Dig it! as my live rig further evolves (Telecaster and Horsie content)

Mark Wein

Mark Wein

Grand Poobah
Staff member
I had a gig at the Blue Beet last night and I still haven't gotten my Suhr fixed so I have been playing my 1971 Deluxe Reverb on the normal channel (because the reverb/vibrato channel on that amp is also toast) and the last two gigs with that amp have been pretty interesting. First off, I really love the base clean tone I get with this amp more than the Suhr. It would be awesome to do the Eric Johnson and have this amp for cleans with a few specific pedals and the Suhr set to crunch out with a different selection of effects. Not going to happen. But in weighing the amount of clean-ish sounds I use vs. crunch I'm leaning in the direction of keeping the Deluxe as my main cover band amp and possibly getting a new 1968 Custom Deluxe Reverb as a backup or alternate main amp.

Observation #2 is that the Wampler Tumnus is super useful with the Deluxe. Anywhere I would have used my RC Booster with the Suhr I ended up using the Tumnus with the Deluxe. I get the "Klone" thing now. I also tried my prototype Ohm pedal from Justin TenCate but it just doesn't agree with a silverface Deluxe Reverb.

And finally, I used my telecaster for the first time on a gig and it was perfect for the entire first set of a cover gig. The guys absolutely loved it. I told my wife that it's funny how I owned a $3000 Suhr that I never liked to play on gigs but this $1000 or whatever it was new (which I got for $650) works for me much better. I can play jazz on it at school and it rocks out really good on cover gigs and all of the other styles I have to cover are pretty good other than the harder rock. I'm starting to wonder if my next McFeely solid body build should have a tele control layout.....



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I was quite surprised how good my Tele sounded the very first time I used it. (A rehearsal).
It does great cleans and o found that it rocks pretty damn hard too. It's not nearly as thick and "big" as my Lester but still...
 
I forgot to mention that I also used the Wampler Mini Ego compressor quite a bit with this guitar and it sounded fantastic. I don't find it as useful with my McFeely because the humbuckers and the character of the guitar just doesn't really benefit from the compressor but with the tele it is pretty magic.
 
When I was in the wedding band, I used my Am St Tele with the humbucker in the bridge for 99% of the material. I only took out the Charvel So Cal for a couple tunes that called for whammy wiggling.
 
I'm finding my Tele-strat to be a very flexible guitar as well...played clean in all 3 switch positions it is the best sounding instrument in my collection...kick on any of the dirts and it sounds amazing, better than any other single coil guitar I own now or owned in the past...

I don't know what it is about that bridge pickup, but I get it now...
 
I love my Tele. Since I got my McFeely a few years ago, it's the only guitar that I play as much as the McFeely. When I unloaded most of my gear, those 2 were the only 2 I kept.
 
Question.
If the tele is working for you, why have the new guitar built to take it's place?

Pocket the money for another time, esp if you are thinking another amp.
 
Virtual Pariah said:
Question.
If the tele is working for you, why have the new guitar built to take it's place?

Pocket the money for another time, esp if you are thinking another amp.
Click to expand...
Actually Mark is working on a semi hollow for me which I probably won't see for a year or so and then he has me on the calendar to start a backup for my 454 next year. That guitar has become kind of irreplaceable for me and it's already getting beat to death.


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Virtual Pariah said:
Question.
If the tele is working for you, why have the new guitar built to take it's place?

Pocket the money for another time, esp if you are thinking another amp.
Click to expand...
After I thought about this a bit more I realized that I hadn't also expressed the fact that my school and performing schedules are so dense right now that I also don't have time for specific gear to be out for service since I don't even have time to get them out for repair much less not have usable instruments and amps for each specific need out for repair. As an example, I haven't had time to get my Suhr Badger repaired right now and my Silvertone 1484 has been down for several months. I've been dragging a Kustom Defender 50 around in my car as a backup for the deluxe. That right there demonstrates the sad shape of my amp collection right now. If my deluxe were to crap out I'd have to go buy something just to work until I can get amps out to Suhr and Kevin Nelson. I also have a pile of deferred guitar maintenance that I can't do myself. Shit, my McFeely 440 is a body on my workbench right now waiting for Mark to replace the neck after we discovered that the truss rod failed (bad weld from The manufacturer apparently) a couple of months ago.

My average weekday schedule is up at 5am to start practicing before I get my day going and then usually I go until 9pm every week day. Weekends are full of gigs, family obligations and catching up on homework and study. I'm tired already. I'm actually posting this at 9:56 pm on a Saturday night from the parking structure at Cal State Fullerton after I worked at concert for the New Music Festival. Tomorrow I have to come back to watch a concert to write a report.


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Schedule Mojo @Mark Wein. I can sympathise to a degree, between work and family commitments over the last couple of years finding time to do anything I want to do has been a struggle.

As to the versatility of the Tele, I was blown away by my Yamaha Pacifica 402S (a Tele by another name) when I got it, clean or dirt applications.
 
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I don't even have children but between work, and home/life responsibilities I sometimes struggle to find time to get all the things done that I need to. I can't imagine having a full time school schedule on top of that!! Sheesh!!
 
I feel your scheduling pains. For the last few months, it's been take the kids to school, work pick kids up, work, off to second job. Weekends, second job. Luckily for me, I'm giving notice to job 2 tomorrow. Hopefully since I'm still in my 90 days, they say buh bye and I won't have to work out 2 weeks.
 
You're in the same boat as me. I used my new Orange amp at our gig last night and it did the distortion stuff well but the cleans weren't what I'm used to. I've been playing Deluxe Reverbs for so long that I miss the cleans when I don't use the amp. I swapped my 65 DRRI with a 68 and it's so much better. I'll give the Orange a few more tries.

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I might have missed this somewhere, but what happened with the Suhr?
One of the guitarists in one of my bands just got a Suhr Badger and it's easily one of my 3 favorite amps I've ever heard.
 
emmaporkchop said:
I might have missed this somewhere, but what happened with the Suhr?
One of the guitarists in one of my bands just got a Suhr Badger and it's easily one of my 3 favorite amps I've ever heard.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure other than it started crunching out snf the tone stack not really working the night Jack died. Someone suggested that maybe the ground to the tone stack is broken.
 
Every time I have a whim and plug in my ASAT, I am reminded why Tele's are the bee's knees. It doesn't have the compressed punch/quack of the Strat, it is almost transparent... like a blank canvas awaiting whatever the painter chooses to adorn it with. It is infinitely flexible. Cleaner than clean, but able to rip your face off with the right push.

If it were a bit more comfortable for me to play, I'd use it more often. Alas, the White Strat of Chimey Goodness just "feels" better in my hands.
 
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