neck PUP brighter than Bridge ??

kiwitele · April 24th, 2008, 08:29 PM

so I went and build a tele the (Totaracaster elsewhere on this site) but I havent got a very bright twang sound. and the neck pup is much brighter than the bridge pup. these are rio grande vintage tele pups
any ideas most welcome, whats the point of a cool looking guitar if it doesnt sound right!!
cheer
john

boris bubbanov · April 24th, 2008, 09:09 PM

Neck brighter than the bridge?

Hmm.

Do this first. Plug the guitar in and turn it up some, turn it to position #1, and tap on the bridge pickup polepieces with the metal tip of a screwdriver. Sound or no? If none, try the neck polepieces instead.

Just wanted to rule out the neck and bridge functions being reversed. Beyond that, if the output is similar, that could relate to the choice of pickups you've made, and I haven't used those yet. Sorry.

jwells393 · April 24th, 2008, 10:00 PM

Excellent test there Bubbanov.

telbert twang · April 25th, 2008, 02:59 AM

BTW, it appears to be that way sometimes, at least it´s so on my 62-72 cij. The neck pu is extremely transparent and clear in tone (maybe beacause it´s got´vintage type´, cloth wired pickups, which presumably means they´re less wound ?) . But somehow i really like its tone. (hint: there is always the tone knob to turn :-) ). It´s bridge "microphon" is a little hotter in tone and ´by one hair´ less transparent and bright, but not bad at all. This tele has a little less output into amp than some others, but it´s very clear in sound!

I had a lot of messing around with it´s bridge because of wild squeal , got it under control, but lost some higher brightness. So i ´un-did´back the wax potting and improved the base plate instead (made it evenly flat,ensured it not vibrating, improved the wax between the plate and pup´s bottom). Actually draining off the wax added back some brightness, makin´it on the same time a little more microphonic again! Man - this never ends! :-)

RomanS · April 25th, 2008, 06:55 AM

I have a very similar experience with the Nocaster pickups in my Thinline - the Nocaster bridge pickup isn't the twangiest in the first place, and not using an ashtray bridge (this is a Thinline with a Bigsby B16 and roller bidge), doesn't help in that department, either; and the Nocaster neck pickup is a very transparent, open sounding type - so, in that guitar it sounds almost brighter than the bridge pickup; this is the first Tele I've tried where I have to keep the tone pot wide open in the bridge position, and turn it down in the neck position...

If you want to solve your problem, you could try some of the following things:
-) Wire it up so that the bridge pickup bypasses the tone pot - this will make it brighter.
-) wire a small value capacitor (somewhere from 100 to 680 pF would be my guess for a good value) in parallel with the wires from the neck pickup - this will lower its resonance peak, and make it sound fatter, less bright.
-) find out whether your neck pickup has a cover made from German silver (also called nickel silver) - if it does, replace it with a regular chromed brass cover, this will reduce treble.

April 24th, 2008, 08:29 PM	#1 (permalink)
kiwitele NEW MEMBER! Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: rotorua New Zealand Age: 45 Posts: 7	neck PUP brighter than Bridge ?? so I went and build a tele the (Totaracaster elsewhere on this site) but I havent got a very bright twang sound. and the neck pup is much brighter than the bridge pup. these are rio grande vintage tele pups any ideas most welcome, whats the point of a cool looking guitar if it doesnt sound right!! cheer john

April 24th, 2008, 09:09 PM	#2 (permalink)
boris bubbanov Poster Extraordinaire Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: New Orleans, LA + in the past Posts: 8,579	Neck brighter than the bridge? Hmm. Do this first. Plug the guitar in and turn it up some, turn it to position #1, and tap on the bridge pickup polepieces with the metal tip of a screwdriver. Sound or no? If none, try the neck polepieces instead. Just wanted to rule out the neck and bridge functions being reversed. Beyond that, if the output is similar, that could relate to the choice of pickups you've made, and I haven't used those yet. Sorry. __________________ Bubban0v

April 24th, 2008, 10:00 PM	#3 (permalink)
jwells393 Doctor of Teleocity Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Albuquerque, USA Age: 64 Posts: 12,253 101 Photos	Excellent test there Bubbanov. __________________ Jack's Disclaimer: When I say something.... always ask yourself ..... "What the hell does he know?" _ Guys - learn to disable the flash on your digital cameras.

April 25th, 2008, 06:55 AM	#5 (permalink)
RomanS Friend of Leo's Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Vienna, Austria Age: 37 Posts: 2,890 14 Photos	I have a very similar experience with the Nocaster pickups in my Thinline - the Nocaster bridge pickup isn't the twangiest in the first place, and not using an ashtray bridge (this is a Thinline with a Bigsby B16 and roller bidge), doesn't help in that department, either; and the Nocaster neck pickup is a very transparent, open sounding type - so, in that guitar it sounds almost brighter than the bridge pickup; this is the first Tele I've tried where I have to keep the tone pot wide open in the bridge position, and turn it down in the neck position... If you want to solve your problem, you could try some of the following things: -) Wire it up so that the bridge pickup bypasses the tone pot - this will make it brighter. -) wire a small value capacitor (somewhere from 100 to 680 pF would be my guess for a good value) in parallel with the wires from the neck pickup - this will lower its resonance peak, and make it sound fatter, less bright. -) find out whether your neck pickup has a cover made from German silver (also called nickel silver) - if it does, replace it with a regular chromed brass cover, this will reduce treble. __________________ http://www.pbase.com/romans http://www.myspace.com/romans212

April 25th, 2008, 02:59 AM	#4 (permalink)
telbert twang Tele-Meister Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Estonia Posts: 198 40 Photos	BTW, it appears to be that way sometimes, at least it´s so on my 62-72 cij. The neck pu is extremely transparent and clear in tone (maybe beacause it´s got´vintage type´, cloth wired pickups, which presumably means they´re less wound ?) . But somehow i really like its tone. (hint: there is always the tone knob to turn :-) ). It´s bridge "microphon" is a little hotter in tone and ´by one hair´ less transparent and bright, but not bad at all. This tele has a little less output into amp than some others, but it´s very clear in sound! I had a lot of messing around with it´s bridge because of wild squeal , got it under control, but lost some higher brightness. So i ´un-did´back the wax potting and improved the base plate instead (made it evenly flat,ensured it not vibrating, improved the wax between the plate and pup´s bottom). Actually draining off the wax added back some brightness, makin´it on the same time a little more microphonic again! Man - this never ends! :-)