Tele Tone Tricks - Ask Zac 196
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
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Tips and tricks to help you unlock a wider array of tones from your Telecaster. We look at a combination of picking hand placement, and some counter-intuitive pickup choices to create a wider array of sounds from the simple 2-pickup Tele.
Rosanne Cash performing "500 Miles" with John Leventhal on guitar
• Rosanne Cash: 500 miles
#askzac
Rolling the tone back transforms at the molecular level a maple 'board into a rosewood one. Science. Really interesting lesson Zac!
👊😎
How many times have you watched a friend or acquaintance go through pickup installs chasing a sound, and they never swap out the pots ? I've lost out on a lot of $$$ clueing people into that crapshoot, especially with MIJ Strats and Tele's. I'd say 70% of the ones I open up have pots barely better than MIM stuff. I'm working on a JV Strat right now for a guy that was conned into thinking it had USA CTS pots in it. They were CTS, but the bargain basement half plastic crapola with weird tapers and one tone knob that only worked on ⅓ of its total sweep. Off or all in from 10 to 7 ½ ! 🤣🤣🤣
Does it sound better to the player with the new pots?
@@jimshorts6751❤
My favorite Tele hack is to swap out the bridge for a lefty bridge. To me that gives you more snap and growl on the low end but, takes out the ice pick high end. Give that a try. Kinda was a default for folks that were lefty playing right guitars back in the day.
Here's a "duh moment" tip i learned from a guy years ago. Always play "opposite day" when choosing a guitar or exploring its capabilities. First, he said to choose a song where rhythm was recorded on the neck pickup and lead on the bridge... then reverse it and make it work. The drill is to stick with it until you use all the bag of tricks you know to find the bag of tricks you don't know, like : pickhand position, tone/volume knob settings, coil tap/coil split, anything... but don't switch back until you've got it. He told me he learned that tip from an old bar room player in Austin, Texas, in the early 70s. The guy had 2 guitars, a Fender Esquire and a Gibson LP Special with 1 pickup as a backup. It was all he needed to get all the sounds most of us get with the selector switch.
I’ve learned to love the neck pickup on my Tele. Thanks to you and your knowledge.
That’s all I’ve ever used for the most part.
From lead on a single pickup to double stops on double pickups represents a duet, a perfect hand off to the singer from the guitarist. Love it.
I played for decades with the tone knob always on ten. Never played a Tele. Then I bought a used MIM Tele and used the tone knob all the time. Now I seldom have it on ten. Playing a Tele through a simple tube combo with no pedals forces you to find new ways to tell stories. I love all kinds of electric guitars, but if I had to have just one it would have to be a Telecaster.
I love this guy, love his playing, love Teles. But to have just one would mean to have the Gibson SG. The greatest thing to ever be invented since the advent of clothing and toothbrushes, just absolutely essential.
Just when I think I’m done with the tele and might go “Modern” you always put out a lovely video and remind me why I love the Tele so much and jump right back into her arms 😂.
Thanks for this mate. Loved this episode and learned a lot! I remember when I first rolled the tone off a Tele bridge pickup. It was a revelation to me. Teles are the one guitar I always seem to find so intuitive and responsive when it comes to that tone pot
Such a GREAT video. So many tone ideas in just one video. You are DA MAN Zac!
I just got a Tele, so this video came at the perfect time - thanks so much for these tips!
When he played fast as you on the NECK and said that was like the record I was like this guys off his rocker. Then I went and re-listened to the record. 😂😂 spot on as always Zac that was really cool. Great video!
Amazing video thanks for sharing +. Love these type of short tips and tricks. Goes to show you can literally play anything on a Tele.
Excellent tips and tricks. Years ago, I used the fake flanger trick while doing a cover of Joe Walshs' Rocky Mountain Way.
Seriously good tuition piece - thank you, Zac.
Great tips. And I love that your videos stay really organic, with whatever interesting things you have going on or think up. i.e. not sticking to a hard-and-fast formula. Keep it up!
Thank you for the awesome content, Zac! I really enjoy the videos and indulging in the Tele madness. I am a tele guitar player. Your channel brings me much joy and knowledge.Thank you.
That flangeresque technique is very fun; I've heard that in a few Roy Buchanan songs recently although I learned it from Dave Evans aka The Edge on U2's 'New Year's Day' and Steve Stevens on the intro to Billy Idol's 'White Wedding'.
If you really want a different sound to your playing, play it with a ukulele pick; to me it's not only softens but it does wonders when using both pickups, especially if it's strung with flats and tweaking the tone pot as well.
Those who dial their tone control back a bit are the guitarists who play for the band/for the mix. Those who have the tone always at 10 are the guitarists that need to hear themselves play while the rest of the band is secondary.
About 20 years ago I was at a music store talking to the salesman who went to GIT. He was taking about how great an SG jr sounded (that was going on clearance) and I mentioned that it seemed limited with only one pickup. He demonstrated all the different sounds you could get by adjusting the volume and tone knobs. I still have the guitar.
I bought the Esquire re-issue and discovered the same thing more or less, I had been creating interesting tones prior to this on my guitars with my EQ pedal though by dropping and increasing frequencies, having just the one pickup though forces you to experiment and having the tone control to hand is a massive boon.
Hey Zac, thank you for all your tips! I just installed "zac" wiring in a tele build I finished recently. Makes it so easy to switch between great tones.
By the by, I have been LOVING the tele mod you did a while back (we talked about it but I don't expect you to remember such things!). No tone control on the neck and rolling the bridge back a hair so they feel more balanced. It is gold, sir-
Essential info! I learned the tone roll-off thing from the guy in the picture over your right shoulder. Unlocked the secret of many of those Stax guitar sounds.
Thanks mon amis
Thanks for the Rosanne Cash recommendation. It's a great album now on my playlist.
Hey Zac, always with such simple but beautiful musical ideas for the Tele. Also your song recommendations are great. Keep rolling!
The way you play guitar is so laid back and casual I really dig it. Great vid sir 🔥
Turning a knob.
What a concept!
Consistently brilliant. Thanks Zac. Great that you focused on the neck pickup too, something that I’m using more and more of over the years.
I remember Playing Fast as You at almost every gig back when, I always played it as an AC-DC style It rocked. 500 Miles. Oh hell I burst into tears now days when I hear it.
Duane Eddy did this with his tone. Everyone thinks he used the bridge pickup for his twangy tone, when you CAN NOT get his tone without the neck pickup. And the neck pickup needs to be a single coil
...and a low output one at that, not a P90 unless you remove one of the two bar magnets (the way i like my P90 pickups to be) let the pedals do the work on the tone, not the pickups or the amp
Thanks!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
You sounded excellent Zack. Most entertaining video. Thank you for posting👍.
Zac tele sounds great thanks for the demo..
There are many advantages to a rosewood fretboard.
Many people will refret them cheaper than maple, they have a warmer tone, you can bring out enough highs in a rosewood board but its harder to tone down a maple neck especially if you are already using a dense wood like ash.
I like light bodies, alder or bass and rosewood boards. Always warm and bluesy and you can easily bring out the highs if needed. Running things like fender amps will never put you at a loss for treble......
I like the crazy combo of a tele through a marshall. Listen to Jimi Hendrix play the opening of "if 6 was 9" thats the sound i go for in my strats and teles...... The bridge pickup sounds on a strat and a tele ate pretty close to each other. Itstheneck pickups where they really diverge.
Thanks for the cool tips Zac, always a pleasure hearing your insights. I personally like using the tone knob on just about all of my guitars when it comes to the bridge pickup. For the sounds I like best, I keep the treble knob pretty high on my amps and sometimes as a result, the bridge pickup can be a bit too pokey 🙂 The tone knob can tame it to be just right.
Great lesson ... Strat or Tele - I almost always begin with the tone control rolled a little back, then you can get a little more bite if you need and softer if you want too ... BB king worked his controls all the time as far as I remember - in the middle of a song too ...
wow. what a lesson! Tones were impressive
Sounds awesome Zac. I use a lot of these same techniques and pick up selection with my rock playing. It makes a big difference with how I want the tone to come across.😊
Campilongo is the master of all of this.
Just don’t take a lesson from him.
@ Would take me the rest of my natural life to learn all them notes!
You've truly impressed me-well done!
Microphonic pickups actually sound great in my experience!
Have a Squire Classic Vibe FSR Custom Baritone Tele...really need to play it more than I do. Many thanks for all the many wonderful and informative videos Zac !
11:00 - This is what makes a Telecaster what it is.
Full wack is great.🤘But Leo gave you controls for a reason.
Thanks, Zac.
Superb as Always!
Zac I wish there was a video compilation of all your cool video licks haha, they always have very good meat to them😅
Thanks for your effort brother tele lover ✊
As you may (likely) know, a lot of people have have tried to get Duane Eddy's iconic sound using the bridge pickup on whatever because it's such a twangy, trebly tone, but that's wrong. Duane's sound was done on the neck pickup (Dynasonic on a 6120), full treble and picked close to the bridge. Counter-intuitive it may be, but that's how it was done.
Still a Strat guy but that Tele is creeping up inside my heart more and more every day!!! Even when I play my same lame blooz crap 💩 I play it so differently when I switch over to the Telecaster.
As far as Tele toanz, while I will always love and weaponize the bridge, my go-to has come to be the middle switch position with both pups engaged and the tone on about 8 and the volume around 7. Wow. Add to that a Klon circuit and some slapback and trem and look out 👀!
thanks Zac, always so relaxing and informative!
My pleasure!
Thanks for the tips! Leventhal’s a great picker!
I loved this. Thank you 😊
Zach are you coming to Adam Levy at Nelson’s Drum shop on June 5th? If so I’ll bring my tele so you can check out my weird guitar! I’ll be in town a couple days
Great show. Thanks for
Nice! I will try this near the bridge/neck pickup idea. My Tele tone has improved much since I had my tech disconnect the tone knob from the neck [Dimarzio Twang King] and center [1980's Don Lace] single coils, which you talked about a while back, Zac.
Wow,I think you’re right on that “Fast as You”tone.
Thanks Zac!
Hey - some friendly feedback that it would be very helpful if you framed your shot so we can see your pickup selection switch. That way we can tell what pickup configuration you’re using. Appreciate it!!
That might be cool and helpful. But I humbly submit the underlying benefit of this video lesson is listening to and recognizing the differing characteristic sounds of each pickup, or combined, with the different picking positions. It’s more than mechanically switching back and forth and just doing what he says, playing here or picking there. It’s actually hearing the result and having one’s own command of it. I think we can all get there if we really listen to the possibilities we’ll find.
Thanks for the lesson.
Love it! Can you divulge the strings you’re using?
9.5-44 NYXL D'Addario
I always found the Tele bridge PU too Trebly . I been rolling the treble off most of the time on the bridge Pup but if I play in the middle or neck , I roll it back. In the last couple years Ive been picking way back near the bridge to make certain parts stick out. Even with my acoustics I do that.
I just installed a 4-way in one of my Teles. P1= B&N in series, P2= Bridge only, P3= B&N in parallel, P4= Neck only. Tone pot only works on Bridge P2.
great tone tips, zac. man, i really dig your playing .. .
Awesome, thank you!
Thanks for the tips! Lots to try out. Would anyone be interested in hearing the difference between different guitar wiring?
watch ya got there in butterscotch, 52 of some kind ? great channel just discovered it :) and subscribed
Thanks for that lick, I'll be working on it!
Great tips Zac. Thanks.
Any time!
Oh…The BARGE of things I’ve “borrowed” from Leventhal… As usual Zac, weapons grade wisdom. Thanks bunches.
Great Tele tips, much appreciated! And I had no idea Pete Anderson was playing Strat on that album...amazing.
You know I had moved my tele's tone pot to behind the volume pot 50s Gibson-style, but I've been thinking I need to move it to the bridge lug on the switch like you do. Only, it occurs to me . . . I like blending the neck pickup out a bit on the les paul middle position instead of rolling off the bridge tone. So, what if it's possible to have that instead of a tone knob for the tele bridge? So, normal modern switching, but blend instead of tone on the back position. Middle position is still both full out, front position is still neck pickup full out, but now the bridge has a whole spectrum of sound rather than gradius of blanketry. I think I made those words up, but I bet you know what I mean. So do you think it's possible?
Didn’t know that, thanks Zach!
Curious if you have tried Fenders new Cobolt Chrome Tele pickups? I bought a set recently and they have a very unique tone.
Nice video as always Zac. Now, show us how Redd gets his tone 😁
Maybe I’m just hanging with the wrong crowd, but I don’t hear Dwight Yoakam getting his due in conversations of great country players the way he does on my fiancee and I’s van's radio. Love that stuff.
It's Pete Anderson who played all the great lead guitar on most of Dwights known songs. Dwight mainly just played rhythm on a Martin.
@@bollox679 Did I say “guitar dues?” I just mean as a country artist. We REALLY love him but I never hear him lauded the way he should be. I feel like it coincides completely with the era of commercial country’s ignorance (read : IGNORE-ANCE, not just the form of the word which means they didn’t know.) of real good non-pop country. I know the fight has gone on and on, but the “country” radio station in my home town is nothing I wanna hear.
Is that a Bose stereo and do you use it? I’m just gonna say that you’re a valuable tone connoisseur of telecasters. I’ve learned quite a bit. Thanks ❤🎉
It is
Man. This is a great lesson. But I'm still struggling between a Squier bass vi and a Squier paranormal offset tele
Man that Tele sounds great
I really use my tone controls with the Tele and the Strats here.
Hi Zak. I have a question. I put my capo on the 4th fret to do the Lady Antebellum song "Need you Now" in my cover band but when I bend the B string up in the chorus the string moves under the capo so the spacing between the strings changes a bit so it feels weird and the guitar's also then also out of tune. If I tighten the capo more that in itself puts the guitar out of tune and the B string still moves under the capo when I bend it up anyway. Could you imagine what I could do to solve this problem? Thanks Dave
You must make sure the capo matches the curve of your fretboard.
Zach really enjoyed this and all your videos! Is part of getting Pete Anderson‘s tone nailed a lot to do with that heavily modified deluxe he used? With the mid range mod and Transformers and all the other stuff.
He was using other amps along with the Deluxe by the album This Time
I always have my tone knob rolled back some (8 to 10 olock) then you always have some extra bright tone if you need it but set up my amp, eq and pedal tone with the tele tone knob rolled down some. Never have it all the way bright by default. I Only have my vol knob at most ever half way up or slight less by default as well. Then you got extra if you need it but set my pedals up accordingly. Don't want the OD too muddy.
Some recommend not having any of the control maxed out on the guitar.
Could you do a video like this but showing you would play tiger by the tail and how you get the sound
hows the shimmering sound made ?
Zack I love your videos and your a killer player. Can I ask you your opinion on Nash guitars? I heard they are the real deal and better than Fender Custom Shop
I have not played many
Zac you are Mr telecaster very interesting vid
Smooth playing! Cool guitar; what is it? Obviously a Tele but is it a reissue, Custom Shop, etc? Love the color.
It is a gift from Brad Paisley. A mix of old and new parts.
@@AskZac looks and sounds yummy!
Do you still have and use your headstrong amp?
Absolutely!!!
Great!
11:00 How could someone not use the tone controls?
Just with the basic Tele with ungraduated Tone & Vol. reduced to say, 10 different levels, plus the 3-way pickup switch, we have 10^2 x 3 = 300 different settings.
I have a basic Fender amp which has 6 x 12-graduated controls plus a 2-way Fat switch. This gives us another 12^6 x 2 settings, = 5,971,968, which x 300 from the guitar gives 1,791,590,400 possible combinations. Just let that sink in!
And, as Zac says, that doesn't include pick location, angle, velocity, attack, stroke angle, and more. The world of sound is your oyster, and it is practically limitless.
More Dwight/Pete stuff!
Aren’t all tele neck pups microphonic ?
Everyone I had, you tap on the pick guard and it’s loud af in the amp
And it’s nice to have it like that! Even for bridge pickups!
Mahalo Zac!
That flanger sound Eddie Van Halen liked to do.
I almost never have the tone control all the way up on a Tele back pickup… Unless I’m feeling onry! 😂
Great video dude, thanks!
Pretty partial to the middle myself..
zac, when you say, "roll the tone back", are you coming from having your tone setting all the way open to "10"?
yes
@@AskZac great .. . thx!
I still hate the Tele neck pickup.😂 LOL
Don't forget the Rev was on the short list of comedians Carlos Mencia stole from according to Rogan too. And again whenever Rogan brought his name up people would then reply "who?"
10-52's on a Tele. You're welcome.
Aloha Zac#
That guitar sounds AMAZING. What pickups and what amp/pedals?
Ron Ellis 52T and Standard plus neck. Mirage comp, 1965 Deluxe Reverb
Badasss
I think a tone control on a tele is like tits on a bull. If I need a tone pot on a tele I got the wrong tele. Broadcaster wiring is where it’s at!
I’ve learned the best way to get good tone out of your Tele is to use your volume knob.
Too bright? Roll it off a bit. Too clean? Turn it up. Who needs a neck pickup anyway.