Fender Telecaster Classic

Fender Telecaster Standard

Fender Telecaster Guitar

Probably the second most popular guitar in the Fender range is the Telecaster Electric Guitar which comes in after the Stratocaster guitar.
The Telecaster guitar comes in a variety models such as the Telecaster Standard, Deluxe, Highway One, Road Worn, Thinline, Blacktop, Vintage, Artist Series and more.
The prices for the Fender Telecaster guitars start around $1,000 and go up to around $4,000. Of course there are always some very special models from the Fender Custom Shop that go higher in price.

With the current exchange rate in Australia being very favourable against the $US, prices of these guitars have dropped significantly over the past 12 months.
Anyway, getting back to the Telecaster guitar, it is not usually seen in the heavy rock or metal scene, as opposed to the Stratocaster. The Telecaster is fairly commonly used by country music and pop music guitarists. Of course there are always exceptions.

One of the main differences with the Telecaster is it comes in a solid body guitar and a semi-acoustic guitar. The semi-acoustic easily identifiable by the “F” holes in the body. The Telecasters also come with only 2 pickups as opposed the Stratocasters having 3 pickups. Once again, the first thing is the look or appearance. Just like buying a car, people are attracted to the design of the Fender Telecaster guitar more than a Stratocaster or Gibson Les Paul or even the Gibson SG. They are obviously different body shapes, body thickness varies and they vary in pickups. This also extends to the width of the neck, the angle of the fingerboard and thickness of the neck. These variations are also prominent in the other models from Fender and Gibson.

Just to finish off, who are some of the famous guitarists that have played the Fender Telecaster. Syd Barrett from Pink Floyd, Jeff Beck from the Yardbirds, Roy Buchanan, Jeff Buckley, Mike Campbell from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Albert Collins, Steve Cropper from Booker T. & the MGs, Denny Dias from Steely Dan and Bob Dylan.

Fender Guitar versus Gibson Guitar

Fender Stratocaster

Gibson Les Paul

The 2 most popular guitar brands and the 2 most popular models of electric guitars are the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul. Today we are talking about the USA models.

Both these guitars come in a variety models such as the Fender Stratocaster Standard, Deluxe, Highway 1, Classic, Vintage, Artist Series and more. The Gibson Les Paul models include the Standard, Traditional, Studio, Custom, Artist Models and more.

The prices for these ranges of guitars from both Fender and Gibson start from slightly over $1,000 up about $7,000. Of course there are some very special models from both manufacturers that go above $50,000. With the current exchange rate in Australia being favourable against the $US has seen prices of these guitars drop by almost half over the past 12 months.

Anyway, getting back to the guitars themselves, the first thing is the look or appearance. Just like buying a car, people are attracted to the design of the Fender Stratocaster guitar or the Gibson Les Paul guitar more than the other. They are obviously different body shapes, body thickness and different types of pickups. This also extends to the width of the neck, the angle of the fingerboard and thickness of the neck. These variations are also prominent between the different models from Fender and Gibson.

The sound from a Stratocaster guitar and Les Paul guitar is also different. This is probably mainly due to the different pickups used. Gibson traditionally uses “soap bar” pickups such as Humbuckers, Burstbuckers etc. whereas Fender uses variations of coil pickups.

I personally have found that both Fender Stratocasters and Gibson Les Pauls are great guitars. The only difference being that the sound of the Stratocaster suited some songs/lead breaks better than the Les Paul and in other cases it was the Les Paul that had the right sound.

Good luck with your Fender Stratocaster guitar or your Gibson Les Paul guitar, if you have both even better.

Next time we will talk about the Gibson SG and Fender Telecaster guitars.