Re. the edit on Clarence White above, on “Ode To BIlly Joe” CW achieved the string-bend effect by hitting an open harmonic and then literally bending – or getting someone else to bend – the vibrating string behind the nut. This was a trick he and others (Roy Buchanan, for one) commonly used prior to the String Bender, but his wanting to do this more easily led to the String Bender’s inception. Another fine user of the Bender is Dave Edmunds: listen to his simple but sinuous solos on “I Knew The Bride” and “Crawling From The Wreckage”, where he lays down the 335 and picks up the Tele. Amazingly, in the first half of the 1970s Teles were so unfashionable you could barely give them away. I had a yen for a Tele after seeing Deaf School (who were resolutely unfashionable) using two of them, and decided to get one. I saw an ad in Melody Maker for one being sold at a knockdown price in Marazion, Cornwall, early in 1976, but didn’t proceed on it. Six months later we were holidaying down that way and somehow I’d still got the guy’s phone number. On an impulse I called him up to see if he still had the Tele, and he did: he claimed no-one was prepared to travel that far from London to buy it. I took it of him at a price that was very nice and have it to this day.

The U.N. of all things Tele is http://www.tdpri.com where devotees divide into two camps when it comes to their beloved guitar. For many, as Len says above, Tele’s are for one thing: Twang. That compressed bitey treble without much sustain.

But that’s really an opinion, a particular stylistic association with a tone that only Tele’s do – the bridge pickup with full treble. But turn the treble down and its something different; select both pickups and its another thing entirely, (and IMHO the most balanced and desirable electric guitar sound), select the neck pickup alone and you’ve a tone thats good for jazz and obviously much more. On paper the Strat seems more versatile, having more tones, but most of these tones shout ‘Strat!’

BTW this site’s most useful, and Len’s post too – I’m off to discover those players now, cheers.

The ultimate Telecaster player, IMHO, was Roy Buchanan. Anything off his eponymous first album, notably the successful single “Sweet Dreams”, will give you the picture. Roy managed to get an unbelievable range of sounds from the Tele in the same way as Hendrix did from the Strat. This guitar isn’t supposed to be able to sound hot and horny like that – it’s a testament to Roy’s unfathomable technique. On subsequent albums his material moved from country through blues and into soul, but the Tele and his sound stayed for the ride. I recommend Sweet Dreams: The Anthology on Polydor Chronicles.

The other absolute Telecaster virtuoso was Danny Gatton. Like Roy, Danny transcended the “Tele sound” in a dazzling variety of styles and tones. Like Roy, he also came to a sad and sticky end. The recommended compilation is Hot Rod Guitar: The Danny Gatton Anthology on Rhino.

MIke Bloomfield used a Tele for all his work with Dylan. His sound, along with Al Kooper’s Hammond, utterly defined “Like A Rolling Stone”. Even when Mike switched, like so many others, to a Les Paul in the late sixties, he still searched for that clean, sustained, middly tone.

Jeff Beck used a Tele during his tenure with the Yardbirds before switching to his well-known muddy brown Les Paul. Example: the screeching raga lick on “Over, Under, Sideways, Down”.

It’s little-known that Jimmy Page used a standard Tele for almost the whole of the first Led Zep album, including the violin-bow histrionics on “Dazed And Confused”. The only other electric guitar he used on the album was a Danelectro Shorthorn for the slide passages. For recent work he has returned to . . . you guessed it, a Tele, albeit with B-bender.

Brit jazz maestro Jim Mullen has always used a Tele, played thumbwise like Wes Montgomery. I can’t think of a less jazz-friendly guitar, but Mullen makes it work. On a good day he can sound like George Benson in full flight.

Coming more up to date, Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead is seldom seen using anything but a Tele. Check out the crunching sounds and textures on “Creep” from the first album Pablo Honey.

Note that anything other than a standard Tele is not really a Tele. The Thinline with semi-solid body and the Custom and Deluxe with one and two humbucking pickups respectively were desperate nods to Gibson in the early seventies when Les Pauls and 335s ruled and the standard Tele was woefully out of fashion. What goes around comes around, and today the Tele in standard trim is probably the most trendy guitar you can play if you’re a young indie-rock performer.

I’ve got a ’71 standard Tele which I’ve had for 33 years and which was my main tool through twenty years as a semi-pro covers band performer. It did everything from country swing to disco via riff-rock and reggae. Simply the best electric guitar ever made.

Nice Post!

Great article, keep up the excellent work!

Love the Tele too. (Though emulating Buddy Holly made me a Stratocaster player back in the day.)