Why The Telecaster Is The Best Electric Guitar - ASK ZAC EP 33

Hello friends and welcome to another
1:03
Ask Zac I hope you were doing well
1:05
today we are gonna talk about why the
1:08
Telecaster is the greatest electric
1:10
guitar design ever you know that's been
1:16
a mouthful so first off a little pause
1:19
for the cause if you've been enjoying
1:23
the show
1:24
please subscribe if you've watched the
1:26
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1:29
you want to support this show go to 
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1:41
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1:44
appreciate all the people that were
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supported the show so the Telecaster
1:48
first a little bit about why I kind of
1:54
became a telly guy then you can see that
1:58
you know a lot of people become
2:00
Telecaster guys and it's you know it's
2:02
for a good reason
2:03
so it's turn it out a strata because of
2:06
Eric Clapton Jimmy Vaughan Stevie Ray
2:10
Vaughan you know growing up in South
2:11
Texas I think I think the strat is in
2:13
some ways kind of the national guitar of
2:16
Texas notice I said national because
2:18
Texas used to be a country seat Intel
2:20
already were going down that horrible
2:22
road you know because Texans are the
2:24
most arrogant people in the world I know
2:26
because I am one and I'm painting myself
2:31
into a corner today so it was a Clapton
2:37
record called just one night I was a
2:39
live record done in Japan and he had a
2:43
different band than what he'd had before
2:46
before he had George Terry playing
2:48
second guitar and George played very
2:50
much and Clapton style played a strat
2:53
sounded like you know Eric so but then
2:57
he had this other player that didn't say
2:59
anything liking me I mean someone had a
3:02
similar tone but it was Albert Lee and
3:06
so they're both using musicman amps with
3:08
JBL speakers and he's an old Fender
3:10
guitars you know Eric's playing Blackie
3:13
Albert's playing I think he had a 58
3:16
strat and he had a tele you know a
3:20
couple different vintage tallies and I
3:21
think he was using a three pickup Les
3:23
Paul Custom that Eric had given him that
3:25
Eric had used with Delaney and Bonnie
3:26
and cream and stuff like that
3:28
anyway hearing him on the Mark Knopfler
3:31
tune setting me up or just the way he
3:35
played on cocaine or further on up the
3:37
road all those tunes I mean just killer
3:39
playing so of course you know
3:42
pre-internet you know found some old
3:44
guitar player magazines and found out
3:47
about Albert Lee the article had you
3:53
know a lot about his influences and also
3:55
listings of recordings that he had
3:57
played on so all these names didn't mean
3:59
anything to me a lot Don rich and
4:01
Clarence white was like I know who these
4:03
people are and at that point you know
4:06
I'd only heard Albert on on a Clapton
4:08
record so I went and bought one of the
4:10
records that he was listed as playing on
4:13
which was this by this lady named
4:15
Emmylou Harris and the album's called
4:17
luxury liner
4:18
well that album just you know it floored
4:21
me I loved it and that kind of became my
4:24
conversion both to the Telecaster and to
4:29
country music specifically that kind of
4:31
California country music that I think
4:33
kind of goes with Merle Haggard Buck
4:36
Owens and even later on Gram Parsons and
4:40
Emmylou and Rodney Crowell and even into
4:43
like Ricky Skaggs and stuff like that so
4:47
anyway picked up that album on the inner
4:49
sleeve it had Albert Lee with a 53
4:53
blackguard telly and I loved that album
4:57
so then of course I went back to the
4:59
guitar player article and started
5:02
finding out more about the guys that
5:05
influenced him so from there I listened
5:07
to Roy Buchanan from there you know I
5:11
got Jimmy Bryant from there I listened
5:14
to James Burton now I had heard James
5:16
before mainly
5:18
this stuff like a loja from Hawaii and
5:20
things like that but you know hearing
5:23
him play on the Merle stuff like when
5:26
he's doing that kind of you know the
5:40
chicken pickin thing and you know that
5:47
stuff floored me and you know even like
5:51
the the Roy Buchanan stuff like hearing
5:54
that that first album Roy began its
5:57
first album which had I'm a lonesome
6:00
fugitive which of course I loved the the
6:02
James Burton Merle Haggard original but
6:06
here in Roy kind of take it to a whole
6:08
other place and you know was was really
6:12
really neat that was kind of more in the
6:33
vein of Roy because Roy Wood would put a
6:36
lot more you know put a lot more English
6:39
on it as the pool players say so anyway
6:43
Clarence white Don rich you know that
6:47
that article you know kind of you know
6:50
pushed me over into all those players
6:52
and of course most of them were playing
6:55
Telecasters so I decided I had to have a
6:57
Tele well I was gigging by this point
7:02
it's probably you know late high school
7:03
early college and I saved up my gig
7:07
money which I was really proud of the
7:09
fact that it wasn't like from not there
7:11
was anything wrong with buying a guitar
7:12
from your yardwork money or anything
7:15
like that but I was proud of the fact
7:16
that I was able to save up fifteen
7:18
hundred bucks so I could order a James
7:20
Burton signature model Telecaster from
7:23
Claussen's music and Corpus Christi
7:25
Texas and I got that guitar and then I
7:29
had Joe Glaser put a B bender on it and
7:31
then
7:31
had EMG pickups put in it and yeah it
7:35
was basically a non tremolo strat but
7:38
with a Telecaster kind of body so fast
7:42
forward a little bit and then I get to
7:44
Belmont University and one of my
7:47
classmates is this guy named Brad
7:49
Paisley at this point he's nobody nobody
7:52
knows who he is I guess in some ways he
7:55
was a little bit of a local celebrity up
7:57
in West Virginia
7:58
had a bit of a following but no one
8:01
certainly no one knew who was in
8:02
Nashville and so we became friends and
8:07
he said one day let's let's get our rigs
8:10
and set him up over our house and jam so
8:13
I took my James Burton tele with the MGS
8:16
and I had a PV stereo chorus 212 amp and
8:20
I had a boss pedal board when those BCB
8:23
six plastic boards full of boss pedals
8:26
and we played and you know Brad was
8:31
always a great player devastatingly good
8:34
and killer tone I mean he had it like an
8:36
American standard type telly with a real
8:41
Jimi you know early 60s actually mid 60s
8:45
J my top boost ac30 with silver on the
8:50
elico speakers in it so from that I
8:53
really got you know it was funny Brad
8:58
said you need to get a real telly I said
9:03
what are you talking about I said says
9:06
Fender says Telecasters got James
9:08
Burton's you know signature on it
9:10
it's a telling he said well it's a cool
9:13
guitar he said but it doesn't have the
9:15
right bridge on it it doesn't have the
9:16
right pick up on it and stuff it's kind
9:18
of a strand so he started educating me
9:23
and again he was along 21 22 years old
9:25
but he was already very savvy with such
9:27
things and so I had I he got me to get a
9:32
music man amp which I started playing
9:35
through that and I had a blackface twin
9:37
with a 15 in it that he helped me get
9:39
and so then I was able to get rid of the
9:43
PV amp by trading it in
9:45
get a real telly and my first real telly
9:49
was a toque hi breezy sound so near
9:51
Belmont University when we were going to
9:53
school there was a place we used to hang
9:56
out called a pancake pantry and if
9:59
you've been to Nashville you're kind of
10:00
aware of it and we used to skip class
10:03
and go to the pancake pantry at times
10:05
and you know we'd get into our low-level
10:09
trouble that way and then we right
10:13
across the street from the pancake
10:15
pantry was this music store called
10:16
cotton music old man cotton ran it and
10:20
he was a serious jazzer and he'd sit
10:22
behind the cash register you know
10:24
playing standards and just you know he
10:28
was a serious player so we we went in
10:32
there you know two snot-nosed kids and
10:35
Brad looks up in the wall and he saw
10:37
like seven or eight Tokai breezy sounds
10:40
up on the wall he said that's what you
10:41
need to get so we played every one of
10:43
them picked out the best one I got it
10:46
and it was great guitar and I wish I
10:49
still had it a friend has it so but what
10:52
I learned about that was the importance
10:54
of this bridge and this bridge is a big
10:57
part of the Telecaster sound now that
11:00
James Burton tell he had a fancy non
11:01
tremolo bridge with six saddles and they
11:04
were gold-plated everything but this is
11:07
a big part of the Telecaster sound you
11:10
know here you have a combination bridge
11:14
tail piece and also you know pickup
11:19
mount and so it's all in one and what a
11:23
simple elegant design I mean it's
11:28
ridiculous you know you have bent steel
11:30
you have three saddles and then the
11:33
pickup mounts to it now I want you to
11:36
look at other guitars and most other
11:39
solid-body electric guitars the pickup
11:42
ends up being mounted to plastic half
11:46
the time so a strat the pickup is
11:49
mounted to plastic it's mounted to the
11:51
pick guard even on a Les Paul like a tar
11:53
nine that I have back there it's like
11:55
they're mounted to
11:58
you know these plastic rings on they're
12:00
not there's anything like horribly wrong
12:03
with it but being mounted to the bridge
12:06
itself is an enhancement
12:08
another thing that's huge is you know is
12:16
this bottom plate you know I don't know
12:18
exactly what it does but I've had
12:20
Telly's that didn't have a bottom plate
12:23
on the pickup like I had an American
12:25
Standard telly for a little while and it
12:26
didn't have a bottom plate on it well I
12:28
put another pickup that did and of
12:30
course it's hard to quantify what was
12:32
doing what but you know this this plate
12:35
seems to kind of focus the sound in some
12:38
way and also it adds a bit of shielding
12:40
that's another great thing about the
12:42
telly is that you know even with single
12:45
coil pickups of all the single coil
12:47
pickup guitar that I've ever owned
12:49
Telly's always tend to be the quietest
12:51
you know when you put on the back and I
12:52
think it has to do with that plate and
12:54
the fact that it's mounted in this
12:55
bridge and it just it makes for a
12:58
quieter and easier to deal with sound
13:01
another real you know well the pickup
13:05
itself of course is horribly important
13:07
and and I think when you stick to a kind
13:11
of what I would call a normal output
13:12
vintage style pickup meaning somewhere
13:15
in the mid six is to the I don't know
13:19
maybe nine K at the most you know you
13:22
you know there's some really great
13:23
sounds in there and I think the ones
13:25
that sound better more in the 7k range
13:27
but anyway it's you know it just it has
13:32
the right amount of content it's like so
13:34
many pickups have too much information
13:36
it's like on a humbucker I always feel
13:39
like you're always trying to tame stuff
13:40
and pull stuff out so that it'll cut
13:42
through because there's just too it's
13:44
too fat and it's like it works great by
13:47
itself or when you're in a power trio
13:49
but when you're in a big band it just
13:50
it's just too much I've been to
13:52
rehearsals and took a Les Paul and the
13:55
bandleader said um yeah for the gig
14:01
please bring you tele and don't don't
14:03
bring that guitar back I was like in one
14:06
way that was a little shocking but I
14:07
mean he was being really blunt and that
14:09
he'd already we'd already played
14:10
together and he knew that the tele
14:12
worked for the sound and he heard that
14:14
guitar and heard how much more you know
14:17
kind of low-end and kind of low mids
14:19
that it had and how much kind of what
14:21
leo fender called fluff to it that it
14:24
wasn't gonna work as well okay let's
14:26
keep on with the bridge these saddles
14:28
are really important and having a three
14:31
saddle bridge is a big part of the sound
14:33
the fact that you have two strings
14:35
covering each saddle it gets more
14:38
downward pressure and you know more
14:41
transference of vibrations to the saddle
14:44
and to the body and just a big part of
14:47
the sound these these saddles these are
14:50
compensated ones they're not the
14:51
originals I still have the originals to
14:53
this 67 tele but yeah that's the one you
14:58
know I do two mods two took guitars and
15:01
this is one of them this I put
15:02
compensated saddles I be careful when
15:05
you're putting new saddles on a guitar a
15:08
lot of guys will put these really heavy
15:10
fancy saddles that are heavily
15:12
chrome-plated and weigh a ton and that
15:16
is not the old sound these old saddles
15:18
weigh next to nothing you know and when
15:21
you put heavy saddles on there it
15:23
changes the sound and for me not to the
15:24
better not for the better
15:27
so yeah so these are small C&J tooling
15:29
which unfortunately no longer made he
15:33
actually was the father of Jeff sin and
15:35
so many Dino casters and Jeff's in
15:37
guitars made in the last decade had
15:39
those on there they're not available
15:40
anymore but I like to all parts one and
15:43
that's what's on my Daniel Castro
15:44
blackguard that's in the back there yeah
15:49
then a lot of guys will go crazy on
15:52
these bridges and to me you know the
15:55
vintage ones are thin bent steel and so
16:00
many new bridge makers they tout hey you
16:02
know we use you know thicker steel and
16:06
blah blah blah and all it does is take
16:09
away the sound it makes it not sound
16:11
like an old guitar the best any new
16:14
bridge out there is the $30.00 Fender
16:17
bridge their vintage style bridge you
16:19
get one of those and then you get a set
16:21
of all parts confidence
16:22
Saddles either the brass of the steel
16:24
and you're there and then just get you a
16:27
good bridge pickup alright so there's
16:31
that some people complain about the
16:34
bridge pickup being too bright and I
16:37
mean I have had bad bridge pickups
16:40
before but I mean if you have a good
16:41
bridge pickup and if you use your tone
16:43
control I mean that's the biggest thing
16:45
is you need to roll some treble off and
16:47
if you just insist on having the tone on
16:50
10 on a tele on the back pickup I guess
16:52
you're just going to be disappointed but
16:54
you know if you just roll the tongue
16:56
back a little bit it really softens it
16:59
and gives it a great sound that still
17:01
cuts besides using compensated saddles
17:05
the other mod that I do to all my
17:06
guitars is I wire the tone control only
17:09
to the bridge pickup and that way it
17:11
opens up the sound by removing the tone
17:14
control it brightens this pickup more
17:17
and also it it just gives it it gives it
17:23
more cut so so it just gives it and what
17:56
you can do is when you wire it that way
17:58
you can set the amp while you're on the
18:02
neck pickup and then you go to the back
18:04
pickup and usually darken it as much as
18:06
you need to and you know I found that I
18:09
can save you know even muddy sounding
18:13
Telecaster neck pickups by wiring the
18:15
guitar up that way because then I can
18:17
you know wire you know I can set the
18:19
sound you know fairly bright and be in
18:22
good shape the body on the tele
18:26
is elegant it's perfect all that
18:29
contouring and and tummy cut and stuff
18:32
like that I think is not needed
18:36
you know of course in all the fender
18:38
books it talks about Bill Carson who was
18:40
an early Fender employee and kind of
18:42
test pilot and for like the strat and
18:43
stuff he complained about the Telecaster
18:47
and that it was cutting into his ribs
18:48
and of course looking at pictures that
18:50
looks like he had his guitar hiked up
18:51
pretty high you know not as high as Roy
18:54
Buchanan but pretty high like a bib and
18:57
man I wish he would just would loosen
18:59
the strap a little bit or something but
19:01
you know I don't have any problem with
19:03
the lack of contouring and acoustic
19:06
guitars don't have contours most guitars
19:09
don't so anywho I think you know in the
19:15
the control plate on a telly and the
19:17
fact that you have two screws there you
19:19
remove those and then you can rewire the
19:20
guitar or do anything you need to I
19:22
think that's brilliant you know I I
19:24
don't like on that the strat obviously
19:26
it made it easier for 
19:29
manufacturing to put everything on a
19:31
plate but as far as you know on the gig
19:35
or traveling and trying to you know fix
19:37
something it is so nice that you just
19:40
remove two screws and you can get to the
19:42
wire and I mean that's far superior than
19:45
most other guitars the neck is just
19:51
simple elegant design I think the you
19:54
know the lack of a bulbous you know
19:57
other stuff on here you know as an
20:00
advantage and also the lack of neck to
20:06
body angle and the lack of headstock
20:09
angle it just makes it to where it has
20:13
more structural integrity because you
20:18
know how many times have you seen a
20:20
telly with the you know broken headstock
20:22
how many times have you seen a broken
20:24
head stock on a Gibson I've seen a ton
20:27
of them
20:27
you know there's repair shops here in
20:29
Nashville that are completely set up
20:31
with jigs and and all sorts of things to
20:35
fix
20:35
you know headstock breaks because it's
20:37
so common because here you have this
20:40
fragile you know headstock angle and
20:42
body you know angle which I'll give it
20:45
to Gibson that's part of the sound and
20:47
if you took those things away
20:49
wouldn't sound the same and so yes it's
20:51
part of the sound and I have no beef
20:53
with with Gibson or anything this is
20:55
just a fact that the Telecaster is
20:58
stronger you can say you like a Les Paul
21:00
better or whatever but but this is so
21:03
much more you know has so much more
21:05
structural integrity I will say I have
21:08
to tell this one little side story about
21:10
going went to Japan years ago and
21:14
there's the only time I saw a Telecaster
21:17
break and we were playing in a club and
21:23
it was kind of a jam session and the
21:28
biggest takeaway from this besides the
21:29
horrible incident was there was a young
21:33
guy named Chris Scruggs who's the the
21:35
grandson of Earl Scruggs
21:37
and he now plays with Marty Stewart and
21:39
he's an amazing bass player guitar
21:42
player pedal you know steel player plays
21:45
almost everything he's a mazing musician
21:47
I've never heard of him before
21:49
and again this was almost 20 years ago
21:51
and he was playing with BR 549 and he
21:57
got up and was jamming playing on
21:59
someone's pedal steel but not using the
22:01
pedals at all and he was doing all those
22:02
slant bar techniques and he was
22:04
ridiculously good so someone else that
22:07
got up not Chris picked up a telly and
22:11
we were in it was a little Club and the
22:14
ceiling was low and there was a ceiling
22:16
fan well he played a song and then after
22:19
the song was over he took the guitar off
22:22
like this and one of the worst sounds
22:24
I've ever heard in my life
22:26
was the sound of a ceiling fan hitting
22:29
the headstock and breaking it off
22:31
cleanly right here at the nut I was
22:33
actually kind of interesting but yeah
22:36
you don't don't hear that very often but
22:39
the tele is such you know a versatile
22:41
guitar think about Ted green and yes he
22:47
had some modified Telly's with
22:49
humbuckers and things like that but he
22:50
played a lot of just stock Telly's think
22:52
about one of the modern masters of the
22:54
guitar Julian Lodge I mean what a
22:57
monster you know he is
22:59
and he plays a a Telecaster ally plays a
23:02
nacho guitar made by my friend
23:05
nacho out in Valencia Spain think about
23:09
you know edy bickered who did put a
23:11
humbucker in his you know Mike Stern and
23:16
all these guys used tell he's you know
23:18
for playing jazz or Cali think about
23:22
Bill Frisell I mean Bill Frisell has
23:26
influenced so many players why do you
23:28
think everyone everyone that's gone in
23:30
New York and or seen him play you know
23:32
that everyone started shaking the neck
23:34
on the guitar while they played some
23:35
cool chord you know all of a sudden it
23:37
became room no I'm not even doing it
23:44
that great but all of a sudden it was
23:45
like everyone started doing it after
23:46
they saw bill play listen to the record
23:50
and then you'd see him I mean oh he's
23:51
just he's shaking the neck on the guitar
23:53
no but anywho and then he got Roy
23:58
Buchanan you got all those great guys
23:59
you got you know you've got the
24:00
stereotypical stuff like Jimmy Page
24:02
using one on stairway to heaven and on
24:05
and on and on you know but you know the
24:09
tele is the is the guitar you know
24:11
there's other ones out there that are
24:13
great but but the tele really you know
24:16
it was the first real serious you know
24:18
solid body guitar that was released and
24:20
it was all about simplicity in you know
24:25
and functionality and I think that pure
24:28
design I think has really served it well
24:31
you know when the Les Paul was
24:33
introduced to compete with this you know
24:37
Gibson said well we're gonna do an arch
24:39
top to the body because you know fender
24:42
can't do that and there were elements of
24:45
that you know guitar that we're all
24:47
about showing how fancy they were well
24:49
this guitar is not about fancy at all
24:51
this guitar is a hundred percent about
24:53
functionality and that's what makes it
24:56
the best electric guitar design ever and
25:00
why I love them alright well I hope you
25:04
have enjoyed this episode again you know
25:07
please subscribe thanks for supporting
25:10
this
25:11
you'll grab a mug maybe it'll have a oh
25:14
this has got a lot egg in it mmm nice
25:19
thank you and hope you have a great week
25:24
see you next time bye