I never realized that the SB 300/400 pups and control section ...

[Granny Gremlin]

One cannot say "Telecaster" without saying "Rick" and "Francis" too. So what bridges do they prefer? That decided the case for me.

LOL.  A bud of mine had me do the exact same mod to his Tele Custom when we were teenagers.  I had no idea it was a real Fender (the neck had been replaced with an el Degas - rather nice flame to it too) until he told me after.  The one diff was that it wasn't string thru so we also put a stop bar on it.  I think I still have the offcut from the original ashtray in my parts drawer.

Also love how the spot I randomly fast forwarded to to get a better view of the bridge was right in the middle of a riff that sounded like it was the source for the sample Apollo 440 used in Can't Stop the Rock.  I watched a bit more and damn, he does have some good chops.  A little too blues focused with the stereotypical turnarounds, but other than that he's doing some cool/fun shit, and more importabntly, demonstrating a great economy of movement.

[Pilgrim]

I have no particular investment in this, but my general take is that when I play an instrument with a history like a Tele, I kind of like to keep it in an original configuration. If that configuration has a major shortcoming (which the two-saddle bridge on my Bronco is not), then I'll probably correct it.  I call that an upgrade, because it's fixing a problem.

I also have an inclination to believe that the manufacturer built the instrument in a particular way to have a particular sound. Therefore, unless I buy an instrument with the express intent of modifying it for fun (like the Bronco) I usually leave it as built. I figure if I want to hear it sound the way it was designed to sound, leaving it as built is the best way to achieve that.

Of course, being one of "those", I do usually install flatwound Labellas.  Perhaps that tends to defeat idea #2.

[Granny Gremlin]

Yeah, that's fair, but, we know for a fact that not all instruments are made the way they are made to saound a certain way - some design decisions and hardware choices are purely cost driven.  Sometimes, not always.

[Pilgrim]

Yeah, that's fair, but, we know for a fact that not all instruments are made the way they are made to sound a certain way - some design decisions and hardware choices are purely cost driven.  Sometimes, not always.

Quite true! Definitely true with US vs. import electronics, ferinstance.

[Dave W]

A piece of string with a tin can on each end is usable... I still prefer an iPhone for communicating over distance. 

I think the preferences of the bulk of Tele players on the Internet is pretty simple, and I don't think there is really much of a point for me to be missing here. They are staunch traditionalists, and on TDPRI the demographic is largely white men in the 50s and 60s (if the mugshot thread is anything to go by), and therefore unrepresentative of all Tele players.

Now you're just trolling.

I get it. You don't like TDPRI.

One cannot say "Telecaster" without saying "Rick" and "Francis" too. So what bridges do they prefer? That decided the case for me.

LOL! Mention Rick Parfitt or Francis Rossi to 100 random Americans and you'll be lucky to find one who knows either of them. They aren't that well known among Tele players either. And doesn't Parfitt's Tele have some sort of non-intonatable Gibson wraparound type bridge anyway?

3-saddle Tele bridge users, present and past, off the top of my head: Roy Nichols, Redd Volkaert, Bill Kirchen, Muddy Waters, Danny Gatton, Joe Strummer, Roy Buchanan, Albert Lee, Steve Cropper, Mike Bloomfield, Graham Coxon. 6-saddle bridge users: Keith Richards, James Burton, Albert Collins. Either/both: Bruce Springsteen. Not that numbers matter. Use what suits you.

[uwe]

But Dave, the sad status quo of your good countrymen's persistent ignorance of Status Quo is nothing to boast about! 

[Alanko]

Now you're just trolling.

Not really. If I was trolling I would be arguing an opinion I don't personally hold simply to get a rise out of somebody. Not the case here.

I have argued the reason for why 1) I don't consider TDPRI to be a reliable data source and 2) why I don't consider it to be fully representative of Telecaster players as a whole, but simply a rather specific demographic of (mostly) elderly (mostly) white men with (mostly) the same music tastes. No trolling here.

And your list of Tele players cited here is no better:

3-saddle Tele bridge users, present and past, off the top of your head: Roy Nichols (dead), Redd Volkaert (elderly), Bill Kirchen (elderly), Muddy Waters (dead), Danny Gatton (dead), Joe Strummer (dead), Roy Buchanan (dead), Albert Lee (elderly), Steve Cropper (elderly), Mike Bloomfield  (dead), Graham Coxon (youngest dude here at 47). 6-saddle bridge users: Keith Richards (elderly), James Burton (elderly), Albert Collins (dead) . Either/both: Bruce Springsteen (elderly). Not that numbers matter. Use what suits you.

This was my original point, albeit argued from a different angle. If you are only going to cite examples only of dead or geriatric Tele players then you are going to get skewed results. Your youngest guy on the list is 47.

No Kele Okereke or Russell Lissack (Bloc Party), Jonathan Higgs (Everything Everything), Jason Simon (Dead Meadow), John 5, Jonny Greenwood etc....

No trolling.

[nofi]

status quo came to atlanta one time that i know of and that was in the mid 70's. i remember telecasters or cheapie epiphone guitars? they never cracked america because they were not very good and had bad songs. that simple. kind of like saxon but different.

[Dave W]

Not really. If I was trolling I would be arguing an opinion I don't personally hold simply to get a rise out of somebody. Not the case here.

I have argued the reason for why 1) I don't consider TDPRI to be a reliable data source and 2) why I don't consider it to be fully representative of Telecaster players as a whole, but simply a rather specific demographic of (mostly) elderly (mostly) white men with (mostly) the same music tastes. No trolling here.

And your list of Tele players cited here is no better:

3-saddle Tele bridge users, present and past, off the top of your head: Roy Nichols (dead), Redd Volkaert (elderly), Bill Kirchen (elderly), Muddy Waters (dead), Danny Gatton (dead), Joe Strummer (dead), Roy Buchanan (dead), Albert Lee (elderly), Steve Cropper (elderly), Mike Bloomfield  (dead), Graham Coxon (youngest dude here at 47). 6-saddle bridge users: Keith Richards (elderly), James Burton (elderly), Albert Collins (dead) . Either/both: Bruce Springsteen (elderly). Not that numbers matter. Use what suits you.

This was my original point, albeit argued from a different angle. If you are only going to cite examples only of dead or geriatric Tele players then you are going to get skewed results. Your youngest guy on the list is 47.

No Kele Okereke or Russell Lissack (Bloc Party), Jonathan Higgs (Everything Everything), Jason Simon (Dead Meadow), John 5, Jonny Greenwood etc....

No trolling.

You're doing a damned good job of convincing me otherwise, especially since you're continuing to try to refute things that I've never claimed and arguing for the sake of arguing. Enough.

[Granny Gremlin]

3-saddle Tele bridge users, present and past, off the top of my head: Roy Nichols, Redd Volkaert, Bill Kirchen, Muddy Waters, Danny Gatton, Joe Strummer, Roy Buchanan, Albert Lee, Steve Cropper, Mike Bloomfield, Graham Coxon. 6-saddle bridge users: Keith Richards, James Burton, Albert Collins. Either/both: Bruce Springsteen. Not that numbers matter. Use what suits you.

OK, now take out the ones who lived/worked in eras where the 3 saddle was the only option (I don't know them all, but Muddy Waters for sure - he did work later too, but by then he had his nice vintage Tele  for what, 20 years on the road,and would fall into the second category), and then the ones with vintage guitars who just couldn't be bothered for their patriotism/nosdtalgia/I've had this axe forever and I love her ( as I would suspect with Bruce Springsteen and am almost certain as regards Joe Strummer  - who is known as a complete agnostic when it comes to gear and tone) - are any of them on the record anywhere speaking on the topic? If not then what's on their vintage axe is meaningless.  If I had a vintage Tele with a 3 saddle I probably wouldn't change it either.... I just also wouldn't walk around like it was the key to my tone.

And just because it's doubly topical:





A pro, working in an era where alternatives are available and is not religious about hardware and who went out of his way to avoid any sort of ashtray whatsoever.

I would also point to how no post-Fender Leo-designed Tele-like  instrument  has a 3 saddle bridge (as far as I have seen; mighta missed one but I doubt it).... and TDPRI like em just fine:

http://www.tdpri.com/threads/g-l-leo-fender-signature-asat.11401/

As Leo intended indeed. 

If that's all to TLDR (fair enough) think about it this way:  would you accept the FACT that most 3 point equipped instruments still have the original 3 point,  despite alternatives being available (granted not as many, but still) even the ones used by famous or pro players, as evidence of their superiority?  You're not taking Uwe and my word for it either so why would you think that the adamant ramblings of a few obsessed loudmouths on another  (in the grand scheme of things) obscure web board have any more validity?

[Dave W]

....

If that's all to TLDR (fair enough) think about it this way:  would you accept the FACT that most 3 point equipped instruments still have the original 3 point,  despite alternatives being available (granted not as many, but still) even the ones used by famous or pro players, as evidence of their superiority?  You're not taking Uwe and my word for it either so why would you think that the adamant ramblings of a few obsessed loudmouths on another  (in the grand scheme of things) obscure web board have any more validity?

Of course I know that most three-point equipped Gibson and Epi basses still have the factory bridge, but no, I don't accept that as any evidence of superiority. This has nothing to do one way or other with superiority or which I think is better. I never claimed that the three-saddle Tele bridge was superior, I just stated that it's preferred by more Tele players (meaning Fender Telecasters, not non-Fender copies) than the six-saddle bridge. No more, no less, and no need for paragraphs of argument against things I never said in the first place.

As for what prominent Tele players use which, it wasn't meant to prove anything or to be representative. As I said, I was just naming some off the top of my head (in response to Uwe). It certainly didn't warrant a bullshit diatribe about the ages of the players.

Thread closed.