# Telecaster for punk/Hardcore?



## PunknRoll (Oct 23, 2010)

Hi everyone, im new here, someone told me that you seem to know what you're talking about so i thought id give it a try.

Ive been looking for something to replace my Squire strat as my standard tuning guitar, i mostly play punk/hardcore type stuff (Rise against, Bad Religion, The Clash) and Fender Telecasters seem to be used by a fair amount of bands. Are there any models in particular which are the best? Budget is about £500/600.
thanks.


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## ralphy1976 (Oct 23, 2010)

i don't know much about punk, but i'd say buy a 250 / 300 GBP model and then upgrade the pups with some bare knuckle pickups and you should be set, no?


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## SirMyghin (Oct 23, 2010)

I use my tele for just about anything I feel like, it can bring the umph just fine. I would only go the 250-300 route if you know how to dress frets well.


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## snowblind56 (Oct 23, 2010)

I don't think my stock Tele can bring the umph as much as a humbuckered guitar, but one would have no problem if they replaced the bridge pickup with a Duncan Hot Rail or something similar.


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## ellengtrgrl (Oct 23, 2010)

Tell that to el Jefe from NoFX:



If you look on the TDPRI forum, there's a long thread about this very question - can Teles do punk? There have even been long running threads on the TDPRI about Teles being able to do hardcore, or metal. It may not be as easy, as it is on some humbucker equipped guitars, but it is VERY doable. I've done it with Teles I've had.


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## MaxOfMetal (Oct 23, 2010)

Not sure what you access to over there, used or new, but if you can get a hold of a G&L Tele (they call their Teles "ASAT"s), even a Tribute series and you'll be very happy. 

For the record, G&L is the "real" Fender. The "L" in G&L stands for Leo, as in Leo Fender. Leo set up G&L with his long time friend and business partner George Fullerton (hence the "G").

About G&L


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## Piro (Oct 23, 2010)

If you can get a Tele, literally even a MIM Fender would do just fine, if you can dress frets, and drop a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails (they make a tele bridge sized one) into it, it will sound HUGE. I have one, and I almost exclusively use it for Punk and Harcore (like Hot Water Music and the such)


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## blister7321 (Oct 23, 2010)

basically any tele will give you the sound you want 
so just go try a bunch out if you can


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## 74n4LL0 (Oct 23, 2010)

I think that also the standard tele bridge is pretty ok for punk
for that budget I'd go with a MIM Baja tele...


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## simonXsludge (Oct 23, 2010)

that jim root tele with EMG's will get the job done, too. and it looks cool.


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## C2Aye (Oct 23, 2010)

http://www.fender.com/uk/products/search.php?partno=0262000561

This should do quite nicely and goes for about £500.


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## Andromalia (Oct 23, 2010)

MaxOfMetal said:


> Not sure what you access to over there, used or new, but if you can get a hold of a G&L Tele (they call their Teles "ASAT"s), even a Tribute series and you'll be very happy.
> 
> For the record, G&L is the "real" Fender. The "L" in G&L stands for Leo, as in Leo Fender. Leo set up G&L with his long time friend and business partner George Fullerton (hence the "G").
> 
> About G&L



What's with all the G&L propaganda these last weeks, you fell in love with one ?


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## MaxOfMetal (Oct 23, 2010)

Andromalia said:


> What's with all the G&L propaganda these last weeks, you fell in love with one ?



I setup and work on a lot of guitars, and I've really been impressed with the quality of them. They seem to get forgotten in the endless sea of Strat and Tele copies, and it's a shame, as I feel the Tribute series is on par with the lower USA made Fender stuff, and the USA G&L stuff is on par with some of the best USA Fender, at around half the price of course. 

Whenever anyone asks about a "Strat" or "Tele", I feel the best thing to do would be to mention G&L. 

The crazy thing though, I never really bonded with the Legacy I owned, though, I chalk that up to me really not being a Strat person.


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## SirMyghin (Oct 23, 2010)

MaxOfMetal said:


> I setup and work on a lot of guitars, and I've really been impressed with the quality of them. They seem to get forgotten in the endless sea of Strat and Tele copies, and it's a shame, as I feel the Tribute series is on par with the lower USA made Fender stuff, and the USA G&L stuff is on par with some of the best USA Fender, at around half the price of course.
> 
> Whenever anyone asks about a "Strat" or "Tele", I feel the best thing to do would be to mention G&L.
> 
> The crazy thing though, I never really bonded with the Legacy I owned, though, I chalk that up to me really not being a Strat person.



My biased opinion agrees with this, you can get custom builds from them too, like a different neck, and the price has little deviation/you are not dinged heavily just because you put in a special order either. I feel in love with ASATs at first feel, a Fender of any type has never achieved that. The tributes are ridiculously good quality as they are pawed over at the USA shop for inspection, and use all USA electronics too (the same as the USA line that is). 

If you really want a great tele, you would be silly to pass up G&L for not being fender. (I also agree whole heartedly G&L is the real Fender, they would have gone that route had Leo not sold).


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## Triple-J (Oct 23, 2010)

Dead Kennedys, Nirvana and The Clash are just three punk bands who got great sounds on from a tele both live and on record and Tom Morrello has summoned up some pretty heavy shit from a standard single coil tele so I think that definitely proves that the tele can work within punk/hardcore.

Anyway I'd recommend this Squier J5 John 5 Signature Telecaster (GAK)
it's a great model and has all the basics covered and if you have enough cash left buy a Seymour Duncan JB (or Duncan Distortion) as a replacement for the bridge and you've got just about every tone in punk covered.


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## blister7321 (Oct 23, 2010)

my lead guitarist plays thrash on one of 2 teles and a kelly in his other band
the teles are 2 fender standards one with a bigsby 
and a squier deluxe with tv jones hums


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## Bloody_Inferno (Oct 23, 2010)

Triple-J said:


> Dead Kennedys, Nirvana and The Clash are just three punk bands who got great sounds on from a tele both live and on record and Tom Morrello has summoned up some pretty heavy shit from a standard single coil tele so I think that definitely proves that the tele can work within punk/hardcore.
> 
> Anyway I'd recommend this Squier J5 John 5 Signature Telecaster (GAK)
> it's a great model and has all the basics covered and if you have enough cash left buy a Seymour Duncan JB (or Duncan Distortion) as a replacement for the bridge and you've got just about every tone in punk covered.



 to all of the above. Tom Morello even keeps his 80s Tele stock too; Killing in the Name right there. But the secret to his massive tone is Tim Cummerford.


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## Soubi7string (Oct 23, 2010)

the Jim Root Tele or a Charvel(a cheap one if you can find one)


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## ellengtrgrl (Oct 23, 2010)

MaxOfMetal said:


> I setup and work on a lot of guitars, and I've really been impressed with the quality of them. They seem to get forgotten in the endless sea of Strat and Tele copies, and it's a shame, as I feel the Tribute series is on par with the lower USA made Fender stuff, and the USA G&L stuff is on par with some of the best USA Fender, at around half the price of course.
> 
> Whenever anyone asks about a "Strat" or "Tele", I feel the best thing to do would be to mention G&L.
> 
> The crazy thing though, I never really bonded with the Legacy I owned, though, I chalk that up to me really not being a Strat person.


 
LOVE G&L Teles. I'm still kicking myself for waffling about buying that used Thinline Tribute ASAT last year. If I had the cash, I'd get the ASAT with the MFD pickups. I've always liked the sound of them.


If people are not super picky, another Tele-like guitar to consider is the Reverend Buckshot. 






Reverends are not the easiest guitars to find. But I got my hands on an NOS Reverend Club King HB for stupid cheap (from a local shop that is a former Reverend dealer), last month, and it has the most fantastic neck, I've ever played on, in my almost 32 years of playing guitar. Its 2 humbuckers sound killer too. The quality of Reverends is fantastic. I've tried out several of them over the past 10 plus years, and none of them have been clunkers. So, I'm debating feeding my Tele, and Reverend GAS, by getting a Buckshot. Dave's Guitar Shop told me thay can sell me one for $700, Decisions, decisions.


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## CrushingAnvil (Oct 24, 2010)

shitsøn;2187639 said:


> that jim root tele with EMG's will get the job done, too. and it looks cool.



If he's talking about 90's pop punk like early Blink 182, but if there are certain brands of Punk ie the kind the you'd find in Tony Hawks pro skater lol:sorry, I'm not an expert either) that would require just a stock tele.

I think a Tele would be a great guitar for punk.


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## Grand Moff Tim (Oct 24, 2010)

MaxOfMetal said:


> the USA G&L stuff is on par with some of the best USA Fender, at around half the price of course.


 
What? I know G&L makes awesome guitars, but where are you finding USA-made G&Ls that are half the price of an american Fender? An american standard (strat or tele) is a cool grand. There are american made G&Ls for $5-600? If so, I need to keep an eye out...


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## abstract (Oct 24, 2010)

For most "punk" you can go either way (single coil or humbucker). The nature of the genre allows you to do "whatever the fack you want". If you're strictly doing more modern or aggressive stuff I might suggest going HSS or HH. But yeah, a stock tele should be fine.


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## SirMyghin (Oct 24, 2010)

Grand Moff Tim said:


> What? I know G&L makes awesome guitars, but where are you finding USA-made G&Ls that are half the price of an american Fender? An american standard (strat or tele) is a cool grand. There are american made G&Ls for $5-600? If so, I need to keep an eye out...



In Canada a Strat USA goes for 1300ish, my dealer had a USA ASAT up for less than 1k by a fair bit (marked down from a bit more than 1k) when I put in my custom build. 1/2 is an exaggeration, 2/3rds however very plausible. If you are comparing on quality however you need Fenders Custom shop work, and then you are paying less than 1/2.


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## MaxOfMetal (Oct 24, 2010)

Grand Moff Tim said:


> What? I know G&L makes awesome guitars, but where are you finding USA-made G&Ls that are half the price of an american Fender? An american standard (strat or tele) is a cool grand. There are american made G&Ls for $5-600? If so, I need to keep an eye out...



I'm not talking American Standard (which if you've played any recent ones, are nothing too special, and certainly not "some of the best"), I'm comparing the US G&Ls to the higher tier American Custom series guitars that typically go for around $2500. 

If you want to compare the American Standards to something, take a look at the Tribute series. 

Also, keep an eye out. I picked my Legacy up for just $675 thanks to CL.


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