Strat/Tele hybrid, what to do?

Today I was assessing my gear, and realised that I'm not really happy with any of my guitars. The two I like best are a Tele & a Strat, but neither are quite right for me. So, I accept I am being a bit fussy, but why not :)

So, the Tele sounds right to me, but I find the body uncomfortable, and I always have to tweak the tone control when moving from neck to bridge.

The Strat feels nice and comfy, I like the VTT controls and the jack plate, but I never use position 2, 3 or 4 and prefer two pickups and 3-way switch. The big issue for me with the Strat is that it sounds a bit "hollow" like it's not as alive as the Tele.

I'm not sure why the Strat sounds hollow, is that a consequence of having the trem, springs and big rout in the back? Maybe it's just pickups...

So, I'm thinking I want a hardtail Strat with my Tele pickups, 3 way switch and VTT controls. I think a vintage Tele bridge will look really bad though, so what to do? Can I successfully mount a Tele bridge pickup in a Strat, and will it sound "right"? I dunno :lol:

Any comments/ideas/suggestions about this would be great.

You could have body cuts done on your tele or you could do a strat with hardtail strat bridge and the bridge pickup position routed out to accept the tele pickup. First I would try to get the strat pick ups to all be the same distance from the strings and then take a listen to all 5 positions. This last bit may solve the "hollow" problem. But some two pick up strat settings can be hollow sounding its what makes them fun.

Please excuse my response hear in the STRAT Forum, but here's an option. Belly cut, forearm contour, but TELE. I hear you on the VTT deal, but the tone control isn't THAT far away for the little tweek now and then! :wink::grin:

http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/519/medium/Geoffcaster_2_T.jpg

Here are my helpful ideas: ymmv.

You could get a hardtail bridge strat or deck the tremolo on your strat with a wooden block; find a strat bridge pickup made to emulate the tele twang, wound hotter ~10k than the usual 6.5k strat pickup, attach a baseplate to it (sold by Lindy Fralin), throw in a warm neck pickup like a Fender CS69 or a chimey neck pickup pickup, remove the middle pup, and wire a 4-way switch. You could then have separate tone controls for each pup. Then play with the pickup heights until you have your sound.

You could even take the magnet out of a weak middle pickup and have a normal looking strat with a dummy middle coil to cancel the hum and VERY slightly add midrange and bass. That sounds cool to me!

Links:

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/stratocaster-discussion-forum/209375-tele-like-bridge-pickup-strat.html

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/stratocaster-discussion-forum/278034-make-your-strat-more-versatile-quieter.html


-Drew

An arm & belly cut on a Tele is a good thing.

JJ

Squier '51?