Strat or Tele?

JohnW63

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No cool pictures of custom Strats or Teles to offer, my G&L is the basic black body with white pickguard, with maple neck. I chose the Strat style for versatility. I always wanted to try a maple neck too, and G&L had these off shore Tribute models at Buffalo Bros. on sale. The Tele seemed to be more twangy biased and I don't play country style.

However, I like this guys record and he has a Tele:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnMQY6t8Hig

Keaton Simons
 

SFIV1967

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Fender just came out with a Todd Krause Custom Shop designed "Classic Player Triple Tele" in black, but made in Mexico, which seem to explain the low MSRP of only $799.
http://www.fender.com/series/classic-player/classic-player-triple-tele-maple-fingerboard-black/

mainfeature.jpg


Here's a video:



And a demo from a UK based shop:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4buAqif6ts8

Ralf
 
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houseisland

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My noob 2 bits ...

The best deals on Strats (IMHO) are the Tokai patent/copyright infringement models, the ones that unscrupulous repair shops would offer to re-badge as Fenders for a nominal fee. There are great ones among them.

I have a friend who has a mint 57 desert sand Strat, formerly a lovely instrument, but now just a 6 figure investment/work of art that can't be played or touched and that adds an expensive rider to his home insurance and causes him anxiety about theft. He also has a gorgeous Tokai. In a blind fold test with the two guitars plugged into the same vintage Fender Twin, no one can tell the difference between the two guitars, the no one includes professional musicians with many, many years of experience. The Tokai has everything down right, even the vintage, slightly demagnetized, sloppily (by modern standards) wound coils sound. He paid about $125 for the Tokai. It has appreciated in value to about $800. Let's see .... $800 vs 6 figures. Let's see .... a guitar you can gig with without being overly worried about it being ripped off vs a guitar that you have to keep locked in a gun safe Hiltied into your concrete floor.

Strats are great. No question about it. Classics. But they do have problems which are inherent in their design. The pick up placements cause interference with the strings, particularly the bass strings, which generates false harmonic overtones and thereby intonation problems in higher neck positions - the infamous Stratitis. Backing off pickups can alleviate this. But it is a balancing act. The pick up placement is also what gives the Strat its delightful and characteristic, unearthly metallic howl - much loved by me.

Teles are the archetypal electric guitar (sorry Les Paul owners). I would love to own one. Basic. Basic. Basic. And versatile!!!!. Ed Bickert - Canadian Jazz great - a Tele player. Ted Greene - a modest and unassuming but brilliant Jazz player and an even more brilliant teacher - a Tele affectionado - sadly passed away a couple of years ago. Bill Frisell - often seen sporting a Tele. Keef - a Tele lover. Led Zepplin I, the proto/archetypal heavy metal album, was recorded on a Tele. And lets not talk about country pickers. It his hard to imagine a Strat being so versatile and adaptable.

I want a Strat, and I mean really, really want a Strat. I also want a Tele. Faced with a choice of one of the great Strats and one of the great Teles where I could only have one - it would be the Tele every time.
 

dklsplace

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Dang.......didn't realize that I'd had the Mexi Strat this long. Several different pickup types & configurations, over the last few years, but I've landed on a set of Lace Sensor Gold pickups & really love them. Thought about adding a piezo saddle system to dial in a little Pete Townshend, but so far I'm content with the Lace by themselves.
 

bluesypicky

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And thanks for the brutal awakening on how fast time blows by us, thanks to this 2013 thread! lol
And yup, still love the strat!
 

Quantum Strummer

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Neato, a reanimated oldie.

Last year around this time I picked up a white/cream '82 JV-series Strat from the first couple months of Fender Japan (Fuji-gen Gakki) production. It's a fab guitar: light and resonant, on the warm side for a Strat when plugged in. Not long before that I also picked up a '78 Fernandes, black with white guard and all the '70s Fender appointments. This one is also light & lively and has a bright, snappy sound. The strattiest "Strat" I've ever owned.

I've been a Tele lover for decades but these two examples of that other iconic Fender design are now getting lotsa play.

-Dave-
 
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I started playing electric on a strat but my first tele changed the way I play guitar. Pickup selection for different parts and adjusting the tone knob became so much more natural and important. I've come to appreciate and prefer the flat body with no contours and simplicity of the control layout.

I eventually sold my strat and picked up a few more teles but there are still times I miss the quack from the 2 and 4 positions.
 

Quantum Strummer

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I started playing electric on a strat but my first tele changed the way I play guitar.

I hear ya. Teles are my favorite solidbodies. The tone pot interacts with the pickups, especially the bridge, in a very cool & musical way.

BTW, welcome!

-Dave-
 

txbumper57

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I love Telecasters but if I had to choose between the two and could only have one or the other the Strat would be my choice. I own 4 at the moment after culling some of my Strat herd. I have 2 American Vintage Reissue models with one being a burst Lacquer finish 59 model with RW fretboard and one being a "Mary Kay" see through cream Lacquer over ash bodied maple fretboard 56 model. I also have 2 1987 "E4" serial number American Standard Strats with one being Black finished with RW Fretboard and Custom 69 pickups in it. The other being a Beautiful Burst finish RW Fretboard with a Custom 3 TV Jones Filtertron pickup setup in it (Classic and Classic Plus) and 7 way switching. To me the Strat is the most versatile solid body platform ever made. Still love me some Tele twang and growl as well.

TX
 

dklsplace

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Strat and Tele?

There, I fixed the thread title. :biggrin-new:

Yay! And yeah, since the initiation of this thread, I have 2 of each. :victorious:
Though both of the teles are home built partscasters, while both strats are slightly modded production models.
 

guitarslinger

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It's a little like asking: "What's better, a buxom blonde or leggy redhead? Then, after all the "research" you find yourself utterly surprised by the one you love.
 

krysh

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I like the sound of a strat, but no strat loves me, the vol-pot is always in the way. But my t-250 does love me. 😜
 

jp

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So funny that this thread was resurrected because I've been jonesing for a Strat myself. I don't have one now, but I used to have a slightly modded, heavy-*** maple '76 hard tail that was my main giggin' axe for years. I sold it, of course, to acquire more Guilds, but I'm on the hunt for a more traditional lighter, rosewood neck example. I've tried to bond with Teles, which from my perspective have seem to have eclipsed the popularity of the Strat, but I've just never connected with them. We'll see what I end up with.
 

bluesypicky

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I've tried to bond with Teles, which from my perspective have seem to have eclipsed the popularity of the Strat, but I've just never connected with them. We'll see what I end up with.

The Tele is very much a "love it or hate it" kinda animal. It is harder to tame than a strat and as I said a few years back has a narrower "window of opportunity" with regards to style. (This was a contested statement then, and I am sure it will be contested anew now, citing the few exceptions who managed to get comfy playing anything else than country/rockabilly on it).
I did start my Tele relationship with hatred, and with time and perseverance, learned to love it.

I'm so proud of my post ending with love, I'll stop here and go kiss myself.
 

dklsplace

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The Tele is very much a "love it or hate it" kinda animal. It is harder to tame than a strat and as I said a few years back has a narrower "window of opportunity" with regards to style.

Maybe that's why both of mine are non-traditional partscasters. My first build has P90's, Bigsby, & a 5 way super switch. One I just finished last year is a set neck bound top with vintage split humbuckers. Both very unique, & probably more than a few degrees of separation from the traditional tele.
 

bluesypicky

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Maybe that's why both of mine are non-traditional partscasters. My first build has P90's, Bigsby, & a 5 way super switch. One I just finished last year is a set neck bound top with vintage split humbuckers. Both very unique, & probably more than a few degrees of separation from the traditional tele.
Yeah, I base my comments on the original, standard, stock guitars of course. After market allows one to make whatever he wants from whatever he starts from, the body shape being the only feature that remains original (and then again not even entirely if we're injecting a set neck in the mix) :)
 

crank

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Jimmy Page played a Tele when in Yardbirds and on Led Zep's first album and the solo on Stairway to you know where.

The lead guitar on Steve Earl's Guitar Town album was a Gibson Les Paul.

Goes to show you can use just about anything for anything. Listen to Rob Butler's electric guitar playing on his acoustic 11 string.

OK that said... Strats are probably the most versatile electric guitars. I like to call it the Swiss army knife of guitars. However, I picked up a Mexi Tele last year to use exclusively for gigging with my country band... was looking for a little more twang. Twang I got and I find myself playing the Tele almost exclusively these days in my jam band that plays stuff like Allman Bros. Dead, Doors, and whatever.

My Tele is a bit easier to play that my Strat, but just about any Les Paul will be easier to play than any Fender for me at least. Just a neck thing; I have short fingers.
 
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