YT: Telecaster for metal? Stock pickups vs Bare Knuckle

[Jind]

I find the comment that a Tele can't do metal

I guess if one defines metal as much of the wash, rinse, repeat, all using extremely similar tones, the same guitars pickups, the same amps as everyone else, it can't. But in my 45 years of life, metal has been performed and recorded on almost every type of guitar, with every type of pickups.

Tony Iommi recorded part of the first Black Sabbath album with White Stratocaster with Single coils, when his guitar broke down (it was a beat to hell, self painted guitar), he replaced it with his 1965 SG as heard on the majority of 1970 "Black Sabbath" album, the guitar known as "Monkey", it had a single coil P90 in the bridge and a John Birch P-90 in the neck. This is the guitar he used on almost all of the original lineups records.

Thats just one. Look through the history of metal and you will find many other cases of artists with individual tones made up from different amp guitar and amp combinations - it's only a recent thing that we have gotten so singular in the tones found in metal - it seems these days everyone is doing the EMG actives with amps so high gain, boosted by some form of TS circuit, that even some of the uniqueness of the individual amp is stripped out. I know, I know - some will argue with that opinion, but it's mine. While I can hear differences and can appreciate the differences between high gain amps, it just seems many want them all within a defined tone space for modern metal, almost as if they can sculpt them all to sound similar even though they have these unique and some, beautiful tones themselves.

I'll admit, if some peoples opinion of what metal should sound like is so defined, so narrow, that they think metal can't be made with a particular guitar or even a particular amp, I'd rather not live in their wash, rinse, repeat metal world. When you think about it, maybe it's just the times we live in where we are homogenizing all music - popular country now has more in common with pop music, R&B with rap, one could go on and on and find this homogenization throughout all forms of music making it pretty bland (personal opinion).

Perhaps I'm getting old (I am getting old, no perhaps about it), but I like my metal with variety, stuff that sound uniquely different from every other band out there. C'est la vie.

As always, individual mileage may vary.

 

[Clark Kent]

I think the orginal pickup sound a lot better, even through amplitube.
BK makes it sound like you pick a lot softer, it's also a lot more loose sounding in the low end.
2 things not really good for a "metal" tone I guess.
For the clean tone the BK was a bit better though.

I agree and I think I also liked the original on clean better. But the sad fact is that playing those very simple riffs was a huge effort on the original pickup. The BKP version sounds like I'm playing softer because I was so relieved of not playing with that effort. I do prefer the tone of the original but not enough to bust my ass playing with them.

 

[Djabthrash]

I agree and I think I also liked the original on clean better. But the sad fact is that playing those very simple riffs was a huge effort on the original pickup. The BKP version sounds like I'm playing softer because I was so relieved of not playing with that effort. I do prefer the tone of the original but not enough to bust my ass playing with them.

so please record a bareknuckle clip where you dig harder then

 

[JeffTD]

I agree and I think I also liked the original on clean better. But the sad fact is that playing those very simple riffs was a huge effort on the original pickup. The BKP version sounds like I'm playing softer because I was so relieved of not playing with that effort. I do prefer the tone of the original but not enough to bust my ass playing with them.

I'm sorry, but you can't reconcile this with anything else that you've said. The reason Tele's kick so much ass is that they give back *exactly* what you put in. They make you work for the tone.

You can't say things like this while criticizing other people for using EMG's, JB's, boosts, 5150's, etc. Grow a pair and play your guitar like you mean it.

 

[Clark Kent]

Okay so this is how my tele sounds at the moment. Can be fairly heavy if I need it to be.

Chain:
Fender Baja Tele w/ BKP Piledriver -> Overloud TH2 -> Tubescreamer -> Recto -> OwnHammer Mesa IR's. No post processing.

 

[Jind]

By the way - my post was not meant as a slam against the forum or anyone in particular - I made it before reading the entire thread and is only my opinion that metal as a whole is a lot more than what we see most frequently on this forum which does tend to be what could be called "modern metal" which is a term I'll admit I readily hate as I do think there are so many forms of metal that may not get the attention that certain genres do on a daily basis. Nothing wrong with that, but metal is much more than that.

I'm definitely older than most and I do tend to look back at metal through my life and find that it still covers everything from heavy hard rock type metal to the most extreme forms that have popped up over the years, but it's all metal and it's been made with almost every guitar and amp combination you can think of throughout the years so when someone says any particular guitar can't do metal I will most certainly call bullshit on that. Metal is more than any set sound - some sounds may be popular at any given time, but the wheel keeps rolling and it's bound to change many times again, but ultimately it's still all metal.

I've never been shy about calling certain things what I would call cookie cutter metal, same general tones, same general vocals, same general vibe, but that's just my opinion, not a statement of fact. Take it for what it is, just my personal opinion, nothing more, nothing less. I'll never be one to tell you what to like, that's up to you. One man's trash is another man's treasure and all that. If your definition of metal is more defined - that's cool. If you think newer metal is better than older metal - good for you. I tend to like a little of both. I like variety is all I'm saying.

So - hope my post didn't stir any feathers as it seems some have with other posts. I'll be honest and just say I'll never get anyone telling someone they are wrong when it comes to opinion based statements. Fact based statements are a whole different subject, but opinions I'll never tell you your wrong - I'll just choose to feel differently and we'll leave it at that.

Now, back to making music

 

[Clark Kent]

geez... seriously accept, exodus, arch enemy and megadeth have same tone?

check your ears man, or even better... try to match eq em, and you will see the difference

I was referring to "the Sneap tone" as the TS+5150+OS4x12 setup which was discussed earlier in this thread as being the stereotypical Sneapster tone. I was not talking about every single guitar tone produced by Sneap.

 

[drew_drummer]

Sounds pretty good to me. I liked the BKP for the cleans more, don't feel very strongly for either one of them for the riffy stuff though.

 

[Djabthrash]

HERE is a clip off a 80ies tele with stock PUs used for something kinda metal.
It's recorded through Guitar Rig 2 years ago but the character and attack gets across.

I feel it can sound kind of nice and vibey. Love the tele character for agressive stuff. It's hard to get high gain scooped Cannibal Corpse tones out of one for sure, but the inherent bitey character of a tele makes up for tons of distortion and can sound REALLY agressive in the hands of the right player. They are too responsive and delicate for most.

Just found another clip recorded through a proper amp, sadly it's a shitty MP3. It really shows how you can use the twangy character of a tele for metal though.

I really dig the tone in those clips man ! Cool music/riffing too. You must like post-rock and post-hardcore i guess, i hear a lot of that stuff in your music/tone.

 

[Djabthrash]

Okay so this is how my tele sounds at the moment. Can be fairly heavy if I need it to be.

Chain:
Fender Baja Tele w/ BKP Piledriver -> Overloud TH2 -> Tubescreamer -> Recto -> OwnHammer Mesa IR's. No post processing.

Very cool !

Could you post a clip of some more regular thrash riffing (i mean downstrokes (alternatively palm-muted and not palm-muted) on single notes, a la Slayer/The Haunted/Arkangel...) ?

EDIT : i still think i would have liked the tone better with the stock pickups for those heavy riffs

 

[Clark Kent]

Yeah, my general opinion on Bare Knuckle is that they are very overrated. Dimarzio and SD has better sounding options. However this pickup did what I wanted it to do and it was to have a telecaster with a bridge pickup that was sort of a humbucker feeling/sounding version of a tele single coil pickup but still sound like a single coil. The play feel difference is crazy.

 

[Djabthrash]

Are there any more bands apart from Wintersun, Gojira and Pungent Stench that use telecasters for the heavy shit?

Heavy AND post :

Poison The Well :