AmSer vs Baja neck pickups

[jefrs]

For reasons best known to myself, I swapped out the Baja's 'twisted tele' neck pup for the spare AmSer'07. Wow! What a difference.

The out of phase really came alive and useful, the series still has that scooped out tone but stronger and brighter, the parallel much fuller (there's a cap). The in phase are both brighter and fuller. The AmSer neck pu does not have the same slightly brittle tone of the Baja's 'twisted' but a cooler, cleaner tone with possibly more output. It's mounted quite low on rubber tubes and screwed to the wood. Slightly modified TBX tone, otherwise standard Baja wiring.

Does anyone have a technical explanation of the difference in these two neck pickups?

[boris bubbanov]

I like the American Series neck pickup. I think a lot of others would like it more, were it not combined with the modern bridge plate.

I think the Am Se pickup is more of a traditional application Tele neck pickup. The Baja "Twisted Tele" is a more stratty sounding pickup, a very tall pickup with a lot of output but not muddy as many higher output pickups would be. I think the nickel silver as opposed to the chromed brass cover produces a different sound.

I've used several different Tele pickups in series and parallel, and also in series out of phase and I do like a lot of those sounds.

The "Twisted Tele" sound is clearly not your conventional neck tele sound, but I find it extremely attractive and of much value, and also a lot of fun.

I would be more likely, frankly, to change out the bridge pickup on a Baja than the stock neck pickup, but we're talking about individual tastes here, IMO, as opposed to empirical inferiority of either pickup you have tried. YMMV.

[jefrs]

Thanks Boris,
These things are very much personal taste, aren't they.

I think if you have a shed full of teles, this one is worth trying - you'll probably hate it ;-)

I like the modern bridge plate, it's comfortable and has good intonation but that's on the AmSer'07 bridge, I don't know the new'08. It was the Baja that I put the AmSer Neck pickup into as a straight swap (plus ground wire). I like the bridge plate on that too, I even bought it an ash-tray ;-)

To me the AmSer neck pickup has a cooler jazz tone for clean whereas the twisted has more brittleness and bite for drive. I didn't measure them but they looked the same height. The twisted has tape around the coil. Strangely, the AmSer pickup does not sound quite the same as it did in the AmSer. The AmSer has a largish Philips head driven into the underside between G and B, what's that about?

I fancied that the AmSer neck has a little more output than the twisted. I was not aware of the different cover alloys. Which has the Nickel-Silver and which the Brass?

I like the twisted too, but I like messing about with sounds and I found the combination of AmSer Neck and Baja Broadcaster Bridge pickups in the Baja quite amazing! It did not do that in the AmSer, all of these being good quality pickups...

The Baja has been modified with a standard TBX tone control. The AmSer donor first received a 4-way, then fitted with a TBX modified with an extra 104 cap in series with the 82k resistor to ground (I had used this on a Gretsch with DeArmond 2000's) when its neck pickup was replaced with a split-pole WR-like humbucker. The no-loads don't do enough for me.

May I ask why you might change the Baja's Broadcaster bridge pickup?

[boris bubbanov]

Originally Posted by jefrs

The AmSer has a largish Philips head driven into the underside between G and B, what's that about?

I fancied that the AmSer neck has a little more output than the twisted. I was not aware of the different cover alloys. Which has the Nickel-Silver and which the Brass?


May I ask why you might change the Baja's Broadcaster bridge pickup?

I don't know what that philips head is for, either.

The Twisted Tele and some of these recently introduced limited offering CS Teles have the nickel-silver; everything else normally has the chrome plated brass.

I might simply be intoxicated by the neck pickup on the Baja, which is generally the exception for me. On OV and No-Caster equipped guitars, I tend to lean heavily on the bridge pickup and I don't do that on the stock Baja; that leads me to suspect I will like something else in there better. And yet I also know that Fessler did not select the TT and the Broadcaster to do duty together, series and parallel, in phase and out, at random. Just that traditional vintage streak at work, I suppose.

[RockinCarl]

Originally Posted by jefrs

Does anyone have a technical explanation of the difference in these two neck pickups?

Standard Tele neck pickups (including the Am-std.) are wound with 43 gauge wire. The Baja tele neck pickups are wound with 42 gauge wire, and is wound around slightly taller magnets which gives it more clarity. Then like Boris said- The baja has a nickle/silver cover which adds even more clarity.