Can a Telecaster be used for metal? I used one through my Quad Cortex to find out

[likitlikeyoulikeit]

I guess the argument could be made that there are better tools for the job.

That said, music sounds very homogenous nowadays, down to even vocalists sounding exactly the same thanks to autotune.

I wouldn't pick a Tele for heavy music, honestly. But you look at RATM and Tom Morello, and you understand why they sound so different from everybody else.

And that's a good thing. Bending and breaking the rules is all part of the game when making music.

Ill show this during the next do something challenge...I gots some plans that will prolly get a few people all sweaty on their top lip.


Speaking of which....when do we get our cool guy banners ?

 

[spawnofthesith]

I love chugging on a single coil tele

 

[FuzzyAce]

Danelectro is great for metal too.
Lipsticks rule.

 

[the swede]

Danelectro is great for metal too.
Lipsticks rule.

anything non expected usually unexpectedly kicks ass. In the right hands. And a mind set to wreak havoc.

 

[Iron1]

Ok, yall convinced me. Im gonna suck it up, admit Im wrong and turn over a new leaf…
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Signed up for lessons to expand my narrow minded horizons.
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[FuzzyAce]

Ok, yall convinced me. Im gonna suck it up, admit Im wrong and turn over a new leaf…
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Signed up for lessons to expand my narrow minded horizons.
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Definite improvement!

 

[Iron1]

Definite improvement!

Thank you sir, didn’t realize the amount of stretching exercises I was gonna need to learn, but Im in it to win it.

 

[nightlight]

I had a question I wanted to pick some of the more knowledgeable forumites’ brains about regarding Telecasters.

Why the slanted bridge pickup? It seems like such an interesting design choice for an old school guitar.

 

[Iron1]

I had a question I wanted to pick some of the more knowledgeable forumites’ brains about regarding Telecasters.

Why the slanted bridge pickup? It seems like such an interesting design choice for an old school guitar.

I would apologize for derailing your thread, but we don’t do that here.


On topic: I don’t know why the slanted pickup, but always assumed it was to move the pole piece in relation to the bridge, to sort of, for want of a more intelligent way of saying it, get the best of bridge and neck positions for the desired TeleTone.

 

[gy1900s]

Absolutely, even with single coils.

This is especially true with modelers

 

[mavrick102000]

Maybe...

 

[nightlight]

Maybe...

That's a great track, very well produced!

Question is, is a Telecaster just the body shape? Or would you have to consider the bridge design and the pickups?

This has come up earlier in the thread as well. I mean, that guitar he's using is definitely a Tele-ish shape, but it's kind of like if someone tells me they have a Fender with hum buckers, I think "superstrat", not Stratocaster.

Same way I'd think the guitar I'm using is strictly not a Tele, though I am using a single coil pickup and the bridge is a huge slab of metal.

 

[the swede]

That's a great track, very well produced!

Question is, is a Telecaster just the body shape? Or would you have to consider the bridge design and the pickups?

This has come up earlier in the thread as well. I mean, that guitar he's using is definitely a Tele-ish shape, but it's kind of like if someone tells me they have a Fender with hum buckers, I think "superstrat", not Stratocaster.

Same way I'd think the guitar I'm using is strictly not a Tele, though I am using a single coil pickup and the bridge is a huge slab of metal.

Nah. Rabea (sweet as he is) doesn’t really qualify with his signature guitar for “tele metal”.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Is a strat with a metal-plate-based bridge pickup voiced like a tele pickup a strat or a tele?!?!?!?! Existential questions that we must answer.

 

[nightlight]

Is a strat with a metal-plate-based bridge pickup voiced like a tele pickup a strat or a tele?!?!?!?! Existential questions that we must answer.

I think getting a plate like that on a Strat would be pretty interesting, if somebody has a guitar they want to attempt to do that on. I've never seen one, so it's a hypothetical situation at best.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I think getting a plate like that on a Strat would be pretty interesting, if somebody has a guitar they want to attempt to do that on. I've never seen one, so it's a hypothetical situation at best.

No. The plate is part of the pickup. Plenty of folks sell pickups that have the plate like a tele bridge pickup, but are sized to fit into a strat, making it an SSS strat but with a bridge pickup that sounds like a tele bridge pickup.

 

[nightlight]

No. The plate is part of the pickup. Plenty of folks sell pickups that have the plate like a tele bridge pickup, but are sized to fit into a strat, making it an SSS strat but with a bridge pickup that sounds like a tele bridge pickup.

That raises the question: Does that huge metal plate bridge count for a large part of the Telecaster sound? I'm a firm believer in tone woods and construction having an influence on the sound of a guitar, besides the pickups.

It's a very polarising subject. The best test I've ever done (which is hardly scientific) is two guitars - a Ltd JH-600EC and an ESP RZK-II - both with EMG 81 and 85 pickups.

Now everyone says that EMGs sound the same in every guitar. But that wasn't my experience at all, there was a night and day difference between the two tonally.

Both guitars were LP style The Ltd was a set neck and I think the ESP is neck through. Both were 25.5" scale length and had 24 frets. The major difference though was the bridge: a Kahler hybrid on the Ltd and a Floyd Rose on the ESP. Body woods were also different.

They sounded very different. I liked both guitars, fwiw.

BTW. the closest I've been to owning a Strat was my first guitar. a Gibbon strat knockoff, and a Sugi DH496C that got stolen, which had a Tele shaped body, but three single coil pups.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

That raises the question: Does that huge metal plate bridge count for a large part of the Telecaster sound? I'm a firm believer in tone woods and construction having an influence on the sound of a guitar, besides the pickups.

It's a very polarising subject. The best test I've ever done (which is hardly scientific) is two guitars - a Ltd JH-600EC and an ESP RZK-II - both with EMG 81 and 85 pickups.

Now everyone says that EMGs sound the same in every guitar. But that wasn't my experience at all, there was a night and day difference between the two tonally.

Both guitars were LP style The Ltd was a set neck and I think the ESP is neck through. Both were 25.5" scale length and had 24 frets. The major difference though was the bridge: a Kahler hybrid on the Ltd and a Floyd Rose on the ESP. Body woods were also different.

They sounded very different. I liked both guitars, fwiw.

BTW. the closest I've been to owning a Strat was my first guitar. a Gibbon strat knockoff, and a Sugi DH496C that got stolen, which had a Tele shaped body, but three single coil pups.

You say you are a believer. I say you need to have stronger faith. Too many questions.

I have faith that different guitars sound different. I find in all matters of faith, keeping my faith very broad and general helps me side step lots of pointless arguments.

 

[laxu]

I had a question I wanted to pick some of the more knowledgeable forumites’ brains about regarding Telecasters.

Why the slanted bridge pickup? It seems like such an interesting design choice for an old school guitar.

You need to remember what was played back when the Tele was conceived: jazz, country and big band stuff. You see things like the LP neck pickup being called the rhythm pickup and the bridge pickup is called the lead/treble pickup because it's brighter.

Today we use those pickups the other way around, with the sweeter neck pickup used for smoother leads, and the brighter bridge pickup for overdriven rhythm.

So it makes sense that back then they would try to make those high strings really ring out on the bridge pickup by slanting the pickup. IMO the other way around would make more sense in modern context (clearer bass) but I've never seen that done on anything.

That raises the question: Does that huge metal plate bridge count for a large part of the Telecaster sound? I'm a firm believer in tone woods and construction having an influence on the sound of a guitar, besides the pickups.

Maybe. Metal pickguard Strats can be darker sounding compared to plastic ones, so maybe the same thing can apply to the tele bridge? To me the bigger differentiator to a Strat is the pickups themselves and the fixed bridge with preferably brass saddles.

Tele pickups are also an entire scale of different things depending on the era. For example https://cavalierpickups.com has several different models as well as descriptions on what era of Tele pickups they are based on. I use the Nocaster Holy Grail Lion in my Tele and it's great. It's bright, but beefy.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

You need to remember what was played back when the Tele was conceived: jazz, country and big band stuff. You see things like the LP neck pickup being called the rhythm pickup and the bridge pickup is called the lead/treble pickup because it's brighter.

Today we use those pickups the other way around, with the sweeter neck pickup used for smoother leads, and the brighter bridge pickup for overdriven rhythm.

So it makes sense that back then they would try to make those high strings really ring out on the bridge pickup by slanting the pickup. IMO the other way around would make more sense in modern context (clearer bass) but I've never seen that done on anything.


Maybe. Metal pickguard Strats can be darker sounding compared to plastic ones, so maybe the same thing can apply to the tele bridge? To me the bigger differentiator to a Strat is the pickups themselves and the fixed bridge with preferably brass saddles.

Tele pickups are also an entire scale of different things depending on the era. For example https://cavalierpickups.com has several different models as well as descriptions on what era of Tele pickups they are based on. I use the Nocaster Holy Grail Lion in my Tele and it's great. It's bright, but beefy.

Fender has made quite a few strats and teles lately with bridge pickup slant reversed. Also, there’s this dude not too many folks know about that used to do it in his strats: