Gretsch or Telecaster for blues, primarily?

[Larry M]

I have a Gretsch semi-hollow body guitar that is my only electric guitar. In some of Brian’s blues-oriented lessons, he plays a semi-hollow body (can’t determine the make and model), but sometimes he plays a Telecaster. In EP507 and suspended chords, he’s playing a simple, slow tune with minimal effects. I would think I’d use a semi for that and not a Tele.

I ponder because I’m thinking of purchasing a used Telecaster and will it fit in well with playing beginner blues, or should I leave it for the country stuff instead? A Strat I think will overlap the tonal qualities of the Gretsch, and maybe a twangy Tele would be a good addition to my minimal instrument collection. Just curious. Problem is I just sold a custom mandolin so that I could by a Strat, but now I’m conflicted. *Everyone* has a Strat, it seems. But I want something with different tonal qualities and I don’t want to put the Gretsch to pasture.

[Mark H]

Brian’s red semi-acoustic is a Gibson ES335. It differs in construction from a Gretsch hollow body in that it has a neck block that runs the length of the body.

The Gretsch FilterTron and SuperTron pickups have an amazing sound for blues, most underrated in my opinion. Mine is a 6122-1959 reissue Chet Atkins Country Gent. It sports a 1 3/4″ neck width at the nut, 12″ fretboard radius, perfect for fingerpicking, but I play it with a pick as well. I didn’t like the overly flashy look so I took off the gold pick guard and tremelo arm to make it less cluttered, more generic.

I also spent a deal of time setting it up. For a long time it would give me fits because of the inability for it to intonate properly. I eventually swapped out the solid metal bar saddle for a Tune-O-Matic saddle, and then ‘unpinned’ the bridge because whoever set it up originally put either the pin- or the hole under the bridge in the wrong place. Doing that was easy, I used an Allen key to screw-in the little set screw pin flush to the top so now the bridge floats, intonation perfect.

Re. a Tele, there are so many permutations of Tele pickups it’s hard to know what you’re considering. My B-Bender Am. Std. Tele has the standard-style single coil pickup types in the bridge and neck positions. It’s a good all-rounder, plays the blues really good. Brian’s silver grey Danocaster has what I guess are PAF style humbuckers. The two guitars would sound very different side by side. I can tell that Brian’s setup is more flexible tone-wise than mine.

I’m also looking for the perfect Strat. If I had all three guitars I’d still play them all.

[sunjamr]

There is a good reason why Strats are the most popular guitar on earth, and why so many people have one. Now days by using various effects and amp modelers you can get almost any sound out of almost any guitar. So the main thing is that it should feel comfortable when you play it. I can’t help but notice that big people tend to prefer big guitars, and smaller people tend to prefer smaller guitars. If it feels good, it is good.

Sunjamr Steve

[Martin W]

Check out this beauty , maybe has the tonal variations your after , looks good value for money.

[Richard W]

Many many great blues players have used a Telecaster. Albert Collins, Mike Bloomfield, Roy Buchanan to name a few.

The Tele gets typecast a bit as being twangy. But you can get great mellower sounds by dialing back the tone knob on your bridge pickup or by using the neck pickup or middle position. I play mostly out of the neck position on my Tele and I love the tone. Totally appropriate for the blues. Of course, it depends on your specific pickups etc, but in general, a Telecaster for blues is right down the middle of the road.

[Frank C]

Plenty of well-known blues and blues/rock guitarists have played a Tele and produced great blues tones – Muddy Waters, Albert Collins, Keith Richards, Sue Foley, Robben Ford, Roy Buchanan. And it’s capable of a lot more than twangy tones, from Prince’s funk, to Jimmy Page’s rock tones on LZI, to Julian Lage’s and Jim Campilongo’s jazz tones.

And isn’t the real question “do I buy the Strat or Tele first,” because you know the other will follow before too long . . . 🙂

Happy hunting!

[Larry M]

Actually, the real question is, unfortunately, since I have a Gretsch already for clean tones, do I really need a Tele? I can’t a good country twang out the Gretsch, so that’s why I thought of the Tele. However, I don’t gig; I play for myself or with family. And I’ve got the money from the sale of the custom Mando, so I have to buy a guitar of some sort — that’s how I trade up.

I’ve decided… A Tele it is.

The Schecter is nice, but I can’t find a used one in my price range, at least not the model as shown in the YouTube link on the other post.

Thanks for everyone’s input.

[Jim G]

A very personal choice. I had a beautiful Gretsch for a while but replaced it with a Tele which is much better…..for me. The simplicity of the Tele appeals to me.

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