tele pups vs strat pups?

axisus

What's the difference between a strat bridge pup and a tele one in terms of characteristics? And what is the difference between the neck pups as well?

[Deleted User]

Tele bridge pick-ups tend to have more low end/lower mids which tend to fatten out when driven (many believe the bridge on a traditional Tele influences this characteristic, as well as the plate on the bottom of the pick-up). Strat bridge pick-ups tend to sound thinner and weaker, particularly when driven. The lack of a tone control (assuming vintage-style wiring) exacerbates this.

Tele neck pick-ups tend to sound more focused and 'narrower' that Strats.

The physical characteristics of the guitars (single cut v double cut, tremolo bridge v hard tail, alder v ash, etc) also make a massive difference.

ChrisMusic

@richardhomer, thanks for an eloquent description of the differences between the pickups, I have been wondering about that too.

The physical characteristics of the guitars (single cut v double cut, tremolo bridge v hard tail, alder v ash, etc) also make a massive difference.

Could you flesh that out a bit, in a similar vein to the pickup description, which was easy to visualise.  I have been wondering how much difference that could make, especially a wood is non magnetic, and the whole reproduction system of magnetic strings and pickups I would have assumed dictated the tone.  Thanks

Paul_C

I recall someone (I think it was Eddie Van Halen) saying in an interview that cutting a big lump of wood off an Explorer he had ruined the original tone of it, such that he really wished he hadn't done it.

Maybe it was this (monstrosity? I really couldn't say )

[Deleted User]

ChrisMusic;13259" said:

Could you flesh that out a bit, in a similar vein to the pickup description, which was easy to visualise.  I have been wondering how much difference that could make, especially a wood is non magnetic, and the whole reproduction system of magnetic strings and pickups I would have assumed dictated the tone.  Thanks

Single cut and hard tail guitars tend to have a more extended bass response; in other words they sound 'fatter'. Ash bodies tend to be scooped in the mids with lots of highs and solid lows. Alder is more balanced, with stronger mids.

An electric guitar is still 'acoustic' to some extent (a Les Paul and a Strat sound MASSIVELY different from each other when played unplugged). The pick-ups will further 'colour' the acoustic qualities of the guitar, but the same pick-up swapped from one guitar to another will sound very different.

ChrisMusic

Thanks @richardhomer, I assumed that the wood / acoustic quality was just moving air around the instrument (and amplified as in the case of acoustic guitar construction techniques) rather than being fed back into the frequency response of the strings.

"the same pick-up swapped from one guitar to another will sound very different"

- now that is on my list of experiments to try, and I am even more intrigued now.

I wonder how much interaction there is when you get say 3 humbuckers in close proximity?

Lots to think about and try out, along with all those switching permutations.  All good food for thought.

[Deleted User]

The way to consider this is (borrowed from Paul Reed Smith); the guitar is the voice, the pick-up is the microphone. A bright sounding mic would emphasise the upper harmonics present in a singer's voice, a duller sounding one wouldn't. The voice itself would retain its characteristics, irrespective of the mic... Or to put it another way, the difference in two mics' frequency responses would not obscure the difference between two very different sounding singers.....

ChrisMusic

Very nicely put, thanks to both you and Mr PRS, it's almost poetic.  Just makes all those experiments a little harder / more rewarding though.

gilby

I found the "pickup picker" facility on the dimarzio website useful in regards to what style/type of pickups suit your needs regarding timbers.

monquixote

Some people (such as Weasel on here) sell baseplates for Strat pickups which beef them up a bit. 

OilCityPickups

One difference you can never get around between Strat Pickups and Tele ones (in the bridge at least) is sheer 'room to wind stuff on' . The extra height and bobbin width means you can do much more with wire gauges, taps etc etc. Added to which you can but as much or as little ferrous material in the field as you want to really mess with the pickup's inductance. One of the reasons I probably enjoy winding Tele bridge pickups more than any other is you can get so many 'colours' by messing with the magnet grade, wind pattern, bobbin height etc. Leo got the whole basic design bang on, allowing for a massive amount of personal tinkering.
By contrast, the Strat bridge pickup pretty much has to be shoehorned into its Tupperware prison and conform to height restrictions. Mostly you have to overwind over a certain point by swapping to a finer gauge of wire ... and that can mess with the essential Strat-ness of the sound. Good hot strat pickups can be made ... but they are much harder ... and in the end, please fewer guitarists (in my experience) than hot Tele ones.

Catthan

I recently got a tele after playing strats for many years and in my short experience with the it I'd describe the neck pup a bit more compressed, spanky and focused whereas the strat pup is  more bloomy.

I can't talk about bridge pups as I have not yet found a SC bridge that's usable for my tastes, but the tele bridge (or tele as a whole?) sounds more woody.

As to how the body and pups interact, there's a long description in the Beauty of the Burst. Don't know if it's relevant to LPs only but iirc, the strings vibrate and the wood dampens part of the vibration and the other part is fed back to the strings. This is picked up by the pups.. But take this with a grain of salt..

Brgrds,

OilCityPickups

Catthan said:

I recently got a tele after playing strats for many years and in my short experience with the it I'd describe the neck pup a bit more compressed, spanky and focused whereas the strat pup is  more bloomy.

I can't talk about bridge pups as I have not yet found a SC bridge that's usable for my tastes, but the tele bridge (or tele as a whole?) sounds more woody.

As to how the body and pups interact, there's a long description in the Beauty of the Burst. Don't know if it's relevant to LPs only but iirc, the strings vibrate and the wood dampens part of the vibration and the other part is fed back to the strings. This is picked up by the pups.. But take this with a grain of salt..

Brgrds,

The 'compressed' tone of some tele neck pickups is due the extra windings of  finer wire, coupled with even , tight machine laying of coils. If you add to that a brass cover as some add ... the the whole thing can get a bit too indistinct for some peoples tastes.
Lol ... you must have very ... er ... specific tastes if you can't find a Tele bridge pickup you like They range from blade pole piece Charlie Christian jobbies ... the BS from Lollar to super high output 17k Duncan Quarter Pounder ... with magnets from alnico 2 all the way up to ceramic. There's sparkly clean ones, great growling, mid happy powerhouse ones ... and tapped ones that give you can get multiple different sounds out of.

koneguitarist

Tele bridge pickup is along with the P90, one of the best pickups ever made, a strat neck pickup is so much better than the tele neck though. And I love tele`s.

Van_Hayden

TheGuitarWeasel;13651" said:

I probably enjoy winding Tele bridge pickups more than any other is you can get so many 'colours' by messing with the magnet grade, wind pattern, bobbin height etc. .

Aha, one way to spot if a pickup winder really knows his stuff is contained here in this statement.

monquixote

Really interesting stuff Weasel. 

I find it really hard to find Strat bridge pickups I like which is why I usually play HSS, but I love Teles.

My current main squeeze has an insanely hot MFD in the bridge and that's a monster

Catthan

monquixote said:

Really interesting stuff Weasel. 

I find it really hard to find Strat bridge pickups I like which is why I usually play HSS, but I love Teles.

My current main squeeze has an insanely hot MFD in the bridge and that's a monster

Yeah, that's what I wanted to say earlier too. I prefer mini HBs instead of SCs in the bridge.

I really like the bridge SCs when the pro cats play them but have never made them sound good through my rig

OilCityPickups

Rails pickups are an abomination before the lords of flux and inductance ... he spoke a heresy ... stone him!