My Fender Wide Range Solution

[DenisS]

I bought a Fender Custom Deluxe Tele body from Reliable Fender. At first I had a maple/maple neck from Bob Logan on it. Now it has a maple/rosewood Fender Nashville neck (also from Reliable). I belt-sand the heel on every Fender neck I use. This helps tone and stability in a huge way. No stickers – no finish.

The original Made-In-Mexico Wide Range pickups were nice for rhythms, but very poor for leads. They sounded spitty and flat, and were harmonically uninteresting. A snotty but underwhelming pickup.

I went to work on those, and had a pile of Tele pickups on my bench, but decided that I had too much of my own work to do, so it was best not to become a pickup man today. I decided to offer the challenge to the impeccable Kevin Smit,(Smit’s Handwound Guitar Pickups) who had just done a set of Classic Coil 5 humbuckers for my over-bassy ’69 Les Paul. Those are outstanding.

I had posted here on the Telecaster forum when I was starting the Tele job, and said I would keep everyone informed. So here is what happened.

I discussed the problem and what I wanted with Kevin Smit.

My vision for this guitar is to have a mix of ES335 and Tele, with a bit of Strat and Les Paul thrown in. The pickups must be blendable in the same way that one would use a Les Paul controls setup. The pickup switch is up top which is a great thing for me.

The goal was to have a strong output that is clear with a round but tight bottom – not flabby. The mids needed to be clear and smooth, and not too growly, and the top end should bite, but not be harsh. We needed that missing sting in the leads too. Humbucker power or single coil texture switchable.

The pickups had to look stock and fit properly. Fender embossed covers intact.

We decided to build standard humbuckers with custom-cut alnico 5 magnets, slightly unbalanced coils, and do the “magnificent coil tap”. The bridge pickup would be made stronger than the neck pickup. They would be wax potted.

I put a T-Top pickup in at the bridge for the interim, which was not too bad.

Took two weeks and I had the rewound pickups back from Smit’s.

I installed the pickups into the Custom Deluxe Tele using 500kohm pots. The tone pots are connected to the output (center) of the volume pots, like a ’50s Les Paul. I used .022 Mallory for the tone caps.

The neck tone pot is also a 2-pole switch. When it is pulled up the pickups both turn into single coils. I let the inner coils remain turned on.

I put Ernie Ball 2251 Pure Nickel Wrap (.010 to .046”) on the ax to give it strong output, warmth and a nice string feel. I like these strings on a Fender, but will try Snake Oil or Pyramid some day.

I did the setup and went to the jam.

I’m using a Bandmaster Reverb head that I boutiqued (I like having a mid control and always use a .047 mids cap with these amps), into a 2X12” Carvin open-back bottom loaded with a Jensen C12K and a Jensen Falcon with the “magical green cone”. These speakers compliment each other brilliantly. The C12K is clear and tight with a good front-of-the-note. The Falcon is heavy on the mids with not that much treble. Together the bottom is smoothed out beautifully and you can get the quasi-SRV pierce too. This amp has a presence circuit that switches-in a 10 MFD bypass via the bright switch. I never use it with my other guitars, but this guitar likes it.

So, how did we do?

I had one of those outings where you setup your amp tone and dial in a pedal or two and just go for the whole night without walking up to the amp again.

These pickups sounded great from the first note. A totally professional sound. Not wanting and not trying, just getting it all. Very balanced tone. Clear and articulate. The right warmth to tightness ratio for me. The rhythms were powerful. If I wanted more hair, I added in my ZVEX Distortron. As noted, I switched in the presence circuit on my Bandmaster, and this is my only guitar that likes it.

I tried the coil split and it was fantastic.

The leads were outstanding in both coil modes and on both pickups.

The pickups blended real well. The palette of tones that can be dialed-in with simple volume adjustments is wonderful. And I can do the Les Paul one on/one off switch trick (which is gratuitous – I admit).

I would have to liken the tone to something familiar by saying that a Nashville guy would probably go for this – I could see where Chet Atkins would do wonders with this guitar. It holds together at volume too. Yet, when we step on the gas we can get something that maybe you would want for AC/DC rhythms, as opposed to the Zeppelin thing. It does not sustain like a Les Paul – or even like a good Strat, but somehow it’s not missed. You can stomp-box it in nicely and it drives a wah and other effects in a good way. It’s hard to make this guitar sound annoying (but I’ll try). Big character. Great big character.

No squeal, no noise problems. I can get the most awesome controllable feedback at the end of a tune and not even be too loud doing it.

I’m big on the Stones and the Beatles, but do a wide variety (like most of the folks here). Derringer, Motown, Zep, Yes, Cheap Trick, Moody Blues, The Band, Johnny Cash – I don’t know, the jams go all over the place. Sometimes we just stay in “E” or “Am” for 15 minutes and keep moving the accents around and see where it goes.

This is now my favorite guitar. I was surprised to see myself kiss it on the neck last night. This thing does it all and is not a compromise. This is a take-over sound that can go out on any venue, in my not so humble opinion.

I am overjoyed that, for once, the reality matches the vision.

Kevin “Smitty” Smit handwound me a set of kickass beauties out of a couple of dogs.

The price was right and he is happy to do more.

The only thing left to do on this Tele is to change the saddles ‘cause they are digging into the side of my hand. Otherwise she’s a finished guitar.

Hope someone finds this interesting.

Cheers!

Denis

Here’s a pic of my #1.



By null, shot with FinePix A340 at 2010-04-22


Here's an earlier pic with my friend, Robbie.


By null, shot with FinePix A340 at 2009-12-06

[SimpleOne]

Originally Posted by DenisS

I had posted here on the Telecaster forum when I was starting the Tele job, and said I would keep everyone informed. So here is what happened.

Thanks for getting back, that was a fine read. Congratulations by the way. And thanks for the pic. Nondescript monster guitar you have, lol. In a very good way...Tree top flyer,

[DenisS]

Originally Posted by SimpleOne

Thanks for getting back, that was a fine read. Congratulations by the way. And thanks for the pic. Nondescript monster guitar you have, lol. In a very good way...Tree top flyer,

Thanks for the nice comments and well-wishes SimpleOne. Same to you.
DenisS