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Strat Vs. Tele


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I've played many Strats but not a lot of Teles. In the past I always used the Tele as the twangiest, a Strat as a good compromise between a Tele and Les Paul, and a Les Paul for the beffiest most overdriven.

 

With this latest software release though, the Strat now seems way twangier than the Tele. The Tele seems bassier. Is this true to Strats in relation to Teles?

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I think the sounds are both pretty accurate. I have a Les Paul, a Tex Mex Strat, and our other guitarist plays a Tele. On the Variax, I use the Tele sound in most our set. It is such a nice round sounding model that it is perfect in our mix.

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When comparing real guitars, I've found most Strats to be brighter and thinner than Telecasters. The single coil bridge pickup on a Tele can actually sound pretty meaty, whereas with Strats, it can be a struggle to fatten that up. "Twang" is one of those words that seems to have a somewhat nebulous meaning, but I think it gets associated with the Telecaster more than the Strat because of the Tele's ubiquitous place in country music.

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I was surprised by that too, that the Strat is brighter than the Tele. It's in the ballpark of the magnetic pickups in the JTV-69, which is considerably brighter than most Strats I've owned. The later JTV firmware seems to be more geared toward that thin funky 80s clean Strat sound.

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When comparing real guitars, I've found most Strats to be brighter and thinner than Telecasters. The single coil bridge pickup on a Tele can actually sound pretty meaty, whereas with Strats, it can be a struggle to fatten that up

 

+1 !!

 

a Stock Tele is "meatier" sounding than a Strat - mostly due to more coil windings on Tele Bridge PU and and the solid metal plate mounted under the bottom of the Tele Bridge PU - (which is missing on stock Strat Bridge PU's) - both contribute the the Teles fatter tone when the Guitar Volume is on "10" 

62TeleCustomBridgePickupTwo.jpg

Remember the 1st Led Zep album was cut with Page playing a Tele on most tracks.

 

 

Classic "Twangy Tele" sound - is owed more to the 1 meg ohm Vol pot with .001uF "Treble Bleed" capacitor  - which was stock and used on all post "1967 style Fender Teles. Play a 1968 Fender Tele on "7" and you have a very bright tone (that gets brighter) as the guitar volume gets turned down 

53-67telewire.jpg

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I sure wish the Line6 modeling had an option to emulate the effect of the treble-bleed cap.

 

Me too.

 

Don't have many guitars, but the first I had was customised with PRS pickups by Chandler Guitars and had a treble bleed added, the second was a Patrick Eggle LA that had a treble bleed as stock.

 

If I want a darker tone there is the tone knob right? Why would I want the tone to go dark as the volume is reduced because of the RC effect of the cable?

 

Played with a Trantec Wireless system for many years and because that had only a foot of cable into a high impedance input the drop off in tone when volume was lowered was negligable - really miss it with the JTV.

 

You do know that Line 6 actually simulate the tone loss when using VDI!

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I sure wish the Line6 modeling had an option to emulate the effect of the treble-bleed cap.

 

 

Me too.

 

Don't have many guitars, but the first I had was customised with PRS pickups by Chandler Guitars and had a treble bleed added, the second was a Patrick Eggle LA that had a treble bleed as stock.

 

If I want a darker tone there is the tone knob right? Why would I want the tone to go dark as the volume is reduced because of the RC effect of the cable?

 

Played with a Trantec Wireless system for many years and because that had only a foot of cable into a high impedance input the drop off in tone when volume was lowered was negligable - really miss it with the JTV.

 

You do know that Line 6 actually simulate the tone loss when using VDI!

 

 

Get going: http://line6.ideascale.com/

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Yes, I was aware of the RC load simulation.  The interaction between pickup inductance, effective source impedance of backed-off volume pot, the bleed cap, cable capacitance and far-end termination is actually more complicated than a simple treble boost.  I can't find it at the moment, but stevekc, aka Elantric, posted a link to some SPICE simulations showing the response curves for different control and cap values with typical cable and termination.

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http://www.seymourduncan.com/tonefiend/guitar/customize-your-caps/

 

http://guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/5317/treble-bleed-circuit

 

 

B. Treble bleed capacitor 

In the second circuit, a single capacitor is used to feed some extra treble to the output to compensate for losses. A 0.56nF has been used, to give a very good tonal match at -6db. 

 

caponly056nF.gif

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Thanks for creating the entry.  FWIW, I gave it a thumbs-up.  Unfortunately I have seen no indication that Line6 acts on any of the suggestions.  I suspect it's more a "feel good" option to make customers feel empowered.

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they 100% do read, and set their projects based on the ideascale site..

just so you know...

it's well worth submitting things there...

there is no immediate gratification built in...

some ideas will never get off the ground... some too expensive... some used in future products... some just wait their turn...

but all are read and evaluated.

fact.

 

Thanks for creating the entry.  FWIW, I gave it a thumbs-up.  Unfortunately I have seen no indication that Line6 acts on any of the suggestions.  I suspect it's more a "feel good" option to make customers feel empowered.

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That's good to hear, thanks.  I definitely don't expect instant gratification, but there are some requests (like my personal favorite: overload indication on the various virtual stages in an HD500) that are constantly near the top in terms of positive responses and yet have not been acted upon in the year+ since being posted.

 

One thing that would help immensely:  Publicize all cases where Ideascale suggestions materialize into products and/or features.  Right now it just feels like a black hole.  Another thought might be to award a prize to the original poster of an idea that is acted upon. 

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keep in mind.. some of those requests might not be reasonably possible on the current hardware...

in which case the feature would likely show up on the next generation... and they would surely mark it as such after release...

but as is always the case they won't comment or hint at what they are working on publicly.

more than one reason... the simplest is that plans change along the way and an idea may not work out...

but also they are publicly owned, and there are alot of regulations regarding statements due to those statements possibly affecting the investment value.

 

I like the idea of rewarding posters... heck even a bumper sticker for the guitar case would be cool...

post that on ideascale! :D haha

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Yeah, isn't that basically what the JTV is, their reply to the suggestions they got to the original Variax? They definitely listen, it's obvious that if it's not in their best interest and is way out there then it won't be listened to, but it's always worth to make a suggestion.

 

It's why I did my palm mute idea because it's obvious that the high gain kids stay away from the Variax because of this, and there are possible solutions which would open up a whole new audience for the Variax, which is why I put it in.

 

Think about your idea and word it nicely to appeal to Line 6 and tell them why it's a good idea.

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I like the idea of rewarding posters... heck even a bumper sticker for the guitar case would be cool...

post that on ideascale! :D haha

 

They used to put stickers in their boxes... They quit doing that a few years ago, though. I would like a POD keychain. :)

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