I too find that the Tele is MY choice of guitars for comping chords. ( thats playing rhythm for those in Rio Linda )

The mid and front PUP positions are very easy to get a nice mellow tone with the treble knob backed off ( yes that knob works too)

I have always found the Strats to be a tad bright when playing behind other players...

good point Joe..and by the way..it's about time ya got yourself a Tele..I mean they have only been available now for..uhh..50 years !

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You guys should definitely check out the Tremsetter from Hipshot Products.

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Not to change the subject, but Dave Borissoff, the owner of the company, is a fine pedal steel guitarist. He also plays banjo and dobro.

Dave was the one who got me started. He loaned my his Maverick for 3 or 4 months till I got my MSA.

[This message was edited by Mike Perlowin on 04 July 2005 at 05:27 AM.]

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I've had a musicman Stingray 2 six string with active pickups, since the mid seventies that has pretty much spoiled me. the only down side is that it weighs a ton. it was made when Leo still owned the company, so as far as I'm concerned, it's a Fender.

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GREAT guitar. I fail to understand why they are not being reissued. I have 2 Sabres, with the same electronics, one of which has been converted to a 12 string.

The guitar that as far as I know comes closest to sounding the the Leo Fender musicmans (musicmen?) is the new Ravenwest RG 660. It is a very different guitar in many ways, but it does sound a lot like the old Stingrays and sabres. Here is a link.

http://www.ravenwestguitar.com/rg660.html

I am very impressed with this company. I already have several of thier guitars, and will probably get one or two more.

[This message was edited by Mike Perlowin on 04 July 2005 at 05:27 AM.]

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We are all so stuck in the CHICKEN PICKIN mode we are forgetting that the Tele is a very versatile axe.

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Indeed. I used a Tele with a humbucker in the neck position for this recording.
http://www.perlowinmusic.com/DebussyAfternoonofaFaun.mp3

[This message was edited by Mike Perlowin on 04 July 2005 at 05:36 AM.]

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Darvin Willhoite
Riva Ridge Recording

I do agree with you that bending strings on a Strat is a nuisance when the strings pull up on the bridge. I do lots of bends where I let one string sustain while bending another, and I don't mean the typical guitar-players' attempt to copy the pedal steel A pedal lick, in fact I avoid that one like the plague.

But on a Strat with tremolo, when bending one string and the others go flat, it's a nuisance. I've been considering a Tremsetter as was suggested, and for now I've found the putting all 5 springs on the tremolo helps reduce the problem. Usually, if I'm going to be playing those kinds of licks, I'd just use my Tele anyway, problem solved.

In my previous posts, you may have noticed I focussed on the difference between Strats and Teles, but I didn't give you my own personal preference.

In fact I never was into Teles, until I heard Amos Garrett's solo in Midnight at the Oasis, so unlike most pickers, the Tele front pickup is what turned me on to the Tele, not the bridge pickup. Before that, I'd had several Strats, but never liked the bridge pickup (typical I guess). I always felt too that except for the one hardtail Strat I had, the ones with tremolos never had any tone or sustain unless I blocked the trem.

The very first Telecaster I bought, was an original 1954, which I bought in '82, mainly just because it was near-mint and I'd never had one. That did it, I've been a Tele person ever since, but still have a Strat for the stuff that it fits well. The Tele is a real spoiler though, in that with the string-through-body hardtail type bridge, they just have so much tone and resonance, that Strats with tremolos tend to feel lifeless to me now.

Regarding Chicken-pickin', I have gotten into the Tele bridge pickup styles such as those by Don Rich, Roy Buchanan, Danny Gatton, Albert Lee, Brent Mason and other Nashville pickers.... but that's not my definition of chicken-pickin'. I'm not real into chicken-pickin' so it's safe to say I won't be one to blame for promulgating the stereotype of Tele's being a chicken-pickin' guitar. If you like chicken-pickin', fine with me, to each his own, but the Tele is really an amazingly versatile guitar. I'd like more people to know that.

[This message was edited by Jim Phelps on 04 July 2005 at 03:36 PM.]

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My psg chops are not for human consumption.

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Livin' in the Past and Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

I agree, Ed Bickert, a really great jazz player, is my kneejerk response to anybody who says Teles are 'one-trick ponies' (other examples include Ted Greene, Danny Gatton, Brent Mason, and Mike Stern). I believe Ed has a Gibson PAF in the neck position of his 50s Tele. If I was playing jazz only, I'd do that, but I like the compromise of a mini-humbucker, which can get a good jazz tone while still maintaining good balance with the standard Tele bridge pickup. I have one set up like this.

I've played many Strats with humbuckers in the neck position. I prefer the Tele for the 'classic jazz' humbucker tone, just my opinion. I completely disagree that the body/neck/headstock shape/materials don't affect the sound. These affect the acoustic sound of the instrument a lot. A lot of distortion may mask the difference, but if one plays it fairly clean (as most chicken-pickin and jazz players tend to), the differences are striking to me.

I also agree with previous posters who like the G&L Broadcaster/ASAT. I own/have-owned several, and as long as it's not a boat anchor, I'll generally like it. I've got to play a lot to find the right one, as usual. They're not exactly a Tele, but their own thing. But they've got that Tele character, even with the large P-90 looking MFD pickups. These pickups and the ASAT bridge are way different than the classic Tele designs, but that character still comes through. IMO, that's the body/neck talkin'.

Of course, pickup choice, pickup spacing, and choice of bridge (Strat vs. Tele and fixed vs tremelo) also have a big effect on the overall sound. Everything matters, IMO, and we haven't even started talking about effects/amps.

To get the classic Tele lead tone, I also prefer not to put a middle pickup on a Tele. I'm not sure why, perhaps the magnetic field of the middle pickup affects the others. I've done this before on Teles and noticed this casually, but we recently experimented adding an S-500 middle pickup to an ASAT, and listened carefully to the before/after through the same amp with same settings. It still sounds real good, but it changed the lead pickup tone, to my ears. The sound has its place, and is very versatile, but is just a bit different. It seems to 'smooth out' the lead pickup a bit. I wish that I'd recorded the before/after - if I do it again, I will.

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a band with both a good Tele and a good steel guitar

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hard to argue with that