of 40 has a story or two of "one's that got away". I know my three are a Burns Trisonic that I swapped for a pushbike when I was about 14. A 1974 Gibson Flying V that I bought off EVH in Manny's NY for three fifths of nothing and then sold for four fifths with all the photo's and docs to back the sale (before he was REALLY famous). But my greatest regret was letting go of my first "real" guitar, a 1979 Ibanez Artist 2622. (The one with the active curcuit built in). I bought it from my local shop for £250, sold it for the same price to fund the purchase of the Flying V. Now they go for £1500 to £2500 depending on condition. The money doesn't mean shit though. That was still the best "playing" guitar I've ever owned and having recently had the chance to play another (lesser spec) Artist of the same age, I can confirm that the reality is still as good as the memory.

Back on topic...I have just one thing to say regarding Tele masters......Jerry Donahue 8-) :o

P.S........Oh and don't ever forget Jeff Beck!

Both great players Spud, & you're right - we've all let £000's slip through our fingers.  But, in the words of Sheryl Crow, here's a pic of 'My biggest mistake':



Rich  :'(