well hello friends and welcome to ask
0:16
Zack today's Telecaster topic is
0:21
toploading this is uh something I've
0:23
been asked about for a while
0:27
and I really didn't have the guitar that
0:30
could do it then I got further pressure
0:33
from uh my friend and uh you know kind
0:36
of guitar Guru Joe Glazer Joe Glazer
0:39
said you really need to do an episode on
0:41
on topl
0:43
loading he said I get a lot of questions
0:45
about it and you really need to do it
0:47
and he said I will even get you a bridge
0:50
and I will drill it out so that you can
0:53
uh you can have one instrument and you
0:55
can string it both ways and you people
0:59
can hear the difference well a month or
1:02
two after that I got this new danocaster
1:04
and guess what uh this wasn't even
1:07
something I
1:08
requested it has a bridge that's drilled
1:10
for both methodologies so it has string
1:14
through which it's not being strung that
1:17
way and it has the holes on the back lip
1:22
of the bridge right here you can see the
1:24
colorful
1:25
diodio uh ball ends so that it can go
1:29
topl loading so in this episode you're
1:31
going to get to hear the same guitar
1:34
with the same uh brand and gauge of
1:37
strings I'm going to use Dario 95
1:40
through 44 nyxl's a fresh set I might
1:44
add and you'll get to hear it both ways
1:47
and so you'll be able to hear the
1:49
difference and then I'm going to talk
1:51
about the difference in feel also I'm
1:54
going to talk about
1:57
what what changes here that really
2:00
affect the
2:02
feel also going to talk about uh the
2:05
history of toploading going to go back
2:07
to the late 50s with Fender and not only
2:10
talk about them doing it but why they
2:13
did it and historically what came before
2:15
that that was
2:17
toploading then going to talk about what
2:20
Fender has done in the past you know
2:23
couple decades where they've continued
2:24
to do top loading off and on and not
2:27
just on signature models and we're going
2:29
to talk about some of the famous players
2:31
and uh yeah we're going to we're going
2:33
to dive in deep on toploading
2:36
today all right before we completely
2:40
dive in I need to thank my patreon folks
2:44
uh they are what keeps the channel going
2:46
and I so appreciate them so thank you
2:49
and if you love the channel and want to
2:51
support it check out patreon there is a
2:53
link in the description also if you're
2:56
ever going down the road and want to
2:58
loosen your load or uh something
2:59
something of that sort uh you can check
3:02
out just about every uh actually every
3:05
ask Zack episode is now available uh on
3:08
podcast on Spotify Apple music wherever
3:11
you listen to a podcast you can listen
3:13
to ask Zack there too all right so let's
3:17
do this so I'm going to play a uh a
3:21
different riff and you're going to hear
3:24
it both ways so you're going to hear it
3:26
uh you know in one way and then the
3:28
second and so which every with every
3:30
riff I'm going to play it string through
3:33
and topl loading and I'm going to tell
3:36
you which is which at the end and then
3:39
I'm going to talk about what's going on
3:41
there and talk about the feel all right
3:44
let's go to keep this as scientific and
3:47
as Fair as possible both examples either
3:51
topl loading or string through utilized
3:54
a extremely fresh set of didario nyxl 9
3:59
9 5 through 44 this is my favorite set
4:02
of strings so uh yeah I literally put
4:05
them on stretched them in just enough to
4:08
stay in tune then recorded the clips and
4:11
then of course had to rip the strings
4:12
off and then put another set on and
4:15
record with
4:18
[Music]
4:28
those
4:34
[Music]
4:46
[Music]
5:05
[Music]
5:52
all right so in all three of the
5:55
examples or all six I should say I mean
5:57
you have three different riffs the first
6:00
example of the new riff was always
6:03
toploading and the second was always
6:05
string through so there you have it if
6:07
you want to listen again listen
6:09
again I don't hear a huge difference uh
6:14
there is a difference but it's it's
6:16
somewhat subtle to me it seems like the
6:20
sound is a little softer and a little
6:23
less assertive when you're uh when
6:26
you're toploading and of course I feel
6:28
like it has more nose to it and it's a
6:31
little more in your face when you're
6:32
doing string through there's a huge
6:36
difference in
6:38
feel uh and that has to do with break
6:42
angle so if you look at this guitar and
6:44
so right now it's strong uh top
6:49
loading the brake angle is very uh very
6:53
slight it's basically just going right
6:56
over the Saddles and
6:58
on if you're going string through of
7:01
course the String's coming up like this
7:03
and then it's making a really hard turn
7:06
over the Saddles which creates a much
7:09
greater brake angle and creates much
7:12
greater downward pressure on the Saddles
7:15
and into the
7:17
body so it seems like uh you get
7:22
different resonance with the two one you
7:24
get more of the Resonance of the string
7:27
going into the body and maybe maybe the
7:29
other one it's just kind of coming off
7:31
of it in a different way I don't have
7:34
the uh you know the technical expertise
7:36
to tell you exactly what's going on
7:39
scientifically but it's definitely
7:42
resonating differently with the two and
7:44
it to me it it must have to do with the
7:47
brake angle because one of course is
7:49
being mounted to the bridge and just
7:51
going over the Saddles the is going of
7:54
course through the body hard break angle
7:56
and then going through as far as the
8:00
feel it
8:03
uh with the strings topl
8:07
loaded it feels like the strings are
8:09
kind of floating on the neck it feels
8:11
like they're not the strings are not
8:13
really tamped down with the strings
8:16
going through the body it feels much
8:20
more like they're really tied down well
8:24
and it feels stiffer and that's the
8:27
difference in feel top loading has less
8:31
stiffness again we're not going to use
8:33
the word tension because people are
8:34
going to freak out and think I'm talking
8:36
about the tuning being different it's
8:38
not tension it's stiffness so you get
8:41
much less stiffness with top loading
8:44
it's easier to bend the strings the
8:46
strings feel
8:47
lighter and it's a nice thing uh however
8:52
I prefer the uh string through
8:55
methodology and I like having the uh the
8:59
the stiffness there but it is not a uh a
9:02
bad thing at all and it is a worthwhile
9:06
pursuit to see if you can find an
9:07
appropriate bridge that is drilled for
9:10
both methods because that way you could
9:13
check this out for yourself uh Bridge
9:16
shouldn't be more than $50 to
9:18
$100 and then you can find out for
9:21
yourself which you like better on your
9:25
guitar all right let's talk about the
9:28
history
9:30
so
9:31
Fender in the fall of 1958 began top
9:36
loading on
9:38
telecasters now this didn't come out of
9:42
nowhere uh there is a precedence for
9:45
this on other instruments that Fender
9:47
made the first would be the uh music
9:51
master and Duo Sonic those were budget
9:54
instruments that Fender produced that
9:56
were short scale necks they had skinny
9:59
widths at the nut for smaller
10:02
hands and they were you know they needed
10:06
to be as budget friendly as possible
10:08
which mean they need to be as cheaply to
10:10
produce as possible and so they did not
10:15
drill through the body instead they had
10:17
a bridge that had a lip on it and they
10:20
just drilled holes in it and it would go
10:22
over the
10:24
Saddles
10:26
next and and I think this is really
10:29
where the inspiration comes from for
10:30
Fender to make the change over with the
10:32
Telecaster is the Precision base so of
10:36
course the original Precision base has a
10:38
slab body black pit guard that covers up
10:42
both the horns and it has that big
10:44
single coil pickup and the strings go
10:48
through the
10:50
body uh of course the Bas uh changes
10:53
over in 5455 where it gets Contours but
10:57
it keeps the double pick guards and and
10:59
it keeps going through the body but in
11:01
1957 we get the change to the Precision
11:04
base to what everybody thinks of as a
11:07
Precision base which is of course the
11:09
double cutaway contoured body with a pit
11:12
guard that's more like a
11:13
Stratocaster and you get the change over
11:17
to a bridge that is
11:20
toploading and the instrument becomes
11:23
more popular and sells better and that
11:25
becomes the classic Precision base that
11:27
we all know and love I mean most people
11:30
don't think of the early style P base as
11:33
the Precision base they'll you know
11:36
they'll call it you know 51 or you know
11:39
early or even call it teley base which
11:41
of course when they reissued it in the
11:43
late 60s that's what it was called but
11:46
uh that's really I believe the
11:49
Precedence for this so they had greater
11:52
success with the pbase going
11:56
toploading and by topl loading you are
11:58
saving money because you don't have to
12:02
put in string ferals here so that's you
12:05
know that's hardware that doesn't have
12:07
to be produced or ordered also you don't
12:10
have to drill through the body which is
12:14
problematic and can be done badly and
12:17
I've seen it done badly on 50s
12:19
telecasters I've seen a lot of them that
12:21
if you look the string ferals are kind
12:24
of offset and they're really funky
12:27
looking even even on a broadcaster that
12:29
a buddy of mine has one of them is just
12:31
sticking up like almost an eighth of an
12:33
inch higher than the rest of them and I
12:36
think this comes from them drilling from
12:38
the top and at times the drill bit going
12:41
sideways or something you know going off
12:43
and so then you end up with a hole on
12:45
the other end that doesn't line up with
12:47
the other ones and so they would put the
12:49
string ferals in and the string could
12:51
still go through and it would come out
12:53
correctly through the bridge it just
12:55
didn't look right so think about Fender
12:59
has had success with the pbase going top
13:02
loading and then they think well this is
13:04
a way in which we get to
13:07
eliminate um a difficult process not
13:10
horribly difficult but one that
13:12
sometimes goes
13:14
ay and we can keep selling the
13:17
Telecaster for the same price and we can
13:18
save a little money and frankly Leo was
13:22
always into saving a
13:23
buck so they produced the Telecaster
13:26
with a toploading bridge in late 1950 8
13:29
it does not go over well uh there is
13:32
pretty immediate uh requests from
13:35
dealers and players to uh to change it
13:38
back so by late
13:41
1959 they make the change of course you
13:45
still see top loading bridges for a
13:48
while but they are
13:50
also drilled out for through the body so
13:53
you'll find factory original 1960 even
13:55
into 61 uh telecasters and escort
13:58
Squires that have string ferals on the
14:01
back you know for you to string it the
14:03
normal way but then they also have the
14:07
holes here for top loading and that's
14:09
that they had top loading bridges that
14:12
of course they weren't going to throw
14:13
them away despite you know dealers and
14:16
you know and players not liking them so
14:19
it's like it's no big deal they just
14:21
have these little extra holes back there
14:23
and then they uh they drilled them
14:24
through to uh to be string through
14:27
also
14:30
Fender brought back top
14:33
loading in the
14:35
1980s for the exact same reason to save
14:38
money this was always topl loading has
14:40
always been done to save money it has
14:43
never been about tone it has always been
14:45
about saving a buck so in the early
14:48
1980s when Fender USA still under the
14:52
CBS ownership was struggling against the
14:55
onslaught of Tokai Fernandez and all the
14:59
Japanese made instruments that were
15:02
amazing uh they they were trying to cut
15:05
corners and make a cheaper americanmade
15:09
telecaster and Stratocaster and so they
15:11
came out with the standard series not
15:14
The American Standard series that's
15:15
later that's later in the ' 80s and ' 86
15:17
and '87 now this is around 1983 they
15:21
came out with the standard series and so
15:24
the Telecaster lost its through body
15:28
stringing and went to top loading the
15:31
Strat lost its you know output Jack and
15:35
it went onto the pit guard and then it
15:39
got a really bad tremolo system V
15:42
system uh the series was not successful
15:45
and it ended up going away and when the
15:47
American Standard came out under you
15:49
know the bill Schultz era Fender that
15:52
when when he and a group of investors
15:54
bought the company in
15:56
1985 the uh of course the 52 rearo Telly
15:59
and the American Standard Telly all
16:01
those were string
16:05
through there were Japanese instruments
16:07
made during this period of time that
16:09
were also uh toploading and that's
16:12
because they were based on the 83
16:16
standard guitars made in the USA so in
16:19
fact I had a black Squire Telecaster
16:22
that was made in
16:23
1986 that was a top loader and it looked
16:27
identical to a uh a fender standard
16:30
Telecaster from 83 except it was uh well
16:34
black with a white piit guard and it had
16:35
the uh you know sealed machine heads and
16:38
all that
16:39
jazz after that you continue to see top
16:43
loaders
16:44
um usually as import instruments so
16:48
you'll see a toploading you know squares
16:51
top loading Fender Mexico guitars and
16:54
things like that it's usually done on
16:56
budget-minded because it's it's all
16:57
about saving
16:59
money there have been signature models
17:02
such as the Jim campal Longo telecaster
17:05
and
17:07
the Jimmy pagee Dragon guitar of course
17:10
was a Toploader also and those were made
17:14
topl loaders just because that's the
17:16
instrument that the uh the artist played
17:18
originally and of course they're going
17:19
to copy it
17:21
exactly let's talk about some of the
17:24
players of course I've already mentioned
17:26
the uh the really the the most most
17:28
important ones and uh my favorite is Jim
17:31
campal
17:33
Longo and that's just because he's a
17:37
magnificent player gets an amazing tone
17:40
he plugs a Telecaster pretty much
17:42
straight into a Princeton reverb amp and
17:44
dimes it and he gets all that variation
17:48
of clean to really dirty just with the
17:51
volume control on the guitar and he's
17:54
been a top loader you know guitar player
17:57
all this time time and he's fantastic
18:00
and he's probably the best known and the
18:03
player that has used a Toploader the
18:06
longest and I think he's at the uh the
18:09
top of the Toploader Hall of Fame
18:11
secondly would be Jimmy pige and of
18:13
course the guitar that he had was Jeff
18:16
Becks first and then it went to Jimmy
18:19
pagee Jimmy pagee used it it had mirrors
18:22
on it and of course it went through
18:23
different iterations in the late version
18:25
of The Yard Birds and then into early
18:28
lead Zeppelin it's the guitar on
18:30
Stairway to Heaven and also on lead
18:32
Zeppelin 1 and
18:34
two pretty pretty iconic too however
18:38
Paige did not continue to play the
18:40
guitar the guitar got fouled up and he
18:43
stopped playing
18:45
it probably another one that I think I
18:48
can't confirm it's a Toploader or not
18:50
because the guitar is completely Mia and
18:54
that's Jesse Ed Davis's Telecaster that
18:56
he used throughout the 60s and 7s the
18:59
one that was kind of painted hippie
19:01
style in the uh you know rock and roll
19:04
circus stuff and then was Sunburst and
19:07
then later on got a strat pickup in the
19:09
neck position and was U that he played
19:11
like the concert for Bangladesh and
19:13
other things I think that's a Toploader
19:17
so now for a a group of guitarists that
19:22
or you know that we don't think of top
19:24
loaders but they actually are and that's
19:26
anyone that uses a Bigsby so if you have
19:29
a Bigsby Telecaster well you're a kind
19:32
of a Toploader guy because again it's
19:34
all about the brake angle and they have
19:37
the same thing going on with them where
19:40
you have that softer feel and lower
19:43
tension also with the bigs B you get the
19:46
advantage or the of course the two sides
19:48
of the coin on this you get the
19:50
advantage of the added weight and mass
19:53
which uh which kind of does a nice thing
19:55
for the tone but unfortunately it also
19:57
adds weight to the guitar so if you had
19:59
a heavy guitar to begin with and you add
20:01
a Bigsby to it you get a boat anchor
20:04
pretty quick so here I want to mention
20:08
bill friselle because Bill
20:11
friselle is kind of a topler fan and
20:15
that's because most of the telecasters
20:18
he plays and not all of them but many
20:21
many times many of the examples that you
20:23
find on him of You Know video where he's
20:25
playing whether it's his own work or
20:27
with nor Jones or whoever it is usually
20:31
a Telecaster with a Bigsby on it and he
20:35
hardly ever touches the Bigsby
20:38
ever so with that in mind I think that
20:42
bill likes the feel of toploading and he
20:46
likes the mass of the
20:49
Bigsby and that's why uh you know Bill
20:53
plays a uh a bsby equipped Telly a lot
20:56
cuz he sure doesn't seem to use the
20:58
Bigsby itself very
21:00
often all right guys well I hope you've
21:03
enjoyed today's episode I need to uh
21:08
this is just a personal pet peeve
21:10
there's a lot of guys producing videos
21:11
out there that don't uh give credit to
21:14
their references their historical uh you
21:17
know where they've gotten information
21:19
and I'm trying to be good about that and
21:23
so I'm going to mention a couple of
21:26
books one is of course the Fender
21:28
Telecaster book by AR the late AR duchas
21:32
swar which of course has tons of great
21:35
information that I used also Fender the
21:38
golden years and uh let's see Fender the
21:41
sound heard around the world so those
21:44
were uh important in my historical
21:48
research otherwise it was from my own
21:50
experience Through The Years uh having
21:53
worked for a a fender dealer in the
21:55
1980s and have catalogs uh going back to
21:59
you know going through all the different
22:01
eras so there you have it I hope you
22:04
enjoyed today's episode hope you learned
22:06
about top loaders and I'll see you next
22:09
time
22:11
[Music]
22:13
[Applause]
22:16
[Music]
22:26
bye-bye