let me just say that im a beginner and this is my first electric guitar.
i liked what the tele offered so i got a squier affinity deluxe tele. the original plan was to get a non deluxe tele but i saw it was there, took a look around and thought that it just had better quality parts so i decided on the deluxe over the original. went to a guitar store and got it, heard the store worker mention something about humbuckers but didnt think much of it. im now home with my tele and just realised that i mightve just fucked up.
so the question is, i have a tele with humbuckers and a strat bridge(idk if that makes a difference), so do i still have the tele sound or have i fucked it up?
i know the question sounds stupid because, why dont i just take a listen myself, but im a beginner and my ears are pretty shit. and im planning to keep using this guitar until it becomes unsave-able(im cheap like that)
tl;dr i have a tele with humbuckers and a strat bridge, i cant hear the difference myself so do i still have the tele sound?
Do you like the way the guitar sounds? That’s the only thing that really matters. If you’re only a beginner, you’re not playing out, you don’t need a specific sound anyway.
To be fair it doesn’t matter a huge amount of you’re not a beginner either. How many times have you been to a gig and thought the guitarist was great but would’ve been better with single coil / humbucker pick ups?
If you’re a beginner, you’re (in my experience) hundreds of hours of playing away from the point where you start worrying about tone. At this point literally any guitar, as long as you are comfortable with the feel of it, will do. Just enjoy playing and enjoy getting better.
The bottom line is if you don’t like how it sounds or feels then return it.
Now if you want advice:
You talk about the “tele sound” a lot. Could you be more specific about what that means to you? Telecasters can basically do any genre, they’re very versatile. I think you’ll be fine if you keep it.
You’re also a beginner. If you’re not playing in a band I don’t think it’ll matter too much which guitar you have. Think of it as learning what you like and don’t like.
You didn’t fuck up.
One more time: You didn’t fuck up.
You’re learning. Your style and sound will evolve. You’ll end up with way more guitars than you think, and you’ll always have the opportunity to grow ,change, and adapt as your gear and taste expands.
Play it, experiment with what it can do and learn to love the imperfections. They give you “your sound”.
I’ve played guitar for 35 years and never really cared about anything like that, so I’d say you’re fine. Your sound is going to be influenced by many more important factors than the style of pickup… the amp, equalization, weight and tension of strings, effects, room acoustics, your playing. Plus the precise sound is something you’d really only need to worry about after you play competently and are recording or playing concerts.
Anyway when I look up this model, that’s just how it’s set up:
Squier Humbucking Telecaster Pickups
Voiced in-house at Fender, these Squier humbucking pickups produce fat, rich tone for a wide variety of styles.I don’t think you need to be concerned that Fender doesn’t know how to make one of their signature styles of guitar properly or something. Most likely they chose these pickups to make the model versatile.
In summary, I hope you enjoy your new guitar and musical ventures, and I don’t think you have anything to fret about.
I don’t think you fucked up. I like humbuckers. You could get different pickups down the road if you want.
Do you like the sound?
The affinity Tele deluxe is a great starter. No need to worry about single coil hum. I remember the neck pickup sounding really good if you raise the pole pieces slightly. I’ve had a lot of fun with mine, modding it and trying different wirings and switches to get a single coil tone out of cheap AliExpress humbuckers I put in. Great for learning if you don’t feel too precious about it.
I agree with everyone saying you didn’t fuck up if you like the sound. At the same time, the main component of a guitar’s sound is the pickups (mainly type, but also position in relation to the strings, how much many loops they have, etc), so your telecaster won’t sound like a classic telecaster, but like a deluxe one.
If you don’t like that you can return it, but then you will be dealing with 60hz him from the single coils, which can be a bit annoying as a beginner.
thanks for the help guys!
Before changing guitars or pickups, try a different amp. It should cause a big tone difference, perhaps more than the other way around.
I’d say the real fuck up is spending so much money on a guitar as a beginner.
Maybe you’ll stick with it and it won’t matter but a lot of people end up not sticking with it.
My recommendation to beginners is to buy a cheap guitar. If you find yourself still playing it a year later, then start thinking about upgrading.
Jumping straight into a $3k guitar just doesn’t make sense to me unless the money doesn’t matter. Since you’re a beginner having a top quality instrument isn’t going to matter and you won’t tell the difference. By the time you do know the difference this advice doesn’t matter anymore.
Why the judgy negative response without even reading their question? The guitar they mentioned is a squire affinity deluxe tele which is less than 300 bones, so squarely in the beginner price range. I dont know where you got 3k from…
Sir, this is a Wendy’s
This. I bought my first electric guitar for $43 from a Salvation Army on eBay back in January (ok it was like $93 with shipping.) I spent less than a hundred to get it set up at a local shop and I’m still really happily playing it daily nearly a year later with no real plans to upgrade.
I always try to buy used for new hobbies as much as possible because who knows if they will stick (I’m super happy this one did; guitar is SO FUN and it has been a lifelong dream to learn how to play. After 20 years I finally figured out I needed a lefty guitar to be successful. Better late than never!)
@Jeom@lemmy.world teles (usually) have single coil, but if you are a beginner it doesn’t really matter, focus on your technique, timing, etc. and only then worry about guitar models, pickups, etc.
I guess you can get a tele sound from non tele as well as long as you are able to do what you intent to and that means practice
Another thought: do you want an existing sound or do you want to create your own sound? Ultimately, that’s a really key concept. Music is not a competition. You’re not trying to sound like that other guy–you’re not him and you’ll never sound exactly like him. And even if you do, do you really just want to be a duplicate? Your music is like your fingerprint. It will sound different than the music other people are making, simply because you are the one making it. Lean into that and find YOUR sound, not someone else’s.
Having said that, the “tele” sound is primarily a treble-y twangy kinda tinny sound. Here’s a great example. For those types of examples, it’s usually a very compressed tone, often clean or with just a slight touch of OD (e.g. you could just use a tube amp and push it juuuust past clean), and some slap-back/ping-pong delay.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
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