Don Mare "Sting Ray" Esquire pickup

[Home Grown Tele]

Don announced recently over on TGP that he has just finished testing a new pickup that he's putting in production. It's called the Sting Ray Esquire.

It's a triple tapped pup for single pickup Esquires. It's a pretty simple wiring scheme that uses only the four left hand taps on a Tele 3 way switch.

His descrition is:

I never tried the Tapped Custom thing before.

so I gave it a shot! OH MY GOD!

I simply used the 3-way switch for the 3 taps --

on the 3-Way;
forward is Roy Buchanan tap (secret Spec 0.0K)
Middle is Bakersfield / Rock-n-roll Tap (6.6k)
Bridge is Tweed Monster tap ( 8.1k)

its the best guitar options I ever tried -

you can roll back the tone while in the middle position and get sweet neck pup like sound,

forward you can nail Roy's Nancy bridge tone!

And the bridge back position is the big over~wound Tweed Monster tone


Sounds like a killer pickup. I'm seriously thinking about this one for the ReRanch Orange Fircaster I'm building right now.

[e-merlin]

Sounds like a goodie! I may have to try one. Might be a fun pickup to use with a P90 on a blend pot.

[Tele Fan]

Sounds nifty!

[dougk]

Arte, I think Im going to have to build me an esquire with my other fir body with that pickup. Sounds like a killer pup to try out :D

[Home Grown Tele]

Originally Posted by dougk

Arte, I think Im going to have to build me an esquire with my other fir body with that pickup. Sounds like a killer pup to try out :D

Hey Doug! I'll send ya a sound clip when I get er' done so you can decide if that's the way you want to go or not.

Don's asking a fair chunk of change for this pickup ($200) but I figure it's a far sight cheaper than building a Nashville Tele and buying one each of those three pickups. Or worse yet building three Esquires.

BTW I thought you were on your honeymoon. You surely have better things to do, dontcha??

[JimiBryant]

that's it for me, I'm pulling the trigger and building me an Esquire!

[JamonHamon]

I'm going over to Don's house soon to check the Sting Ray out

[Jaxson612]

Jamon,
Give us the full report!

[Tele295]

Now THAT sounds like fun! Do I need another Esquire????? Maybe.........

Any pix yet? Will it fit into a regular Tele bridge slot?

[Home Grown Tele]

Originally Posted by Tele295

Any pix yet? Will it fit into a regular Tele bridge slot?

It should fit just fine. It's a tapped Tele bridge pickup so no issues with fit, it just has more wires to hook up.

[allen st. john]

Hmmm....

Could you use this in a straight tele as well with a five way switch?
This could give you something like neck/neck+ Buchanan parallel/Buchanan/Bakersfield/Tweed Monster.

Double Hmmmm.

best
Allen

[Perry D.]

Maybe put the taps on a mini toggle between vol and tone? The implications for this pickup are pretty exciting!!

[Jim Sams]

No news from Jamon?

[JamonHamon]

Sorry guys no time right now!!!...

[Home Grown Tele]

OK I just wired up one of Don's 3 Speed Stingray Esquire pickups in my Gretschquire and all I can say is WOW!!!

This one has it all. Beautiful sweet cleans in the neck position and progressively nastier grit as you go from middle to bridge. But the grit cleans up nice as you back off the volume.

Don you have outdone yourself on this one!!

Hope to get a clip up soon.

[graphs]

I for one will be looking forward to said clip!

[stevieboy]

Originally Posted by Home Grown Tele

This one has it all. Beautiful sweet cleans in the neck position and progressively nastier grit as you go from middle to bridge. But the grit cleans up nice as you back off the volume.

.

Now wait a minute, it's an Esquire, how can it have a neck position?

I assume you mean the way the switch is pointed compared to a standard tele, with the lowest value being the neck position?

Clips!

[JamonHamon]

I want it So bad!!!...Gas

[Big Mike Simpson]

Is there sound clips anywhere?

[Big Mike Simpson]

Does anyone have one of these installed yet?

[sapi]

I've got some ground covered already with 4709 and Tweed Monster in two tele's but this is VERY interesting to have in one killer tele, possibly in conjunction with a great neck pu and a 5 way... hmmm.
Let us know guys!

[Home Grown Tele]

Originally Posted by Big Mike Simpson

Does anyone have one of these installed yet?

Yep I do. Sound clip will be up shortly.

[Big Mike Simpson]

Does any one know if any other company offers a tapped bridge pickup like this?


.... edit...
Looks like Seumour Duncan has a tapped bridge with 2 taps.
https://secure.seymourduncan.com/for...d.php?t=130923

Here is a previous discussion on tapped bridge pickups...
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/just-pick...r-esquire.html

[Home Grown Tele]

Curtis Novak is producing a Jazzmaster bridge pickup with 4 taps at 4k, 8k, 12k and 16k.

It's used in the Rothstein Jazzmaster with the S15 switching system.

You can read about it and hear samples HERE

[Don Mare]

Originally Posted by Home Grown Tele

Curtis Novak is producing a Jazzmaster bridge pickup with 4 taps at 4k, 8k, 12k and 16k.

It's used in the Rothstein Jazzmaster with the S15 switching system.

You can read about it and hear samples HERE

Curtis is cool!
been sending him my rewind request!

hit this link to his 4-tap Jazzmaster "jangly track"
you'll here the volume jump 4 times and the bass and mids go up..
Thats pretty much what you would expect to hear from a tapped option -
http://www.guitar-mod.com/music/cat5_jangle2.mp3