Tele Pickups

[palecriminal]

I like the tele sound. I have a highway one tele that I got used (but in very good condition) for $500. I thought that it was a great deal. I paid $650.00 plus tax and case for an epiphone les paul standard 2 years ago, and the difference between good 'ole american craftsmanship and a chinese les paul was enormous. That said, I wanted to do a little hot rodding myself, so I got a set of Rio Grande tele replacement pickups. I'm fixin' to install them now. I'll let y'all know how it turns out. As regards the discussion about trying to make a tele sound like something other than a tele, what does a tele sound like anyway? Given all of the various pickup combinations that fender has made available over the years, I should think that there really isnt a "tele sound."

Albert Collins' tele has two humbuckers on it. Then there is the nashville tele setup, which has three pickups, as well as the prototypical two pickup telecaster. I figure that really, one should start out by finding a guitar with a really good neck. After that, the electronic choices can be narrowed down to personal preference and style considerations. You can always get a graphic eq to smooth things out how you like it.

I had an old squire strat that I stuck a set of fender vintage noisless pickups on and that sounded great. Too bad it got stolen.

[Southpa]

The thing about the 2-pickup tele sound is the extreme tone difference between the neck and bridge pickups. I installed the vintage '54 bridge pickup which gives a real sharp twang, thats one of the classic tele sounds that everyone talks about. In the neck I put a Seymour Duncan Hotstack (single coil sized HB) which resulted in a real smooth, mellow tone by itself. Combine the two (middle switch position) and you get another classic tele sound, hard to describe, but mine sort of sounds like a plunky "quack".

[palecriminal]

The thing about the 2-pickup tele sound is the extreme tone difference between the neck and bridge pickups. I installed the vintage '54 bridge pickup which gives a real sharp twang, thats one of the classic tele sounds that everyone talks about. In the neck I put a Seymour Duncan Hotstack (single coil sized HB) which resulted in a real smooth, mellow tone by itself. Combine the two (middle switch position) and you get another classic tele sound, hard to describe, but mine sort of sounds like a plunky "quack".

I got the new pickups installed fine, and it makes a real difference. there's a fatter midrange in the bridge pickup, and the neck pickup is just a little sharper. I was having a bit of a problem with there being a really sharp screeching when I used distortion. Not when I played notes or chords, but especially when I would hit a chord and then mute the strings quickly. It was like an artificial harmonic. there is a little less of the super high frequency and I haven't had the problem. The only problem I have now is that the neck won't go back in the exact same place. It's just slightly misaligned. Tou have to loosen the neck in order to remove the pickguard, and when I put it all back together, it seems that the heel of the neck sits up a little bit higher. Now, when I hit the high E or B strings above the twelfth fret, they make contact with the 21st or 22nd fret (I forget how many it has). It's not as noticeable until I bend a note 1/2 or whole step. Any suggestions?

[Mickguard]

Any suggestions?

Sand or shave away the part of the pickguard that fits under the fretboard, that way it won't get in the way anymore and you won't have to loosen the neck either.

When I mount a bolt on neck I use a couple of those pump action clamps to hold the neck in place while I'm inserting the screws. That way I'm sure the neck is tight in the pocket, I don't have to fight with the screws to get it tight.

[palecriminal]

Any suggestions?

Sand or shave away the part of the pickguard that fits under the fretboard, that way it won't get in the way anymore and you won't have to loosen the neck either.

When I mount a bolt on neck I use a couple of those pump action clamps to hold the neck in place while I'm inserting the screws. That way I'm sure the neck is tight in the pocket, I don't have to fight with the screws to get it tight.

Thanks, I'll give it a shot. I just worry a little bit about getting crazy with irreversible modifications, because I might make a boo boo, and then I either need a new neck or another guitar. ouch

[prs man]

do you know witch rio grande pickup you put in.

the muy grande or tallboy.I have a set of muy grande I want to use on a tele I'm building.

if the tele sounds as good as the strat muy grande that would be cool.

[palecriminal]

do you know witch rio grande pickup you put in.

the muy grande or tallboy.I have a set of muy grande I want to use on a tele I'm building.

if the tele sounds as good as the strat muy grande that would be cool.

I got the muy grande, and except for the difficulty getting the neck to go back wjere it belongs, the installation went flawlessly. The sound is great.

[prs man]

cool I will put the rio grande in my next tele build.

[crafty]

Don't worry about screwing up the pickguard. They're cheap and easily replaced.

[marksound]

FIRST, if your pickguard does not fit the same as when you took it off, you did something wrong. Retrace your steps and fix it.

SECOND, a Telecaster should sound like a Telecaster. A Les Paul sounds like a Les Paul, a Strat sounds like a Strat, blahblahblah. What are you trying to accomplish? If you want to hear what a Tele should sound like, listen to Merle Haggard, Bruce Springsteen, Waylon Jennings, The Pretenders, Brad Paisley, The Rolling Stones, etc, et al, ad nauseam. Telecasters are everywhere.

THIRD, leave your pickguard alone. See "FIRST."

Happy Thanksgiving.

[Mickguard]

FIRST, if your pickguard does not fit the same as when you took it off, you did something wrong. Retrace your steps and fix it.

Is it normal that you have to loosen the neck to get the pickguard off? Seems strange that this would be (I don't have a neck with overhang, so I don't know).

Could be that something got stuck under the pickguard, enough to raise it up a little, not enough to make the guitar completely unplayable. Could also be that the pickguard got shifted slightly forward, enough to interfere with the neck? Just conjecturing.

As for the tele sound thing...I like the look of the real tele pickups. So I'm working on a build with Fender tele pickups but without the telecaster body. And I'm working on a tele body with humbucker-shaped P90s. So there.

[palecriminal]

FIRST, if your pickguard does not fit the same as when you took it off, you did something wrong. Retrace your steps and fix it.

SECOND, a Telecaster should sound like a Telecaster. A Les Paul sounds like a Les Paul, a Strat sounds like a Strat, blahblahblah. What are you trying to accomplish? If you want to hear what a Tele should sound like, listen to Merle Haggard, Bruce Springsteen, Waylon Jennings, The Pretenders, Brad Paisley, The Rolling Stones, etc, et al, ad nauseam. Telecasters are everywhere.

THIRD, leave your pickguard alone. See "FIRST."

Happy Thanksgiving.

OK. Here you go

1. There are a number of telecaster pickup combinations which are made by fender as STOCK telecasters. There are ones with TWO HUMBUCKERS, stock. There are ones made with a THREE PICKUP ARRANGEMENT, STOCK. They all sound different.

2. Adding higher output pickups to an instrument is a common practice. It is so common, in fact, that Fender themselves make after market pickups which are hotter, quieter, etc. e.g. vintage noisless

3. The way a telecaster is built, you have to remove the entire bridge to change the bridge pickup. Due to the fact that the fretboard sticks out about 1/8-1/4 inch over the pickguard, you have to loosen the neck in order to take off the pickguard. Which you have to to in order to access the neck pickup.

(rude statement has been deleted... soo sorry)

Mickguard's suggestion regarding shaving away that portion of the pickguard which goes under the fretboard was a bit of good advice. If I decide that the new pickups aren't the sound I really want, I won't have to take the neck off to do any further work. Get It?

The neck not seating in the cavity properly is not due to it sitting on the pickguard, as it is only the fretboard which extends over it. The problem came about because of the removal and subsequent reattachment of the neck. Which, incidentally, I corrected, again using Mickguard's advice as regards a couple of clamps to hold the neck firmly in place while I reattached the screws holding the neck to the body.

4. As regards what a telecaster ought to sound like, What about Albert Collins? HMM? His has the aforementioned two-humbucker configuration and does not sound anything at all like merle haggard. Furthermore, just FYI, A great deal of the guitar work on the Led Zeppelin albums was done on telecasters. Jimmy Page definitely doesn't sound like Merle Haggard, or the Stones, or anybody else for that matter.

peace

Edited November 27, 2006 by palecriminal

[marksound]

Fine. Whatever.

[palecriminal]

I would like to thank everyone who had helpful advice, comments, etc. The thing is working as well as when I bought it, but it sounds much better. Anyone considering the muy grande pickups as a replacement for the stock ones isn't going to be disappointed. As regards the fretboard overhang, from what I've read on this site, the mexican teles with the 21-fret necks don't have it, but the Highway 1 teles made in america have 22 frets, with the 22nd fret extending over the pickguard. I don't know about the top of the line telecasters, because they hang them up on the wall at Guitar Center higher than I can reach. (hee hee)

Here in knoxville, Guitar Center is the only place to go for genuine Fender stuff (new). There is a really cool shop called Music Room Vintage Guitars which has used axes, which is where I got mine. (I hope it is OK to give them a plug!)

Thanks Again, Y'all!!

Edited November 25, 2006 by palecriminal

[marksound]

FYI:

Albert Collins Signature Telecaster

[crafty]

Of course you probably would know this if you had ever worked on one, smartass.

Class act.

[palecriminal]

Of course you probably would know this if you had ever worked on one, smartass.

Class act.

thanks

[palecriminal]

re: Albert Collins...

I stand corrected.

[Drak]

I'd rather be a smartass than a jackass any day of the week.

You really honestly know very little to nothing about Telecasters except some very basic technical data, which means you really know basically nothing at all about Telecasters.

[palecriminal]

I'd rather be a smartass than a jackass any day of the week.

You really honestly know very little to nothing about Telecasters except some very basic technical data, which means you really know basically nothing at all about Telecasters.

I knew enough to know what I didn't know, didn't I?

As regards pickup configs.. there are apparently 4 different ones rather than the three I thought there were..

as regards neck overhang.. well I found that info here.. as regards helpful info.. I found that here too. As regards the philosophical question, "what is the tele sound, anyway, it was a philosophical question, wasn't it?

All apologies to the purists, but the various different pickup configs have been around since at least '72 (see fender website). Marksound's post seemed a little harsh, so I said so. Since he offered me some valuable info in regard to another post, I don't think he took it personally. And since the info from Mickguard solved my problem and I gave him due credit and thanks for his input, I fail to see what your beef is.

[Drak]

No beef really, just that you seem to already have all the answers to your own questions, be they right or wrong, they seem to fit your needs or beliefs, so all's well that ends well, thread over.

[palecriminal]

No beef really, just that you seem to already have all the answers to your own questions, be they right or wrong, they seem to fit your needs or beliefs, so all's well that ends well, thread over.

If I had the answers to my own questions, I wouldn't have asked any

[Southpa]

what does a tele sound like anyway?

Thats the question you asked. You want a description? or don't you think it would be easier to find out for yourself, ie. go to your local music store and plug a stock tele into a Fender Twin. I told you what MY telecaster sounds like but I doubt my answer (or anyone's, for that matter) would do you any good anyway.

Edited November 26, 2006 by Southpa

[palecriminal]

what does a tele sound like anyway?

Thats the question you asked. You want a description? or don't you think it would be easier to find out for yourself, ie. go to your local music store and plug a stock tele into a Fender Twin. I told you what MY telecaster sounds like but I doubt my answer (or anyone's, for that matter) would do you any good anyway.

Actually, that was the point of the whole discussion, prior to the technical qustions which were kindly answered. The question being, which tele, given all of the pickup options fender offers. Sheesh, what a can of worms...

[Drak]

I think maybe you should be running this forum, you seem to know pretty much everything.

I shall read your posts of wisdom with much eagerness, and learn from you, I shall await your personal kernels of guitar-building wisdom, Oh Wise One.