The Two Faces of Fender Telecaster - Happy 60th

[Ted Crocker]

From Fender

 

The Two Faces of the Telecaster®
Thoughts on the musically fascinating double life of Fender’s original electric guitar

Different worlds, same guitar: The Telecaster in the hands of (clockwise from upper left) Jimmy Bryant (circa early 1950s), John5, Marty Stuart and the Smithereens’ Jim Babjak.

If there was ever a guitar with a split personality, it’s the Telecaster.

One the one hand, it’s universally regarded as the number-one country electric guitar. The Telecaster was built for western swing guitarists, introduced by that name in 1951 and thus pre-dating rock ‘n’ roll by nearly half a decade. Its bright signature twang became one of the defining and enduring sounds of country music, and it was the electric guitar of choice for pioneer hit makers such as Merle Haggard, Buck Owens and Waylon Jennings, and for noted sidemen such as James Burton and Luther Perkins. More than half a century later, the Telecaster’s status as the king of country hasn’t diminished a bit. It’s still preferred by the sharpest players and songwriters atop the modern country charts—artists such as Brad Paisley, Marty Stuart, Vince Gill, Keith Urban and many others.

Far removed from the twang of Nashville and Bakersfield, though, the Telecaster has led a fascinating double life. For on the other hand—and often on the other side of the Atlantic—the Telecaster has been the weapon of choice for some of rock’s most inventive legends, innovators and iconoclasts.

Rock ‘n’ roll embraced the Telecaster with open arms and open minds. Rock royals Keith Richards, George Harrison, Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Ray Davies have all played it. So did 1960s psychedelic godfathers Syd Barrett and Jimmy Page. In the mid-1970s, punk patriarch Joe Strummer led a revolution while brandishing a Telecaster. Later that decade, the Police at first flew the punk flag but made no attempt to disguise the smart chops and startling creativity of Andy Summers, who forged a widely imitated post-punk guitar sound with his battered Telecaster as the trio rose to chart-topping world success in the 1980s. A decade later in the mid-1990s, an inventive new generation of Britpop guitarists emerged, led by Blur’s Graham Coxon and Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood, both of whom were devoted Telecaster players.

How strange and wonderful then that the same guitar that is the plaintive sound of Waylon Jennings’ sly “Mental Revenge” (1966) is also the seismic sound of one of rock’s most famous debut albums, Led Zeppelin (1969).

And how interesting that the same electric guitar that was put to such dexterous use in the 1950s by lightning-fast western swing ace Jimmy Bryant still exists in the 2000s—and basically unchanged, at that—and is put to equally nimble use by Rob Zombie’s talented shredder, John5.

The Telecaster provides the main instrumental sound of both these albums, 1969’s Led Zeppelin(above) and Brad Paisley’s 2009 American Saturday Night.

How curious, too, that the same electric guitar that the great Muddy Waters once used to electrify the Delta blues so forcefully in the 1940s and ’50s is the same guitar that bemasked Slipknot guitarist Jim Root currently uses to pulverize metal audiences worldwide.

The Telecaster inhabits different musical worlds that couldn’t possibly be farther apart, yet it manages to sound right at home on a foot-tapping ’60s-era Buck Owens single, an atmospheric ’70s-era Pink Floyd album, a chiming ’80s-era pop hit by the Pretenders, an artsy ’90s-era electronic excursion by Radiohead and a 2000-era de-tuned nu-metal onslaught by Slipknot.

All this from the greatest country music guitar ever. Indeed, the Telecaster still rules the form for which it was intended and invented. Realcountry music still sounds the way it does because a Telecaster still sounds like, well, like itself.

No other famous electric guitar model seems to enjoy such a musically versatile dichotomy. You think of the Telecaster’s ubiquitous sibling, the Stratocaster®, and you think mainly of famous rock players and blues legends. It’s not necessarily the first electric guitar that leaps to mind at the mention of country music even though plenty of country players swear by it. As indispensable as the Stratocaster is, it doesn’t have quite the air that its older brother has that it naturally lives in two different places at once.

The Telecaster does leap to mind at the mention of both country music and rock music. And as modern music continues to grow around the Telecaster, the more unusual that feat seems. And so perhaps we shouldn’t say that the time-honored Telecaster suffers from a split personality. Rather, we should say that the Telecaster enjoys a split personality. The great players and forces that drive the creation of music, it appears, wouldn’t have had it any other way.

A selection of great guitarists across the popular music spectrum who currently play the Telecaster or who have played it at some point in their careers:

Country, blues, jazz, roots, etc.	Rock
Jimmy Bryant	Jim Babjak
Roy Buchanan	Syd Barrett
James Burton	Jeff Beck
Albert Collins	Frank Black
Steve Cropper	Marc Bolan
Jerry Donahue	Peter Buck
Bill Frisell	Jeff Buckley
Danny Gatton	Mike Campbell
Vince Gill	Eric Clapton
Ted Greene	Hugh Cornwell
Merle Haggard	Graham Coxon
Waylon Jennings	Ray Davies
Bill Kirchen	Bob Dylan
Albert Lee	John5
Brent Mason	David Gilmour
Roy Nichols	Johnny Greenwood
Buck Owens	George Harrison
Brad Paisley	Robyn Hitchcock
Luther Perkins	Steve Howe
Will Ray	Chrissie Hynde
Don Rich	Wilko Johnson
Arlen Roth	Alex Lifeson
G.E. Smith	Jimmy Page
Mike Stern	Keith Richards
Marty Stuart	Robbie Robertson
Guthrie Trapp	Jim Root
Keith Urban	Bruce Springsteen
Redd Volkaert	Andy Summers
Muddy Waters	Joe Strummer
Clarence White	Pete Townshend

 

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Celebrating 60 Years of the Fender Telecaster

 

[Ted Crocker]

'Micawber' is probably one of Keith’s most famous trademark guitars and is a 1953 Fender Telecaster Blonde.

 

[Ted Crocker]

[Brian Higgins]

awesome post Ted, my friend growing up, (teens) had a "pre-season" Telecaster, with a low serial number (appx 2000), but apparently the guy he got it from added extra pickups which killed it value. nevertheless it was a great sounding guitar. cya BH

[Ted Crocker]

From NPR

 

The Telecaster: Still Wailing at 60

by Robert Goldstein

(Listen to the story)

 

Enlarge     Simon Fergusson/Getty Images

The Fender Telecaster celebrates its 60th birthday this month.

 

Sixty years ago this month, a musical icon was born. If you've listened to any kind of popular music from the past 60 years, you've heard a Telecaster.

 

Source: YouTube

 

It's a sound that changed guitar-making, guitar-playing and, ultimately, popular music.

There had been efforts to design a solid-body electric guitar since the 1930s, but it wasn't until Leo Fender introduced the perfect blend of musical form and function that fundamental problems were resolved: A Telecaster could be mass-produced, was easy to repair and, unlike a traditional hollow-body electrified guitar, could be played loud without feedback.

 

Source: YouTube

 

Nobody is exactly sure when the guitar was christened — legal issues loomed over its original name ("Broadcaster"), and sometime in February 1951 the name was officially changed to Telecaster. Country players were the new instrument's first champions.

 

Source: YouTube

 

Jimmy Bryant, James Burton, Muddy Waters, Steve Cropper,Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Bruce Springsteen, Albert Lee, Danny Gatton, Vince Gill, Prince, Keith Urban, Johnny Greenwood — these are just a few of the notable guitarists who've played a Telecaster. It would be a very short list of guitar greats who haven't spent time with one. Even jazz guitarists picked it up, including Mike Stern and Ted Greene.

 

Source: YouTube

 

The Telecaster has been in continuous production since 1951. For those who worship in the church of guitar, it holds sacred status as the eldest of the electric guitar's holy trinity: Stratocaster, Les Paul and Telecaster.

It was the first electric guitar I played (though I recorded all of my guitar parts with the Urban Verbs on a Strat or a Les Paul), and the closest I've come to ever grasping any sort of holy relic happened nearly 40 years ago when — with his bemused approval — I somehow mustered the temerity to play the legendary Roy Buchanan's battered, early-'50s Tele. The soundshe could conjure from it were nothing short of astounding.

 

Source: YouTube

 

For the Telecaster, it's been a remarkably popular and active life — and this is a birthday any 60-year-old would celebrate, loudly.

 

[Bob Harrison]

Is that a TedCaster, hehe:)


Ted Crocker said:

[jaakko ryynanen]

I did read this article last week and I decided to build one telecaster (first time I build a "real" guitar copy). Well I want to try. Now I have body shape almost ready. I bought a neck 'cause it take too much time to build neck (and it's quite difficult for me) .

[Ted Crocker]

 

Click this pic for a larger version

 

I attached a pdf file of this for you to download too.

[jaakko ryynanen]

Hours and hours sanding. I really hate sanding! I really really hate it. But now there is also some color.

[Ted Crocker]

two words:

 

WOW! WOW!

[Skeesix]

On the tele-diddley, what is the brass object at the base of the neck where a neck pickup might be? I can't tell if it's a pickup or an extra nut/fret/bridge saddle? The material and size/shape look like they're the same as the nut and bridge saddle.

[Ted Crocker]

It's a 3/8" piece of brass rod, flat on the bottom, same as the nut and bridge.  It's only purpose is decorative - to simulate a Tele neck pickup.  I didn't use any kind of pickup on this, it was a really quick build just so I could let off some creative steam.

[Skeesix]

That did cross my mind - fun idea! So the other "pickup" near the bridge is also decorative?