As the title, I’ve recently bought a Fender Mexican Telecaster (s/s config) it’s ok but….. I’m pretty sure it could be better - though probably never in the same league as a full strength USA Telecaster. I know the neck and the nut need a little work (I have a tusq nut on order) but what about pickups and electrics? It’s got the stock alnico 5 pickups and std 3 way switch. I have a set of Fralins and a set of Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders that we’re bought for a project guitar that’s showing no signs of being finished anytime soon! I would like to aim for a rock/blues-rock/blues sound if at possible. I have no known aversion to EMGs (other than where to fit the battery) or Bare Knuckles etc.
Comments
What Fralins are they?
The fralins are the blues set for telecaster
I've seen stuff on Ebay for solderless connectors, I think. I think Alegree does stuff like that as well.
I haven't tried either the Quarter Pound (don't worry @Funkfingers , I didn't almost add the "er" at the end there! ) or the Fralins, but I'd make an educated guess that, for what you want to play, I'd probably try the Fralins first- if you want to be more likely to get it right first go. If you're planning on trying both, it doesn't matter. The Quarter Pounds might be a bit hot for what you want (or not, that might be exactly what you want!).
@SteveRobinson I’d forgotten about the pot size/value difference between active and passive - Not a show stopper but something to be aware of
Actually, it could be.
It has been so long since I have seen passive pickups connected to 25/50k pots that I cannot remember what happens.
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The early EMG RT bridge/Treble pickup models are just their Stratocaster designs inside a Telecaster pickup shaped housing. The later variants sound closer to the real thing but never quite get there.
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I suggest the Fralin pair, via either a Freeway 3B3 or Schaller Megaswitch M selector switch. (These are six- and five-way, respectively.) Either could provide a useful range of sounds without resorting to push-pull pots or the unreliable Fender S-1 switching pot.
Cheers for the info - tbh I bought the SD STL3 & STR3 not really knowing what they were - I’m building a partscaster and thought they might go in that and wasn’t aware they were available tapped. I must admit I was erring more towards the Fralins or possibly EMG TXs (with the appropriate pots ) before I asked the question, I have a freeway 3way blade but I’m not really ecstatic about it - it feels flimsy to me! I might go with the Schaller alternative though.
thanks all for the responses.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
I actually think it's the other way round - they're for people who *don't* want to lose the 'Tele-ness' by going to a humbucker guitar. They still sound like a Tele, just a massively fat and powerful one - but unlike any kind of humbucker, they do retain that deep bottom-end punch and twang. I prefer the bridge one fitted with a baseplate (which they don't come with as stock) and then they're probably my favourite 'not trying to be a vintage Tele' Tele pickup. The neck one isn't that useful without the bridge one - it's too dark to mix well with anything less powerful - but the bridge can be useful with a standard neck, if you want to exaggerate the 'pickup selector as overdrive switch' character that Teles have to some extent anyway.
Although I do agree about the tap option - it gives the best of both worlds, especially with the baseplate which makes even more difference on the tapped sound than the full one.
Other way round - 25K/50Ks kill the output and treble of passive pickups, but 250K/500Ks will work with actives - or at least the volumes will, the tone controls won't do anything much - but they simply reintroduce all the disadvantages of cable loading and noise that you fitted active pickups to avoid...
"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
(a) Yeah. I haven't tried those, but based on other hot single coils I have tried, that sounds about right. It's kind of surprising that tapped single coils aren't a bit more popular- they're not quite as good as "having your cake and eating it too", but they're not a million miles away, and work way better than (IMO) coil splits on humbuckers or series wiring on single coils.
(b) I've never tried it but I would guess it would suck a lot of your treble?
(c) Yeah those Freeway blade switches are a lot handier to wire than push-pulls/push-pushes, too! Only thing is if you did want to go for tapped pickups, you'd have to get PPs anyway. Plus if the Tele switch is the same as the Strat one, I was warned that combining tapped singles with the Freeway switch might work, but it also might not- IIRC it might tap the wrong half of the coil or something like that. Not a major problem (presumably) if the tap is bang in the centre of the wind, but if it's not...
(d) Does it? I know with the Strat Freeway switch you can do it on the bridge pickup, but maybe the Tele switch is different (I know it does a few different things on the Tele like phase switching which the Strat one doesn't do).
Going by hottish tapped Strat single coils I have, the higher output setting kind of loses its Strattiness quite a bit- though I do agree it doesn't really sound like a humbucker, either. I've got a set of Alegree tapped Tele pickups, though the higher output setting of them still isn't that hot (still 42AWG, just sort of maxxed out so around 8.5k) and even it's starting to sound a little less Tele than I'd like (not a massive problem because that's what I've got the lower output setting for! I only got the higher setting in case the regular setting wasn't hot enough for some things... it probably is, lol).
I also thought my Wilkinson Tele bridge pickup that I used to have in my Fret-King wasn't really "Tele" enough and I measured it around mid/high-7k (admittedly it was supposedly a broadcaster-style pickup, but I thought they were meant to use 43AWG?). So I would guess the STL-3 would be even worse in that respect! I am a bit picky when it comes to Tele bridge pickups, there's a real sweet spot for me around the high 6k to low 7k range where it still sounds like a Tele but has enough grunt for most stuff as well...
My intent is to go through the whole set up from the nut to the bridge hence my question about worthwhile mods - at the end of the day it’s not an expensive instrument so parts of it will have been ‘value engineered’, I just thought if I’m going though the whole thing then it would be a good time to make any worthwhile changes to pickups, wiring, switches etc. (though ‘worthwhile’ is probably subjective dependent upon personal preferences).
I think I’m leaning towards the Fralin pickups as I already have them for a project tele that’s taking far longer than anticipated to complete then I can leave it alone and enjoy playing it.
Thank you all for your detailed replies they’ve been very helpful and enlightening.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
I have found out the hard way how costs can run away if you let them - the partscaster project has cost me more then my Tele did - taken 6 months so far and its still not finished! though when/if its finished I will have learnt a tremendous amount about guitars in general and can sit back and say 'I did that' (though I'm not naive enough to think I could possibly make one from scratch!) Buying a 'better' guitar in the first place was an option and sanctioned by Mrs M1ck the realist in me struggled to justify it, though I do take it seriously I only play for my own amusement/entertainment.
I really like electro-sockets on my teles - the standard cup socket stresses me, where a chunk of turned aluminium reassures me.
I also like the Gotoh extra large strap buttons and have them on nearly all my guitars now.
I've flipped the control panel (and pots) so the pickup selector is at the back, so I can change volume/gain on the fly.
I swap the volume pot for a CTS low friction, not too fussed about 250 or 500k, the tone has to be an audio taper (as a south paw reverse audio taper).. and the switch knob is a strat one ...
IMO tele pickup selector knobs are ridiculous, fall off and get in the way of the tone control. So I use strat knobs or a piece of heatshrink wrapped over the top of the bare metal.
My approach to tuning on a tele is based off having a 3 barrel saddle set and an ashtray bridge - I intone for a 4 note per string scale. I don't like the 6 saddles on a tele - mostly a visual aesthetic I guess, I'm happy to change my playing approach to a more restricted style on that one instrument (I've 9 other guitars atm - a buzz feiten on a Suhr classic and an earvana on Tokai ES-120)
The compensated nuts are great for wide ranging chordal playing and harp harmonics.
Or do more popular Seymour Duncans get catchy names?
Sufficed to say, my Tele had an APTL-1 (which I never hear mentioned) in the bridge when I bought it, and it sounds fab. Tele-ish but capable of warmth with good definition.
For me they're the ultimate Tele strings - easy country/blues bending on the top strings, with massive industrial grind and twang on the bottom ones.
If you want even slinkier bending at the expense of slightly less sledgehammer, 9-46 are good too.
I really dislike a flipped plate - I constantly change volume/gain on the fly with one, when I don't want to .
I always end up scuffing my knuckles on the rough sides of it too.
I intonate them for the sharper of the two strings on each saddle - ie the B, G and low E, and let the others be slightly flat. A flat string is much less obvious than a sharp one, and can be compensated for with left-hand technique - even subconsciously, when you get used to it.
"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