Aren´t they somewhat similar? Tele&LP

[sabasgr68]

I have never played a Tele, and of course, have never played a Gibson LP; only an Epi LP Standard years ago. But considering the PU configuration and considering they have the same wiring, wouldn´t these two guitars behave somewhat similar? Not saying they would sound exactly the same; and the Tele will weight less, for sure. And the woods would have some effect. I love LP guitars, and I love Teles with the same PU and control configuration as LPs. So, in my case, if I ever wanted to have a Tele and a LP with the same PU/controls, would it be somewhat redundant, except for the looks? Guess it´ll also depend on what type of music I´d like to play. Maybe I´ll change my mind if I ever get to play a single coil - traditional? - equipped Tele...

Anyway, pics below.

(Maybe this is not an interesting thing to discuss, but I wanted to talk guitars for a change, and no, I´m not buying any of those ).

[mickey]

I don't think so, but that is just me.
I'd take the Les Paul any day, mostly because of the shorter scale length.

[sabasgr68]

I don't think so, but that is just me.
I'd take the Les Paul any day, mostly because of the shorter scale length.

I didn´t consider the scale thing, forgot about it.
Well, your answer is good, because it would make sense to have both.

[mickey]

I don't think so, but that is just me.
I'd take the Les Paul any day, mostly because of the shorter scale length.

I didn´t consider the scale thing, forgot about it.
Well, your answer is good, because it would make sense to have both.

As you get older, your hand doesn't want to make the stretches that used to be easy. The longer the scale, the longer the stretches.

[sabasgr68]

I don't think so, but that is just me.
I'd take the Les Paul any day, mostly because of the shorter scale length.

I didn´t consider the scale thing, forgot about it.
Well, your answer is good, because it would make sense to have both.

As you get older, your hand doesn't want to make the stretches that used to be easy. The longer the scale, the longer the stretches.

LOL I also forgot about age haha.

I think that´s a very important thing to consider. I certainly can´t do some things I used to find easy to do 20 or 10 years ago...

[BatUtilityBelt]

All my teles are single coil, so I can't speak to the double-humbucker versions. But the difference in feel when playing them is as vast as night and day. Maybe it's because the tele is a flat slab body and the LP has a carved top, But that difference alone changes the bridges, pickup heights, and string heights. So they just play very differently. I also think (at least for single coil) there are distinct tele tones nothing else quite get. The same might be said for LPs, but I've heard other guitars get very close to an LP sound without that shape.

[mozz]

You forgot about the weight of a LP, that could be bad as you get older. First time i played a Tele, i thought, boy this is showing every mistake i make. Maybe i just wasn't settled in with the slab body, i have no problem now.

[sabasgr68]

All my teles are single coil, so I can't speak to the double-humbucker versions. But the difference in feel when playing them is as vast as night and day. Maybe it's because the tele is a flat slab body and the LP has a carved top, But that difference alone changes the bridges, pickup heights, and string heights. So they just play very differently. I also think (at least for single coil) there are distinct tele tones nothing else quite get. The same might be said for LPs, but I've heard other guitars get very close to an LP sound without that shape.

Great, thanks! Those are the details. Maybe the two of the pics might not be that different in sound but in feel, for those details you mention. I guess I will only find out by actually playing those.

[sabasgr68]

You forgot about the weight of a LP, that could be bad as you get older. First time i played a Tele, i thought, boy this is showing every mistake i make. Maybe i just wasn't settled in with the slab body, i have no problem now.

LOL The age thing factors in again... Really makes me want to try a Tele in both versions: HB and singles.

[tlarson58]

I would Luke to install a hum bucket in my Tele but I already have a hum bucket few hooked guitar so I do not pursue it. Keep the Tele the iconic Tele it is.

[toomanycats]

This may be a controversial statement, but I don't consider any HH configured guitar a Tele, regardless of what body and headstock shape it has. It may be considered a bolt on neck, 25.5" scale instrument with a single (or dual) volume control, a single (or dual) tone control, and a three way switch . . . but in my opinion it is strictly speaking not a Tele.

The essence of a true Tele resides in the unique bridge and single coil bridge pickup combination that Leo intended to mimic the sounds of country pedal steel. Artists have subsequently used that unique tone in genres far afield from county. Good examples would be Chrissy Hyde, Joe Strummer, Prince, and Jimmy Page.

A real Tele and a real Les Paul are as different as a dog and a cat.

For me, this guitar has the essential element that makes a guitar a Tele. To be sure, that part of my brain which makes fast and dirty identifications of objects wants to classify it as an LP Junior, but the analytical part of me says, "Tele." I believe that this is a large part of why these LP/Tele hybrid guitars have an appeal for many people. I mean specifically guitarists who already know what an LP and a Tele are supposed to be. They mess with assumptions and expectations, sorta like what Modernist artists were doing in the early 20th century, with deformation, weird juxtapositions, surrealism, and generally ignoring the established rules of the game.

[peskypesky]

As you get older, your hand doesn't want to make the stretches that used to be easy. The longer the scale, the longer the stretches.

Ugh. Don't tell me I'll have to get 24 3/4" conversion necks for my 8 Strats and 1 Tele.

[peskypesky]

A real Tele and a real Les Paul are as different as a dog and a cat.

And yet many people thought Jimmy Page was playing a Les Paul on early Zeppelin recordings, when he was actually playing a Tele. Including the whole first album. And the solo on "Stairway to Heaven".

[toomanycats]

A real Tele and a real Les Paul are as different as a dog and a cat.

And yet many people thought Jimmy Page was playing a Les Paul on early Zeppelin recordings, when he was actually playing a Tele. Including the whole first album. And the solo on "Stairway to Heaven".

This is true, and it really does show the versatility of a tele, even in stock configuration. When you roll back that tone knob and play a Tele with a hot wound bridge single coil through an overdriven mids pushed amp it can sound super heavy.

Here's another good example of a famous Tele which is arguably not a "true" Tele: One of the guitars Jeff Beck used to record Blow By Blow was a 59 Tele that Seymour Duncan outfitted with dual humbuckers (amongst other substantial mods).

Is it still a Tele? Well, it's commonly referred to by the guitar community as the Tele-Gib, which would seems to imply that it's not, strictly speaking, a Tele without qualification.

But I absolutely get your point. A good player who understands how to use gear and settings can make a stock Tele sound very similar to a Les Paul, and vice versa. Regardless, there are things which each can do that the other can't.

EDIT: Not to complicate matters any further, but I do believe that my Russian Blue cat actually thinks of himself as a dog.

[sabasgr68]

This may be a controversial statement, but I don't consider any HH configured guitar a Tele, regardless of what body and headstock shape it has. It may be considered a bolt on neck, 25.5" scale instrument with a single (or dual) volume control, a single (or dual) tone control, and a three way switch . . . but in my opinion it is strictly speaking not a Tele.

The essence of a true Tele resides in the unique bridge and single coil bridge pickup combination that Leo intended to mimic the sounds of country pedal steel. Artists have subsequently used that unique tone in genres far afield from county. Good examples would be Chrissy Hyde, Joe Strummer, Prince, and Jimmy Page.

A real Tele and a real Les Paul are as different as a dog and a cat.

For me, this guitar has the essential element that makes a guitar a Tele. To be sure, that part of my brain which makes fast and dirty identifications of objects wants to classify it as an LP Junior, but the analytical part of me says, "Tele." I believe that this is a large part of why these LP/Tele hybrid guitars have an appeal for many people. I mean specifically guitarists who already know what an LP and a Tele are supposed to be. They mess with assumptions and expectations, sorta like what Modernist artists were doing in the early 20th century, with deformation, weird juxtapositions, surrealism, and generally ignoring the established rules of the game.
Tele-Les-Sq_0000_Layer_6_dejjyq.jpg

So, as far as my question goes (if the two guitars I showed on the pics would sound/play somewhat similar), and if I got you well, it´s probably they would sound somewhat similar. I mean, in the electronics department at least, they are almost identical, so I won´t expect a Tele classic sound from the one in the picture. My question wants to deal with if having both guitars would be redundant sound wise, and I would tend to think so, which won´t happen if the Tele was in its original form, single coils on both ends, with its peculiar sound.

Now that I have think about it a little more, I think that, given the opportunity to have 2 guitars, I won´t choose these two. One would be a LP, but the other would be different, be it a Tele - classic configuration - or any other different from the LP configuration, to be able to cover a wider range of sound. Even if money wasn´t a problem, in my case, and because of the music I like to play, I would only have 2 electric guitars, no more, and 1 or 2 acoustics - nylon and steel strings -. So, it would not make sense to have two guitars with the same electronic configuration, no matter what shape or woods.

I know this wasn´t a very big question, it almost answered itself. I have no real practical experience with the several guitar styles out there - just a strat copy HSS, and my current AL3000 -, and like I said, I just wanted to talk guitars for a change, and it happened

[mozz]

One of the most popular mods way back when. This also has a strat neck. I have not played this really much more than 2 minutes so i can't say how many shoes it will fill.

[tonebender]

I was a Tele man for many years. Eventually the LP scale won me over. I still love the sound of the neck pick up of a Tele through a nice tube amp with some overdrive. I built and still have a Stratocaster HSH pup configuration. The hums are Gibson and the center pup is out of phase so it will produce that Strat "quack" like Ed King in the opening licks of Sweet Home Alabama. It is a monster guitar but I could never bond with a Stratocaster. When I am dead and gone someone is going to discover just what a beast that guitar can be. USA Guitars custom neck with a compound radius and tall frets, alder body, locking tuners, Graph Tech saddles, Gibson '58 hums, and a Fender middle pup. I hope they rock it!

I had a MIM Fat Tele that had a hum in the neck position and it was a cool guitar. I gigged with it a lot.

[Mr. Leyvatone]

All my teles are single coil, so I can't speak to the double-humbucker versions. But the difference in feel when playing them is as vast as night and day. Maybe it's because the tele is a flat slab body and the LP has a carved top, But that difference alone changes the bridges, pickup heights, and string heights. So they just play very differently. I also think (at least for single coil) there are distinct tele tones nothing else quite get. The same might be said for LPs, but I've heard other guitars get very close to an LP sound without that shape.

I agree. I do have a Tele Deluxe, and it really feels and sounds nothing like a Les Paul.

My SX modcaster sounds more like a Les Paul…could be its mahogany body.