Bridge pickup location - Strat vs Tele

NPP

Could someone who has both a Strat and a Tele at hand do me a quick favour and measure the distance between the saddles and the bridge pu? 

I will be installing a Tele bridge pu in my Strat this evening and it just occurred to me that I'd better check where exactly it is supposed to go. 

I know it's not a straight swap but the pickguard and body are butchered anyway from previous pickup experiments and all I need to make things fit is a little knife. 

ICBM

I haven't got either to hand to measure, but the Tele pickup is both further from the bridge overall and at a steeper angle so the bass side is even further forward - you can get a good idea from pics. You can't easily put it in the 'Tele' position without a fair bit of routing, and even if you do it will look odd. It won't sound like a Tele anyway without the Tele bridge, so there's really no point.

GSPBASSES

I put a Tele bridge pickup in a Strat with a moded pick guard but it did not sound like a Tele sounded like a Strat pickup with a metal base plate.

dean2371

a bit late perhaps, but distances on my Strats and Tele are about the same. Bass side 2", treble side 1.5". Slight differences but nothing noticeable.

stickyfiddle

Last time I was in Croydon Jon at @FelineGuitars had a strat/tele hybrid just finished. Strat electrics but a BKP Boss Tele pickup in the bridge. Didn't sound 100% strat or tele but did sound awesome.

EDIT: Found a pic on his website. Hope he doesn't mind!

http://www.felineguitars.com/images/Guitars/Tabby/tabby%20hybrid/Tabby%20-%20hybrid%20alder/tabby-hybrid-1.jpg

NPP

Thanks, I've found blueprints on the web now which seem to confirm that the Tele pu is just very slightly forward, and slightly more angled. Installation went ok until I came to the electrical bits; something shortened out, and looking at the snakes' nest of decayed wiring in there, I decided I had to redo everything from the ground up. I didn't get beyond removing stuff though, and the guitar remains in bits (and I'm away for work until the weekend). 

The Feline does look stunning!

OilCityPickups

Measured on my own Tele: Bass side centre of E string saddle to centre of pickup pole 47.46mm. Treble side centre of string saddle to centre of pole 27.80mm

Oh, just a thought on the wiring ... if you have any phase issues with the HonkyTonk Angel pickup as set against the Strat ones you may have to snip the baseplate ground link wire and run a separate earth for the baseplate.

juansolo

stickyfiddle said:

Last time I was in Croydon Jon at @FelineGuitars had a strat/tele hybrid just finished. Strat electrics but a BKP Boss Tele pickup in the bridge. Didn't sound 100% strat or tele but did sound awesome.

EDIT: Found a pic on his website. Hope he doesn't mind!

http://www.felineguitars.com/images/Guitars/Tabby/tabby%20hybrid/Tabby%20-%20hybrid%20alder/tabby-hybrid-1.jpg

I think the bridge plays a big part in the Tele sound. My WezV Stratele hybrid has a great balance of tele/strat tones for me. It's also wired with a super switch to get the bridge and neck pickups on position 4.

http://www.juansolo.demon.co.uk/misc/Guitars/stratele-1.jpg

NPP

ok, I think I may need some help. I have tried to rewire the guitar from scratch, following this diagramme: 

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=3s_1v_1t_5w

however, I still get absolutely nothing - no signal at all. If I plug in a lead, touching the polepieces with a screwdriver gives nothing, and even touching the tip of the lead with the screwdriver gives nothing. What is the most likely cause of this?

ICBM

NPP said:

ok, I think I may need some help. I have tried to rewire the guitar from scratch, following this diagramme: 

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=3s_1v_1t_5w

however, I still get absolutely nothing - no signal at all. If I plug in a lead, touching the polepieces with a screwdriver gives nothing, and even touching the tip of the lead with the screwdriver gives nothing. What is the most likely cause of this?

A short circuit. Nothing else will give silence when you touch the tip of the plug when it's in.

Did you use shielded cable from the jack to the volume pot? If so the most likely cause is that you've overheated it and melted through the insulating layer.

If not, it could be a stray wire or solder blob between the middle and ground terminals on the on the volume pot, a faulty pot, or even a shorted jack - I've come across that several times with crappy far-east ones.

ICBM

Stupid f***ing edit function! Why can't you delete a double post!

Can someone else report this post (I can't) and hopefully one of the mods will get rid of it...

NPP

yes, short circuit. That's why I decided to redo all the wiring from scratch so it's probably not a blob. But I reused the shielded cable to the jack, will check that next, thanks!

NPP

ok, what is the easiest and most stupid way to get a short circuit? Just solder your output to - and ground to +, job done. That's what I did, as I found out as soon as I had time to return to the job. 

Now it works - sort of. I have the phase problems Ash is speaking of above and will have to take things apart again. However, I am very satisfied with the new bridge pickup - very meaty! The pickguard which is patched with pieces of the plastic boxes the pickup came in isn't ideal either, but will do for the moment. 

I now have a spare (unconnected) 3-way mini switch. What should I do with it? Just leave it alone? Bypass all pots switch? I already have a push/pull pot which adds the neck pu to everything else that is selected.

NPP

Now you wouldn't believe that this is still ongoing but I only today managed to convince myself I needed to finish this job. So I clipped the wire between - and base plate on the Tele bridge PU, ran a separate wire from the base plate to ground and reversed + and - on the PU. After that, I took some time adjusting pickup heights to balance out the volume. The result is great - the Tele bridge PU blends in nicely, including in the 2/3 and 1/3 positions. 

OilCityPickups

Yay dude ...