John 5 - The Broadcaster Is The Best Guitar Ever Produced???

Session 5 said:
More guys with smaller hands.:D
Click to expand...

Speaking of small hands...:wink:

s-l300.jpg



;>)/
 
I read this thread out of curiosity... but I only understood about 1/3 of it.
Most of this was simply unintelligible to me. *grins
I'm sure it's just being in a different musical circle or something.

I don't get it about John 5 either. Every time I see a picture of him
it looks like someone else. Like he keeps re-inventing himself or something.
OR NOT! How would I know? I wouldn't.

But I do like Telecasters. I didn't for a long time, thinking Strats were cooler.
But then I saw a Rolling Stones video and realized that a lot of the classic
sounds I really liked were done on a Telecaster. The more I listened, the
more intrigued I became. The Telecaster is something that Old Leo got
right the first time.

Like listening to remastered Beatle recordings and realizing how much of their
music was done using Epiphone Casinos with P-90 pickups. I'm mostly a hum bucker
guy, but the single coil pickups on the Tele, the Strat, the Fender Basses,
and the various P-90 platforms (from the forties to the present)
have given us a hugely important part of our musical heritage. The Broadcaster was
one of the prototypes for all that. And to me, that's all. Just a prototype, made in
limited numbers.

I never even heard of a Broadcaster until about 2008 maybe, when I began
studying the Telecaster in earnest. I'm sure I've only seen one in real life.
... at a Bruce Springsteen concert... But I thought he played a Tele then.
I've seen lots of Teles in many hands... but Broadcasters are rare and antiquated
AND SCARCE... so for most of us, out of reach and just something from the past.
*shrugs

But I sure like my one Telecaster...
 
I'll list the features that I know of that are unique to the broadcaster, though there are probably many that I don't know of. Ok, the body was always ash. There are no wiring routes between the pickups, the wiring channel was created by using a long drill & drilling from the neck pocket, through the neck pickup route & on through to the bridge pickup route. The bridge saddles were steel & of larger diameter than the teles brass saddles. Slot head screws were used rather than Philips head. Pickguard was Bakelite. The jack cup was milled steel rather than pressed stele. The pickups were hotter, the bridge pickup was wound the same as a champion lap steel's pickup, so to around 9.6 k to 10k ohms, A3 magnets & with the baseplate. Control wiring was the "blender" circuit type. This last feature is well worth doing to any Tele, even more so if you change out the neck lipstick pickup for a PAF type humbucker. Oh, while I think of it, the broadcaster was discontinued after Leo received a letter from Gretsch, who had the name Broadkaster trademarked. They simple cut the "broad" part of the decals off & the nocaster was born. Cheers
 
Last edited:
ivan H said:
I'll list the features that I know of that are unique to the broadcaster, though there are probably many that I don't know of. Ok, the body was always ash. There are no wiring routes between the pickups, the wiring channel was created by using a long drill & drilling from the neck pocket, through the neck pickup route & on through to the bridge pickup route. The bridge saddles were steel & of larger diameter than the teles brass saddles. Slot head screws were used rather than Philips head. Pickguard was Bakelite. The jack cup was milled steel rather than pressed stele. The pickups were hotter, the bridge pickup was wound the same as a champion lap steel's pickup, so to around 9.6 k to 10k ohms, A3 magnets & with the baseplate. Control wiring was the "blender" circuit type. This last feature is well worth doing to any Tele, even more so if you change out the neck lipstick pickup for a PAF type humbucker. Oh, while I think of it, the broadcaster was discontinued after Leo received a letter from Gretsch, who had the name Broadkaster trademarked. They simple cut the "broad" part of the decals off & the nocaster was born. Cheers
Click to expand...

I've played a few vintage Broadcasters. I don't recall them making a huge impression, other than what I recall as a nice, thick neck....
 
Col Mustard said:
I don't get it about John 5 either. Every time I see a picture of him
it looks like someone else. Like he keeps re-inventing himself or something.
OR NOT! How would I know? I wouldn't.
Click to expand...

You would know by listening to him, and you should listen to him. The guy is absolutely EPIC - One of the best and most versatile guitar players you will ever hear.
Prejudging him based on his looks will tell you nothing about what he can do with a guitar, and its no different than people in the '60's wrongly marginalizing musicians for something as stupid as having long hair.
 
Bocc69 said:
John 5 is an amazing player. He incorporates many styles of play.

Here, he plays a 57 lp jr, and a 58 lp std, among others. The guy just flat out jams.

Click to expand...

Best part of the whole thing? When he gets handed Paul Stanley's Iceman...he looks like a little kid living his dream and immediately starts playing Detroit Rock City. Killer.
 
Robert Herndon said:
I've played a few vintage Broadcasters. I don't recall them making a huge impression, other than what I recall as a nice, thick neck....
Click to expand...
I know its commonly thought that those early Fenders were built by "luthiers" when in fact Leo & Fender in its infancy had very little money so was using a lot of unskilled Mexican labor. Cheers
 
gball said:
You would know by listening to him, and you should listen to him. The guy is absolutely EPIC - One of the best and most versatile guitar players you will ever hear.
Prejudging him based on his looks will tell you nothing about what he can do with a guitar, and its no different than people in the '60's wrongly marginalizing musicians for something as stupid as having long hair.
Click to expand...

Total Agreement!!!!!!!!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top