The Steel Guitar Forum

Len do you know what ASAT stands for?

I'm not Len, but I believe that ASAT stands for "After Strat After Tele"

On second thought...
http://guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6592

just wondered why many pedal steel guitarists seem to prefer a telecaster to a Stratocaster

I haven't found that to be the case. Most of the steel players I know also play j-string, and have a mix of Teles, Strats Les Pauls, Gretsch semi-hollows,jazz boxes - you name it.

Only some guys who play strictly country appear to be Tele only players, but even that number has dropped over the years as styles have changed. I think it may have been true 15 or 20 years ago - but not today.

I double duty with an Emmons P/P and Les Paul

Michael

OK, this one's easy... What did Leo start with? lap steels and bright, clean sounding amps. So when it came time to hit the six-string market, he used the template he had, and created what amounts to a lap steel you play with your fingers instead of a bar.

I admit it; got more Teles in my six-string stable than any othersingle type.

James Taylor wrote:I just wondered why many pedal steel guitarists seem to prefer a telecaster to a Stratocaster when changing from one instrument to the other?

My advice: Stop worrying about what everybody else is playing.


`

Dave Hopping wrote:OK, this one's easy... What did Leo start with? lap steels and bright, clean sounding amps. So when it came time to hit the six-string market, he used the template he had, and created what amounts to a lap steel you play with your fingers instead of a bar.

That would certainly help explain why Leo's first guitar was the proto-tele Esquire with a single bridge pickup and bridge cover.

Dave , the guitars are all beautiful, I like the idea of having a maple neck and an ash body.
But what really catches my eye are the pre CBS amps! Un believable…early examples of sonic bliss imo. I just missed out on a ‘65 Tremolux up in Utah a week or so back.
People are asking a kings ransom for them now.

My 1972 Telecaster, still looking good

And just for fun, here's my '75 Telecaster with the pickguard off.

Dave , the guitars are all beautiful, I like the idea of having a maple neck and an ash body.
But what really catches my eye are the pre CBS amps! Un believable…early examples of sonic bliss imo. I just missed out on a ‘65 Tremolux up in Utah a week or so back.
People are asking a kings ransom for them now.

I liked what a really great guitarist told me, Kevin Key, he said he usually plays with a strat but with hardcore country sometimes he can get the Tele to "Bark". I actually think that is a better description of the sound than twang.

It’s because most steel players play country music, and that has come to be the guitar country guitarists are expected to play. Many band leaders even use the term “lead guitar” and “Tele” synonymously.

In the old days, there was much more variety in what a country lead player would use. Nashville players of the 40s-70s like Grady Martin and Hank Garland mostly used Gibsons and Epiphones. Teles were the choice of west coast players like James Burton, Roy Nichols, Buck and Don, as well as road players who couldn’t afford a more expensive instrument, and also the odd guy like Luther Perkins. I’d say Reggie Young was the first player to come to Nashville and make a Tele a requited piece of gear in the studios here. Just about every A-Team guitarist owned a 69 or 70 Tele, that’s right when Reggie came to town from Memphis!

In the mid 70s through early eighties, many of the Nashville players who used ES style Gibsons switched to Les Pauls (Grady Martin, Harold Bradley, etc). Since the traditional country resurgence of the mid eighties and nineties, led by players like Ricky Skaggs with Ray Flack, Marty Staurt (with Clarence White’s original pull-string Tele), and Bakersfield-centric Dwight Yoakam, it’s come to be where on a lot of country gigs, if you show up without a Tele, you showed up with “the wrong guitar.”

Teles are great and do a special thing no other guitars do, and they are also excellent chameleons (they can do way more than just “chicken picking”). However, I miss the variety of the old days. Grady played an ES-355, Billy Byrd played a Byrdland, Harold Bradley played a Jaguar, Leon Rhodes played an Epiphone Sheraton, Wayne Moss played a Jazzmaster, Chet Atkins and his disciples played Gretsch, Eldon Shamblin payed a Strat, Merle Travis played a Super 400, etc…

Good info Chris. I don't remember exactly when it happened but I distincly remember the time when the Nashville style of Tele picking more or less took over all the country recordings coming out of Music City.

It was very obvious that a different style of guitar playing was emerging and that nearly everyone was piling on. You saw guys like Leon Rhodes etc. and many others following suit.

I know that players did and still do use many styles of playing and instruments, but it just seemed the Tele style was more prevalent.

Fine with me, but I always enjoyed the mellow style of Gibson, Gretsch etc. mentioned by Chris as done by say, Harold Bradley etc.

I guess guys like Brent Mason had a lot to do with that in later years since he was on nearly everything coming out of Nashville. And then came along the Nashville Tele with a Strat pup in the middle.

One of the things I always noticed about Steve Wariner's early years was the use of that red Strat. No point, just an observation.

I'm a big fan of the Tele yes. I have a few or a few copies.

Chris Scruggs wrote:It’s because most steel players play country music, and that has come to be the guitar country guitarists are expected to play. Many band leaders even use the term “lead guitar” and “Tele” synonymously.

…

I've been on Teles PRE Country Music and Pre Steel. I've had totally different influences for this dang instrument and over the long haul it has become my instrument of choice.

Oh yeah, when I crossed over to country, ( early 70's) I was already prepared, Tele and a Twin. Then added a Pro III !~

Chris , hope to catch you with the Marty show again soon when you are in Charlotte.

Were Roy Nichols and Don Rich responsible for a lot of the tele style?

Bought this partscaster with Wilkinson pickups three weeks ago for $89

Not all steel players play Tele's. I play Strat's, Tele's, ES335's and Les Paul's. As far as tone I would say the classic bridge pickup on a Tele would be more like an old Sho-Bud permanent and a Strat would be more like most modern all pull steels. Tele got a little more balls in the twang department. The late Nashville session guitar player Grady Martin, mostly a Gibson semi-solid player once said "The tone of a Telecaster can kill Johnson grass for 50 feet." Something a lot of steel players and guitar players don't know is the pickups in the Telecaster bridge were originally in Leo Fenders lap steels. They sounded good in his lapsteels which predated the Telecaster so he just put the same pickup in his Tele. That's why so many pickupless lapsteels keep showing up on eBay. Guitar players rob the pickups out of them and sell the rest of the steel. The early pickups in the steels and early Tele's/ Esquires and some Broadcasters are the most sought after.

Love my PRS Semi Hollowbody Special it has 12 different pickup selections best guitar EVER! I have had em all actually still do..

There was a time in the 70s and 80s a lot of players were using the Peavey T-60, but I think the Tele won out.

Darrell Criswell wrote:Were Roy Nichols and Don Rich responsible for a lot of the tele style?

If you wanted the ultimate Tele guy back in the day, two words would suffice:

James Burton.

Don and Roy's bandleaders used him quite a bit in the studio. So did Gram, Emmy Lou, Steve Stills(at least once with BE), John Denver, and innumerable others, including JB's own bandleader....

It’s all in your hands, boy.
https://youtu.be/dwEsjN6BEaE

Steel Guitar and Tele !

What Terry Wood said. I prefer my Tele on dual duty gigs. But I do have a variety of archtops and solid body guitars. The Tele gets the nod in most cases.