Is a Fender Tele anything to get excited about ?

Not in my world..
I think rockers look lame with a Tele.. LOL
Strap on a Baritone with fat strings plugged straight into an amp.. That's exciting..
 
My Tele is orange with cream binding and a strat-style beveled back. It started rocking when I routed it out for two humbuckers.
 
1950's era LP Standard's (along with True Historic LP's) sound very much like a Telecaster. A lot of players who used vintage era LP's (live) tended to record with a Telecaster. AC30's were also used in the studio vs Marshall Super Lead.
 
Ron Kirn Barnbuster

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I think that a lot of guitar players struggle with liking Teles because they are a very exposing instrument. Obviously the character may not be right for everything, but in the right hands, nothing sounds better.
 
I was never huge on Teles but then I took a ~5 year break from guitar and now I've kinda become obsessed with them. My American Professional Tele is probably my most played guitar. The Rosewood neck on it (yes, neck) is amazing and the Tele bridge pickups sound super aggressive, though admittedly not as high output as my humbucker guitars. Never been able to get a Strat to sound how I wanted, but Teles kinda sound like a pissed off Les Paul.
 
2 good looking custom shops.quilt top has McVay G bender,drop d tuner,4 way switch,southern swamp ash body,fralin pickups.Brown flame tele has McVay b bender.
I own all kinds of custom shredder axes..love em-play em all the time. But a tele will make you fight for it a bit,they're sometimes unforgiving,and have such a great raw tone that just cuts thru a mix.They can make you a better player for sure.Any style, it doesn't matter
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I'm babbling today, so beware!

The skies were opened the day that I got to play a real 1958 LP Standard. It sounded like a Tele with low impedance PAF pups, but with a lower-mid presence and sag that I absolutely fell in love with! The owner said; "Hide glue, nitro finish, finished-end frets, thicker neck and light mahogany construction is the magic recipe." It sounded just as unique unplugged as it did plugged-in.

FF -> I purchased several Historic LP's trying to cop that sound, but none of them sounded like that 1958 Standard? I didn't know that Henry J. was leaving-out the most important ingredient... Hide glue! After doing some research, I discovered that 2013+ Historic LP necks were fitted using hide glue. I wanted one that was constructed entirely with hide, which led me to Gibson's True Historic line of LP's. (As of 2017, all Historic model LP's are made to the authentic 50's specs; formerly known as True Historic.) I ended-up purchasing a 2018 LP Standard R7 Wildwood Edition w/Custombucker pickups. It has the same neck dimensions as Peter Green's 1959 LP Standard. The neck took a bit to get use, but the rewards are obvious.

I want to give a shout out to the underrated LP Deluxe. IMO, the LP Deluxe (when fitted with P90 pickups) is one of the finest sounding guitars there is. Same goes with a P90 loaded Tele. A note to high-gain players... Save your money! Once you reach SLO100 level preamp gain, such benefits are lost. Any decent 70's and up LP will do fine.



Bonus clip! Here's the sound of a 50's era LP Standard through what is (IMO) one of the finest sounding amplifiers ever made.

 
I love my Tele. That said, I have played a few that I could not bond with.

Look's aside, they come in a variety of choices: neck contours, fret size, bridge types, and pickup combinations. They aren't as one-size-fits-all category as one might think.
 
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