Hi,
I appreciate this might be at the lower end of skill levels for this board, but hoping you can advise nevertheless.
I’m putting together a basic tele kit and - on first build - the pickups sound pretty feeble. Whilst I work on the body finishing, which my Dad is advising on despite being in poor health, I’m looking at whether it’s worth upgrading the electrics and pickups: this may be a guitar I retain for sentimental reasons so would like it to sound ok. I’ve seen a wired loom and pickups for £180 from Alegree, but any other budget recommendations for doing that? I play blues, but really just after a classic tele sound at low cost.
Also, is it worth me trying to convert from a top loader to a through-body style? Will I hear a great difference?
Finally, good value tuner recommendations?!
Advice on above welcome! Thanks
Comments
The switch, pots and jack make no difference to the tone really - pots maybe a tiny bit, but only slight, and possibly debatable.
No. It makes a difference to the feel when bending notes, but not noticeably to the sound.
Drilling the body for through stringing is much trickier than it looks, even with a proper drill press - the drill bit will wander slightly in the wood, and the ferrules may conflict with each other on the back. (Or at best just look obviously out of position.)
Vintage or modern type?
Either way the answer is probably Wilkinson. Gotoh are good too, but a bit more expensive.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Despite appearances to the contrary, I do not answer questions to show off. I do it because thinking about guitar problems helps to exercise my few remaining brain cells.
One of the disadvantages of experienced based advice is that it is possible to have seen too many variants of the same guitar design. For example, the pickup selector options on a PRS Custom have changed several times during the history of the model. It is necessary to ask with which era the control circuit complies.
- It’s a Harley Benton tele kit.
- I’ve no soldering experience, but am keen to learn.
- @ICBM thanks for the top loader conversion opinion, really useful (I was thinking it looked easy, but you’ve set me straight).
- @BillDL useful pick-up thoughts, thanks. I guess I have a tele sound in mind, but you’re right: strings and general set-up not helping here.
I’ll feedback more on this project, and undoubtedly have more questions, many thanks!
If the kit guitar has a larger than traditionally-sized neck pickup cavity, you could elect to install a more powerful unit. Strat, P90, Firebird and others are all worth considering. The downside is that your pickguard would need modifying to accept such a pickup.
Body: Rengas (routed for single coil Tele pickups only)
Neck: C profile, Maple with unshaped paddle headstock, 2-way (double action) truss rod.
Fretboard: Amaranth, 22 frets, 305mm (12") radius, 648mm (25.5") scale, 42mm nut.