Telecaster vs. Stratocaster

Good news for me... They both sound great!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k85ZfHshcWI

[Bob from Brooklyn]

I get on better with the ergonomics of the Tele.

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by janinep7

Good news for me... They both sound great!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k85ZfHshcWI

The feel of the two is quite different. I spent years on Gibson hard-tail guitars so when I moved into a Strat it felt a bit, um, wobbly. When I bent one string the rest went flat because the tailpiece "gave" a little. I grew up where the Tele and country music were kings. I didn't like the country twang thing so I avoided the Tele for a long while. What changed my mind was hearing some rockers like David Gilmour and Peter Stroud play Teles and hearing the interesting wiry sounds they got. What absolutely changed things for me was discovering that the Tele had none of the wobbly feeling of the Strat and felt more akin to the Les Paul.

I didn't ditch the Strat because you need to be able to wobble chords and do effects, but the Gibson ES-335 and the Tele have become my go-to guitars in my studio kit.

Bob

[raysachs]

They both sound great but very different. The tele doesn’t have anything that sounds like the Strat neck pickup or the “in-between” 2 & 4 positions. And the Strat doesn’t have anything that sounds like the tele’s bridge pickup or the middle position. As for the idea that they feel different, they do if you leave the strat’s trem bar floating, but nearly the same if you deck or block the trem or play a strat hardtail.

I love both, but when I‘ve had a tele and a strat hanging on the wall, the tele dies of neglect - I just always reach for the Strat. And since I always have a Strat, I’ve given up on owning a tele - I just don’t ever reach for them (after a honeymoon period, of course).

-Ray

[rmp]

it's really simple
must
have
both

(at least one of each,, more is gooder)

[davidd]

Even though I have multiples of each, the Telecaster is by far my favorite.

Both the neck and bridge pickups are far better than their Strat counterpart by a long shot IMO.

The bridge twang of a Tele just can't be reproduced on a Strat. The fact is whether a single coil or humbucker the Strat bridge position is not my cup of tea. The Tele neck is my favorite pickup period. It can go from clean blues to crunchy rock to a sweet jazzy tone very easily. The Tele also has the far better tonal combination when in the middle position than the Strat has without special wiring. Adjusting your picking position allows great flexibility with both pickups engaged.

Importantly a single tone and volume works far better for me than any other setup.

The Strat is great if you like the classic Hank Marvin sound with the use of the tremolo. Also the quack of positions 2 and 3 are available, but IMO they have become so overused through the decades as to sound a bit tired. Obviously many a great player has used the Strat to great effect, but I end up having to fight them far more than any other electric guitar.

Last but not least is the Strat selector switch placement... the dumbest design ever.

[GoPappy]

Some people favored the Strat over the Tele because of the body contours of the Strat vs. the slab-sided build of the Tele, which made the Strat more comfortable to play for some people. But nowadays there are plenty of Teles out there with belly cuts. Both of mine do (Am Pro II and Player Plus Nashville), and I find them plenty comfortable. Plus, I just like the look and the sound of the Tele.

[Chickee]

Come on Janine, you must also play a Jazzmaster during your search, you know.

Supremely comfortable sitting or standing and available with any pickup configuration you can think of these days!

And they just radiate that King of Cool attitude.

4760A96B-0D73-420A-B91D-201DC86EE88F.jpg

frank d.

[rokdog49]

Originally Posted by raysachs

They both sound great but very different. The tele doesn’t have anything that sounds like the Strat neck pickup or the “in-between” 2 & 4 positions. And the Strat doesn’t have anything that sounds like the tele’s bridge pickup or the middle position. As for the idea that they feel different, they do if you leave the strat’s trem bar floating, but nearly the same if you deck or block the trem or play a strat hardtail.

I love both, but when I‘ve had a tele and a strat hanging on the wall, the tele dies of neglect - I just always reach for the Strat. And since I always have a Strat, I’ve given up on owning a tele - I just don’t ever reach for them (after a honeymoon period, of course).

-Ray

Ray, I beg to differ.
Stock pickups yes but…
I have a custom wound neck pickup in my Tele that uses the same output, magnet length, materials and configuration of a Strat neck and has no cover.
It sounds so close to my Strat neck pup, I would defy anyone in a blindfold test to
tell which is which. Not only that, some of the mainstream pickup makers offer one.
Additionally, an overwound Strat Bridge will get you very close to a lot of the Teles bridge pups. The only difference is that Tele baseplate, but it ain’t that much.
As far as the other positions, a “Nashville Tele” with a Strat type pickup in the middle will get you very close as well.
BTW, I chose to make these changes because I wanted those two tones In each instrument.

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by rokdog49

Ray, I beg to differ.
Stock pickups yes but…
I have a custom wound neck pickup in my Tele that uses the same output, magnet length, materials and configuration of a Strat neck and has no cover.
It sounds so close to my Strat neck pup, I would defy anyone in a blindfold test to
tell which is which. Not only that, some of the mainstream pickup makers offer one.
Additionally, an overwound Strat Bridge will get you very close to a lot of the Teles bridge pups. The only difference is that Tele baseplate, but it ain’t that much.
As far as the other positions, a “Nashville Tele” with a Strat type pickup in the middle will get you very close as well.
BTW, I chose to make these changes because I wanted those two tones In each instrument.

As always, just a matter of personal preference. Yeah, there are tele neck pickups that sound pretty strat-like - the twisted tele pickup in the Baja and the Brad Paisley tele is one. And there are strat bridge pickups that get you closer to a tele bridge sound. But then you're losing what's unique about the two guitars. A "typical" tele has that great beefy / twangy bridge pickup and a somewhat muffled neck pickup that's great for jazz type playing, and the middle position is a sound of it's own. I wouldn't want a strat type neck pickup in one, having owned a Baja for a while. Similarly I wouldn't want a tele bridge pickup in a strat, not because I prefer anything about the bridge pickup on a strat on it's own, but because the strat bridge works sublimely with the middle pickup for that Knopfler like "quack" sound. I've played Nashville teles and the combination of the strat middle and tele bridge just doesn't sound the same. I'm not a purist by a long shot - I've never found a way to use a trem bar musically, so any strat I've ever owned has been decked or was a hardtail. But even without a trem, a strat still has it's own sound, and it's evidently the one I most like.

To me, a strat (ideally) sounds like a strat and a tele sounds like a tele. Which one any one of us prefers is just a matter of personal preference - there's no right or wrong to it. I personally love teles and for the short periods when I've been without a strat, I've lived happily with a tele as my #1 (and sometimes only) electric. But as soon as there's a strat in the room, I always reach for the strat instead of the tele. Hence, I've concluded I prefer the sound(s) of a strat. I've been a strat guy since 1979, not quite exclusively (I also love a Les Paul or SG with P90s), but primarily. Any attempts with other guitars always leas me back to a strat. I don't fight it anymore. It's just what I like. I don't dislike anything about a tele, I just don't like them quite enough to play them when a strat is in the room.

-Ray

[Chickee]

As far as price point, this model Squier Tele should be right in your wheelhouse.

https://www.fender.com/en-US/squier-...378203550.html

[Glennwillow]

I like both the Tele and the Strat and own both types -- 2 Strats and one Tele. But I have to say that I tend to like the sounds from the Strats a little more. I particularly like the pickup sounds from my Fender Pro II Strat.

- Glenn

[Chickee]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

I like both the Tele and the Strat and own both types -- 2 Strats and one Tele. But I have to say that I tend to like the sounds from the Strats a little more. I particularly like the pickup sounds from my Fender Pro II Strat.

- Glenn

I know your blue am pro II strat very well Glenn, but didn't know you had another Strat in the herd!!! Holding out on us, Mr. Willow??? Bahahaha

fd

[rockabilly69]

Like the OP, I like them both, and don't find them interchangeable. They both bring something unique to the table. In the last year I went a little crazy building partscasters and the focus was to make classic examples of Fender guitars. I tried to squeeze out of these guitars all the classic Fender tones that I listened to and loved growing up...

I setup my Strats with full floating trems, which I feel brings out a unique tonal quality with cool overtones that you'll never find in a Tele. And having a full floating trem means you can bend pitch up and down as God and Leo intended



I also love hot Broadcaster pickups in an Esquire (single pickup Tele), to me that is a pure rock and roll sound.

[rokdog49]

Hi Ray,
I understand your point, but there are just too many variations of both guitars to generalize, although that’s pretty common I know.
As an example Stevie Ray Vaughn’s Strat vs. Mark Knopfler’s
You wouldn’t even know they were the same instrument.

I owned a Strat with D. Allen custom wound pickups that had a Tele-like bridge in it and it still had good quack in position two.
It still sounded like a Strat but with more punch in the bridge. Anyway, Strats have all kinds of pickup configurations including Humbuckers.
I don’t care for most Tele neck pickups as they are too muffled for me and sound dull. Since I don’t play any jazz, I wouldn’t need that tone.
I would also argue there is no such thing as a “typical Tele” bridge. They are all over the place… and can be as different as night and day.
Mine has 5/16 diameter magnets and is wound at 9.5k and it roars…very Tom Petty-ish.
The “Bakersfield” style pick up is anything but beefy and was as popular as any ever put in a Tele and certainly was “typical” for a good long while.
BTW, I like the sound of that “Twisted Tele” neck. That’s what mine sounds like. It’s great for blues.
Anyway, to each his own is true.