Stratocaster vs Telecaster - Do They Actually Sound THAT Different?

The telecaster sounds like a stratocaster and an acoustic guitar had a baby

Stop filming in the mirror, it makes your guitars look backwards

Neck pickup: Strat
Bridge pickup: Tele
Winner: HSS strat

prefer the strat sound. more throaty on neck pickup. but i love the hendrix. srv sound anyway

The tele to me always sounds more full and gritty if that makes sense

Great comparison! I found it interesting that you play guitar as a leftie, but play drums right handed! I'm a leftie too, but play drums right handed. I've just started learning guitar and thought about learning left-handed, but then it seems strange to be leading rhythm with my left hand on guitar, then playing right hand lead on the drums. It makes more sense to me to learn guitar right handed, if I'm playing drums that way round too. (I have access to both left handed and right handed guitars - so I've tried playing both ways!).

To me the Strat is more dreamy and mystical sounding and the Tele with more warmth and bite but very similar and complimentary to each other.

Strat sounds cleaner , fuller and brighter

The real question is do the left hand models sound different from the right hand models?

Ive always had a strat but I'm falling for teles due to listening to too much Blur lately. Teles to me look weird but have much more depth to their sound

Strat clear winner 🥇

Thank you, Shane! I would love to see you play a Nashville Telecaster (or G&L ASAT Classic S).

I'm getting a Tele - that bridge pickup rocks.

I bought myself a kit to turn my Strat into a David Gilmour like setup. Except I made one change. The second small toggle switch is there to activate the neck and bridge pickups at the same time. I made a modification to that. If I select the Bridge/Middle pickup position, then flip the second switch, I get all three pickups at once, something you can't do with either a 3 or 5 way selector. I also copper shielded the crap out of the pickup cavity and cut out a thicker copper sheet, usually used in arts and crafts to make things out of by crimping, to add under the entire pickguard. A bit overboard on the pickguard shielding? Yeah, but gotta make sure the sheet is in contact with the copper shielding the cavity. There was an immediate noticeable drop in noise, so I think it was just what my Strat needed as I switched out the stock pups with the Fender Custom Shop 54s. I dunno, I just like the 54s over the 69s (nice) or the Fat 50/60s. The 54s are more well rounded than the 69s, but the 69s have a bit more on the high and low ends but not so much in the middle, at least not like the 54s. I think the 54s sound a bit more full than the 69s, and the Fats... have an even more full sound but aren't as bright as the 54s/69s. Well, this is just my opinion anyway so it really doesn't matter other than to tell which I like better. All in the EARS of the beholder. 🤣🤣🤣

P.S.- If I ever wanted to shred like Jimi Hendrix, then I would absolutely use the 69s.

I know nothing about Fenders, but as an ignorant, I would say the Strat has a slight background noise that's part of the texture of its signature sound. The Tele is cleaner. Strat is like drawing with a 6B pencil, and Tele with a calligraphic pen.

I like heavy tones and of course lean towards humbackers. But I also like hammering high gain on a Tele better than the strat, especially a 50s single coil Tele. The position of the knobs on a Strat are a downer for me as well...

Great comparison

There was more difference in the neck pups & less in the bridge pups than I was expecting.

I like the bite of the Strat.

Definitely I would go for Tele because it's crispy and soft at the same time just depending on your fingers.

Any chances you’d give out the tabs to that arrangement?- I’ve listened to it a hundred times and it’s amazing.

Thanks for this video: the comparison is so useful!

I think Telecasters sound full, bodied, rounded, and wise. I think Strats sound chimey, and boingy. Strats are bright and squeaky, and Teles are stoic, and precise.

I feel like a Tele knows what it wants, and a Strat is just figuring out who it is.

That being said, they work well in different settings. However, I have a love of Telecasters and used to have an amazing one that I had to sell during a low point in 2013. I haven't played guitar since...

Thinking about getting back to it. Was considering trying someting new, but I think my soul is obligated to get Telecasters.

Every time I hear the strat being played to a backing track like this I always think about David Gilmour, I do not now why, more than that I have tied him to this sound. I Think the guy In this video might have heard of him as well, I was hearing a couple of very nice bends I recognize from somewhere :D

Everyone wants a strat and a les paul but what they actually need is a tele and an sg

Legend says, Leo Fender summoned the Telecaster directly from heaven 😍😍😍

I'm new to all this. Deliberating between a Strat and a Tele, I have a cheap unbranded beginner guitar bundle electric and looking to purchase a nice long-lasting 'proper' guitar. So if you prefer the neck pickup on the Strat and the bridge pickup on the Tele, what's stopping you from taking the Tele bridge pickup and putting it one the Strat?

Telecaster 4 Life

Can’t wait to see you do a review of the new Harley Benton 25th Anniversary Range mate

If I had to pick the one tone i couldnt live without it's the tele bridge so that makes the decision for me.

that neck middle thing muddy thing you just add treble n middle . if at home i find if you want the max sound you have to fiddle eq for each pick up on a strat . tele not so much . lets face it though all the guitar template styles are great .

My thing is: when I'm in studio, I play guitar with pick or fingers or whatever, and jus THEN I sing; this way, Strat or Gibson tipe guitars suits me fine. On stage, when I sing AND play, Telecaster makes it all easy

Yes.

I might just be weird but I like the MiM standard teles and strats because I can get more twang from my strat even though I wish I had a tele so I fake it till I make it lol

I agree. Sometimes the absence of midrange will make you think it has more highs and lows. The bridge pickup on a Tele has a more solid midrange because Leo Fender used the same pickups he made for his lap steels and that's the way they sound. I'm a steel guitar player as well. A Strat will twang just as bright but has a more scooped midrange even on the bridge pickup.

Stratocaster is more raw and noisly tele is more warm and jazzy

The strat seems to have a warmer 'chime to it than the tele!!😁💗💖💕

bro your tone is fucking godlike. omg

Got a strat with Brian may wiring phase switches and can have all three pickups on, a Les Paul Dean ml and a super strat with Floyd rose my first ever Tele is in the post can't wait for it to turn up

I like them both it just how you feeling at that moment I paly on some guitars and I love them for that minute but I always go back to my daily guitar just because I'm so use to it I know it in side and out but this is my beauty queen 1959 Memphis custom LoL

The Strat doesn't have a tremolo, it has a vibrato! Or the wiggle stick, as I like to call it. 😄

Great video! I'm becoming a Tele guy, I sold one of my Les Pauls and will sell the other soon. And I'll sell a Strat too, but I got a Squier 40th Anniversary Strat yesterday. I probably won't keep that one either. No Strat can compare to my Shijie STE, a Strat type of guitar.

So I'll have one Strat and at least three Telecasters, one Deluxe and one with a humbucker at the neck. I'll just need a P90 guitar too...

I truly enjoyed this demo comparison! Beautiful playing too! I subbed of course.

Today, so many icons play Strat primarily. It seems fewer are known for the Tele. I play BLUES and when things get slow and when I need a fast tempo shuffle I go Strat . When I want speed and solo mojo across the frequencies the Tele is my choice. The truth is that any good player will make either one sound inspiring (or any other guitar for that manner). Your playing made me think that they are close in tones and that you could deliver an inspiring performance on both. When I have a choice I solo in jams using my 75th Anniversary MIM Tele, for rhythm I use my JVM '72 Strat. SRV and John Mayer most probably would not follow my advice but then again I conceded to them a long time ago! NOTE: My '57Classic Gibson LP is rarely used outside my studio, but if I did I would not suffer playing solo or rhythm. I wonder what John Mayer would say?

Nice playing 👍🏻

Strat for the neck and Tele for the bridge I reckon

If you install a 6 posiotion stitch on your Strat (they do it) you can include neck/bridge on the Strat! It sounds great!

Strat blows the tele out of the water. ....*kinda*

They both have there strong points

I think the neck pickups sound essentially the same when clean. With distortion, the strat neck sounds more hollow, while the tele sounds more creamy and smooth. The difference is more obvious for the wound strings.

I guess the main difference would be the telecaster is solidly built into the base and not open with springs and because of that you get a narrower note compared to the strat they sound very similar but a strat just has a wider hum to the note due to its construction

Hats off to another "lefty" who ignored the idiotic advice of teachers to "just learn to play right-handed".