Tele/Method Update...

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 10 Aug 2005 4:57 pm

Yes, it's getting late, I must be going too.
We'll let the Fender wannadbes stay and talk. I mean, if it didn't wannabe a Fender, why would it look like it?

I put a .12 on my second string too; that's the only one that needs extra beef.

Jim; laughter is my only apology.
It was a great party, Eric. Thanks!

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 10 Aug 2005 5:14 pm

To think in 1972, a friend and me in a duo bought matching tele's. He was coming off a jazzmaster and I off a Gibson Melody Maker.

We both hated the tele's. Way too tinny for the lounge stuff we were doing at the time.

We both ended up with guitorgans. Talk about a big sound, with two guitars and two keyboard sounds coming out at once.

Now, among others I have a squire strat, a G$L tele and an American (active) strat. Each has it's own sound, but the squire strat is far hotter than any guitar I have owned.

Jim is right. They're doing something right over there.

Mike Winter · Post by **Mike Winter** » 10 Aug 2005 9:03 pm

Jim -- I agree. When Leo started G&L, he took the "Fender" technology a step further. So is a G&L Tele not a real Tele? Same thing with his original Music Man Sting Ray bass. It was taking the Fender P bass to a new level, just like he did when he polled Tele players in the mid fifties about what they would change about the Teles, and then incorporated their ideas into the (then) new Stratocaster.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 11 Aug 2005 12:25 am

This is really not a valid arguement..

When Leo started G+L he did not make a Telecaster.., it was a fine guitar but it is NOT a Telecaster..He changed the PUPS, changed the Headstock etc..because he had to..he sold the patent designs..They were not necessarily better Guitars, they were different...and also the better part of 20 years newer..and they never took the place of the Telecaster on the market, not back then or now..are they nice ? Sure..but they are not the same, don't sound the same don't feel the same....

The arguement is NOT that the off brands are not fine Guitars, they are..some are exceptional..

BUT they are not FENDERS and many prefer the NAME for whatever the reason, one being is that it is part of the History.

Me, I prefer the real name on the Headstock...

The simple end of the day response to this arguement is the same one that has been carried on for decades..Everyone else is cloning the Telecasters...

Like stated above, a kid buys a new guitar , he wants to brag that it IS a Fender , not just Like a Fender...

True...there are some real crummy Fender Telecasters out there..but there are also some real premium ones too..and at right around the $1000 mark you can really get a fine new USA Instrument....

And Ken, my first Electric was a Melody Maker as well.. when I started changing brands back then it took me a long time to get into the thin sounding Telecaster mode..I think that was true for many of us...playing a Telecaster requires having a playing STYLE for a Telecaster, back then I didn't have any style....that took another 20 or 30 years...and even thats debatable...

We should not get into the Strat discussion here...and how it came to be....

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 11 Aug 2005 2:43 am

When Leo started G&L, he took the "Fender" technology a step further.

No question about that, he couldn't do it at CBS because

he sold the patent designs

and CBS was interested in making money off an established brand.

When the Sting Ray came out, I considered it to have a sound superior to my '69 P-bass (of course, it was a fretless, and I just hadn't found an engineer who could record it right), which I have to this day.
But a Sting Ray is a G&L, and a P-bass is a Fender.
This is not brand-snottiness, it's a matter of names.

I rest my case.
And....

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 11 Aug 2005 9:14 pm

Well It seems there is a "Favorite Guitar" among PSGers.

I/m sure that it was here that I heard the tele was designed after the fender steels for "the sound".

There's nothing like the "quack" of a telecaster for sure.

In an hour a day I've gotten through half of Hot Wired at less than half record speed. Like I said it's a real "Workshop" and has some great simple runs I'll be "quacking" for a long time god willing.

Like I said I've "played" guitar most of my life but the seriousness of it went away twenty years ago.

Now maybe it's back..I've buffed the neck shiny from the satin finish in a week, and my fingers on my left hand really feel it.

Squire as it may be, I feel like that prison laborer in Communist Red China made it just for me.......

EJL

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 13 Aug 2005 3:13 am

...and my fingers on my left hand really feel it.

Get those .09's (with a .12 second string).
I recommend Danelectro's. "Pop a set on and bring back that tone from the 60's."

Yeah, right.

Grant Johnson · Post by **Grant Johnson** » 18 Aug 2005 12:40 pm

Count me in!
Mine barely gets played at all causing me to halfheartedly try to sell it from time to time, but I can't seem to give it up!
<image src="http://www.bigsmokey.com/tele1.jpg">

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 18 Aug 2005 9:53 pm

Grant, that's one of the nicest tele's I've ever seen!

For the record, Jimmy Page used a tele on the first two Led Zeppelin records (can you mention Zeppelin on the steel forum?)and used 9's. If there was a question about getting any kind of tone out of 9's, it's answered swiftly on these records.....HEAVY. No doubt he ran it through a few Marshall's on 11.

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 19 Aug 2005 3:23 am

Jimmy Page used a small(20w)Supro amp on a lot of those Zep records...the solo on"Stairway to Heaven"was cut on a Tele thru that amp...Jimmy helped sell a lot of Les Pauls and Marshalls with that outfit!

------------------
http://home.comcast.net/~steves_garage

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 19 Aug 2005 9:50 am

Really? That's very cool. I always pictured a British tube amp on stun.

I have a Lindy Fralin rewind in my tele as my bridge pickup, and it sounds just like "Livin' Lovin' Maid."

Grant Johnson · Post by **Grant Johnson** » 19 Aug 2005 1:17 pm

Thanks Chris!
It's an American Vintage Series 62 Custom RI. I love it! It isn't Quite as thick sounding as the 50's style teles, but I think that it does a great job getting those Don Rich style tones....

Webb Kline · Post by **Webb Kline** » 19 Aug 2005 1:44 pm

I used to run 9s on everything--even my acoustic. Did so for about 35 years. Then I went to 10s and now I run 11's. Much better tone imho. I find that they force me to play more tastefully.

BUt then again, I sold my Tele and am now into big old jazz boxes. Do miss the Tele now and then though.

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 21 Aug 2005 6:51 pm

Well week three I think and I've finally played it onstage.

Used bits and pieces of excersizes to to Workin man, the intro to Momma tried, bends to do the Way I am, though I was kind of sunk when the band went to F#. Oh well.

Just got started getting a drop D from Dave at Hipshot, and so far playing along with some of the "Time" tracks I found the sig to the "Waa" song coppable at close to record speed.

Mostly chasing thirds and fifths around and finding open strings, getting a gew new ideas for the steel at the same time surprisingly.

Decided to stay with the 10s, since Redd uses 11s, and It's finally getting past blood blisters on the old right index. I'm using a thumbpick and 2-3 fingers.

This is great.

Actually playing it after a couple weeks doesn't interfere with my steel intonation like just picking it up once in a while.

New stuff all the time.

I love it.

No Benders though in my future.

EJL

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 22 Aug 2005 1:36 am

How to stay young? Get a new toy.
Sounds like you're having too much fun.

Jim Peters · Post by **Jim Peters** » 22 Aug 2005 4:30 pm

Hey EW, play that F# chord with the B and E string open. Pretty cool chord(F#7sus4)!
JG might have used it once, I'm not sure.

Good choice with the 10's. JP