Fender Telecaster - The Telecaster Sound

The Telecaster Sound

The Telecaster is known for its ability to produce both bright, rich, cutting tone or mellow, warm, bluesy tone depending on the selected pickup, respectively "bridge" pickup or "neck" pickup. The bridge pickup has more windings than the neck pickup, hence producing higher output, which compensates for a lower amplitude of vibration of the strings at bridge position. At the same time, a capacitor between the slider of the volume control and the output, allows treble sounds to bleed through while damping mid and lower ranges. A slanted bridge pickup enhances the guitar's treble tone. The solid body allows the guitar to deliver a clean amplified version of the strings' tone. This was an improvement on previous electric guitar designs, whose hollow bodies made them prone to unwanted feedback. These design elements allowed musicians to emulate steel guitar sounds, making it particularly useful in country music. These characteristics make the Telecaster a versatile guitar, usable for most styles of music including country, blues, rock, and jazz.