Fender Telecaster
| Fender Telecaster | |
|---|---|
 Fender American Vintage '52 Telecaster |
|
| General | |
| Type | Electric guitar |
| Manufacturer | Fender ; USA ( Japan , Mexico ) |
| production | since 1950 |
| Construction and materials | |
| Scale length | 25.5 inches (648 mm) |
| Body | Solid body made of alder or ash |
| neck | Screwed maple neck |
| Fingerboard | Maple or Rosewood , 21 or 22 frets |
| saddle | Synthetic bone , width: 42.8 mm |
| Mechanics | 6 × left; capsuled |
| Footbridge / bridge | Fixed, one-piece metal bridge with three common or six individual saddles |
| Pickups and Electronics | |
| Pickups |
2 × single coil |
| Tone control | passive
|
| Unless otherwise stated, the data come from the manufacturer's website (as of December 14, 2013) | |
The Telecaster is an electric guitar that has been manufactured by the US company Fender since 1950 . It is considered to be the first mass- produced solid-body electric guitar. Originally presented in two model lines under the names Esquire and Broadcaster , the latter soon had to be renamed Telecaster for legal reasons . The Telecaster, also called Tele for short , has been played by many well-known musicians since its appearance and is now considered a classic among electric guitars, along with the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul .
history
Leo Fender , who originally owned a small radio business in Fullerton , California , began designing and repairing music amplifiers early on. In the 1940s, he and Clayton Orr “Doc” Kauffman started producing lapsteel guitars under the name “K&F Manufacturing Corporation” (K&F as an abbreviation for Kauffman and Fender) . Since Kauffman only played traditional guitar and Fender did not master stringed instruments at all, the two of them manufactured a primitive electric guitar for test purposes in 1943. This was essentially a lap steel, which was equipped with a normally playable guitar neck. The fretboard with the frets was ordered from a catalog and did not quite match the length of the guitar, which is why, according to contemporary witnesses, the instrument always sounded slightly out of tune . This instrument was originally intended to be used by Kauffman to test new pickups , but was also loaned out to musicians who returned their guitars to Fender for repair.
During the 1940s, the idea of building guitars with solid body came in musicians and manufacturers of instruments in ( English : Solid Body ). These should both overcome unwanted feedback from the hollow body of the acoustic guitar and produce a clear electrical tone. Back in the 1930s, "Doc" Kauffman had developed an electric guitar made of solid Bakelite together with the Rickenbacker company . This was equipped with an electromechanical vibrato and was so heavy that it could only be played when mounted on a stand. In 1931, George Beauchamp and Rickenbacker designed the first series-produced guitar with an electromagnetic pickup , the Lapsteel model Rickenbacker Frying Pan . The musician Les Paul introduced in 1940 a jokingly " The Log " ( "chump") called electric guitar forth by sawing apart an acoustic jazz guitar and mounted a massive block of wood as a new midsection. In 1948, the motorcycle mechanic Paul Bigsby , together with the musician Merle Travis, constructed a partially massive electric guitar, the Bigsby / Travis guitar , which Bigsby built as a small series and which subsequently achieved modest success, especially with Californian country musicians . Leo Fender, who was present as a technician at many concerts in California, watched these developments closely and borrowed Travis' guitar for inspection.
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Inspired by the various ideas and approaches, Fender developed his own guitar in the late 1940s. Right from the start, Fender knew that the guitar had to be easy and cheap to manufacture. As a result, electronics and metal parts came from the production of Lapsteels, and the body of the first prototype was made of inexpensive plywood . In contrast to the traditional construction, the maple neck was not glued to the body , but screwed . Fender adopted this design feature from Kauffman's Bakelite guitar, which also had a screwed neck. The advantage of this design is, in addition to the simplified production, the easy interchangeability of the neck for repair purposes. Fender even went so far that he did without an inlaid steel rod in the construction of the neck. This neck tensioning rod , patented in 1921 for Gibson (US1446758), prevents bending of the strings in conventional necks and is almost indispensable on guitars with steel strings. However, Fender felt that guitarists would simply replace broken and warped necks on the Telecaster with a new one. The provisionally painted white prototype was loaned to various musicians to determine their reaction to the new instrument. After initial positive feedback, Fender was preparing for series production.
In contrast to the prototype, the first series production had a body made of solid ash wood (a wood that was easy and cheap to procure in large quantities). In addition, the six tuning machines were now staggered in a row on a narrow, asymmetrical headstock. Fender took this detail from the Bigsby / Travis guitar and became a hallmark of Fender instruments. The invention of this construction principle for guitar headstock is attributed to the Austrian guitar maker Johann Georg Stauffer , who first used it in Vienna in 1825. Due to the longer but narrower shape of the headstock, which is also not bent backwards, compact blanks are sufficient for the neck, the wood waste remains low. In addition, the strings are led straight to the tuning machines, and not bent sideways on the saddle as with conventional symmetrical head plates.
Initially, only one pickup from lap steel production was installed on the bridge, under a chrome cover plate, which was later omitted. This series model was presented - initially without a truss rod - in the summer of 1950 under the name Esquire . After some necks were already warped on delivery, the dealers urged to equip the instruments with a truss rod, especially since the patent was expiring. Since the production of the necks was already running, the truss rod could not be used according to the traditional method without great effort. In this construction, the steel rod runs under the fingerboard , which is separately glued to the neck. With the Telecaster, the frets were inserted directly into the neck, which is why it did not have a separate fingerboard. Therefore, Fender devised a method in which the truss rod is inserted through a milled cut in the back of the neck. The resulting gap is later closed with a dark wooden strip ( Skunkstripe ).
In the winter of 1950 appeared in addition to the revised Esquire the Broadcaster. This now had the adjustment rod in the neck as standard and also had a second pickup in lipstick format at the base of the neck. The name "Broadcaster" played to the popular at the time radio broadcasts ( broadcast , Eng. Broadcasting ) and the guitar should give a modern image. However, the Gretsch company already had a drum kit with the name "Broadkaster" (with k ) in its range, and according to a message from Gretsch, Fender had to withdraw the name in February 1951. In order not to stop production, Fender chose a pragmatic solution and initially sold its top model without a model name. For this purpose, the label "Broadcaster" was cut off with scissors before the decal logos were attached, so that only "Fender" could be read on the headstock. Today, collectors refer to guitars from this phase as nocasters. In reference to the then new technology of television, the guitar was renamed Telecaster ( telecast , short for television broadcast) in the summer of 1951 after thorough research by Fender's lawyers . It is still being built under this name today.
In 1951 Leo Fender presented the Fender Precision Bass , which was initially similar to the Telecaster, with an angular body, a large pickguard, and a small rectangular mounting plate for the two controls (without switch). Since the bass, with its longer neck and heavy headstock, was even more top-heavy than the Telecaster, the upper strap removal point was attached to a horn extension according to form follows function , which was shaped similarly to the lower body cutout, but extended much further towards the head. This "double-horned" body shape, later with rounded edges and bevels on the top, was the basis for the development of the Stratocaster . He began doing so in 1952 on the assumption that this model, which was more elaborate with three pickups and vibrato mechanics , would completely replace the Telecaster, of which Jimmy Bryant (1925–1980) was one of the first players . However, since the inexpensive Telecaster was particularly popular with country, blues and rock musicians, in 1966 it was considered “the most wanted guitar in Britain”, and for years it exceeded the sales figures of the Stratocaster. For this reason, the simple Telecaster remained in the manufacturer's program and is still produced almost unchanged today. For the 70th birthday of the instrument, Fender brought out a high-priced anniversary broadcaster in 2020. Since the Gretsch brand now belongs to the Fender Group, the original name could now be used again.
construction
The Telecaster is an electric guitar with a scale length of 648 mm. Its body shape is modeled on the outline of a conventional acoustic guitar with a resonance body, but it is made in a massive solid body design and therefore much flatter. The body consists of one or more solid pieces of wood, although initially only ash wood was used for the Telecaster, but now many specimens are also made with a body made of alder wood. The neck is made of maple . At the transition from the body to the neck there is a recess on the underside, the so-called cutaway , which enables comfortable playing even in the high registers.
While the neck and fingerboard of the first models consisted of one piece of maple ( one-piece mapleneck ), a rosewood fingerboard was glued on to some later models . Originally, the Telecaster's fingerboard had 21 frets, which was expanded to 22 in later models. Leo Fender did not primarily select the woods based on sound aspects, but instead oriented himself towards simple industrial production in the prototype phase. Ash for the large body was cheap and available in large quantities, maple for the neck was sturdy and had proven easy to work with industrial machines in the production of bowling pins and baseball bats .
In the original, and even in today's basic version, the Telecaster is equipped with two single-coil -Tonabnehmern (ger .: pickup equipped). The bridge pickup, which has been manufactured almost unchanged since the 1940s, comes from Fender's early Lapsteels and is attached to the base plate of the bridge with three screws. Due to the inclined installation position - the magnetic poles under the treble sides are closer to the bridge - the treble components of the sound are slightly amplified. The bridge and pickup are covered at the factory with a large, chrome-plated sheet metal cap to minimize magnetic interference and thus undesirable hum. Early on, musicians took off this sheet metal cap, sometimes referred to as an "ashtray" in music circles, for playing, as various dampening techniques with the heel of the beating hand are otherwise not possible. The smaller neck pickup, with a precisely fitting, chrome-plated metal cap, is screwed directly into the body wood at the lower end of the fingerboard. The pickups are managed by a selector switch, a tone control and a volume control, which are housed in a separate control unit in the right lower bout of the body.
Last but not least, the relatively simple design has led and continues to lead to further developments, which are reflected in different models and individual modifications of series productions.
Models
Telecasters from Fender
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In its company history, Fender has brought out an almost unmanageable number of models under the name “Telecaster”, some of which differ greatly in terms of construction and equipment. Some of them are only known to collectors and experts because of their short life. Model series that found at least a certain distribution are:
- Esquire - entry-level model with one pickup. Introduced as the first guitar in 1950 (initially it was also available with two pickups), the Esquire is still in the manufacturer's range with interruptions.
- Custom - Under the name "Custom", various special models were offered that should surpass the standard Telecaster in terms of equipment. Was the first model introduced in 1959 under the name "Custom Telecaster" apart from the body made of alder (in contrast to the standard model made of ash ) only optically upgraded (cream-colored frame of the body, rosewood fingerboard, partially gold-plated metal parts, mostly sunburst paint) presented various models under the name "Telecaster Custom", some of which differed considerably from the original model. The changes included the equipment with one or two humbuckers developed by Seth Lover , electronics corresponding to the Gibson Les Paul , the larger headstock of the Stratocaster, glued necks, etc.
- Thinline - The "Thinline," introduced around 1968, has a partially hollowed-out body with an F-hole and sound chambers. Depending on the model, the "Thinline" is either equipped with conventional single- coil pickups or humbuckers specially developed for this model . The latter model in particular was intended as a direct competitor to the Gibson ES-335 , which also has a partially hollow body.
- Deluxe - The Telecaster Deluxe was offered from 1972 to 1981 and has been reissued several times since then. This is a Telecaster equipped with two humbuckers produced by Fender with a contoured body. Both humbuckers have their own volume potentiometers and treble bezels. The neck is made of maple. The head plate shape differs from the well-known Telecaster head plate and shows similarities with the head plate of a Stratocaster. Individual models of the Telecaster Deluxe were made with a tremolo bridge. The Black Dove Deluxe is a model introduced in 2009 with P-90 pickups. The Modern Player Thinline Deluxe is a Chinese-made Black Dove Deluxe with an F-hole body made of mahogany.
- Nashville Tele - The Telecasters from the "Nashville" series have extended sound options with three single-coil pickups and the electronics of the Stratocaster. The name alludes to the countless in Nashville home recording studios , which mainly produce recordings for country music. Although the Telecaster in its original form is very popular with country guitarists, the musicians in the recording studio also have to play different sounds depending on the client. In order not to have to do without the Telecaster, the "Nashville Tele" was equipped with additional electronics.
- B-Bender Tele - The B-Bender Telecaster has a mechanism connected to the upper strap button inside the body, which allows the tuning of the B-string (b) by up to one when the guitar is pressed down Increase whole tone . Skilled guitarists can create Lapsteel- like floating sounds. This technology was pioneered by Gene Parsons and Clarence White from the group The Byrds , who first converted a Telecaster in 1968 and made it known under the name Parsons / White B-Bender .
- Telecaster HH - This variant was produced by Fender USA between 2003 and 2007. It was equipped with two Enforcer humbuckers. In addition, it had a so-called S-1 switch, with which coil splitting was possible.
- Cabronita - The Cabronita was introduced in 2009. The name is a made-up word that can be interpreted as "little bastard". The Cabronita is a Thinline Telecaster with a significantly reduced pickguard, similar to the prototype of the Broadcaster. Unlike most Telecaster guitars, the electronics compartment is accessible from the back of the guitar. Originally it could only be ordered with one to three TV Classic pickups from TV Jones in the Fender Custom Shop. From 2011 onwards, the Cabronita was manufactured as a series product with two pickups in the USA. A tone control was dispensed with, so that the electronics only have a three-way switch for selecting the pickup and a volume control. As of 2012, Cabronitas were made in Mexico and China (Squier). These had Fidelitron pickups from Fender's own production, but otherwise did not differ from the US model. For a short time there was also a Cabronita made in Indonesia, which, in addition to the Fidelitron pickup in the neck position, had a single coil pickup in the bridge position and was also equipped with a Bigsby B5.
- Telecaster Bass - The "Telecaster Bass" was an electric bass that was a constructive new edition of the early models of the Fender Precision Bass . Since Fender wanted to avoid selling two different instruments under the same name, the new edition of the old bass was simply called "Telecaster Bass" based on the similarities with the Telecaster.
- Telecoustic - The "Telecoustic" is an acoustic guitar whose hollow body has the shape of the Telecaster. Although it is a fully-fledged acoustic guitar in terms of construction, the "Telecoustic" is very quiet due to its small body and is usually electrically amplified on stage by a piezo pickup.
Squier brand telecasters
The Telecaster is one of the most copied guitar models. The simple construction and simple shapes make it easy to produce replicas of the Telecaster. Although Fender tries to prevent this with legal help, the Telecaster was and is being imitated. In order to counter the flood of copies and plagiarism, Fender has been serving the lower market segment since the 1980s with products that are produced by the subsidiary Squier in Asia. The product range extends from inexpensive entry-level instruments to copies of certain instruments from Fender's history. In-house developments that are only based on certain fender models appear occasionally. It was noteworthy that the Squier instruments were sometimes of better quality when they were launched than the original USA models of that time.
Leo Fenders ASAT
Leo Fenders founded G&L Musical Instruments together with George Fullerton in 1980 and also makes Telecaster-like electric guitars. The "ASAT" model in particular has a shape and construction that is closely based on the Telecaster, but has been further developed by Leo Fender in key details such as the pickup and tailpiece. The name "ASAT" refers - in keeping with the tradition of alluding to new technologies - to a satellite of the then new SDI missile defense system . However, fans of Fender interpreted this as an ironic swipe at Fender's original company, which was sold to the media group CBS in 1965 , and read in the name "ASAT" "after the Strat, after the Tele" (After the Stratocaster, after the Telecaster).
Models from other manufacturers
While some manufacturers have specialized in producing inexpensive entry-level instruments on the basis of the Telecaster under different names, others are taking the path of so-called "customizing". The focus is usually on refining the original construction in order to strip off the high-volume image of the instrument. As a result, great emphasis is placed on details such as high-quality wood selection, elaborate electronics, glued necks and a noble look with these instruments. Well-known manufacturers of these instruments are u. a. Sadowsky and Valley Arts. A prominent example of a Telecaster replica from the 1970s is the Hohner / Anderson Mad Cat used by Prince . What all replicas have in common is that they have slight changes in design (e.g. larger headstock, slightly different body shape). This is to avoid having to face allegations of plagiarism from Fender's lawyers.
The Telecaster in Music
From the start of production in the 1950s, the Telecaster has been particularly popular with country musicians. On the one hand, the Telecaster was one of the first full-fledged electric guitars to make electrical amplification possible even at high volumes. On the other hand, skilful musicians can also imitate lap steels or play fast, banjo-like melodies thanks to the bright, thin sound of the guitar . Country guitarists like Jimmy Bryant and Bill Carson were pioneers of this new playing technique . The latter was jokingly called "our guinea pig" by Leo Fender, as he often received prototypes of the Telecaster and Stratocaster and his suggestions made a decisive contribution to the development of the guitars. Examples of the fast playing style based on the banjo can be found in musicians such as Danny Gatton , Merle Haggard , Albert Lee or James Burton . Luther Perkins , guitarist of Johnny Cash and co-founder of the Tennessee Three , shaped rockabilly with his typical "boom-chicka-boom" Telecaster sound. Even in the dance- oriented hit single “Livin La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin , a Telecaster can be heard giving the song a “country-like” sound.
In the blues , the Telecaster is played by musicians like Muddy Waters or the "Master of the Telecaster" , Albert Collins , although here it plays a rather subordinate role alongside the Gibson instruments . The blues rocker Roy Buchanan was nicknamed "Master of the Telecaster" because of his playing style, which is strongly influenced by the sound of the Telecaster, like Collins . The Telecaster is used in jazz by Mike Stern and Bill Frisell , among others . The three guitarists of the band Hellecasters play mainly on G&L- ASAT and Telecaster. The guitarists Frank Diez , Karl Ratzer , Tom Principato and Dieter Übler even dedicated a complete CD production to the instrument under the title Telecats I.
Because the Telecaster's thin, sharp tone works well with distorted sounds, the Telecaster has also been popular with rock musicians since the 1960s . Keith Richards and Ron Wood from the Rolling Stones , Bob Dylan , Steve Cropper from Booker T. & the MG's , Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt from Status Quo up to Richie Sambora , Bruce Springsteen , John Frusciante , Sheryl Crow or Avril Lavigne set them Telecaster in this context.
Although Jimmy Page is a big fan of the warmer and punchier sounding Gibson Les Paul , he often used Telecasters for recordings by Led Zeppelin : The thin tone of the Telecaster was easier to record and mix in the recording studio. For example, the guitar solo for the song " Stairway to Heaven " was recorded with a Telecaster, as was the first Led Zeppelin album . For similar reasons, Syd Barrett and David Gilmour often used Telecasters for recordings and concerts by Pink Floyd : The thin tone prevailed in the band's sound image despite synthesizers and heavy effects against the other instruments. The high-pitched, almost shrill sound of the Telecaster can be heard in the early piece "Astronomy Domine" . In the 1986 blues feature film Crossroads - Pact with the Devil , the main actor Ralph Macchio plays a beige Telecaster as the central subject of the plot.
The Telecaster also has a permanent place in Britpop , for example Jonny Buckland , guitarist from Coldplay , plays on "Thinline Telecasters" specially made for him. Even Danny Jones of McFly has for some years exclusively vintage models one of the Telecaster.
Occasionally the Telecaster also appears in styles such as punk and heavy metal . El Hefe from NOFX also plays Telecasters as does John 5 . Even Joe Strummer of The Clash used this instrument. Peter Koppes of the Australian band The Church uses the high-pitched, cutting sound of the Telecaster to create a “ wall of sound ” in conjunction with a Leslie and numerous effects . A Telecaster with a seven-string set, but without a high E-string due to its design (from the low B to the high b), uses pro pain guitarist Eric Klinger to play the genre-typical “fat” hardcore sound.
James Root , guitarist with Slipknot and Stone Sour , developed his "Telecaster Signature Jim Root" in 2007 in collaboration with Fender. The use of mahogany as body wood, which is atypical for Fender , in combination with EMG pickups, gives the guitar a more powerful, fat sound. The two guitarists, Russel Lissack and Kele Okereke, of the post-punk / indie band Bloc Party also rely on the sharp sound of the Telecaster, which underlines the style of their music. In almost all pieces, a multitude of effects are used, which are stacked on top of each other. The interaction with the Telecaster creates a very unique sound. The sound of other indie bands is also heavily influenced by the sound of the Telecaster.
literature
- Richard R. Smith: Fender - A sound makes history . Nikol-Verl.-Ges., Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-937872-18-3
- Peter Bertges: The Fender Reference . Bomots, Saarbrücken 2007, ISBN 978-3-939316-38-1
- Tony Bacon: Guitars - All models and manufacturers . London-Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-552-05073-6
- George Gruhn, Walter Carter: Electric Guitars & Basses - The History of Electric Guitars and Basses . PPV Presse Project Verlag, Bergkirchen 1999, ISBN 3-932275-04-7
- Tony Bacon, Dave Hunter: Totally Guitar - The definitive guide . Backbeat Books, London 2004, ISBN 3-86150-732-3
- Guitar & bass . The musician magazine. Fender special issue . MM Musikverlag, Cologne-Ulm 2001, ISSN 0934-7674
- Carlo May: Vintage guitars and their stories. MM-Musik-Media-Verlag, Augsburg 1994. ISBN 3-927954-10-1 , pp. 2-6 ( From champion to bestseller. The Fender Broadcaster ).
- Tony Bacon: Six Decades of the Fender Telecaster: The Story of the World's First Solidbody Electric Guitar . Backbeat Books, London 2006, ISBN 978-3-937872-18-6
- Paul Balmer: Fender Telecaster Manual . Haynes Publishing, Somerset (UK) 2009, ISBN 978-1-78521-056-3
- George Fullerton: Guitar Legends, The evolution of the Guitar from Fender to G & L . Centerstream Publishing, Fullerton 1993, ISBN 0-931759-69-2 .
- George Fullerton: George & Leo, How Leo Fender and I Built G & L Guitars . Hal Leonard, Milwaukee 2005, ISBN 0-634-06922-5 .
- Paul Balmer: Fender Telecaster - Myth & Technology. PPVMEDIEN, Bergkirchen 2011, ISBN 978-3-941531-58-1 .
Web links
- Official Website of Fender United States (English)
- Official website of Fender UK (English, with a photo of the prototype in the "Fender Files")
- Official website of Fender Germany
- Official website of G&L (English)
- Fan page for collectors (details formerly Esquire and Telecaster guitars)
- Patent specification of the test guitar (United States Patent and Trademark Office, English)
- Andreas Kühn: Circuits for / for the Telecaster with circuit diagrams and soldering plans (PDF)
- Official website of the inventor of the string (B) Benders (English)
Individual evidence
-
↑ Tony Bacon, Dave Hunter: Totally Guitar - the definitive Guide (English)
Guitar Encyclopedia, pp. 550 f. Backbeat Books, London 2004, ISBN 1-871547-81-4 . - ^ Carlo May: Vintage guitars and their stories. In it: Chapter The Prototype - Die Bigsby Travis Solidbody , p. 7 ff. MM-Musik-Media-Verlag, Augsburg 1994, ISBN 3-927954-10-1 .
- ↑ Conny Restle, Christopher Li (Ed.): Fascination Guitar . Catalog for the exhibition of the same name at the Berlin Musical Instrument Museum SIMPK, p. 134. Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-89479-637-2
- ^ Hannes Fricke: Myth guitar: history, interpreters, great hours. Reclam, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-15-020279-1 , pp. 34 and 232.
- ^ Tony Bacon, Paul Day: The Ultimate Guitar Book. Edited by Nigel Osborne, Dorling Kindersley, London / New York / Stuttgart 1991; Reprint 1993, ISBN 0-86318-640-8 , pp. 68-71; here: p. 71.
- ^ Hannes Fricke: Myth guitar: history, interpreters, great hours. Reclam, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-15-020279-1 , p. 39 f.
