the original "Blue collar" guitar (Fender Telecasters in general)

Member Name: wicked_witch

Product:	Fender Telecasters in general
Date:	10/11/02 (4862 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap, attractive chordy sound, I dont argue with Rod from Idlewild

Disadvantages: Difficult to play, big, uncomfortable, ugly, Oh look, I AM arguing with Rod from Idlewild

The Telecaster isn’t exactly a fave among Fenders guitars anymore. Originally it was designed as a budget guitar (although a genuine, especially a vintage, will sell for great prices nowadays), its chunky, workmanlike look lacks the ease of use of the Strat (and the Strat has a far superior sound) and the slinky look of the Jaguar and Jazzmaster models. A few famous Tele fans include Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd, Graham Coxon, Chrissie Hynde and Rod Jones of Idlewild.

The idea of the Tele was never to be beautiful; rather it was designed to be practical. However, it is very easy for a guitar to be both, as the Strat demonstrates (little swot that it is). It does have the prestige of being the first mass-produced electric however (its being going for over fifty years), and it had many fans, as it does today on a lesser scale, however, when the more attractive and easier to play models such as the Strat and Les Paul came out, they quickly eclipsed the Tele in terms of popularity. While it retains its fans today, its main advantage is its chordal punch, which is also its disadvantage in making innovative lead guitar work fairly awry and awkward (although Rod Jones seems to manage well with his!).

The interesting thing about the Tele is that despite the fact that it was manufactured as an easy guitar to play, it isn’t at all. Take something like a Les Paul, which, like the Tele, is fairly big and heavy, and difficult to wear at first. Despite these faults, once your shoulder develops enough to take the strain of a Les Paul, it is an absolute baby to play; in fact, a baby could almost play it. The Tele, on the other hand, is hard to wear, wield AND play, as I’m going to discuss.

Looks

As I’ve mentioned, the Tele is not a particularly attractive guitar. Essentially it’s a lump of wood with a neck and some metal attached (so is the Les Paul, but you see what I’m getting at here), with minimal contouring
, which can cause more practical problems. Its fairly big when compared to the likes of the Strat, although lighter but harder to wield than a Les Paul. Even the variety of finishes can’t give it a sexy look (and Chrissie Hynde’s sparkly Tele just looks ridiculous, like putting a boxer dog in a pink collar with matching boots), but its simple design is its principle charm for some.
Most of its bits and pieces tend to be well-made, if a tad crude, sometimes you get slight roughness around the bridge and saddle areas, but the pickups seem to work ok, and all major hardware tends to be serviceable.

Sound

The relatively poor sustain, and bright “punch” of the Tele, make what is really a chord-playing guitar. Extensive single-note soloing is pretty hard on one of these because of the quick death of its sound, although this makes it good for bouncy, upbeat playing, along with its bright, sharp sound, most famous Tele devotees do have a chordy (not an actual word according to my spellchecker), almost percussive playing style. It does invite some experimentation such as that of Johnny Greenwood and Will Sergeant, and once again Rod Jones’ angular playing and if you are a more experimental player, the Tele makes an interesting, if difficult, proposition.

Ease of playing

One could argue there is none! I’m a very very bad player, and as such, I found the Tele well nigh impossible to navigate. Even though a Les Paul is bigger than I am, I find those and Strats much easier to manage. The lack of contouring on the body causes problems when wearing the guitar, I found it quite prone to digging into me, and it seems to be made for slightly longer-bodied people. This lack of contouring also necessitates a right arm position that is extremely wearing and unforgiving, and the bridge is not very comfortable for resting the old paws on. The thinline Tele is easier to play in terms of size, and these s
hortc
omings resulted in the bloody excellent Fender Stratocaster, but on its own merits, a Tele is a flipping difficult guitar to play.

Major advantages

Often described as a blue-collar guitar, the price of regular Tele’s rarely exceeds £700 ish. Of course vintage models cost a lot more.

Its sound makes it perfect for chord players, if they can get over the difficult arm positioning.

It truly is a vintage guitar, being in production for such a long time.

Maybe playing difficult guitars makes you a stronger player in the same way riding difficult horses makes you a stronger (or possibly deader) rider.

The sound, without considering sustain, is quite nice, very deep and punchy. Has its fans in those who like power chord music.

The crude nature of the Tele and its components make it easy to customize or upgrade.

It’s pretty damn durable. Do NOT test this theory by allowing buses, rhinos or Vanessa to run over it.


Major disadvantages

Difficult and uncomfortable to play until you get used to it.

There is the possibility you won’t get used to it.

Not very comfortable to wear

The sustain isn’t good

Its not very ‘cool’ if that kind of thing matters to you

It’s not very sexy either.

Its rough design can cause major problems sometimes in its sound.

I’m giving the poor old Tele a three out of five. Owning any kind of electric would make me a very happy bunny at this point, but the Tele just doesn’t stand up to all its descendants, even in its own time it was considered a difficult guitar to play. However, it is worth making the effort to overcome the difficulties concerned in playing if you like its bright attack of sound, and as I’ve mentioned it is a very customisable (hey, my spellchecker says this one IS an actual word!!!!) guitar.

Summary: