The best Teles, tone wise seem to be heavy as hell. Weight makes sense for sustain.
A couple of questions:
1. I never liked maple necks. They seem sticky. Mahogany just feels better. What do you think.
2. Some say the Strat whammy bar & floating bridge robs string resonance and sustain, similar to the Floyd Rose.
The Bigsby seems pretty massive.
3. Weight: have you ever found a light weight guitar that works well? ( Soid body, I mean.) Related: makers are introducing lighter weight hardware—using aluminum and titanium and carbon fiber. What’s your take.
It’s great not to think about politics today.
>>The best Teles, tone wise seem to be heavy as hell.
My best sounding Tele I have is made with poplar and is light as a feather. Sustain for days, makes my LPs sound like they are clipped. I personally think it is all in the neck, as this is one has a baseball bat sized maple neck on it, whereas most of my other guitars are thinner, with either maple or mahogany necks.
The most muddy sounding is made from a single slab of swamp ash, quarter-sawn maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. Go figure.
The tele purists claim "it ain't a Tele less it have a maple neck."
And I can hear a difference (a local guitar god has many teles including two sets of identical models with same pickups made in the same year but with one each a maple and a rosewood/mahogany neck.
Me I am a rosewood neck kinda guy, nothing else feels right no matter what make of guitar.
I think it depends on the finish. I don't get too deep into it. Both my teles have maple necks. One has all maple, the other has a rosewood fretboard. I keep a nice polishing cloth with me, and I wipe down my neck before and after playing a set, and it's fine. Not too tacky. Some of em, like the 52s, have a real heavy laquer on the neck that is a little sticky, though.
2. Some say the Strat whammy bar & floating bridge robs string resonance and sustain, similar to the Floyd Rose. The Bigsby seems pretty massive.
I hate Strat trems. I hate most trems. The bigsby, like any other trem, does rob some sustain. I feel like the Bigsby compensates for it a little just by the massiveness of the metal mount, etc. But it still loses some sustain. I just love the sound of a Bigsby wiggling.
3. Weight: have you ever found a light weight guitar that works well? ( Soid body, I mean.) Related: makers are introducing lighter weight hardware—using aluminum and titanium and carbon fiber. What’s your take.
I think those cheap Danelectros are pretty awesome.