Tele vs Strat?

axisus

Your analysis is wrong, you just prefer Tele's.

DrJazzTap

I've always thought a Tele looks a bit agricultural 

bluechargeboy

Strat  = Lego Technic
Tele = Duplo

dindude

I like to think in terms of chairs.

This is a Tele, probably with a crack in it that pinches your bum when you sit on it.
https://i.imgur.com/T5np6aR.jpg

This is a Strat, still a plastic chair but so classic and refined.
https://i.imgur.com/nIcebmI.jpg

And just for completness, this is a Gibson, ur Granny would be proud.
https://i.imgur.com/IPdxVWz.jpg

Treewig1

I just made a Nashville tele. I've got a Seymour Duncan in the bridge, Kinman in the middle and a Dimarzio Twang King in the neck.  Look great, sounds fantastic.  Oops.

jonnyburgo

A strat us like a woman that spends 3 hrs in the bathroom getting ready to go out, only to emerge looking like a kind of generic girly girl that you see everywhere. The Tele is like a girl that goes for a shit without wiping her bum then comes out looking for a fight. Gimme a Tele girl every time.

rossi

A tele is godless but a strat  will get to heaven as long as St Peter can get the trem set correctly .

robgilmo

Lebarque said:

I see them like jeans. The Tele is like the pair your Mum bought you when you were a kid: uncomfortable, inflexible and brash. The strat, on the other hand, is like your favourite pair: fits like a glove, understated cool and can be worn in any number of environments.

Yeah, I see where you are coming from, the tele jesns are the ones you mess with your pals in, the ones you depend upon to keep your back while you play, the ones you dont give a fuck about because you know when the shit hits the fan they will be there and wont let you down, the strat jeans however, with their factory ripped holes in all the wrong places and their pre faded look that looks like you spend all day rubbing your hands down the front of your legs and arse you may as well wear a pair of snow washed baggy jeans from the 80's with the elasticated bottoms and waist.

Voxman

rossi said:

A tele is godless but a strat  will get to heaven as long as St Peter can get the trem set correctly .

Solution - hardtail Strat - no confusion for St Peter. 

dazzajl

Isn’t this the beautiful thing about guitars?

I’ve just had to let two go, a thinline tele that was as gentle, soft and sweet as box full of Andrex puppies and an Aerodyne Strat that was slim, demure, understated and elegant but produced a sound that would peel your face off given half a chance. 

Untill you actually stick in a cable and crank up an amp, you never quite know what you’re going to get from any of them. 

midlifecrisis

a tele is rough brash unrefined says what it likes. A strat is comfortable, well refined and sophisticated and handles itself in polite society..... give me a tele anyday

Fretwired

My solution is simple. I have a Strat and a Tele. The two greatest guitar designs in the world (sorry Gibson).

Phil_aka_Pip

Nah. Screw Teles, screw Strats. The ideal solution is one of 335/LP/SG (or better still one of each).

Philly_Q

Sorry, but I have to laugh at this idea of a Strat being all refined and sophisticated like a bone china tea set.

TTBZ

I think I agree, much prefer teles. I just can't get strats to do what I want out of a guitar without mods or pedals. Plus trems are pointless.

dazzajl

TTBZ said:

............... Plus trems are pointless.

Much like anything you don’t know how to handle 

Even my Teles have Bigsbys. 

thegummy

I block my trem off cause I hate having to tune each string about 5 times every time.

They're not pointless though, they do things that can't be done without one.

AndyR

I must admit I agree with Philly - I've been reading this thread thinking what strat are most people thinking of??!?! In my experience it's an aggressive attacking thing that can be used for melodic stuff in some people's hands.

But, thinking about it...

What I've really found is that a strat lets my own character or mood through. A tele, like a Les Paul, always sounds like itself.

A strat takes more effort but rewards it once you've mastered it. On a Les Paul or a tele, I eventually found that you have to hold back on the effort you'd put in for a strat... otherwise it sounds not so good. I dig in quite a bit, like Rory and SRV - strats love that. I never got on with teles and LPs until I learnt to stroke them and let the guitar do the barking.

Once I'd done that, I discovered that I had a different way of playing strats as well now.

You have to let teles and LPs be themselves - you can make a strat do or be whatever you want. 


And finally, I sometimes think of them like this:

A tele is a Hawker Hurricane
A strat is a Supermarine Spitfire

Both are superb machines.

chrisj1602

I like the differences between them. They are supposed to be different so it's hard to choose one over the other. I love Teles (and Esquires) for their simplicity, but love Strats for the extra sounds and trem etc.

OilCityPickups

I come from the generation that, in the 70s bought a Tele because it had to be a 'Fender' but the tele was a lot cheaper (particularly second hand as it was a bit out of favour) than the Strat I really wanted. As it happened ... good choice, because my nearly new, black 1975 Tele was a hell of a lot better than the 'CBS cut back' 1975 Strat would have been! 
I now have Strats and Teles ... which is better? Neither, they are both good at what they do.
The Tele is classless, aggressive, a bit subversive, and the ultimate in 'no frills thrills'. 
The Strat is achingly beautiful to look at ... even beaten up ... refined but with that Fender raw edge ... more perhaps of an aesthete's guitar than a working man's weapon (the Strat was the tool of choice for Grammar School prog ... the Tele the choice for punk and new wave) 
Thank Leo for both!