There are many guitars that get labeled ‘super versatile’, but the one that keeps missing from those lists is a Telecaster, even though it’s one of the most versatile guitars out there.
My Own Tele
The Telecaster we’re looking at today is my self-made tele I built many years ago at a guitar building course. This might sound a bit egotistic, but even with all the mistakes I made while building it, it’s still my favorite tele ever.
This guitar was finished in early 2014, and there have been times where it was my only electric guitar I had. This forced me to explore what limitations a tele might have, and what I found was… that it doesn’t really have any!
To test the versatility of this instrument, I decided to put my tele through a bunch of different songs and see how it does in different genres. I used it in every guitar track from John Mayerish tones all the way to Devin Townsend land to figure out if it can do those music styles convincingly.
Mayer Style Song
I recorded three guitar tracks through the REVV D20 (link to the review) for this song. Starting with a finger-picked arpeggio part, I used the middle pickup position (both pickups) and added a bit of drive to the sound from the NUX Steel Singer pedal. I also backed down the filter control on the pedal to make the sound a bit darker.
On the second guitar track, I switched to the neck pickup and added a bit more gain from the Steel Singer. The chords still ring out clearly, and adding a bit of delay and reverb in the post helped achieve the right ambiance for this song.
If you want to hear the tones and how they blend into the different mixes, I recommend checking out the video above.
For lead, I stayed on the neck pickup, added more gain, and dialed in more ambiance in the post for a moody lead tone. I’m no expert in Mayer’s tone, but to me, these sounded good, which wasn’t a huge surprise.
Blues Song
Next, it was time to play some raunchy blues. I again went for the NUX Steel Singer, backed down the filter control for a slightly darker tone, and upped the gain quite a bit.
Switching to the neck pickup and playing this Texas blues style riff was a load of fun. Again, I’m not an expert in these types of tones, but I’d like to think I was in the ballpark of what you usually expect for this type of music.
For lead, I again added more gain and used the neck pickup on my tele. It may not sound like a Strat-type guitar, but it worked great anyway.
Worship Style Song
For the worship style song, I went a bit more effect-heavy. The idea was to layer down a bunch of different guitar tracks to create a wall of ambient rock tones. For drive sounds, I used the BOSS SD-1 both for rhythm and the lead sounds as well. Telecasters are heavily featured in the worship scene, so I knew my guitar would work great for this type of music.
Radio Rock Song
I love Foo Fighters, and this song is heavily inspired by them. Teles are rock machines, and running mine through a Caline Pure Sky overdrive worked great both for rhythm and lead guitar tracks. Sometimes the best things are also simple.
Pop Punk Song
The teenage me LOVED pop punk, and I still have a soft spot for it. This time I needed something more aggressive drive-wise, so I went with my REVV G3, and boy did it work great!
Dialing the tones was incredibly simple, and the powerful EQ controls on the pedal allowed me to get exactly the right kind of tones for this song.
Ambient Metal
When you say metal, I say Tele and REVV G3. This combination can get super heavy while still retaining the characteristics of a Tele. If you didn’t know, you might not have guessed this was recorded with a tele (with vintage-style pickups, I should add!).
Is there any music style a Tele Can’t do?
Without knowing the result, I’m glad that I ended up doing it: the Tele is an incredibly versatile instrument that can do almost any music genre out there. I don’t think it does chugging metal tones that well, at least without having a humbucker in the bridge. But otherwise, I was more than happy with the tones I was getting. Teles are incredibly versatile guitars, and I think every guitarist should have at least one in their arsenal.
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