tele neck pickup in the middle position, sounds like a good idea ?

[Soulgolem]

Hello Tele-lovers !

I bought a fralin strat neck to put in my tele as a neck pickup, for me, there's nothing like the combination of strat neck and tele bridge in a telecaster (love the tele shape more).

My tele body being routed for a middle pickup, I was thinking I could remove the cover off my tele neck pickup and put it in the middle position to get a kind of bridge-middle strat sound ! I don't expect it to sound like a strat but somewhere in the ballpark.

My setup would go like this :

1- bridge
2- bridge + middle
3- bridge + neck
4- neck

bridge = tele bridge pu
middle = tele neck pu without cover
neck = strat neck pu

Let me know what you think about this before I take the plunge !

Francis.

[teleyouk]

Sounds like a good idea at least for Japanese people...

http://www.schecter.co.jp/artist/kondo.html

But, seriously, someone who had done it told me that he had a good, pleasant surprise with the result.

[jefrs]

I've just put a 8k split-pole HB in the swimmingpool of my 07 Am. Having a perfectly good tele neck pup left over, I put it into the middle hole, under the pickguard. I wired it permanently in series in phase with the bridge pup. The HB is conventionally wired in series. I have 4-way switch, 250k vol and delta tone (no load). The neck pup is screwed hard down to the wood with a pair of thin 5/8 wood screws, and I had to make three small recesses with a countersink to get the pup under the guard.
Combinations are: all in series; neck HB; parallel neck+PairInSeries; PairInSeries.
The HB is intended for tele neck so is not particularly hot and could match a solitary tele bridge pup but the tail pairing is about 14k and gives a good tone balance. Because the middle is under the guard it is not dominant at all, the pair sound louder than a solo bridge pup but with less treble, rather like a normal tele bridge with the tone rolled off a bit.
Overall, the output is greater than my 06 Baja and does not do the tele thing with the bridge but it still twangs. I wanted something quite different to the Baja anyway. The all in series has the highest output and a very full tone. The neck is a cool and smooth, rich jazz sound. Parallel connection is a more rounded tone than the series, less bright. The tail pair are very bright but I don't think they are a hum-cancelling pair: both magnetic poles face the same way. However the Am is shielded by its metallic candy cola (cherry red) coat and is very quiet anyway. It can do clean jazz and country licks very well and things get very interesting when we turn the gain up to overdrive.
As I have said, I have only just put the pups in there, so I need some time to asses whether I actually like it or will re-wire to get the bridge on its own again. I would not have put the neck pup in the middle unless I had one going spare and a hole to put it in. A strat 5-way is probably the best way to wire up three pups.
Try it and see. Leave the cover on: function follows form (it looks good).

[jefrs]

I'll update that. After some playing and experiments I've come to the conclusion that the neck pickup under the pickguard in the middle position is a really bad idea. J--(
The output from the this pickup on its own was just about zero. As a consequence, connected in series permanently to the 'high output' Am tele bridge pup, it was acting as a choke and sucking out the tone. The output from the series pair of middle and bridge was actually les than that of the Baja's bridge, using identical amp and control settings (the Baja has a TBX tone pot mod).
With the middle pup removed from the circuit (quite easy with a tele, two screws and flip the control plate), the bridge pup is now louder than that of the Baja, which is impressive - and something to be said about making sure you make good low-impedance wiring and solder joints.
However, I am fairly sure that if the middle mounted tele neck pup were moved close to the strings and wired up in a more conventional manner, it would work.

[woodman]

get some good advice from a pro pickup guy on what to use in the middle slot. i've had four three-pickup Teles, and found it's critical to choose a middle that's not too strong, not too weak. when it's just right, it can be a beautiful thing.

i'm curious as to why you wouldn't go five-way to include the neck/middle combo ... a very useful and toneful setting.

[boris bubbanov]

I want to remind you that the pole piece array on a tele bridge pickup will be kinda narrow placed in the middle pup rout, especially if you're using a vintage string array at the saddles.

Consider mocking the design up with an improvised pickguard, and play it that way and see what you get. The bridge and middle should be RWRP towards each other for noise canceling, and the neck HB has its own noise canceling, so that part of the idea has practical appeal. Try it first with the cover on; if you're almost there, you could then take the cover off as per Woodman's kind instructions.

Look at the new blackout MIM teles for a preview of the tele pup in the middle. And they don't think the tele pup is too narrow for that spot, that's true.