Just throwing this out there as it may help other newbies like me. I have two fine electric guitars that I love. One is a Fender telecaster Vintage II, an exact replica of the original 51.
The other an Epiphone ES 355 1959 replica. The Epi sat in the case for a year and the Tele was the love of my life 
although I struggled with barre chords.
A friend pointed out that :
- the Epi has a shorter scale. 24.75 vs 25.5 for the tele,
- one more fret (22 vs 21) and
- flatter fretboard, 12 inch radius vs 7.5 on the tele.
End result less stretch on the bottom half and a bit easier to play barre chords
These are things I never considered. I have warmed up to the Epi. Sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know!
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Glad you found something tht works for you.
Keep in mind that teles will vary in terms of fingerboard radius and fret numbers. A 9.5 inch radius is most common these days (I have a 7.25 and a 10), and there are plenty of 22 fret teles out there
Generally speaking most people find the tighter radius helps with barre chords as the curvature better follows the shape of the index finger, so it’s my expectation that the shorter scale length is what is making barres easier for you as there’s less tension on the same gauge strings … you should try a Fender Jaguar 
Everyone will have different preferences which is why it’s important to b̶u̶y̶ l̶o̶t̶s̶ o̶f̶ g̶u̶i̶t̶a̶r̶s̶ try lots of guitars before you buy one.
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Great info, thanks! Did not know Tele’s came with 22 frets as well. I have an Squier tele with a 9.5 inch radius and I love that guitar. It’s made of poplar instead of ash and the body is thinner making it much lighter than the Fender. Great guitar to sit on the couch and noodle with at night. I travel with that guitar when I don’t want to hall around expensive guitars and spend the summers in Colorado with it. Because it’s so dry there the frets popped on the edges. I filed them down and oiled the fretboard and it’s a dream. A great guitar to experiment with. Goes to show the more expensive guitars are not necessarily the best.
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I’d say that it’s easy to talk yourself into a corner when analysing the difference between guitars. By this I mean there’s people that will play one example of a style of guitar and make the assumption that the rest are all the same and then miss out on some great guitars. It’s the same with brands… if their first experience with a brand is good/bad they’ll be lifelong loyal/hater of that brand. And the same applies to strings, neck shapes, pickups etc.
I haven’t the first clue about the radius of the neck of my guitars and I’ve only ever considered scale length on my acoustic guitars. I also don’t know how many frets each has because I don’t currently play beyond fret 12!
Play the guitar you have in front of you and judge it on it’s own merits. Liking the look of a guitar is often as good a reason as any for choosing it because that might well be the thing that makes you want to play it.
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I read your post a second time and your comment about the string tension makes a lot of sense. I thought it was the radius that made the difference. In my mind I figured the tighter radius would be easier for barre chords and wondered why I was finding it more difficult on the Tele. Thanks!
I love this guitar journey, every day you learn something new.
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Matt, you are right. I know I seem to be getting bogged now with minutia because a good guitarist can play any guitar and make it sound good. As a bad a guitarist, like me :), the guitar probably doesn’t really matter that much.
But I will digress slightly, however since the post subject is Epi vs Tele I will point out one more difference I found. The Tele is like a rock and stays in tune with minimal maintenance whereas the Gibson requires a lot of attention. At first I was upset because I thought the locking tuners were crap, however I’ve now come to the conclusion the semi hollow body is much more sensitive to heat and humidity. I saw Kingfish last night and he played one ES 355 all night, made me wonder how he did it now that I know how sensitive they are.
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Another factor that I think can impact tuning stability is the nut, whether it’s cut well for the strings in use and whether it’s been lubricated at all. Ideally you want the string to be able to glide across the nut rather than getting snagged on it.
That said, I think in general what you say about the relative tuning stability of the 2 guitars is in line with what I’ve heard.
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Matt, more good advice. I never pay any attention to the nut while maintaining my guitars. Thanks
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Fender’s headstock design means the strings have a pretty straight path after the nut, and this helps. the 3-a-side Gibson headstock on the other hand means some strings have a fair angle at to contend with at the nut. This can make a difference.
That said, all my guitars - Fender, Gibson and Epiphone are rock solid in terms of tuning stability.
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Mmmmm? Maybe I’m not stretching the strings enough when restringing. The Gibson has locking Grover Rotomatic tuners and all the strings are usually off by the same degree.
That depends… even if you don’t stretch your strings much, by the time you’ve played a good number of times and retuned each time, I’d at least expect them to be settling down. If it’s weeks after the change AND you’ve gone through cycles of playing and tuning, and it’s still bad then I doubt lack of string stretching is your issue
All, really great thread! Lots of good information, thanks 
Matt, just an update. Strings have probably been through the cycle; she’s holding tune beautifully! 
She was in the case for almost a year and I just took her out recently, put new strings on, oiled the fretboard and tidied up the frets. Very pleased 
Thanks!
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