Stratocaster vs. Telecaster

an early 90s MIM Fender jazz that's been through hundreds of shows

jazz bass

(that was always my main instrument)

My 3-year old nitro Jazzmaster has quite a bit of checking on the back and arm area, but it’s all in the color coat and hasn’t broken through to the top finish layer.

Yeah, and I have 45-50 year old poly finished Japanese Tele and Strat clones where the finish has yellowed, but there's essentially zero wear apart from chips and breaks in the finish on edges. But just the other day I saw this 80s Japanese Tele, a low end model so the finish would definitely be poly:
https://i.imgur.com/ItamoMs.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ztv28jf.jpg

Thin is thin, as I understand it - thin poly will sink into wood and wear like that, maybe more likely on a cheap guitar back then.

The Fender finish these days is polyester and comes out thick whether it's a cheap Squier or an expensive American Fender.

That's a pretty guitar

when it comes to ash, gotta say swamp ash is right near the top

Northern Ash is good if you want to lift weight. That was the source of a lot of heavy ‘70s guitars.

I found the world’s lightest Peavey T-60 - normally they’re 10+ pounds, mine is 7.5. Waiting on an aluminum neck to make it playable, the frets were non-existent.

one of my great regrets is not buying a T-40 bass a couple of years ago for $250 or something because it weighed like fifty pounds.

shit I just bought that 80s Telecaster I posted upthread

nice!

I remember when those Peavey T guitars were so common in shops they were basically giving them away. Now they're highly sought after and not cheap. When did that happen??

based on sales itt it seems telecasters are winning

as it should be.

when it comes to ash, gotta say swamp ash is right near the top

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, May 3, 2021 9:27 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

ugh, hate when I get swamp ash

yeah I think this is my 6th Tele or Tele variant (most are Japanese copies)

this is an oddball

https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/msg/d/osseo-fender-pawn-shop-color-sunburst/7315840263.html

i actually really like that one!

thread inspired me to put strings on my electric guitar for the first time in 13 years. I've been playing a larrivee L-05 the whole time, and this feels like a game controller. started searching for larger neck teles and most people point toward...road worn models.

my wife and kid are out of town so I took my 1978 Princeton Reverb and pedalboard out of the tiny room upstairs and set them up in the much larger living room and it sounds so unbelievably good while sitting on the couch and playing and drinking beer and watching marvel movies with the closed captioning on like the slovenly adolescent that I really am when my true self is revealed

it's been all telecaster so far though I really should try my knockoff japanese strat while i have the chance

the pawn shop 72 is a sweet guitar. i have a prototype of one and its a personal favorite for sure:
https://i.imgur.com/newmWfW.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/6aHp5IG.jpg
mine has binding around the front of the body and is only rounded in the back and mine has two wide range humbuckers and a 4 bolt neck.

that's nice, looks cooler in your pictures than the craigslist one

Spottie that kills the production model. And Sufjan the meaty-neck standard seems to be the Baja Tele, there are a few models which vary in colour and 50s-vs-60s setup. Getting harder to find at a good price tho.

at a certain point you could think about a replacement neck too

thanks, matthew. but yeah, I might need to just find a tele I like first and swap necks. no bajas nearby on craigslist.

warmouth has a ton of options, however you do lose the fender logo on the headstock obv

https://www.warmoth.com/guitar/necks/backcontours.aspx

this is an odd one

https://reverb.com/item/38884514-g-l-espada-clf-research-sonic-blue-with-case

https://media.rainpos.com/9068/1_espada_org.jpg

huh, basically a Sabre II in Tele cosplay

the P-Bass style split pickups really take it over the top

Yeah, but G&L has had a similar thing on the Comanche and ASAT Z-3 for some time.

https://✧✧✧.shop✧✧✧.com/s/files/1/0916/0836/products/33098__1_3✧✧✧@3✧.progress✧✧✧.j✧✧?v=1571458285

https://media.rainpos.com/9068/1_z3_hnb_copy.jpg

https://images.reverb.com/image/upload/s--m1nn8TJe--/a_exif,c_limit,e_unsharp_mask:80,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_south,h_1600,q_80,w_1600/v1508194888/wjtit2dp9avmjd1oseux.jpg

always liked the look of those staggered pickups

i kinda love how G&L became Leo's 2.0 versions of Fender models

yeah some of them really work, some are super ugly to me tho

G&L lots of times look a bit "off"

but it's cool just from his thought process point of view, like what he perceived was wrong or could be improved on all these iconic guitars he made

i almost pulled the trigger on this a few months back... turns out my friend ended up buying it lol.
https://reverb.com/item/33527574-g-l-skyhawk-1984-natural-finish?show_sold=true

a few months = over a year ago

That's awesome, never seen that model before

all these iconic guitars he made

... not to take anything from the genius of CLF who turned a musical instrument into an engineering challenge, and ended up with the best of both!

it really is perfect that the guy who revolutionized how we make music was an engineer who couldn't play and whose favorite style of music was dead by 1955

that G&L espada is dope btw

I've thought about/wanted to get a cheapo Squier Tele for a long time, but something else always came along instead. Now I'm thinking I want to set a few bucks back for a while and pick up the Isbell Mexican Tele that just dropped. Hope it's not a super limited run and they're still around in 2022, because that's the one!

xxp yeah he was really just building radios and speakers which happened to pick up string vibrations instead of AM waves

and Johnny you'll always be able to pick up a used sunburst Fender Japan TL62B and put a black pickguard on it, those guitars are awesome.

I have a Squier thinline tele (70s vibe)

It is lovely and I like it

Now a part of the Telecaster* club

Refinished 1974
https://i.imgur.com/V4P65f6.jpg