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We're preparing a Franz Ferdinand coverband and I would like to get as close as possible to Alex Kapranos's instruments' look & sound. What do I need to do this?

For the look I'll need a Fender Telecaster, but will the model matter for the sound? Can I reproduce the sound purely through effects, do I need an amp, etc.? (Cheaper is better.)

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Since shopping recs are off-topic I de-emphasized the cost factor, hope that's OK. I think removing the assumption that you need a particularly guitar and amp will help come up with cheaper solutions, though. – Matthew Read♦ Jan 20 '12 at 19:35

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Kapranos doesn't do anything particularly exotic with his guitar sound. It's just a Strat with amp distortion. He's lead guitar so he tends to play on the neck pickup with a trebly EQ.

The good news is that this means you don't have agonise over effects. Just plug a Strat into a reasonably nice amp, and play with the gain and tone controls until it sounds like you want.

The bad news is that most of the sound is in playing technique, so practice, practice, practice.

A lot of the Franz Ferdinand sound is about the interplay between the two guitars, so you need to be working with your other guitarist to work out the parts.

Checking a couple of Franz Ferdinand clips on YouTube, they don't get anywhere near their studio sound when they play live.

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I have seen asserted that he uses a Fender Hotrod amp and a Telecaster (with a Strat as a backup). That's it: no pedals excepting an a/b or overdrive footswitch. And then there's this: ( soundonsound.com/sos/jun04/articles/ferdinand.htm ) which says that album was recorded using something completely different. Note that article speaks a lot about how the engineer massaged the sound long after the band went back to Scotland. – horatio Jan 24 '12 at 21:55

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