Stratocaster Or Telecaster

Should I buy a Fender Stratocaster or a Fender Telecaster?

This depends on what kind of style you want to play.Do you like Country, Blues Rock and Hard Rock/Metal? Then you go with the Telecaster. The Telecaster can do all of these perfectly fine with a bit of effects.Do you like Rock, Blues, R&B and 80’s Pop? The Stratocaster is the better guitar for this. They are brighter with more treble and you have the infamous “out of phase” switch on the 2 and 4 position which make great use for playing Pop songs.If you are chasing a distorted crunchy sound like in Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, the Stratocaster is not the guitar you want. Just because Jimi Hendrix used one does not mean anything. Hendrix didn’t get that sound on his own, he used a ton of effects. The guitar you really want for Hard Rock and Metal is a Telecaster; it’s bridge pickup is MUCH crunchier than the bright sound you are going to get out of a Strat.If it’s a more brighter, Bluesy sound you want for clean playing, the Stratocaster is made for that. The main difference is that it’s brighter and don’t have that crunch sound that the Tele has.For some reason the Telecaster is marketed as a Country guitar. Do not listen to people who tell you that you need it for Country. Country music is about a twangy sound, which the Tele does fine but you can get twang out of a Les Paul and even the Stratocaster. The Tele guitar is built for doing Hard Rock and can do that style just fine.

If I already have a Fender Stratocaster, should I get a Telecaster?

If you’re looking for a Telecaster tone, sure. It’s a different beast than a Strat. They both have their own strengths and weaknesses, and very distinct tones. That’s why Gilmour whips out a Tele for certain songs, cause the black Strat can’t quite get there.With a Strat, you’re usually on the glassy neck pup, comping chords on the middle pup, or out of phase for either position 2 raunch or position 4 quack. The Strat’s bridge pup is thin sounding by itself without swapping it out for something beefier like a humbucker or Hot Rails, but if you do that swap, you lose the position 4 quack. A lot of folks would even say it stops sounding like a proper Strat at that point.With a Tele, you’re usually on both pups, kind of like you might on a Paul or SG, or on the hot bridge pup with the tone dialed back some for that signature Tele bark. In the Tele’s case, the neck pup is kinda thin sounding by itself. You often see Teles modded with a PAF, wide-range, Firebird, or P-90 at the neck, but rarely does anybody mess with the Tele bridge pup. I think the stock blended tone is fantastic for rhythm, myself, but like another answer noted, people love or hate Tele tone in general. I blame Roy Buchanan, who took the “ice pick” bridge tone just a wee bit past the edge.The necks are kinda similar in my opinion. They both have v or c shapes depending on the year. Vintage style Teles are a little chunkier, both in neck shape and tone, getting a little extra mojo from the brass barrel saddles. Those can be a right pain to keep intonated, though. The more modern bridge is more like the mid 70s hard tail you’d see on some Strats. It’s fatter toned than the Strat vibrato, but in my opinion it lacks something compared to the vintage brass barrels.

Which guitar, Stratocaster or Telecaster, is the best for what kind of music?

False dichotomy. I’m a Telecaster fan. Just sticking with Teles—and just sticking with pickup configurations—there are these common permutations:Traditional Tele with two single coilsBroadcaster style Tele with one (bridge) single coil“Custom”/“Deluxe” with a humbucker in the neck and a single coil in the bridge.“Custom”/“Deluxe” with two humbuckers (my personal fave and what I have)Nashville Tele with three single coilsTele with two P90sTele with a Charlie Christian pickup in the neck and a single coil in the bridge (rare, but they’re out there).That’s just the pickups, man. Then you have fingerboards (for me, maple) and body woods, and bridges, and every other sort of thing to consider.As a kid, I loved Jimi Hendrix, so I wanted a Strat, but I never got one. Something about them doesn’t agree with me. I like a Tele, especially a Tele with two humbuckers. There’s something very workmanlike and no-nonsense about a Tele. Paired with amy pedal board and a tube amp, it gives me every solid-body sound I need (and my archtop gives me the others).As to the bit about genres, you’ll find Tele’s in every sort of music (country, punk, jazz, metal, rock, funk). They’re less common in metal—probably because of the association with country music—but John 5 plays one, and there are plenty of others.

What's better for a beginner? A stratocaster or a telecaster

I own both guitars - I have a 2007 Strat and a 2014 Telecaster - both American Standard models. My first guitar was a stratocaster, and while I did learn a lot on it, I found that for a beginner, it is very important for you to have the option to try different tunings and be able to play with the tunings (open G, E, etc.). The problem with the stratocaster is that it has a tremolo system which is pulled by the strings and balanced by the springs at the back of the guitar. Oftentimes, if you buy the stratocaster, it will come with three springs pulling against the strings. The problem then, when you are downtuning, or re-tuning your guitar to a different key is that it takes a lot of time to tune. You'll end up re-tuning each every string 3 to 4 times the moment you change into any other open tuning or drop tuning. This makes tuning and re-tuning a very time-consuming affair. The advantage of a telecaster is that the strings are not on a tremolo bridge, usually telecasters would have a string-through type, where the strings actually go through the guitar instead of it resting through a tremolo, which gives it more string stability and resonance. Even if you wanted to switch from a standard E tuning to a Drop D tuning, all you have to do is tune down your 6th string and you do not have to worry about all the other strings going out of tune. Now, in terms of playing comfort, nothing beats the comfort of playing a stratocaster. It is a double cutaway with a "gut-cut" contour so you won't rub it against your rib or belly when you are playing, and a contour on the top arch body, so you won't rub your forearm on the guitar body. This thing I found really annoying when playing a Tele - some would have the contours, but others won't have it. Another advantage of the stratocaster is that it has three pickups, while the telecaster will only have two. This allows for a Stratocaster to have a selection of five tones (bridge, bridge and middle, middle, middle and neck, neck), as opposed to the telecaster which will only have three selections (bridge, bridge and neck, neck). So in terms of the number of tones you can get out of a guitar, strat is for the win.Ultimately, both are great guitars. They are similar but very different in many ways, kind of like guitar cousins. I would recommend before choosing that you play them both, see what feels and sounds right to you and make your choice.