Tele guys. Are you stealth curious? It's usable! - pic and sound file

rze99

My Fender American Vintage '60s Hot Rod Tele - from factory with 3 pickups - needed a string change and... I'd been curious about this for a while. I decided to sink the middle pickup under the guard to check it out.

It is still exactly as factory in terms of pickups - Texas Special middle pickup, paired with the with Custom Shop Broadcaster bridge and Twisted Tele neck. Obviously I changed the guard to one I had available. The middle pickup luckily is literally just held in place by some downward pressure of the guard with the pole pieces touching the guard. The S-1 switch integrated into the volume control that, when engaged, adds the bridge pickup to positions three, four and five, so those options still available.

I did a very brief sound demo in just the standard Strat positions (no S-1 switch depressed). The middle pickup by itself is a volume drop - of course, but I reckon 2 and 4 positions are definitely OK. The middle pickup by itself is a volume drop but... if you have quieter more acoustic like parts in a track or indeed whole tracks where you are just strumming along with the band, it is also usable. No settings changed between riffs.

And it looks better...

 

dazzajl

I’ve had a stealth pickup in the Brad Paisley Esquire and it was great. Not typical tele neck but still lovely. The choice there is whether to balance the pickups and compromise the bridge bite and snarl or let them both be the best they can. Sort of becomes two single pickup guitars in on body the second way but I loved it. 

Love what you’ve done with yours. I’ve always liked the idea of a three pickup tele but never the looks. 

rze99

dazzajl said:

I’ve had a stealth pickup in the Brad Paisley Esquire and it was great. Not typical tele neck but still lovely. The choice there is whether to balance the pickups and compromise the bridge bite and snarl or let them both be the best they can. Sort of becomes two single pickup guitars in on body the second way but I loved it. 

Love what you’ve done with yours. I’ve always liked the idea of a three pickup tele but never the looks. 

did you remove the neck pickup from the tone pot? I'd guess that's what I'd do

Philly_Q

When you said Stealth I thought you were talking about one of these.

richman6100

@rze99 That's a beautiful looking Tele.

I've been intrigued by the Winyard Stealthcaster for a while:

https://www.winyard-guitars.co.uk/the-stealthcaster

I've not played one plugged in, but the two I played unplugged at one of the London guitar shows had superb necks - possibly the best I've had in my hands. I think they use hotter pickups under the pickguard to compensate for the volume drop. I really must audition one properly.

rze99

richman6100 said:

@rze99 That's a beautiful looking Tele.

I've been intrigued by the Winyard Stealthcaster for a while:

https://www.winyard-guitars.co.uk/the-stealthcaster

I've not played one plugged in, but the two I played unplugged at one of the London guitar shows had superb necks - possibly the best I've had in my hands. I think they use hotter pickups under the pickguard to compensate for the volume drop. I really must audition one properly.

thank you
Not come across Winyard before.

Strat54

I had a Custom Shop Stealth Esquire by John English and the two hidden pickups were awful. It even had a super thin pickguard but they were weak and unusable.....impossible to balance with the bridge pickup. Crap guitar, sold it on. 

pt22

I wonder what a matched-colour white lace sensor would look like in the middle, even if it was sunk to nearly flush with the top of the pickguard? 

strtdv

Presumably if you put something much higher output than the neck and bridge pickups under the pickguard it would go a long way to combating the volume drop

rze99

strtdv said:

Presumably if you put something much higher output than the neck and bridge pickups under the pickguard it would go a long way to combating the volume drop

Presumably, yes.

rze99

pt22 said:

I wonder what a matched-colour white lace sensor would look like in the middle, even if it was sunk to nearly flush with the top of the pickguard? 

It would look crap. Like someone had drawn the outline of a pickup on the guard!

ICBM

strtdv said:

Presumably if you put something much higher output than the neck and bridge pickups under the pickguard it would go a long way to combating the volume drop

Yes, but it will probably sound shit. I tried that with a ‘stealth Esquire’ with a high-output Strat pickup as the neck pickup, and it sounded muddy and distant - and still too quiet, if anything.

I’ve found that the best ‘Strat’ sounds in the 2 and 4 positions come from using a low-output middle pickup.

rze99

OP here I thought that the output from middle would be less that than it is and that it would be a bit muffled, but it is not, it is pretty clear. It's a Texas Special so not especially weak for a single coil. Definitely usable to blend or to jangle along in a track.

ICBM

rze99 said:

OP here I thought that the output from middle would be less that than it is and that it would be a bit muffled, but it is not, it is pretty clear. It's a Texas Special so not especially weak for a single coil. Definitely usable to blend or to jangle along in a track.

Still a reasonably normal Fender-type pickup - the one I tried was one of those stupidly hot Duncan ones, which is about 15K with very thin wire... it sounded like it was in the next room - and still not loud enough to balance with the bridge pickup, even given that I prefer the bridge pickup to be louder in a Tele.

WinyardGuy

Strat54 said:

I had a Custom Shop Stealth Esquire by John English and the two hidden pickups were awful. It even had a super thin pickguard but they were weak and unusable.....impossible to balance with the bridge pickup. Crap guitar, sold it on. 

Great guitar, with terribly balanced pickups - the bridge pup literally exfoliates everyone nearby.  John English Stealth Esquires go for big dollar these days though.

LionAquaLooper

I might try this on one of my strats....if I can find a strat pickguard that only has bridge and neck pickup holes.