I've been on an odd Led Zeppelin kick the past week, which is strange cause I usually don't listen to them much.
My curiosity was sparked recently when I discovered Jimmy Page used a Telecaster on their entire first album and a great deal of Led Zepp II was also recorded with the same Tele. Led Zepp fans will likely know the guitar I'm referring to is his '59 Tele with the rosewood finerboard and psychedelic dragon painting over the body.
This made a lot of things click in my head. I always felt the guitar tone on a lot of those songs sounded unique and different from what I know of the usual Les Paul stuff that was recorded later on. The Telecaster is such an underrated guitar outside of Country music. I have never understood why it is typecast as a Country player's guitar when it was used all over Rock and R&B music. I'm always surprised when I find out that some unique guitar sound I heard was actually a Telecaster and not a Strat or a Gibson type guitar.
Page also used a Telecaster in Stairway to Heaven and you can definitely hear it's twang and sparkle in the solo and background.
In my opinion there are only 2 guitars that define versatility and are real jack of all trades that can handle every genre and playing style - the Fender Telecaster and Gibson ES-335.
Interesting. The '59 tele was given to Jimmy by Jeff Beck when he left the Yardbirds to Page. As you say he used in 68 and 69 with Zeppelin but Peter Grant suggested he retire it in late 69 because after every gig Jimmy had to get a soldering iron out to make it serviceable! He last used it on STH. On the advice of Joe Walsh he then picked up a Les Paul Burst which became known as 'number 1.' Probably the sexiest electric guitar made.
Wow that's really interesting.
You can definitely hear that Tele in those tracks. It sounds different from the Les Paul, which IMO was a bit muddy and sometimes too overdriven on their later stuff. Interesting to hear that the Tele had durability issues. It was likely beaten to a pulp from aggressive playing between Beck and Page over the course of it's life. Vintage Fender guitars had a reputation (and still do) for durability. Stevie Ray Vaughan played a beat up Strat for his entire career.
I played a Telecaster in college and it's the one guitar I regret getting rid of. That guitar was so useful for everything I wanted to play. At the time, I favored a Strat which had a far brighter neck pickup, but the Tele did everything I needed to do from classic rock to country/southern rock and jazz. My favorite thing about Teles is how twangy they sound. It didn't take me long to realize why Country guitarists love those guitars, and in the early Led Zepp recordings, you can hear that twangy sound from the Tele.
A few years ago, I started venturing into ES-335 territory and I got myself an ES-339. That has been the best guitar I've ever owned, and shockingly enough, it gets that twangy middle sound that a Tele gets. I could never get that sound out of my Les Paul, but my ES has it.
Topic: What are you listening to right now? (Read 243286 times)