Pickup report and question [Archive] - Telecaster Guitar Forum

Hucklebilly

May 7th, 2004, 01:01 PM

A while back I ordered a Burns Steer from Musician's Friend, kinda on a whim because the price was good and something about the look of that guitar just appealed to me. Anyway, it's got a tapped humbucker at the bridge which sounds great, but the neck pickup was a little lame, so I got some advice from our wonderful board here about possible replacements. Brad turned me on to Steven Kersting at SK pickups and I ended up having him make one of his T-90 pickups. The T-90 is typically a bridge pickup, and it's touted as having a P-90 quality to it. I haven't really played enough P-90s to tell how accurate that description is, but I can say this is an outstanding pickup. I wanted something different from the traditional tele neck sound, which I have covered on my Am Std. I wanted something big, fat, and a little bit raunchy. I exchanged a number of emails with Steven, and tried to explain the sound I had in my head, and somehow he nailed it. This thing screams and sings. I couldn't be happier. Thanks to Brad for the tip!

Now the question: somehow in the process of wiring the pickup, I introduced a buzz. It goes away when I touch the strings, so it seems to be a grounding issue. I'm assuming I need to rig a string ground. Can anyone tell me exactly how to do this? If I attach a wire to the bridge plate, where should I ground it? Please help!!!

Brad

May 7th, 2004, 01:26 PM

Glad to help and I'm happy to hear the T-90 is working out for you. Outstanding ( IMO ) pickup. The beauty of this pickup is not only the straight out tone, but the various shadings that reside in volume and tone control tweaks.

As far as your grounding problem, I'd suggest looking at where the other grounds go to, vol or tone control, and attach the bridge ground there. When I took out the traditional tele bridge pup from mine and put the T-90 in, I also had to run a ground from the bridge to the pot. Took care of it right away.

Congrats on a cool tone machine. The Steers have intrigued me since the great review in GP a few years back. Have yet to try one, ( let alone see one! ) but from all accounts, they seem pretty cool.


	Telecaster Guitar Forum > Other Discussion Forums > Just Pickups > Pickup report and question PDA Pickup report and question Hucklebilly May 7th, 2004, 01:01 PM A while back I ordered a Burns Steer from Musician's Friend, kinda on a whim because the price was good and something about the look of that guitar just appealed to me. Anyway, it's got a tapped humbucker at the bridge which sounds great, but the neck pickup was a little lame, so I got some advice from our wonderful board here about possible replacements. Brad turned me on to Steven Kersting at SK pickups and I ended up having him make one of his T-90 pickups. The T-90 is typically a bridge pickup, and it's touted as having a P-90 quality to it. I haven't really played enough P-90s to tell how accurate that description is, but I can say this is an outstanding pickup. I wanted something different from the traditional tele neck sound, which I have covered on my Am Std. I wanted something big, fat, and a little bit raunchy. I exchanged a number of emails with Steven, and tried to explain the sound I had in my head, and somehow he nailed it. This thing screams and sings. I couldn't be happier. Thanks to Brad for the tip! Now the question: somehow in the process of wiring the pickup, I introduced a buzz. It goes away when I touch the strings, so it seems to be a grounding issue. I'm assuming I need to rig a string ground. Can anyone tell me exactly how to do this? If I attach a wire to the bridge plate, where should I ground it? Please help!!! Brad May 7th, 2004, 01:26 PM Glad to help and I'm happy to hear the T-90 is working out for you. Outstanding ( IMO ) pickup. The beauty of this pickup is not only the straight out tone, but the various shadings that reside in volume and tone control tweaks. As far as your grounding problem, I'd suggest looking at where the other grounds go to, vol or tone control, and attach the bridge ground there. When I took out the traditional tele bridge pup from mine and put the T-90 in, I also had to run a ground from the bridge to the pot. Took care of it right away. Congrats on a cool tone machine. The Steers have intrigued me since the great review in GP a few years back. Have yet to try one, ( let alone see one! ) but from all accounts, they seem pretty cool.