I Would Like To Pick Up A Tele Pickup.

[Vultite]

You know all was going well in the design of this here guitar im working on and you know it struck me. I'm not totally in love with the humbuckers I've played in the neck position. I don't know what it is but they just don't quite speak to me there. I love them in the bridge. I was playing around with my strat and you know the neck pickup just sounded interesting. I found myself wanting to get that tone just as much as I the bridge tone.

So I think to myself "Myself, why don't you consider putting a single coil pickup in the guitar you're making? Actually, Myself, have you ever even played a telecaster? Being from our loveable friends at Fender, the Telecaster must also have a fairly interesting sound aswell."

After a trip to the local shop to try a few things out I determined that I would like to put a tele pickup in the neck spot of my guitar.

My guitar will be a neck-through hard maple. With NO TONE KNOBS

Since I don't know much about telecasters,

My questions are:

- What pickups should I consider, try out, etc

- I know this is a tricky question but do you think I need to only have 21/22 frets to get that tone or am I ok with doing a full 24 fret guitar?

- Does EMG make good tele style pickups, because I plan on putting a EMG active bucker in the bridge.

- I read on the EMG website that there are a few options to mix passive and active pickups, are these options good or should I avoid them?

This was taken from the EMG FAQ:

This is the best alternative. Install an EMG-PA-2 on the passive pickups. There are two benefits to doing this. With the trimpot on the PA-2, you can adjust the gain of the passive pickups to match the EMG's. The PA-2 acts as an impedance matching device so you can use the low-impedance EMG controls (25K) without affecting the tone of the passive pickups. You will also be able to use other EMG accessory circuits such as the SPC, RPC, EXB, EXG, etc. For this application, we recommend ordering the PA-2 without the switch for easy installation on the inside of a guitar.

Edited April 2, 2005 by Vultite

[unclej]

go to www.dimarzio.com as a start. pick single coil from the menu. each of their pickups is described pretty much in detail..they describe the tone, frequency responce and even what type of pickups they sound best with. there are sound bites for each one if you have a high speed connection so you should be able to make an educated selection after a bit of research.

good luck

[Vultite]

go to www.dimarzio.com as a start.  pick single coil from the menu.  each of their pickups is described pretty much in detail..they describe the tone, frequency responce and even what type of pickups they sound best with.  there are sound bites for each one if you have a high speed connection so you should be able to make an educated selection after a bit of research.

good luck

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I actually have done this. I'm particulary fond of the Virtual-T (DP411), also kinda like the sound of the Seymour Duncan STR-2.

But these are passive pickups. Does anybody have any experience with mixing active/passive?

[crafty]

Yeah, mixing active and passive components is a pain, with maybe mixing piezos and magnetics as the exception. The bad thing is you'll spend a lot of dough trying to mix both active and passive premium hardware and it winds up making your premium hardware sound like $20 MightyMite pickups.

EMGs are good pickups. I love the SA set in my Strat. Give their Tele set a try. If you don't like 'em, just sell 'em. Chances are if you aren't playing anything too heavy, and I mean heavy, you may actually like their single-coil Tele bridge pickup. It has some pretty good punch, just about the same as a passive 'bucker, with a nice sweet high end.

[Xeromus]

Rio Grande makes the best single coils I've ever heard/used. I had a big bottom set in my tele (muy grande bridge and tallboy neck) and I (and everyone else that heard it) were blown away. I can't recommend these highly enough.