Heavy Telecaster Tones: 3 Secrets to make a Tele sound MASSIVE 

Well, your tele sounds rad for one obvious reason - the guitar faces you make when you play - they cannot produce any weak or thin stuff - ever, best stuff Joey!

That was one of the most monster sounds I've ever heard from a Tele. VERY impressive.

Just got my first Telecaster after 40 years of playing. Kicking myself for not getting one sooner. The combination of versatility, tone and simplicity doesn't come with any other guitar. My only gripe about it is that it's not the most comfy guitar. But it's still more comfy than a LP or 335. The clarity/beef combination of the bridge pickup was something I'd never really experienced before, either. It's amazing. Regarding light strings...I had 9's on my Tele for a while as an experiment and it actually messed up my hand and I immediately went back to the 10s that I'm used to. 9's are all fine and good if you never play clean and have a light touch, but I don't like them. I need some punch in my clean sound and I want strings that respond when I hit them hard. I can get better action with 10's too. That's how I messed up my hand, I couldn't get the action comfortable with 9's. Lighter strings require higher action and more neck bow.

How you found this tone is just incredible. It sounds heavy and clear at the same time. It's massive.

Hey, Joey! You're one of the best out there! You're playing is on another level! Great tips, too!

2:22 you are just killing us with these faces, man! Solid playing!

I have no clue about technical stuff but I love your sense of melody

I have to say, I hate the twang of a Stratocaster! But the way you play and setup the tone on that Tele, woah, sounds amazing! And I'm a huge Les Paul double humbucker sounding fan. You have changed my mind now! This is my favorite guitar sound and tone ever! And dude, your playing is pure soul food! As technical as you probably could be, you play with pure feel and a great ear! Love your stuff man. Hopefully, you release a bunch of tracks soon and for ever! Wanna hear more!

Great suggestion re parallel compression! So easy to do on my Helix.

I have long been a superstrat player ... so bridge humbuckers all the way. Well a few months ago I stumbled across a great deal on a thinline tele with a standard single coil tele bridge and a PAF in the neck and since I'm a cheap MFer I bought it and it's quickly become my favorite axe and I've noticed much of what you've pointed out here. Other than a little 60 cycle hum (which you don't notice the instant the pick hits the strings) it still rocks. And I've noticed that I get a hair more treble cutting through the mix than with the high output HBs I'm used to (makes me think that a pair of P90s would make this rig rock even harder ... makes me think P90s have been ignored for too long, but I digress). The nice advantage of a thinline tele is its also fun to play out on the couch in the living room sans amp (but I'm not gigging with the thing so feedback is a non-issue).

pal mute on that has to be hard, but man, you made your guitar sound so beautiful, well played.

Great tips dude! I myself play a Telecaster and heavy music with my band. I have a Marshall Silber Jubilee which is a darker sounding amplifier and the combination of those two is twangy yet thick as hell! Keep up the Tely love 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻

I’ve had a Voodoo Lab sparkle drive forever but never used it. After watching this video I dug it out and sent it to a pedal guru for some upgrades. I now absolutely love my Tele with the parallel drive. Sounds incredible. Thanks for sharing this video. I’m inspired by your awesome skills.

Been using a Telecaster with a few of my fuzz pedals and an Orange amp with similar results. Great to see it put so well in this video. And yeah, nines are where it's at. I'm thinking about putting some on my Les Paul as well, just to make life easier for myself.

Jeff Beck could always make a Tele sound extremely heavy not just distorted but "clean" as well. The Guitar shop album has some great rocking tele (and strat tones).

If your Tele has '50s style wiring, that can make for a thicker/darker bridge tone. Monster tones!

Tele + TS pedal + Mesa Rectifier (raw or vintage mode) - surprisely great tone, in my opinion

This is why a Tele is my favorite guitar for heavy riffs. It has a metallic bite and snap that traditional "riff" guitars lack.

Very best tone!!! The two songs in this video are very good. I search the tab in your shop.

Yeah, light strings are the way to go for a heavy single coil sound. Tony Iommi used 'em in Sabbath!👍

Sounds amazing

What playing, what sound! Thx Joey!

Hey Joey im so glad I’ve found your channel. Love your Playstyle and Agility….you deserved definitely more subs 🎉 Exited to listen to your new Single tomorrow. ❤️

Good playing, nice sound demo and good explanation....You got me subscribed.

You can put like a Xotic EP boost in front it thickens your sound also.

I dropped a Tele Hot Rail bridge pickup in mine so that along with your suggestions should really give me the crunch I want! 🎶😁🔊👍🏽

Killer tone as always.

Merci bien Joey ! Depuis le temps que j’attendais ça 😅 J’adore ton jeux et t’as façon de produire en MAO 🤘🏻👌🏻

Thank you for showing us this. I just began playing guitar in 2020... but I use a Spark 40 modeling amp or the Zoom MRS 8 for all of my effects. So all this info is very interesting and new to me. It sounds awesome!!!

100% correct. 👍 For me a Tele is my favourite guitar into the Kemper. Btw, fantastic guitarist, love listening to Joey. 👋👍

Sick riff and great playing! Really awesome tips 👏🏻

Holy shit, this is what I needed so bad, thank you!

OMG. It's finally the best video about this subjet around youtube. Really man. Thx! One question : I'll gonna take one tele to play metal in drop B tunning. The Baritone telecaster seem to be one good choise, notably to put thin string. What do you think about that ?

Massive intro jam

Joey!! HUGE fan. You’re a ripper. QUESTION; can you achieve the same tone using OD instead?? Thanks!!

Nice video mate! Rather timely for me as I am just getting started with Telecasters and my single coil fling since I got a LP Jr with a P90 and then I knew I had to have a Tele. (even though I still have a baritone that I am trying figure out too.) So I just got the tele last week and I am definitely shopping around for sounds to make with it. It's a glass cannon and I love the jangle and I just don't like to turn it into mud with pedals. I've had fair results, but nothing over the top. The parallel distortion hit home. I have a few fuzz box/distortion pedals, but not with a clean mix channel. So thanks for that one especially. Good playing too btw. Comfortable fun. :)

Rockin brother very impressed

Wow! Nice tones.

Wow so awesome 🤩 perfect sound

I want to buy a Tele now. That tone is awesome!

Jeez man that is just awesome .. you rock ! Thanks for the tips .. incredible player !

Killer demo, playing and tone!

Sounds awesome!

10-46, Klon type or Rat type, and an EVH amp sim. Never occured to me that this were good combinations.

Great playing. I want to buy my first guitar. And I cannot decide between a strat or a take for my first guitar. I like music more like this if that helps. lol.

Reminds me of Pelican. Love it

I play a the J Mascis Tele primarily, if you can play it, you are really good. Love it.

What a fantastic video have a wonderful day Joey ❤😊

Why am I even wanting a metal guitar for? This is tops

Great Sound! The bigger Problem is fighting the feedback. Not in a Studio but in a rehearsal room or on stage.

Wooowww! You made me a Tele addict!

I don't understand why guitar players video themselves when they have to poop really bad, and no matter how hard they strain nothing comes out.

Wow. Great tone and playing. Thanks for the tips. I will try these out - certainly 1 & 2. I have a Quad Cortex, so will look for the darker sounding amps… and for the parallel distortion, I assume I can create a side chain with the Distortion on it… thanks.

i almost traded my Tele for an Epi SG...not anymore, thank you so much!

This video made me buy a tele again

Any guitar can sound heavy. Just crank the dirt and ask your bass player to double everything you play.

Well, you can certainly play! Good tips.

Just wait until Bruce Springsteen stumbles across this video.

Another recommnendation: Buy left-handed tele. It has more massive tone than the right-handed tele. Just kidding. Great video!!! I will try your recommendation on my tele with my Helix floor.

Awesome i love my Tele !! I ROCK IT HARD AND HEAVY AT GIGS A LOT OF DUDES DON'T BELIEVE ME TIL THEY SEE ME OUT GIGGING

Sounds great, shoulda talked the delay and reverb you were also using. Still man, sounds friggin' great.

Cool tips, cool riff, Joey! Compressor with tube screamer works well with singles as well. Teach me how to do the solo runs like 0:50 or 2:30 or 10:10

i want to buy the BT and the TAB in this video. i clicked the link i the description but dont know what the title

Super cool vidéo ! Super bon jeu 😮✨️

Great tips. I never heard about the parallel pedals before. I think a good analogic distortion pedal will work well as well. I have the Fire Ultimate Distortion that sounds KILLER with single coils. A cheap pedal. Unlike the Fire pedal, the Boss DS-2 don't sounds great with my tele, because the clean signal is just killed by the pedal.

Shit man, huge tone! New sub here

Wondering what you use for Delay and Reverb? I can hear you dialled them in well as great sounding support.

Teles are killer guitars Better than strats really

Dimebag would be proud.

Your tele has a Twisted Tele neck pickup. It's hotter than the average. Your Tele has the same pickup combination as the Vintera '50s Modified and the Baha Tele.

God, I might actually like playing through a Marshall… with a Tele.

Amazing video 👌 will definitely try these tips…. Which sets of pickups are best for telecaster. I have affinity series of tele and thinking to upgrade pickups

I've been playing too much Baldur's Gate 3 I'm seeing that pendant and thinking here we have a Cult of the Absolute acolyte!

Talking of darker sounding, i just got my first set of flat wound strings and it has been a revelation 👍 10-48 in c#

For a real tele sound, listen to Danny Gatton, the definitive Telemaster. Unbelievable player. Clean as a whistle or distorted. You ain’t too shabby yourself Joey.

these is diMarzio? Captors?

Holy c*ap, Mr. Jones, awesome.

Or simply use the tone knob to darken the tone.

Amazing tone i would love to see you do the same with a strat

Pantera!

There also are other - guitar-inside - options too, too beef up or optimize a Tele. In my opinion they even sound better. On the other hand, hardly every Tele sounds the same, so this becomes a wide field. What works in one case, can be the wrong choice in another one and also different players have different ideas about the "perfect" clean and overdrive Tele tones. For me the Tele, you play, either became an instant return or I had modded it intensely. If you play it, it sounds good, no doubt, but for me the final tones would not work. I am looking for something different.

His guitar faces = me when I try to take a shit… very holy moments 😂

great video and playing, so I imagine you are using the "AMP" from your Kemper, so which Amps are you using in this video? thanks all make sense, I thought you were using a clone

Can a Tele sound heavy? Listen to Led Zeppelin I and II. Great tips, great sound, and great playin', mate. Congrats.

I love the wet/dry, but I'm a stereo guy myself!

Hi @Joey! Great video. My new tele is on the way. I wanted to ask whether you can provide any further details on how to set up the moonshine v2 with a tubescreamer (or any darker sound pedal) - how would you connect them to make such sound? Wanna experiment and find my own sound, but this is an amazing starting point! Cheers!

I’m broken!!!

I have the previous version of moonshine and it doesn’t have clean knob. Would it be like the new one with the clean knob all the way down?

sounds amazing. what’s the base tone kemper profile??

i tune my guitars to d standard. 10s on my eclectic and 11s on my acoustics.

Which would be dark sounding amps? (Like in the 300 usd range)(obviously not valves)

Really interesting

This kind of video is for people without dads, or a Big Brother program in their community. Next: how to land a big fish using 5 mil line, using a piece of chewing gum for bait.

9:52 what song is this? That’s one hell of a riff

So basically a wet/dry mix option on a pedal, yes?

Hello Joey, could you please recommend me some cool amp for bedroom practice (preferably with headphone out) to get at least close to your tele tone? I know you mentioned the original silver jubilee but that is too loud. Cheers and thank you for your content! :)

Does it work for a right handed Tele as well?

Record track with a super strat or lp, then carefully place audio over tele vid

JHS should pay you, just got a moonshine V2 because of this vid 😅

Nice video. Listen to the song Beautiful Death by Wintersun. There you have pure Tele's twang smashing your face!