How The Fender Telecaster Became the WORLD'S Best Guitar!

How did the Telecaster become one of the world's most sought after guitars? It was like NOTHING anyone had seen before!
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[DarrellBraunGuitar]

The Telecaster changed absolutely everything...well until 1954 :)
Enjoy!

[GPLP]

Between the legendary guitars and equally legendary amps, the world of music owes so much to Mr. Fender.

[noelvaldez]

My dad bought me a Mexican Telecaster for my birthday when I was 12. I loved the way they looked and I coveted it for a while before I got it, and it felt like heaven to play it when I finally did. I’m 26 now and still have the guitar after putting a lot of upgrades in it and I still adore it. Teles are definitely my favorite guitars ever.

[jamesduckworth]

It’s unreal how such a simple guitar is so versatile. Over 70 years later and it’s still being produced by Fender and copied by everyone else.

[christophervincent]

Yes, it is a great guitar. Although the neck pickup is extremely underrated. The warmth tones you can get out of that pickup has to be my favorite.

[thoras]

I have been playing guitar for over 30 years and have quite a few guitars in my collection. Ibanez Jem, Jackson Randy Rhoads, Gibson SG etc. I play rock and metal music, it belongs to the good tone at that time to own a real "metal axe". Oneday my dad came home with a Fender USA Telecaster build in 96, and I thought it was ugly.... But after a short time I fell in love with this guitar, the neck, the direct tone response (strings through the body) and so simple but effectively built. I only changed the bridge pickup to a Hot Rails. And what can I say ? Whenever we went to concerts with the band, people laughed and asked me if i play country music. Only to be totally impressed later by my Telecaster, which I played through a Peavey 5150. This guitar can do everything and it stays in tune for days ;)

[andrewg]

A legendary guitar indeed. Don't forget the often overlooked wonderful neck pick up, which if your guitar is set up right, can give you a warm, rich jazz tone exemplified by legendary players such as Ted Greene, Ed Bickert, and Mike Stern. Amazing versatility.

[jerrystephenson]

Leo's genius shines through the Tele & Strat. The Tele is his masterpiece. He got it so right right out of the box. Widely acknowledged as the best electric guitar ever made.

[hammer]

Leo approached his design as an engineer and came up with brilliant, simple solutions to what everyone else was attempting to do for a solid body guitar. Pure genius that has stood the test of time. People will likely be playing his design far into the future.

[andrewridge]

I've had a Strat since 1978, but eventually I found that I HAD to have a Telecaster. I fell in love with the neck pick-up. Nothing else sounds like it. The bridge pick-up is bright, and great. The neck one has a fuller sound, with some amazing upper-frequency highlights. Sheer beauty.
I might well say it's the best.

[somestupidwithaflaregun]

Steppenwolf "Born To Be Wild" Michael Monarch. A Telecaster through a '62 Fender Concert amp. Heavenly sound, raw power chords. Listen to it now.

[f.duranleau]

I finally now own my 4 dream guitars: A Tele, a Strat, an ES-335 and a Les Paul Special equipped with P-90s...

[ransombaggins]

Such a wonderful guitar. I think, when I boil it all down, I just love the simplicity, both in styling and function. Simple, but still so much more versatile than most people realize. Country music has rightly become associated with the Tele, but one would be seriously mistaken to think Telecasters are only for country music. People from virtually every genre of music are using Teles effectively. Great video!

[geertzwager]

Nice vid Darrell and I couldnt agree more! My first '72 Tele got unplayable (trussrod ran out of range...) and I bought a new one. The old one got heavier strings and an open tuning so I can still use it for slide. I read a great quote somewhere:
When you play a Stratocaster, you sound like you're playing a Stratocaster.
When you play a Telecaster, you sound like you.

[ybai]

As an engineering student I always tells my fellows who doesn't plays guitar how Leo Fender was such a legendary engineer. The concept of bolt-on neck, truss rod, bridge saddle, and later the tremolo system, you simply can't think of any of these incredible idea if you were someone else in that era with only conventional instrument luthier experience... These concepts are created by Leo's great engineering aesthetics: keep simplicity at whereaver it could and add degree of freedom at where it might cause stability problems... I heard that Leo Fender himself is not such a guitar player (Mr. Dan Electro was said as well) but he really deserve the respect from all guitar musicians.

[Bloosee]

I had no interest in Tele's for a long time, then I assembled one for myself and discovered what I was missing. Love them now.

[pigsflyforever]

Man, this video made me fall in love with Teles. I was always a Strat or LP guy and thought of Teles as museum artefacts. Guess what? At age 52 (!), I bought my first Tele! Beauty, tone, versatility, class. This was one of the most heartfelt guitar videos I ever watched. Cheers mate!

[philodonoghue]

Historical footnote: at roughly the same time here in New Zealand
, a garage ‘luthier’ was making Hawai’an electric laptop guitars - and moved on to create a solid body electric guitar which an electrical tradesman turned into a workshop cottage industry, selling the product to local musos. Once they became aware of the Fender Telecaster and other …Casters, they realised the solid body shape was very similar to the Fender ones. Fender became aware of them eventually and threatened legal action. So began the practice of other guitar making companies make their guitar body shapes similar to Fender but not similar enough to get sued.

[JT-gdhe]

I’ve bought and sold many guitars, but the one I won’t get rid of, and always comes back to is my telecaster. It’s the one guitar I’ll grab if the house ever caught fire. I have more expensive guitars, but none better. You forgot to mention the neck pickup with the tone slightly rolled off. So smooth.

[ericj]

I have played a TON of electric guitars in my 30+ years of playing but that Tele tone is probably my favorite. While Teles are best known for that twang, my all time favorite tone is the neck pickup with the tone dialed down a little and just a touch of overdrive. Pure magic!