Tele Twang..how to rope it in a bit?

[B0579]

Hello All. Have an 07 Tele, MIA - unfortunately it's all i acould afford, but i tell ya,it's not a bad sounding guitar. Problem is this: our band is branching into different kinds of music, and I'd like to not have to go buy a strat, so the option is to modify the pickup(s) in the tele, soi can have the twang when I need it, and throw the switch the other way to a new pickup and get a bit less twang (or preferably CONSIDERABLY LESS twang).

Being an acoustic player all my life and I consider and have been told i am quite an advanced player, I am no novice to playing. But with electrics, I am an idiot. I need spefific models, not just general advice. i need someone to say "If you throw in this model pickup in the neck/bridge (whatever the case may be) you'll get what you're looking for...

someone willing to help, Please?

Jim in MN

[jefrs]

Twang, is essentially a technique, which the tele is quite good at bringing out. Basically one over-stretches the string a little when plucking it and then on release the elasticity of the string provides the twang. The solid string mounting on a tele lets the string reverberate, any guitar can do this, Gretsch do it well too.

If you don't want it to twang, then don't do that.
We can and do play jazz on the tele - no twang, same guitar.

I have an AmSer07, and it does not have that "vintage" bridge plate, it has the "modern" bridge with 6 sintered steel saddles (however it can twang almost as well as my Baja06). Hard to tell from that pic but those saddles look as if they are pulled right back. Is that the original bridge plate? Is it intonated properly?

Changing the pickups or the bridge will not take the twang out of a tele, but you can with your playing technique. Acoustic players often thump an electric way too hard, ease up on that a bit, let the amp do the work.

[PhilT]

Not sure if it answers your question but I wanted a bit more tonal variety on my Tele so I had a pickup made by Catswhisker pickups in the UK which is basically a P90 with an additional tappable coil put into a tele bridge pickup housing. Gives we the smooth creamy P90 sound but with the coil tap i can use a push/pull switch to get back that Tele sound. I do agree with jefrs that a good proportion of 'twang' is in the technique.

[B0579]

Originally Posted by jefrs

Twang, is essentially a technique, which the tele is quite good at bringing out. Basically one over-stretches the string a little when plucking it and then on release the elasticity of the string provides the twang. The solid string mounting on a tele lets the string reverberate, any guitar can do this, Gretsch do it well too.

If you don't want it to twang, then don't do that.
We can and do play jazz on the tele - no twang, same guitar.

I have an AmSer07, and it does not have that "vintage" bridge plate, it has the "modern" bridge with 6 sintered steel saddles (however it can twang almost as well as my Baja06). Hard to tell from that pic but those saddles look as if they are pulled right back. Is that the original bridge plate? Is it intonated properly?

Changing the pickups or the bridge will not take the twang out of a tele, but you can with your playing technique. Acoustic players often thump an electric way too hard, ease up on that a bit, let the amp do the work.

Thanks man...i cannot stress to you how little I know of electrics. i refret my own acoustics, new bridge, no problem. Install a Pickup in my martin, no sweat. Electric guitars, my eyes gloss over. I just am a creature of Doc Watson flatpicking acoustics. I am worried now that the bridge adjustments are all messed up, though i know they can be re-adjusted I live in a small town and though Lloys laPlant (who makes a lot of nashville stars' mandolins guitars and fiddles) can help me acoustically if I get stuck, nobody here can help with this - i'd hafta drive 3 hours or so. Which I will if you think there's a major prob.

Anyway, i snapped these two pics to give you a close up. is there a problem? If so is it easy to fix, maybe look at a pic of yours and adjust accordingly?

Jim in MN

[B0579]

Originally Posted by PhilT

Not sure if it answers your question but I wanted a bit more tonal variety on my Tele so I had a pickup made by Catswhisker pickups in the UK which is basically a P90 with an additional tappable coil put into a tele bridge pickup housing. Gives we the smooth creamy P90 sound but with the coil tap i can use a push/pull switch to get back that Tele sound. I do agree with jefrs that a good proportion of 'twang' is in the technique.

Thanks, Phil! now i am worried about the bridge. just bought this guitar, and since i am an advanced acoutic palyer with no real extensive electric background, I have no idea if the bridge and/or saddles are funky ere, so i posted more pics. Problem is that there is no luthier near here, so i HOPE the problem is minor and I can fix via a pic or some written tutorial help!

Lookie at the pix, whattaya think?

Jim/MN

[bingy]

Everything you need is in the guitar you have. The knob, that is not the volume control, is the tone control.
Many people get great results with the neck pickup or a combination of the two.
There is nothing wrong with this guitar.

[jefrs]

Righty-ho. No worries there.
That bridge looks very like the one on my Baja06, right down to the grooved saddles I added, more-or-less same distance out from the tail. First pic probably had a parallax foreshortening problem. Bridge looks good, action looks good. All good.

Do try using the neck pickup. Do try rolling the volume control back a little. Do roll back the tone control. Do turn the amp up, and fiddle with its tone controls. Then try not to hit the strings hard in dreadnought manner, pick gently.

[PhilT]

What jefrs said ^
Bridge looks fine to me, and I'd take jefrs advice, try playing around with your tone knob on the guitar and all the settings on your amp. Or if the single coil sound isn't for you then perhaps your initial thought of a pickup change is what you need to do. If you get chance to try out one of the newish Blackguard Tele's with dual humbuckers. There's so many varying opinions on the old 3 vintage saddle/6 modern saddle set-up but I don't buy it, and I'd say the 'twang' is down firstly to the way you attack the strings, and secondly down to the single coils.

[sacizob]

Use the palm of your right hand to dampen the strings near the rear of the bridge plate.

[jimdd]

use the neck pick-up (or the middle/both pu setting) and dial down the tone control. jim

[gwjensen]

When using the bridge pup, play further up by the neck and role down the tone knob. A lot of the twang is related to the spiky tone from playing down by the bridge, IMO. Or, use the neck pickup.

[fezz parka]

Originally Posted by bingy

Everything you need is in the guitar you have. The knob, that is not the volume control, is the tone control.
Many people get great results with the neck pickup or a combination of the two.
There is nothing wrong with this guitar.

BINGO!

[jbdrumbo]

Originally Posted by bingy

Everything you need is in the guitar you have. The knob, that is not the volume control, is the tone control.
Many people get great results with the neck pickup or a combination of the two.
There is nothing wrong with this guitar.

This is a very good guitar, as people have mentioned. Roll off the treble, get familiar with the pickup selector, and maybe get an overdrive pedal like a Fulltone OCD to give the sound more oomph when you want it, since I doubt if you have a Marshall or similar amp.

Jefrs stated something very important as well - don't muscle the Tele, or any electric, like you would a D-28. Use lighter picks and a much lighter picking technique.

[IronFeliks]

Well I second the use of the TONE knob, but don't underestimate the VOLUME knob either. I play acoustic more than electric too, and using those well together helps a lot.

To my ears, that are more atuned to a rosewood acoustic, electric guitars are more Jangly, and top end heavy... Using the volume knob rolls of the high frequencies as the volume is rolled off, and that helped me, but as my ears adjusted to the beast, I wanted to keep the highs. Then I found the FEZ PARKA/GREENE MOD, one wire moved, takes longer to heat up the soldering iron than it does to do the mod. There are lots of threads on it, but I'll elaborate further if you are interested, as will others I'm sure.

Before looking for PUP's that tame the twang, sit down and noodle you absolute favorite licks while actively playing with the knobs, then, look into that simple mod. Ultimately that's what I had to do to get my brain around the sound of electric guitars.


Sorry for the rambling, and run on sentences, tonight I get to blame it on the allergy medicine...

James