newbie with some questions ...modding a tele

hey there fellas

i just bought a mexican tele and would like to do some mods , thought maybe you guys could give me some advice, tips , suggestions ....whatever.

first off im gonna be installing a piezo but im still not sure which . fishman or L.R baggs.( some people tell me lr baggs are better sounding)

second, the stock pickups sound aweful so im shopping around for some replacements .....right now im kinda entertaining the idea of getting the same bridge humbucker PU that is used on the parker p-38 guitars cause i love the sound of it so much. i have no problem just sticking to a single coil bridge pickup ( as a matter of fact the dimarzio humbucker single coil style PU looks cool too)but i dont want to take a chance at ordering a pickup online and end up not liking it .

and finally im gonna want to replace the frets with some jumbo sized ones. however , my buddy tells me that there are several types of jumbo frets so what i want to know is what are the different types and how are they different from eachother

any thoughts ,advice ,suggestions is most appreciated ...thanks!!!


p.s for those of you who might ask : why buy a tele if you are gonna do all these mods?"

the answer is simple :i love teles , i love the way they look and feel and i plan on buying a room full..lol...besides , it was dirt cheap .

thanks again .

If you want a (quasi) humbucker sound in a single coil package, you might consider the Little '59 for Teles from Seymour Duncan... It will drop right in the bridge pup hole, but I'm not sure exactly how much like a humbucker it will sound with a narrower magnetic field.

As far as Jumbo wire, the Dunlop 6130 is similar to old Gibson "jumbo" wire, but would probably be considered medium by today's standards. The Dunlop 6150 is larger, while the 6100 is more in the Ibanez and Jackson range.

You might just consider a new neck, as you could sell yours and get a new one with the fretwire you desire with the proceeds.

I don't know much about either of the piezos that you mentioned, as I don't use them. I assume that they come as part of a new bridge? I ask because most people would advise you to swap out the bridge on the MIM tele.

If you want a (quasi) humbucker sound in a single coil package, you might consider the Little '59 for Teles from Seymour Duncan... It will drop right in the bridge pup hole, but I'm not sure exactly how much like a humbucker it will sound with a narrower magnetic field.

As far as Jumbo wire, the Dunlop 6130 is similar to old Gibson "jumbo" wire, but would probably be considered medium by today's standards. The Dunlop 6150 is larger, while the 6100 is more in the Ibanez and Jackson range.

You might just consider a new neck, as you could sell yours and get a new one with the fretwire you desire with the proceeds.

I don't know much about either of the piezos that you mentioned, as I don't use them. I assume that they come as part of a new bridge? I ask because most people would advise you to swap out the bridge on the MIM tele.

hey kevin...thanks for posting.

i listened to alot of clips on the seymour duncan site ( dont remember if there was one for the little '59..ill check again) but not one clip impressed me ...i dunno lacked character i guess....

good idea about the neck change btw!

oh and yes the piezo bridge will replace the whole tele bridge altogether...which is ok cause if i decide to put a humbucker ill need to make a bigger hole for it .

thanks again

bump