How do I mod this Tele..

KevS · December 2022

I have ended up with 3 Teles..
2 of them have the pickup set I like best,,and they back eachother up..
One is really easy to play,,one fights a touch but is saying to me,Play the F*ck out of me,,
it really has that Vibe..
Tele 3 is a bit more like Play the F*ck out of me...
I have had a couple of different sets of pickups in this Tele..
They just sound not as good the set I like..
All 3 Teles are equally good unplugged..
I was originally going to sell the third Tele..
After a little fret levelling was done by a tech..
No way,,it's a great guitar..
A lot of Fender American Specials I have had, had uneven frets..
Not good Fender..
The latest American Performer series seem a little better..

Anyway I am thinking..
Why not turn this guitar into something else completely,but equally useful...

There has Been Texas Special Tele and Tonerider slightly hotter Vintage Alnico 3 Pickups in there..
My Favourite set is Fender Original Vintage Tele,,they are also Alnico 3 and don't sound thin..
I hate the Texas Specials..

I have HH'ed a couple of Strats then have a handful of Humbucker guitars..
I have a P90 guitar..
I'm not that fond of Filter Trons..
Gold Foils are expensive and low output..
Maybe too much of a Novelty thing for me..

A nice Humbucker can be good..
Would a SD JB and Jazz not basically be a Jeff Beck Tele Gib,,or near one anyway..?

I have this set in a Les Paul 70s Tribute,plus an Epiphone LP Standard already..HMMMMM !!

I really like this Tele,,it is nice to play..

I am thinking I should Adapt it into something else..
There is no point having 3 Teles with cloned electrics..

So any ideas People..?

I don't want a Vintage Tele Set,,or even a Hot one..
If I have to get a new bridge put on and a bit of wood removed,,so be it..

Jonathangus · December 2022

Firebird pickups. And a Bigsby.

KevS · December 2022

Jonathangus said:

Firebird pickups. And a Bigsby.

I hate Bigsbys sorry,,but Firebird Pickups ,,interesting...

ICBM · December 2022

KevS said:

If I have to get a new bridge put on and a bit of wood removed,,so be it..

Unless that kills the sound you like in the guitar...

It would also be a shame to do that and then find you like the result even less than what you've already tried.

I would suggest something which gives you a different sound without doing anything that drastic - maybe a hot single coil set (eg Duncan Quarter-Pound, maybe with a tapped bridge), or some mini-humbuckers.

KevS · December 2022

ICBM said:

KevS said:

If I have to get a new bridge put on and a bit of wood removed,,so be it..

Unless that kills the sound you like in the guitar...

It would also be a shame to do that and then find you like the result even less than what you've already tried.

I would suggest something which gives you a different sound without doing anything that drastic - maybe a hot single coil set (eg Duncan Quarter-Pound, maybe with a tapped bridge), or some mini-humbuckers.

This Chopper T sounds like it doesn't kill the high end too much,,although a Tele has plenty of high usually..
Still hopefully some girth there to make my finger muscles a bit bigger..
Have you got any experience of this one..
I didn't like the Little 59 in a Strat and find Hot Rails Dull in a Strat this was with 250K pots....

I'd like a bit more fatness in the Mids,not shrill treble but enough,,I like Sizzle though..
Too Clean and Pristine Treble sounds De Bollocked to me..
I like a rude frying treble..The JB has it..The Fender Original Vintage Tele Bridge has it..
Even though the Fender Original Vintage Tele is Lower output than the Tonerider Vintage Hot..
The Tonerider has too clean treble and not enough mid push compared to the Fender..
I like Lower mids,,I know some people like a scooped sound,,I don't....
That bit around 800 Hz I like,,I find it fattens the note out and adds some MSG in there..
Low End I am a bit more variable about...
I do like a pickup that responds to my touch..
I guess I like quite a tight bass..
Some pickups are wayward do this thing like there is limiter on them,,
they go plunk if you hit the strings hard,,they sort of Plunk out..lol
I dislike that..

i guess I'm quite fussy really..I do know what I like though..
I just don't know the names of what I like..

I'm not sure what is out there in single coil sized humbuckers for Teles..
I've had a look the 2 obvious places Seymour and Dimarzio..
I haven't came across any really high output Single Coils i like..
Well P90's but they are a different thing..

Sorry I was thinking about this Dimarzio pickup,,I am completely clueless about single coil sized Tele pickups ..

https://www.northwestguitars.co.uk/dimarzio-the-chopper-telecaster-humbucker-bridge-black/

Funkfingers · December 2022

DiMarzio Chopper T is a nice Rock pickup. (Think - Richie Kotzen with Winery Dogs.) Its clean sounds are unlikely to satisfy twang fiends.

The Fast Track T will twang but does not drive valve amplification as hard.

The downside to DiMarzio is their limited choice of T sized neck position pickups.

Seymour Duncan SHR-T1N and ST59-1B pair would go some way towards achieving humbucker tones without resorting to woodwork.

James Oliver's Charlie Christian pickup idea is a good one … provided that you can play like James!

Wide Range humbuckers are good - especially in the neck position.

Creamery Sonic '60 'Mid Range' for Telecaster could prove interesting - especially with series and phase reversal switching.

paulnb57 · December 2022

Esquire it.
Little 59 and Eldred wiring

stickyfiddle · December 2022

Get a palm bender

ICBM · December 2022

KevS said:

This Chopper T sounds like it doesn't kill the high end too much,,although a Tele has plenty of high usually..
Still hopefully some girth there to make my finger muscles a bit bigger..
Have you got any experience of this one..
I didn't like the Little 59 in a Strat and find Hot Rails Dull in a Strat this was with 250K pots

Not the Chopper T, but I have the standard Chopper in my Strat - it’s pretty middy. Still some aggressive high end and not muddy though - I wanted something that sounded close to a full-size Evo humbucker, and it’s not bad.

The Tele Li’l ‘59 is much less horrible than the Strat one, but I think this and the Hot Rails are not the droids you’re looking for...

Dave_Mc · December 2022

ICBM said:

KevS said:

If I have to get a new bridge put on and a bit of wood removed,,so be it..

Unless that kills the sound you like in the guitar...

It would also be a shame to do that and then find you like the result even less than what you've already tried.

I would suggest something which gives you a different sound without doing anything that drastic - maybe a hot single coil set (eg Duncan Quarter-Pound, maybe with a tapped bridge), or some mini-humbuckers.

That's what I would do- I'm all about reversible mods! Largely out of necessity because of a complete lack of any DIY nous, but still... you can kill the value of the guitar and you might not like the results, and then you really are screwed!

There should be 3 different types of Tele pickups at least (different magnets? 50s versus 60s versus broadcaster outputs?) and that's before you even consider things like rails, tapped singles etc. I'd be inclined to do that before trying something drastic. That being said- from what I've read of his posts, @KevS seems to be the kind of player who likes one specific recipe, rather than liking different specs because they're different. So (if I'm right!) that may complicate things slightly- it may push him more towards "different types of pickups" rather than "different specs of the same pickup type". Unfortunately I've only tried standard Tele pickups, I haven't tried any Tele-sized single coil-sized humbuckers...

Sporky · December 2022

Sustainiac!

KevS · December 2022

If you use the same pick up set in a different guitar,,it still sounds different to me..
There is still some consistency though..
Good idea in 2 guitars,but in a third Also..?
The Price of the set I like has went up..Groan..
Fender are getting silly expensive..
Mind you I think the same about Seymour Duncan..

A nice playing decent guitar is just that though,,there are so many mediocre and worse guitars..
Each time you buy one you run that risk of getting a Turd..
I have quite a few times..

Meanwhile I have unused Tele pickups I'm not a fan of..

Tonerider Hot Classics,
Fender V Mod,
Fender Texas Special.

It seems daft going for 3 with the same pickup set though..

Why I thought of doing something a bit radical,,but taking away wood can change sound..
I also have guitars covering that Humbucker thing..

I think the pickups in it just now are just not my thing..
I know the safe choice would work,,the same set again,.

Here we start going in Circles..

I would Chance the Seymour Mini Humbucker set that doesn't exist..
The JB Junior and the Jazz Junior..
They still wouldn't sound like their big brothers though..

One thing I am learning is that I am very Picky about Pickups..
Also about Guitars I guess,,there are many things I plain don't get on with..

Although my tastes in Humbuckers is a little Broader..

I feel dumb going for my dependable set,but it means I would like the sound of the guitar more..

Dave_Mc · December 2022

KevS said:

If you use the same pick up set in a different guitar,,it still sounds different to me..
There is still some consistency though..
Good idea in 2 guitars,but in a third Also..?
The Price of the set I like has went up..Groan..
Fender are getting silly expensive..
Mind you I think the same about Seymour Duncan..

A nice playing decent guitar is just that though,,there are so many mediocre and worse guitars..
Each time you buy one you run that risk of getting a Turd..
I have quite a few times..

Meanwhile I have unused Tele pickups I'm not a fan of..

Tonerider Hot Classics,
Fender V Mod,
Fender Texas Special.

It seems daft going for 3 with the same pickup set though..

Why I thought of doing something a bit radical,,but taking away wood can change sound..
I also have guitars covering that Humbucker thing..

I think the pickups in it just now are just not my thing..
I know the safe choice would work,,the same set again,.

Here we start going in Circles..

I would Chance the Seymour Mini Humbucker set that doesn't exist..
The JB Junior and the Jazz Junior..
They still wouldn't sound like their big brothers though..

One thing I am learning is that I am very Picky about Pickups..
Also about Guitars I guess,,there are many things I plain don't get on with..

Although my tastes in Humbuckers is a little Broader..

I feel dumb going for my dependable set,but it means I would like the sound of the guitar more..

LOL you sound like me. I agree with you about the pickups- they can be a bit different in different guitars but there's still a fair bit the same, even so. I was getting a bit worried I was putting too many similar spec pickups in different guitars, even though they weren't "the same" (i.e. different manufacturer).

(I agree about the prices of Duncans!)

ICBM · December 2022

Just a thought... the exact opposite of what I suggested before really

.

Why not put the pickups you like best in the one or two Teles you like best, and sell the third one? It seems unlikely that you really need three.

Dave_Mc · December 2022

ICBM said:

Just a thought... the exact opposite of what I suggested before really .

Why not put the pickups you like best in the one or two Teles you like best, and sell the third one? It seems unlikely that you really need three.

Or another similar, slightly less drastic suggestion- try the pickups you like best in the third guitar (assuming you haven't tried them there yet) to see how it sounds. At the very least that should confirm (or otherwise!) that it can be a good-sounding guitar with the right pickups.

If you can be bothered, of course- it's a lot of work and I certainly can rarely be bothered doing that! But it would let you see for sure whether it's worth considering a pickup upgrade for the third one.

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