Why Teles Are Special & Why You NEED ONE! 

So should we do more of these? Maybe a Les Paul episode next :)

"Nothing sells more Les Pauls than Jimmy Page's Telecaster"

Unpopular opinion: the telecaster neck pickup is the juiciest pick up and it’s more versatile than the bridge.

You gave us a history of the Tele, but you didn't cover why they were special or why we need one. Disclaimer: I own more than 1. :-)

I've been playing through my teles bridge for so long I forgot what my neck sounds like.

Why can't you buy a T-style in Afghanistan? Because of the tele ban.

I got my first guitar today for my birthday and I bought I tele!!

Your best video ever!! 😁 Absolutely loved it! Btw I believe rosewood was added because players hated how gross the worn maple looked on B&W TV :) Now Fender charges 5k for that look 😂

When i first started playing guitar i hated the T shape. But now i have 3 teles and cant get enough of them

Actually, Robert, Fender does not own Gretsch, it is still owned by the family. Gretsch is distributed by Fender. It's a pretty common misconception.

The chords at the beginning where so breathtakingly beautiful!

I have a MIM Tele and it’s one of my favorite guitars ....love it. Made a few upgrades, bone nut, locking tuners and switch plate.

The into and extro were just breathtakingly amazing, yet simple, bits of music. And that, while very possible on other guitars, just feels right on a tele.

Teles are in my opinion, the best guitar

Another outstanding video, Mr. Baker. Thank you. Coming in to my own musical taste in the late ‘70s to early ‘80s, adding Clash and Pretenders albums to the hand-me-down Stones and Springsteen LPs my older sister gave me, when I picked up a tennis racquet to play rock star, I always envisioned a Tele in hand. Now, a full grown (well, age-wise) adult, I own and play 3-one traditional 2 pickups, a Nashville set-up with 3 pickups and tremolo bar, and a third with P-90s. Getting old isn’t really so bad after all. Peace!

The Telecaster Custom is actually the one with the 3 bolt neck, Wide Range humbucker in the neck, single coil in the bridge and the Gibson style control layout....the guitar shown in the picture is the Custom Telecaster.......that Friedman is stunning! Great video btw...

The minute you start using the tone control on a Tele...you suddenly realise that you will never need another guitar.

Building my own tele at this very moment- finishing and polishing before assembly. Can't wait to hear how she sounds. Thanks for this vid to tide me over!

Man that riff around <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="370">6:10</a> was really nice ! Wish ill get a little bit of that in your course !

Great history of the Tele, nice job really enjoyed it!! I've been playing Fender guitars and amps. over 50 years, still my # 1 choice, love my Tele!!! Thanks for sharing your knolledge!!

Thanks! Great history of the early mods/changes!!! LOVE the blend knob!

whats up Robert! great video man recently i bought a Made in Mexico Tele and its great!! love it

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="358">5:58</a> This lick sounds so goooood :)

Thanks for the history lesson. Without all the knowledge, I needed a telecaster back in the 80's, to do a Springsteen tribute. I immediately fell in love with the guitar, and it's still my number one choice for playing anything

Every time I work on a song with electric guitar, I shootout a tele vs a strat and the tele wins 9/10, regardless of genre. More bite that cuts through the mix, stays out of the way of fundamental vocal frequencies with most singers, and way more personality than any other guitar.

Super interesting Robert! Yes! Please do more of these as you did a wonderful job at it. Strats and Les Pauls would be great! Thank you for making it fun too! :)

Great video, really liked the clean tone suspended riffs. You could tell a lot of thought went into this.

I recently bought a 2013 Fender modern player Telecaster from my father in law and it’s easily my favorite Guitar I have at the moment. It does it all, I can play anything from Country to Metal on it and it has all the sounds I need. It’s a great quality Guitar.

Just a small point to add. Jimmy Page’s dragon tele and the mirror tele are the same guitar. That’s the one Jeff Beck gave him back in the Yardbird days. Jimmy just dressed it up so it would look cooler on stage. Good video though, I’d check out more!

Why PRS's are special next! Great video my man! I would love a Tele, and I'll know I get one eventually!

My first guitar was my Dad's '73 Tele Deluxe. Loved that guitar and luckily for me, almost 40 years later I still have it.

Thanks brother. I have to tell ya, your playing really is amazing! You always surprise me.

I have a G&L ASAT, that I changed the pickups to Fender Custom Shop Tele pickup, upgrades the tuners, to Schaller Locking tuners, then for fun, threw a Fender Neck Plate on it, to show it is kinda the best of both worlds. I preferred the G&L Neck to the fenders I tried, so it is perfect for me!

Cool video. My "Tele" body(curly maple topped one piece prima vera) has a Music Man Special 22 fret neck with a sculpted smooth neck/body joint much like the Charvel T with a pair of Seymour Duncan "P Rails." Very versatile sound palette.

This video was great!!! You should continue the series. I think you should cover these guitars: Stratocaster Jaguar and Jazzmaster Les Paul SG ES-335/339

Great video on my favorite guitar style!

Good job Robert, thanks! I was born the same year the Telecaster was!

Just bought my first tele two months ago and it quickly became my favorite guitar. One other version is the Tele Plus from the 90s.

My first guitar that I bought a few months ago - An ‘05 Squier Affinity Tele. For $200, one of the best first guitars I could’ve got.

Stick with the Telecaster .... go deep .... you could devote an entire channel to it's models , transformations , wiring , mods , pricelists past and present , American vs Japanese vs Mexican , best copies , famous songs it was used on , famous players interviews etc etc. Good video , but it makes me hungry for more :)

Awesome video brother thank you I just got a 2021 Fender American performer honeyburst tele last week and I love it

First time watching your channel and impressed what a great run down of the Telecaster brand. I haven’t decided what to do my channel on but you’ve inspired me to do one regardless of what I do. Cheers brother ✊✊

In the past, I was not a tele person because of the shape and looking just not quite right to me. However, after listening to Richie Kotzen’s playing which totally changes my mind about the Telecaster. Now I have a 2018 player series telecaster, it sounds great with clean and dirty tone🎸🎸🎸

I've been playing since 93 on a 1990 MIM strat. treated myself to a Korean Custom 24 PRS 3 years ago which i played for 2 weeks then put in the corner of the room ever since, and bought used MIM Tele last week and i knew within 15 mins of getting it home that it was the guitar I should have been playing for the last 30 years. As playable as the PRS or even more so. Feels like putty in my hands and produces the tones i always admired most in guitar music. Kicking myself, but also delighted.

Love your channel Robert. Great content. Thank you!

Nice sounds - good stuff. Thanks

I bought two thinlines, a green MIM and a silver mim that I have updated in a lot of ways. That basic tele sound is the best. I run a very modest pedalboard into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and the sound is amazing.

Had a jazzmaster, also incredibly versatile tones like the P90 pickups.

Great video! More like this one would definitely be cool. Thanks Robert.

Hi Robert! I really enjoy your videos but I'm not sure if you're completely right here. Because I always thought the vintage Tele wiring went like this: Position1: Bridge, Position2: Neck, Position3: "Dark circuit" ( for the neck pickup). And if you wanted to get the two pickups together (the sound we nowadays call the middle position in a Tele) you had to find the right spot with the toggle switch to get it. Kinda the same way positions 2 and 4 worked on a Strat for a long time... Tell me if I'm wrong!

THANK YOU!!! I just bought my first Tele after having them for almost 40 years! I always thought they were ugly, tinnny sounding pieces of crap. I finally broke down and tried one with my dog and is become one of my favorite guitars to play. It's comfortable, smooth, and has some serious crunch. I bought the player series model.

Love it. Should definitely do some more. None of this was “news” to me because I’m a freak loser that binges old mark agnesi guitar of the days and the all guitar network lol but I just love your videos so I had to watch it. You do a great job and my favorite guitar personality on the tubez brah. Most like me at least lol. Young kids, family, normal dude. Keep it coming man. Glad this is working out for you!

Tele with a Seymour Duncan 1/4 lb pickup. Sounds very nice.

Both of your teles are exceptional examples.

Had that exact same tele! at one time..... Love that blue body. Running a natural wood body and neck custom these days..... Everyone needs a tele in their line-up.

Great video, love the telecaster!

Super well done... thanks!

Didn’t know my guitar was a “thin line”. Woodvibes w/F-hole. Gorgeous & light. Easy to muscle, for extreme bends.💡

One of my favorite guitar tones ever is from a New York garage noise rock band called UNSANE. Old Tele into a MXR fuzz pedal. I believe he used a old Marshall amp as well. The crunch and string clarity is awesome. And he uses that same setup for all the music, as far as I know. Long live the Tele!

I played a Telecaster for the first time 5 years ago at Guitar Center; it was a Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster w/Jazzmaster neck pickup & headstock that wasn't set up properly so it was just another guitar to me. Now the second time i played one was 3yrs later at another GC location; it was Fender's Classic 50s Telecaster straight in a 60-watt 2x12 Hot Rod Deville (volume on 3!) and that 50-minute experience did it to me damn good in all three position though i always gravitated to that twangy bridge PU. The second Telecaster I played that day (overall 3rd!) was a Nashville Deluxe that had noiseless pickups (a Strat middle PU and a 5-way switch); i enjoyed the bridge & neck pickups individually but woulda enjoyed it much better if I could have got them together but that's another story. Two months later after the blond white Classic 50s was sold the next day, I took a trip to a local pawn shop where a black Tradition CAB10 Tele was practically calling my name in the midst of Strat copies around it. I played it unplugged with my left ear on the upper bout finger-picking while feeling it and hearing it resonate through the alder body. I already knew what it was sound like electrically and was more convinced when I plugged it in for the first time after I brought it home to swap out the guts for a better wiring kit that came with a 4 way switch and my 2nd Tele came from the same local pawn shop in the form of a used DIY kit with a few minor imperfections that I now remedied before i turned it into my own personal Esquire; they're both 100% better than they were!

Awww you didnt mention my favorite. The Nashville Tele lol probably the most versatile there is! 3 pickups and I've seen them with humbucker AND single coil pickups.

Well done bake. Covered alot of good useful interesting info. I for one would like to see you keep doing this type thang with other gits. Giddyup!

I own a few teles, and believe it or not the one i play more than any of them is my squire classic vibe custom i bought as a backup!! it plays and sound perfect!

"When Leo designed the Tele he knocked it out of the park" - Lou Reed

Love ya Robert. Always awesome content.

As I have preached for over 35 years, "Anybody can play a Stratocaster."

Studio musicians in the early days used a tele it’s clear a work horse . When Page used it , it didn’t sound like an original tele Page cranked it and had to get a les Paul to beef up his live shows with zeppelin. It is an iconic guitar that’s for sure . Cheers

I love that there’s always another tele just subtly sitting in the background… well done Mr Baker.

I got my first tele recently, a '91 USA Standard, it's got a slab body with no belly or arm contour and it's taking a bit of getting used to tbh. I do like it though. This was a great watch man.

Loved the video, keep'em coming

I love that a Tele can get dinged and scratched and battered and keeps looking better. My friends kid accidentally knocked my Tele over onto concrete at a bbq and the poor kids parents couldnt understand that I didn't care and was actually very pleased with the brand new scuff.

Cool and informative! Enjoyed it!

I've always been a strat type body with humbuckers type of player, but I recently put together my own tele. I got the body from a shop, has an f hole and a nice dark finish to it with some kind of mahogany body for 100 bucks. I found out the reason it was so cheap was they messed up the pick guard,and messed up the bridge and pickup placement. I fixed those, put a reverse headstock strat type neck without fret dots(but a 12th fret marker) for a little over 100 bucks, replaced the neck pickup because it was too weak with the middle single coil from my Godin that I took out (to make the godin HH). Put new pots and switch, put a treble bleed cap on the volume, 500k pots actually (with a shunt resistor on the bridge pickup to warm it up a bit) and now it's one of my favorite guitars. There's something really cool about how simple it is. My other guitars have more tone options since modding them, but I really dig the simplicity of the tele. And it's nice to have a single coil option as a humbucker player. The new neck pickup actually sounds amazing now. It was just going to be a place holder till I got a better tele neck pickup, but I really like it. Has a great hendrix/SRV type tone to it. The bridge has bite and twang, but it's got a nice low end beef to it as well (pickup came with the guitar). The middle selection is funk town. I love it. For a little over 200 bucks and some time and effort on my part, it's an amazing guitar. It's becoming one of my go to guitars in the studio and for jamming. It can pretty much do anything.

I'm getting my first electric guitar in the next week or so and it's a Tele type Decca. This has now made me even more excited!

My MIM Thinline Deluxe is coming in Thursday, can't wait.

Keith Richards's Mccawber? That was different & transformational. I've noticed that PAFs sound "better" when used with a longer scale neck (25.5 vs 24.75). The mud goes away. I noticed this when I bought my first Gibson Johnny A. Great vid! Thanks.

Rob, I must say I did like you Tele spot, and now you have me thinking about Teles. Rob, how about doing a Nashville Tele.

Fynny we both have birthdays this month 19th is my 54th gah so I got my first real fender american elite ash. Under 7lbs so much versatility. Made myself get goosebumps as my wigmfe gave me a marshall dsl20 new one with celestion 7080 its a great match. Great video. I was always les paul or pound sand but now as having a more refined and developed ear. I get it. Those 2 things together are Rock and Roll.

Gotta Love a Tele. I recently picked up one of Fender's '72 Thinline Telecaster reissues and I am very happy with it. Sounds great! That Friedman of yours sounds awesome too. Does it come in a non-relic version? And what were you playing the guitars through? Thanks. Nice job on the video.

Thanks, great video

Bro, loved the video! PLEASE keep this series going! I bought a Friedman Vintage T, with p-90's, because of seeing yours as well as the man himself, Grover! He is an unbelievable luthier and I just had to get one, especially seeing yours and the pure talent that you poses when you play it. Again, please keep this train a going and Rock on Homie!

I'm getting my first guitar for Christmas My dad is getting me a squier telecaster and I can't wait I say first cus it'll be the first good guitar cus my first guitar will be a cheapo glarry Stratocaster

They actualy laughed at Leo fender boy he realy did have the last laugh thanks leo for your brilliant invention love teles and strats.

it was called the telecaster because many bands would play it on TV so they named it telecaster because its where people saw it and ended up gaining its popularity on TV

Fender did make a deluxe with p90s called the Black Dove. It was an MIM model. I have one of them.

It's the most versatile guitar out there. And the bridge pickup is one of the best sounds in Rock 'n roll

What a lovely collection of Teles!

Was at the guitar store last week. Played a bunch of guitars, even signature guitars. I think my tele at home still feels the best of all the guitars I played there.

Gretsch currently makes the Broadkaster drums (I think they went away and were brought back again) but Fender does not own the Gretsch drum company; it owns the guitar business. The Drum Workshop (DW) owns Gretsch Drums. (DW are based in California but Gretsch drums are made in South Carolina.)

Great job man!

Bridge Tele pickup = great Rock overdrive and Country twang tones. Neck Tele pickup = Warm clean Jazzy tones. Just a great guitar for all Genre's of music.

Great vid as usual. I own 2 teles. They are a unique and amazing animal.

Don Randall was the guy who named the Telecaster. Also Esquire and Stratocaster,.

A tele is a guitar that tests your abilities, no 5 way switches, tremolo. Makes you use all your skills to make it sing. I put Twisted Tele pickups on my MIM tele and it sounds huge.

I don't know if anyone has commented on the riff you are playing at the end , if you wrote that man it's bad ass... Definitely develop it if you haven't already or if it's not a cover , I think it's dope

I have a Squire Affinity Telecaster. I put the EMG t-system pups in it and it's pretty decent for a cheapo. I bought the entry level Tele because I wasnt sure if I'd like it for whatever reason. Now I'm on the lookout for a little more higher end model. So yeah I like Teles.

I bought a '91 American Standard Tele new but could never get on with it until I found the right person to set it up in '18. It played 110% better and I made a personal vow to play only the Tele at my band's many gigs for 1yr. I leave my guitars totally stock and play them 'as is'. Observations so far are I hate the pickup selector switch banging on my hand all the time, the physical balance weightwise is fantastic, rosewood neck is NOT the tonal influencer I thought it would be vs maple (I can't name them but wood studies have backed this up) and it cuts through on stage all night long. Unlike my Strat Pluses there are certain spots on the neck where the E, B or G strings sound thuddy with no sparkle. Who knows why (high or low action, it still does it). Overall I'm extremely happy with it and would highly recommend one.

I love my Teles. I have two Teles and one LP. The Teles are the ones I play 90% of the time. On paper, the Les Paul should be the more versatile of the two, with separate volume and tone controls for each pickup. However, that just has not been my experience. The Tele's "playability" is better for me, as well as the variety of tones I can get. That said, by all means do a video on the Les Paul, and the Strat, which I've always considered the best looking electric guitar--the Strat is almost sculptural.

I played guitar for like 7 years. I liked Les Pauls and Strats. Recently started playing again and got a Tele. Don't know why but it feels good and different.

Yeah, definitely make some more of these man 🤘😎