When Guitarists Get Deep & Philosophical: Theseus's Telecaster

[WordMan]

@squeegee

Wait, what? This has been out for quite some time. A year? Not sure.

Anyway, I approve of the trend, very cool mashup. I don’t think I want one, I’d be afraid of losing tone with such a small body, and the design doesn’t tweak my WANT reflex really. I just think it’s cool Fender is finally piling on and hope it continues.

Also no need to invoke Theseus: it’s not a telecaster. It’s cool on it’s own, but Theseus would tell you it’s just not the same boat.

Yes, Fender has been doing OWTeles for a bit, but the thread on the AGF was what led me to think of the topic as Doper bait.

SG Tele - very cool! I’m on an iPad and can’t be arsed to track down photos, sorry, but there’s a ton of Tele variants. Either where you keep the Tele shape but update the components, like a Tele-bird (Tele with Firebird construction) or a Tele Special, or La Cabonita, a line from Fender which is essentially a Tele- shaped Gretsch. Or you have the simplicity of a Tele layout grafted into different shapes, like that SG (yeah, love it) or a Rickenbacker (tempted), etc…

The Telecaster is so atomic and universal and sturdy and built for easy manufacture and swap out that it’s its own cottage industry.

[WordMan]

@squeegee

Also no need to invoke Theseus: it’s not a telecaster. It’s cool on it’s own, but Theseus would tell you it’s just not the same boat.

Oh, and back to the OP - yeah, I agree. Interesting how this does raise what are fundamentally ontological questions. If you cleave a thing, which pieces carry the identity? Kinda like Mendelian genetics - is the Tele gene dominant or recessive? To me, the shape is the first factor. A Tele with humbuckers is a Tele; a JM with a Tele layout is a better, simpler Jazzmaster (I don’t use whammy’s and can’t be bothered with fancy controls). QED

[Plumpudding]

@squeegee

I always thought a TeleSG would be a cool instrument too.
http://rebel-guitars.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/RSGuitarworksSTeeBlackguard.jpg

This could be so cool, if it had only one horn, you know, like a tele.

[Shakester]

@WordMan

Personally, I am assuming that, rather than Fender trying to win the Ontology Wars, they simply couldn’t copyright the phrase “Telemaster” for some reason, so went in a different direction. It’s Telemaster to me.

Fender didn’t copyright the name Telemaster because you can’t copyright names.

What you can do is trademark a name. The rules of trademarks are a bit different to copyright, and quite interesting, but not all that relevant to this thread.

My assumption is that Fender couldn’t trademark the name Telemaster because it is either (a) already trademarked by someone else, or (b) already accepted as a generic term for a particular style of guitar.

[WordMan]

I was using “copyright” informally to mean “protect.” IANALawyer, etc.

[Small_Clanger]

How much can you change and it still be a Telecaster?
My take, change one thing OK (maybe), change two - sorry, it’s not a Tele’ any more…
Lead pickup -> humbucker (argh!) worked for Jeff Beck, get a pass.
Neck pickup (change that, who cares, who uses the neck pickup on a Tele?)
Lead pickup -> humbucker + whammy bar(!) you are starting from the wrong place get a superstrat you twat (assuming people still use superstrats?)
Bound fingerboards, fancy inlays, third pickup* Stratish comfort moulding (for wusses), glued in necks… nope.

B-benders - that’s accepable, invisible and weird.

• See you, Francis Rossi, what were you thinking?

[WordMan]

Jeff Beck’s guitar was nicknamed the Telegib. He didn’t think of it as a Tele, its was its own beast. Made by Seymour Duncan he brought it to Beck who loved it and offered him a guitar in exchange. Seymour, in a flash of brilliance, asked for Jeff’s 50’s Esquire - Tele with no neck pickup. It had the Strat like contour put on it by the previous own, Scott Walker of the Walker Bros. Beck used it to sound like a sitar on Heart Full of Soul and for the rave up at the end of I’m a Man. Historic guitar. I met Seymour a few times but didn’t think to ask to see it. Argh!