Pickup Suggestions for "FrankenTele'

[petemoore]

I have a BC Rich neck in wood Tele Body Clone, the 24 frets 'tightening' the room to place pickups..
 It is a Maple neck with Rosewood fingerboard.
 Anyone try the "Noiseless' pickups, they seem the easiest to access good deal for tele types.
 Figured since I'm building the guitar and going to run it through stompboxes it's not really too OT To type about pickups.
 Any suggestions for what I should be thinking about are welcome.
 heres what I'm thinking about...
 HB or SC for the bridge, some kind of dual sound type HB would be cool, or SC or Stacked HB...I'm looking for any knowledge in these 'balanced together' choices
 I'm pretty certain I do want at least SC in the neck, dual sound might be cool.
 All that leaves lots open for thinking about...
 Nice matched set for tele type tones would be cool.
 Any coil or coils choices are welcomed, as are wiring suggestions, I've been googling for those pondering my efforts to access info on my own, but haven't really hit a site that inspired me.
 I posted here because I know you guys might have some ideas or could suggest reads.
 The neck is set in the body for a tele type bridge, plate of metal with the 3 saddles thing...looks like it's going to be a great one, I LOVE New Frets !!!

[vortex]

I am a recent convert to Teles (strat guy!) as I have played very few that didn't sound like mismatched wire and wood. Finally, I found an old maple necked Japan Squire that had some cool mods that tipped the scales.

The guitar has a Gibson P-90 for the neck pu and a Seymour Duncan "Jerry Donahue" pu for the bridge. The guitar has stacked pots for both pu's with tone and volume for each which allows for some great blending of the two. Pretty much like a Les Paul vol/tone arrangement. The pots are available at www.stewmac.com, they are 500K but in no way do I find the sound too bright.

The SD Donahue has a fantastic classic tele sound. IMHO you pretty much have to have brass saddles and a maple neck to get the classic snap and twang. The P-90 is very warm and fat and adds meat in combination with the Donahue. On it's own it is a great Jazz or blues, blues rock tone.



Anyway, that's my 2 cents, I am super happy with this setup on my Tele.

[smccusker]

I've just ordered a L-290TL from Bill Lawrence (hand made by the man himself, not one of the rubbish production line ones) to put in the bridge of my tele. You should have a look at his site. They're really helpful, and can make all sorts of marvelous recomendations, and answer any questions etc. however they are very popular, and he makes them one at a time so there is a fairly reasonable wait, and there aren't any soundclips on his site. But i'd be happy to record a quick demo when i finally get them.

[Hungeryhippie]

hey hello, I had to reply to your message because i own a "FrankenTele" too, mine is a tele body with a les paul neck. I had the body made for me and the whole thing assembled. Its is fantastic and i love it to bits.


I knew the wood for the body from when it was a plank. The wood is ash and has been left natural with just a bees wax finsh on it. The photo is a bit shakey so doesnt to the grain justice.
The neck p/u is a humbucker with blades instead of polepieces, i brought it off ebay, its very powerfull with a very good sound, the bridge assembley and pick up is off a telecaster so is standard frender stuff with three saddles, and sounds really good, I also went for the ashtray bridge cover but it serves as an assetic more than any thing as it gets in the way abit. The wiring is very simple three way switch (neck, both , bridge). Its the way i wanted it a simple solid guitar. Good luck with your franken tele.

[smccusker]

thats a damn sweet looking guitar

[MartyMart]

Sounds like fun Pete !
I recently changed my '62 reissue strat pickups to a "Jason Lollar" matched vintage set and I must say it sounds fantastic !!
My Old "Jap Tele" has been left stock ( so far ) but I quite like the idea of
having a "Keef Richards" custom with HB in there, though somehow that
wont be a "Tele" anymore .... if you get my drift ?
A bit like putting HB on the bridge of a strat ( which I did ) and it didn't
stay there long....

There's loads of info around for pickup wiring and "BD13UK" was very
helpful to me when choosing the strat pickups, he may chime in to help
you also, as he's very experienced with gtr setups etc.

"Franken-tele"   I like that !   :lol:

Marty.

[brian wenz]

Hello Hello--
   A P-90 sounds great in the bridge or neck position of a Telecaster [you'd have to put a non-tremolo Strat bridge on the Telecaster, though.]
Actually,  having a Strat non-trem. bridge on  a Telecaster makes it possible for all kinds of bridge pickup options.........you could even put a Gretsch pickup in there!
Brian.
WWW.OTTOSGUITARS.COM

[vanhansen]

I'm going to be building a Tele myself and the pickups I've chosen will the a Lindy Fralin Blues Special (bridge) and Seymour Duncan Hot Rhythm (neck).  This is killer combo.

[Mark Hammer]

I "Nashville-ized" my Turser Tele clone, sticking a home-wound Strat pickup in the middle.  Note that if one uses the standard 5-way switch and Strat wiring on such an instrument, the neck+bridge combo (the classic Tele sound) is unavailable.  However, if you swap the middle and bridge pickup hot eads on the switch, you get the following:

Pos-1: Neck
Pos-2: Neck + bridge
Pos-3: Bridge
Pos-4: Bridge + Middle
Pos-5: Middle

In other words, pos 1-3 get you Tele tones, and pos 4-5 get an additional pair of Strat tones.  There are certainly switching arrangements that will get you more options, but in terms of keeping what it is we love about Teles and simply adding on a bit of what we love about Strats, it just doesn't get much simpler than this.  Packing it all into the same space and switch also saves headaches of routing and drilling, etc.  Plus you don't need a "mega-switch", just a regular 5-way.

[brian wenz]

Hello Hello--
    Yep, simple is better!
Brian.
WWW.OTTOSGUITARS.COM

[petemoore]

I dropped the bridge plate [I made in a few minutes] on the guitar body, and it sounded alot different than any sound I'd heard during my previous guitar builds.
 oh OT...
 Leo injected genious in most of his design affairs.
 I compared the Tele Bridge to Gibson...
 By the time Leo would be able to fashion saddle and bridge for two strings completely, the LP bridge would still be in the planning/machining stages for one strings saddle/bridge arrangement. Starting with a Rod and drilling/tapping a few holes in it, and Plate of metal is too sensible.  
 Then, even after the LP Bridge finally gets done [wayy way later after all that machining of saddles and bridge are done], it still has no individual string height adjustments...which of course is debatable whether it's necessary...once the guitar is set up properly LP's play great...you 'want' [generally] to have the strings be 'even' [not one string sticking up 'past' the others for accurate/easy strumming and picking strength control.
 I like LP's sound and all, just that from a Mfr.'s point of view the bridge/tailpiece is ALOT less DIY friendly, you must machine everything and that's alot of precise machining.
 I think that plate has something to do with the 'tanky' tone Tele's have, not 'better' just 'tanky'...cool...I'm sure I'm rewording what's known.
 For simplicity and effectiveness and easy to get going-ness, the Tele Bridge design wins awards...plates and rods of metal are two of the most made [and therefore the most available] shapes of metal.
 The three 'lifted sides' and pickup hole of the metal plate thwart less observant copiers...you need to forget lifting the two sides [and pickup hole] or have a metal stamp dedicated to making the plates... :idea: ...I started with a copper plate, bent one end up...all I have to do is fairly precisely drill a buncha holes...

[petemoore]

Thanks to you for all the great pickup and wiring suggestions !!!
 Double shielding [as done on the last 'Clone my Junior'] by a good margin made for the quietest guitar I've ever messed with...I used copper tubes [between cavities] and bent circles of plate around a broomstick for the individual round cavities [one per pot]...a relatively easy to do technique, then used shielded wire too !!! The pickup holes got 'coppered' with *3 plates, *one plate shaped for the bottom and two sides.
 "Noise floors are to be removed', ...for those less inclined to 'true vintage sound'.

[bwanasonic]

Hey Pete-

Yes, the Tele bridge design is quite a marvel of economy and efficiency. Makes things a little trickier intonation-wise, but I simply adore the clarity and responsivness. Keep in mind a 24 fret neck is going to muck things up a bit for a neck pickup, as the pickup itself should ideally be sitting at the *virtual* 24th fret to capture the harmonics there. Decent aftermarket Tele necks are pretty cheap if you really want to make it a proper tele. Not sure what pickup price range you looking in, but be sure to check out Harmonic Designs:

http://www.harmonicdesign.net/allpages/teles.html

One of the other marvels of (stock) Tele design is the way the volume and tone controls interact with the pickup selector for an incredibly wide range of tones.

You can read Bill Frisell wax poetic about Teles in this article:

http://www.tacomaguitars.com/news/index.php?display_article=17

Kerry M

[vanhansen]

The Tele sound not only comes from the bridge design (pickup mounted to bridge) but the metal plate that is mounted to the bottom of Tele bridge pickups.  That plate helps keep the magnetic field focused more around the strings.  Add one of those plates to any Strat bridge pickup and you'll get some Tele characteristics out it.

[petemoore]

Great reads..I'm glad I started this thread.
 I'm going to be building a Tele myself and the pickups I've chosen will the a Lindy Fralin Blues Special (bridge) and Seymour Duncan Hot Rhythm (neck). This is killer combo.
 Looking at Stewart Mac and Guitar Centers...
 Guitar centers has the pickups they have and can order...
 Stew Mac has golden age pickups and videos of other brands available [easily] online, searches for fralin and bartolini bring up video selections...[so they psusch]
 Where's a great place to shop for pickups [and tele saddles would be nice] online?

[vanhansen]

 Where's a great place to shop for pickups [and tele saddles would be nice] online?

I've been getting pickups from Lew's Guitars: http://www.lewsguitars.com/
He's got some parts too.

[nightingale]

hello,
i play teles. i have three of them: 52 RI, 95 american standard, and a warmoth 52 RI.

The warmoth has "fender noisles"s tele pickups. they are about $90 USD for both pups. They are the best sounding tele pups i have ever heard?

I am cconsidering loading my white american standard with the entry level Fender noisless tele pups? Thye sound realy "woody".

just my opinions,

[BD13UK]

I think the first thing You have to decide is whether You just want the Tele twang thing or something else as well, if it's purely humcancelling single coil sounding size p/ups then I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Bill Lawrence L280's and L290's they're the best H/cancelling p/ups I've heard however if You want a dual option of Humbucker/single coil at the bridge then the Kent Armstrong Tele Hot Rail is excellent and realistically priced. You could also use a Kent Armstrong Strat HotRail at the front giving Humbucker/Single Coil option there also. There are numerous possiblities but I only recommend the aforementioned  makes because they are really good value and wont bankrupt You in the process.

[petemoore]

The thing I'm trying to figure out now is the pole piece spacing, which is trickier than taking the guitar to G Center and sizing it up.
 The bridge spacing is that of a Gibson Les Paul.
 The 280-s looks about perfect, but I don't know [couldn't find] the spacing. There was a page...http://www.billlawrence.com/Pages/Pickup_Window/tempered.htm
 About pole spacing but I can't figure out what it means.
 Spacing is important, as is balanced output of low/high strings, my main complaint with my Washburn 3SC is that the high E string isn't heard right.

[BD13UK]

Pete, why dont You give Bill Lawrence a call and discuss it with either Him or Becky, they really are very helpful and will keep You right on this one.