What about moving the middle pup right next to the neck one?

[Val-tone]

Would that work?

Here’s what I’m thinking:
I have a homebrew tele that I am thinking of putting a middle pickup in. It’s the one in my avatar. Although I’m not afraid to put one in—this guitar started out with 4 pickups—I’m kind of liking the “rockabilly” look of just the two pickups.



I know Vintage Vibe guitars make those HSP humbucking pickups which are pretty much two single-coils in a humbucker housing. If one of them were rw/rp like a standard strat pup, if that middle coil was on with the bridge pup, would it sound quacky like a typical 3-pup guitar in position #2?

I know the pickup spacing would change things around, but if it would get me in the ballpark enough to sound like “Sultans of Swing” or “Lay down Sally?” Okay, we’re not talking about my technique (or lack thereof) here.

Anyway, this is just a thought. I was going to email Vintage Vibe but I thought I’d pick you guys’ and girls’ brains first.

Oh, and if there are any “cost effective” pickup winders reading this I have a SD humbucker I could sacrifice to give this a try with…

Thanks in advance.

[tommytoenail]

NICE, you read my mind i just came to the pickup page to post this exact question.

[RomanS]

Wow, that "Gretsch-o-caster" looks very cool - I wouldn't ruin the look with a middle pickup, just get a cheap Strat if you absolutely need the "quack".

[eryque]

The answer is no, not quite, but you'd get close. There are two components to that #2 strat sound. One is that the pickups are out of phase on the wavelength of the guitar string (but wired in phase). 2nd is that the middle pickup would sound a little mellower anyway because of it's position, and the combination of these two tends to soften the attack in the #2 position.

If you had a set up which allowed you to get that second coil out of phase, you'd be close, but not perfect, because that second coil would have a pretty strong attack.

I've actually got a strat project that I'm going to try something similar with, except I'll be combining two single coils at the neck position to make a humbucker. I expect I'll get a muddy humbucker sound, but I can deal with that for what I'll want to be playing on it.

[Jelly]

Yeah that's a nice looking Tele. Did you cut the pickguard yourself and what kind of material is it and how did you put the Val-Tone label on it? Also, looks like the f-hole has a more classic instrument shape to it, not the tweaked Fender thinline shape - I like yours better. Where'd you get the body?

[Val-tone]

Originally Posted by Jelly

Yeah that's a nice looking Tele. Did you cut the pickguard yourself and what kind of material is it and how did you put the Val-Tone label on it? Also, looks like the f-hole has a more classic instrument shape to it, not the tweaked Fender thinline shape - I like yours better. Where'd you get the body?

Thanks---I made the body myself. It's 1/4" birch plywood top and bottom, the center is basswood (it was cheap and plentiful where I was, and I sorta prefer basswood). It's a "semi-thinline" (patent pending ) meaning there's a block that runs up the bottom to where the bridge plate ends and that's it, the rest is hollow, except for around the three knobs.

I traced the f-hole from a picture of a Gresch f-hole, but I reduced it to fit on a tele body. I would have put binding on it but I was getting ready to move at the time and was just trying to finish it as quickly as I could or else it would still be sitting as a basket case now.

The pickguard is made from plexiglass. The Val-tone logo is cut out of vinyl. You could probably go to any vinly sign maker and have the lettering cut out (I used to be a graphic designer in a previous life... I drew the guitar and stuff out in Adobe Illustrator and had accesss to big film printers at the time). I had it "reversed" so the letters stuck on backward but looked right-reading from the front and then sprayed the back of the pickguard.

For finishing I use some wipe-on poly.

the only two knobs that work now are the far back and the far right, volume and tone. The big toggle switch is for the pickups. there's an earlier thread that showed it with four(!) pickps-yup, four. One was rw/rp strat and the other was a dual-blade strat-sized. I was trying to get all the sounds I could out of one guitar and this was my tester at the time.

this is the first guitar I built. There are flaws, but the neck and bridge line up, it stays in tune and the intonation is good...