Leo Fender’s iconic Telecaster was the first mass-produced solidbody electric guitar to take the world by storm. Fender obsessively spent years perfecting the Telecaster before its release, and he was dead set on making sure his flagship guitar earned the trust of working musicians. Seventy years later, it’s safe to say that the Telecaster’s reliable performance, fair price, and easily serviceable parts accomplished just that.
The Telecaster has touched any genre you can imagine (and some you can’t imagine, too). If the classic two-single-coil Telecaster design isn’t your cup of tea, then we think this list can prove there’s a Tele out there for everyone. Whether it’s a humbucker-loaded Tele Deluxe, an ultra-light semi-hollow Thinline, a Strat-inspired 3-pickup Nashville Tele, or a hot-rodded active-pickup model built for metal, countless hobbyists and pros swear by Leo Fender’s first masterpiece. Here’s our list of 15 famous Telecaster players (in no particular order).
Jason Isbell
(The 400 Unit, Drive-By Truckers)
Contemporary-country dark horse Jason Isbell has lived many lives: he’s been a session guitarist and a member of the Drive-By Truckers, and he currently focuses on a solo career that spans eight albums and four Grammy wins. Isbell’s music is firmly country yet hardly stereotypical. His lyrics wrestle with sobriety, fatherhood, racism, and mental health in a field where overconfidence and intoxication are the norm. Likewise, his playing is truly some of the best in the business. It’s tough to think of another comparable modern player who splits their time between shredding and Travis picking so naturally. Jason is also a major guitar collector, and his collection now includes his own Fender Custom Telecaster in Chocolate Burst complete with a slightly road-worn finish.
“Honestly, I think the Telecaster is probably the best guitar design of all time just because of how durable and versatile it is,” Isbell says. “I can always find a good tone on a Telecaster.” That’s a high compliment from a player who often uses more than five different guitars per gig. Check out “Super 8” below for a howling Telecaster sample of Jason’s playing.
Jonny Greenwood
(Radiohead)
Jonny Greenwood’s iconic Radiohead guitar riffs span more than two decades of material. Between the bookends of Pablo Honey and A Moon Shaped Pool, Jonny’s inventive leads transformed Radiohead from an average pop band to an unforgettable touchstone of modern rock. Greenwood’s dedication to the Telecaster throughout Radiohead’s career proves the sheer range of sounds this guitar can handle. From the timid, soulful runs on “High and Dry” to the glitched-out, anxious riffs on “Paranoid Android” and even the passive-aggressive guitar chunks on “Creep” that Jonny hates to play, they all come from the same instrument. Radiohead’s other two guitarists often freely switch guitars to give tracks a particular vibe, but it’s Jonny’s Telecaster that makes Radiohead always sound like Radiohead no matter the era.
Carrie Brownstein
(Sleater-Kinney, Portlandia)
You may know her from the Emmy-winning show Portlandia, but actor Carrie Brownstein is also an accomplished musician and a key member of the 1990s riot grrrl scene. Brownstein and fellow riot grrrl classmates (including Kathleen Hanna and Tobi Vail of Bikini Kill) merged punk aesthetics with feminist advocacy in a way that fought back against much of the sexism and misogyny latent in the global punk scene and improved conditions for countless future concertgoers and performers.
Following the disbandment of Brownstein’s first project, Excuse 17, she and fellow bandmate Corin Tucker focused their energy on their previous side project, Sleater-Kinney. Sleater-Kinney’s brand of slinky, growling punk sits somewhere between ’90s grunge, emo, and the modern indie rock that would flourish later in the 2000s. Their music seethes with aggression and attitude but doesn’t rely on outrageously loud guitars as a substitute for good writing. Brownstein favored SG-style guitars on Sleater-Kinney’s early albums, but, as more fame brought longer gigs, these days she’s migrated to a Telecaster Thinline with dual humbuckers. Carrie says the Thinline’s lightweight semi-hollow body is part of what now makes it her go-to guitar.
Harry Styles
Fellas, don’t burn those Telecasters yet. Hear me out. History probably won’t remember Harry Styles as a guitar god, but the former One Direction star just might have more loyal fans than most of the other artists on this list combined. Styles only sang for most of his career but has taken a strong interest in developing his chops over the past several years. According to our sources on the ground in the Styles fandom, Harry opened shows on his last pre-COVID tour by playing “Golden” on a ’70s Fender Telecaster with only one pickup (a variant sometimes referred to as an “Esquire”).
The Esquire-style Telecaster is a great choice for intermediate players like Harry who need a simple, no-frills guitar. Styles’s lead guitarist Mitch Rowland gifted him the instrument during work on 2017’s Fine Line after using it on a number of album tracks. The gift meant a lot coming from Rowland, who previously was working in a pizza shop and had no prior studio experience.
Joe Strummer
(The Clash)
To me, Joe Strummer always displayed the best aspects of ’70s UK punk. Unlike many contemporaries, the Clash wield plenty of righteous anger but also feel very human and hopeful, a stark contrast to the nihilism that punk became synonymous with. As the lead singer and writer of the Clash, Strummer connected his band to world issues and took inspiration from places that few British rock bands dared to go — namely, Jamaican reggae and dub, which were hugely popular with the UK’s Jamaican diaspora.
The Telecaster was Strummer’s natural choice; it was clean enough for reggae strums yet had more bite than a Strat and could get downright nasty when strummed hard. Joe’s main 1966 Telecaster featured a DIY black paint job that faded to reveal gray primer underneath after years and years of gigs. Strummer also replaced the traditional Telecaster bridge with a 6-saddle version for better intonation control and less twang. Check out the rhythm work on the classic track “London Calling” below.
Ellie Rowsell
(Wolf Alice)
Wolf Alice is an exciting new group from the last decade that you’ve probably heard but didn’t know the name of. The Mercury Prize–winning band’s three albums (My Love Is Cool, Visions of a Life, and Blue Weekend) showcase omnivorous taste and serious band chemistry that’s tight, focused, and fun. You never know whether you’re going to get bristling punk, bubblegum pop, or both, and that unpredictability makes for a refreshing ride.
Front woman Ellie Rowsell pulls double duty on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, an impressive feat considering the operatic scope of her singing and the band’s equally complex compositions. Rowsell has favored a simple black-on-black Telecaster with a maple neck for most of the band’s career and continues to do so. This no-frills guitar builds a solid platform that the band’s other instrumentalists then use as a canvas for memorable textures and rich atmospherics.
Bruce Springsteen
What else is possible with a Telecaster? Lifelong Tele player Bruce Springsteen recently sold his entire catalog’s masters and publishing rights for $500 million, making him the world’s top-paid musician of 2021. The Boss, indeed. Springsteen purchased his classic Butterscotch Blonde Telecaster for a paltry $180 back in 1972. It was outfitted with hot-wound single-coil pickups and had a significant amount of wood beneath the pickguard removed by a previous owner; this mod yielded a slightly chambered body and a lighter solidbody instrument that was perfect for long gigs.
According to Bruce, the Telecaster is his go-to because it’s mellow enough for soul but can switch gears and be ready to rock at a moment’s notice. We think he made the right call — the Boss’s Telecaster has plenty of character and is flashy but never in a way that steals the show.
Sly Stone
Sly and the Family Stone is a ’60s touchstone with a unique legacy; Texas-born band leader Sly Stone fused genre worlds together by paying close attention to all the cutting-edge music of his day (which was easy to do once he’d moved to California in the 1960s as the LA scene took off). He merged pieces of Motown pop and classic soul with bits of Technicolor sensibility plucked from California’s mostly psychedelic rock scene, and his influence on American funk, pop, soul, R&B, and hip-hop cannot be overstated.
Sly and the Family Stone was a multiracial band and included several women who weren’t just there to sing backup (both rare in those days). Sly Stone is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, but, when it comes to electric guitars, his allegiance couldn’t be more clear. The Telecaster’s bright, snappy treble is perfect for cutting through his band’s dense instrumentation and pairs well with the wah effects he’s so fond of. Plus, his unique thumb strumming style enhances the Telecaster’s subtle percussive qualities and shows off this guitar’s funk potential. Stone favors a Fender Thinline Telecaster with a custom red and blue finish but sometimes performs with a standard solidbody, as well.
Joe Walsh
Love it or hate it, the Eagles’ “Hotel California” is a quintessential American epic packed with iconic guitar licks and haunting double entendres about Hollywood and America at large. For years, I’d pictured Joe Walsh’s famous “Hotel California” solo as decidedly non-Fender. It’s thick and saturated like something you’d expect from a later Guns N’ Roses album, yet Joe’s playing a humble Telecaster. As a three-guitar band, the Eagles were always cautious about getting a variety of sounds onstage. When one player opted for a Gibson with humbuckers, the other would pick up a Fender with single-coil pickups. The result was slight sonic variations that enriched their sound even when playing the parts in unison like on “Hotel California” in its epic outro.
Even if you’re too cool for the Eagles, it’s hard not to appreciate Walsh’s emotive phrasing (especially that soulful run of bends around the 5:20 mark) as he eases the band into the outro using his Telecaster paired with a hint of delay and some phaser. The Eagles began their career as a California country band but became obsessed with pivoting to a heavier, more bona-fide rock sound; Walsh’s use of country’s favorite guitar on the band’s most famous track proved once and for all that the Eagles could check out any time they’d like but could never truly leave those roots behind.
Jeff Rosenstock
(Bomb the Music Industry!, Jeff Rosenstock)
If you wrote off catchy 2000s punk as yesterday’s phase but haven’t heard Jeff Rosenstock’s work, then please, please give it a spin. The Brooklynite band leader has amassed a whopping discography of endlessly eclectic band and solo records since he started his music career at age 13. Rosenstock merges high- and lowbrow influences such as the Beach Boys and blast-beat ska punk all couched in a relentless DIY work ethic that burned his tunes into the minds of thousands of basement showgoers long before the press paid him any mind.
Rosenstock is somewhat of an outlier in the punk world; he favors Fender guitars and Fender amps but makes them sound downright dirty compared to what you’d expect from Fender gear. Part of that grit comes from Jeff’s favored Telecaster Deluxe, an underrated gem with two humbucking pickups in place of single-coils. The Tele Deluxe lets Rosenstock nail thick rhythms and lead tones but with a surfy splash of Fender color that’s part of Rosenstock’s charming coastal sound.
Julien Baker
Somewhere at the intersection of the Southern Baptist church and the LGBTQ+ community, you’ll find the vulnerable ballads of Julien Baker, whose successful 2015 debut, Sprained Ankle, took the world by storm and gathered critical acclaim that surprised even Baker herself. The Memphis-born artist performed everything on the record herself and used free studio time via a friend’s internship. These simple and humble origins are perhaps what makes Baker’s work so compelling to a generation accustomed to chasing their passions alone.
Baker cut her teeth in punk and DIY scenes where many (herself included) prize the Telecaster’s high value and low cost, but her playing showcases the Telecaster’s softer side with an exposed, shimmering style that pairs well with her haunting vocals. From the beginning, she’s shown how big a lone electric guitar can sound when paired with honest lyrics and simple effects. I caught Baker as an opener at a $15 show way back when. At that show, a concertgoer snatched Julien’s set list off the stage with several songs left in the set. It was an impolite move, but it was nevertheless a sign that she connected with fans in a big way.
Clayton Stevens
(Touché Amoré)
Los Angeles’s Touché Amoré is one of the most beloved and accessible hardcore bands in recent memory. Even before COVID-19, the relentless group had released four studio albums and had recently completed 1,000 shows between headlining and opening slots for huge acts like Coheed and Cambria and Deafheaven. I first saw the band at a small club in Florida years ago. I’d come to see a different act open, but watching Touché front man Jeremy Bolm play without barriers and pass the mic to fans who could scream his lyrics word for word turned me into a lifelong fan.
The Touché guitarists often eschew typical hardcore gear — you won’t find humbuckers and high-gain amps here, which is part of what makes the band so unique. Lead guitarist Clayton Stevens delivers violently loud cleans and a mutilated California jangle via a Telecaster that he’s relied on for years. This unusual choice is a perfect complement to Touché Amoré’s lyrics, which aren’t quite optimistic yet are often searching for the light. Check out the band’s recent video for “Reminders,” which features fellow list member Julien Baker on backing vocals and cameos by members of Rise Against, Jimmy Eat World, My Chemical Romance, Circa Survive, Skrillex, Saves the Day, and more.
Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters’s reinvigoration of the Delta blues during America’s postwar period inspired countless American and British artists who looked to the blues as their inspiration for rock ‘n’ roll. This Mississippi-born artist mastered the authentic Delta style before moving to Chicago in 1943 where he ultimately infused Delta music with the sounds of the city by using the latest technology of the time: a Fender Telecaster. Muddy went through a series of primitive electric guitars before settling on his beloved, heavily-modified 1958 Candy Apple Red Telecaster nicknamed “The Hoss.” His prior collection included a Gretsch acoustic archtop and a 1952 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop, but the Telecaster’s naturally expressive twang and outsize voice made it a natural pick for electrifying the blues and was also a more comfortable fit for Muddy, who almost always played while sitting down.
Jim Root
By far the heaviest and most unconventional Telecaster player on this list, Jim Root of Slipknot and Stone Sour’s own signature Fender HH Tele has become Fender’s most popular high-output humbucker Tele since its introduction in 2010. This guitar merges classic Telecaster performance and looks with metal-ready pickups and atypical tonewood. The body is made of mahogany, which is common for metal guitars but a rarity for Fender; the mahogany is a big part of what gives this Tele the right EQ for relentless distortion.
Two active EMG pickups ensure plenty of high-fidelity gain while the control panel keeps things simple with nothing but a volume knob and a pickup selector. The neck feels slim but substantial — a great option for players looking for speedy playability without the sterile feel of an ultra-flat modern shredder. Root’s Telecaster is also modded with metal-ready hardware including locking tuners and a six-saddle bridge, so you’re ready to plunge to drop tunings without strings that feel floppy.
Brent Mason
Brent Mason was born and raised just down the road from Sweetwater in Van Wert, Ohio, before he moved to Nashville and became a world-famous session musician. Mason’s licks bless countless famous records that span decades of styles — there are classics like old-school Chet Atkins songs and modern hits with Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton, and Shania Twain, just to name a few. Brent has favored one particular modded Telecaster for years and now has his own custom model based on that guitar (available in standard and Custom Shop limited editions), which is a good thing because it’d be a tough Tele to re-create on your own time.
The three pickups on this modified “Nashville” Tele deliver Strat-like versatility for a guaranteed perfect studio tone in any situation. Studio pros will appreciate the control panel’s nonstandard third knob that exclusively adjusts the middle pickup’s volume for precision blends. Mason’s Tele also features a B-Bender system from the legendary Nashville workshop of Joe Glaser (who Jason Isbell also trusts with his guitars). This B-Bender system is an essential for Nashville dreamers. This unconventional tremolo system attaches to the B string only and is controlled by a hidden neck-plate lever (which also replaces the upper strap button). Simply pull down on the guitar neck to activate the B-Bender for bends or pedal steel–type tones without having to move your picking hand like with a typical bridge-based tremolo.
Tempted to Telecast?
If there’s one thing we can take away from this list of diverse players, then it’s that the Telecaster is easily as versatile as Fender’s more recognizable Stratocaster. If you’d like to pursue the hunt for a classic Tele (or something off the beaten path), then talk to a Sweetwater Sales Engineer today at (800) 222-4700 to start your search!