Explaining the tone differences in Fender electric guitars
Leo Fender was one of the most important contributors to the world of rock music, not because he wrote any notable songs in the genre but because he allowed several others to do so. Across the years, many of the most important rock musicians have laid down their best efforts of a Fender, from Jimi Hendrix to Kurt Cobain.
The first truly iconic Fender electric guitar released was the Telecaster in 1950, which marked the first time that a mass-produced solid-body electric guitar was made available to a big consumer audience. This was followed by the legendary Stratocaster just four years later, with Fender also releasing a mass-market bass guitar in the meantime.
Fender is simply one of the two big electric guitar manufacturers in the world, alongside their main competitor Gibson, and players, both professional and budding, have sought out their offerings for their distinctive yet versatile tones and easy playability.
We’re examining the different kinds of tones that one can achieve by playing different Fender guitars, from the iconic and widely-played Stratocaster to the most specific and distinctive sounds of the Jazzmaster and the Mustang. So let’s plug in and dial-up. Here we go.
The tone differences between Fender electric guitars:
Stratocaster
Perhaps the most iconic Fender shape is the Stratocaster, famously played by the likes of Jimi Hendrix, David Gilmour and Nile Rogers. Just uttering those three diverse guitarists ought to show one the truly wide-ranging capabilities of the Strat, whether it be from Hendrix and Gilmour’s searing guitar solos to Rogers’ clean funk. Strats typically come set up with three single coil pickups, which provide a bright and sharp tone, lending them well to clean, reverberated sounds.
However, don’t be fooled into thinking that a Stratocaster can’t hold its own when it comes to dirtier guitar tones, as they can still be achieved by cranking the gain, although if one is looking to play something like metal, then they might be better looking elsewhere as the low end can sound a bit lacking with more focus on the crispier, bright end of the sound. Strats also have five pickup combination options, giving even more versatility to the already widely versatile guitar.
Telecaster
Next to the Strat, the second most ubiquitous Fender guitar shape is, undoubtedly, the Telecaster, and several of the world’s greatest guitarists have played one at some point in their career, including Tom Morello, George Harrison and even Slipknot’s Jim Root. However, it always seemed that Jeff Buckley put the capabilities of the Tele to the best use, particularly on his Live at Sin-e album, showing that the Tele can give a bit of a warmer low end to proceedings than the Strat whilst still capturing the bright high end.
The Telecaster sometimes comes with just one pickup at the neck position, which lends itself well to playing with jangly clean tones like Johnny Marr. However, there are several setup options available, and some opt to play with humbuckers in a Tele, which of course, leads to tones perfect for hard rock and even metal, as Jim Root expertly shows. Still, the Telecaster is a very versatile guitar, although maybe just a little bit more specific when compared to the Stratocaster.
Jazzmaster
The Jazzmaster was designed for, yes, you guessed it, the jazz guitarists of the late 1950s, but it was actually picked up by surf rockers in the early 1960s. It’s the neck pickup of the Jazzmaster that makes it so useful for playing jazz and even blues, as it is one of the warmest offerings amongst the Fender guitars. However, like most of Fender’s works, it seems, the Jazzmaster is also pretty versatile, and switching to the bridge pickup can lend one a brighter tone to play just about anything.
The Jazzmaster can provide a twang typically associated with the Telecaster, but it’s that neck pickup that prospective players will really want to explore, as the warmth and sustain are just irresistible. That sustain also lends itself well to distorted tones too, of course, which is why My Bloody Valentine’s guitarist Kevin Shields used one to such excellent effect on the band’s greatest album Loveless. If you want to hear the possibilities of a Jazzmaster, just listen to that record!
Jaguar
The Fender Jaguar might look a little bit like its cousin, the Jazzmaster, but there are some distinct differences between the two. For starters, the Jag features a short scale, 24-inch neck and a unique pickup selection system, leading to a bass-ier tone and the ability to kill the tone with a flick of a switch. Perhaps the Jaguar is the least of the typically Fender-sounding Fender guitars, and it had been released to try and lure Gibson players from playing Fender’s biggest competitor’s guitars.
Like the Jazzmaster, Jaguars were taken up by the surf-rock scene players but really came into their own when guitarists from the indie rock, alt-rock and shoegaze scenes of the 1980s and 1990s got their hands on them. In that light, it’s evident that Jaguars also hold quite a fair bit of versatility, though it’s their sustain that gives them their unique tone. Johnny Marr is arguably the most famous Jaguar player, so Jags are evidently perfect for playing delicate, arpeggiated guitar lines.
Mustang
The Fender Mustang is the youngest of the Fender guitars mentioned in this list and was released as a revision of the earlier Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic shapes. A reissue in 1990 saw Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain pick up a Mustang a repopularise its use, which is interesting because the Mustang typically featured single-coil pickups, meaning that the distorted tone of Cobain would have been missing.
However, Cobain achieved his dirty tone by replacing the single-coil pickup with a smaller-sized humbucker. This information suggests that the standard tone of a Mustang, pre-alteration, lends itself well to the jangly clean sounds of indie-rock, not too dissimilar from a Telecaster, although with perhaps just a slightly brighter edge to it. As with most of Fender’s designs, though, the Mustang is capable of playing pretty much anything with the right care and attention given to the settings both on the body and on one’s amp.
