Nashville Tele, which PU for Center PU

[robt57]

I eBayed this PG, and decided to put a center PU in my Proj Tele last minute... After all, I live in Nashville, shouldn't it be a Nashville Tele?


Question is: do I just put a 5 way and a the usual RP/RW center PU ala Strat, or maybe a Little 59 or rail style SC sized HB and some coil spliting action. Opinions ??

BTW: Bridge PU is a Fralin, the Neck PU a 70 Tele originally from an old Tele I had a few hundred years ago [from the parts box]

[EDIT] A friend has a Little 59 he replaced with a Virtual Vintage on his Legacy. So I guess I have to decide how to wire it. Will need to do a split of the Lil-59 for SC mid sound. I need to go play a real Nashville Tele and see/hear what they are doing stock.

[bluespckr]

Of course the Nashville Tele comes with Fender Tex-Mex pups across the board. I just replaced mine with a Nashville Tele set of Muy Grandes by Rio of Houston, TX. I put the question out there, too, and some folks suggested keeping the Tex Mex Strat PUP in the middle. In the end I put Muys in all three ... and I'm glad I did. It sounds great, especially for classic rock and blues.
The middle pup is RW, as you thought.

And it takes a 5-way Strat switch. Check the various forums. One regular poster (CHUCKOCASTER) has a mod which can give you Bridge and Neck combined sounds, which the standard Nashville setup does not have. When I installed the Muys, I wire them up according to the Chuckster. Love it.

[Martinp]

I put a Stew Mac Superswitch in my Nashville (incidentally, I have Rio Tall boys in the bridge and neck, and the stock Tex-Mex in the center)
it allows you to wire it pretty much any way you can imagine-
it gives me bridge, bridge-middle, bridge-neck, neck-middle, and neck.
it seems more intuitive that way.

[bluespckr]

I think I come up with the same tone options with the Chuckocaster mod, and this keeps the stock five-way selector that comes with the Nashville. With 1 toward the neck and 5 toward the bridge I get:

(1) Neck
(2) Neck and Bridge
(3) Bridge
(4) Middle and Bridge
(5) Middle

It sounds weird, but the set up makes a lot of sense, in that the most common (2-PUP Telecaster) settings are neatly in positions 1-3. Think of it as the standard 3-way Tele switch, only it's in the first three selector positions. Then, all the way brings in the middle PUP. one down brings in the middle and bridge. Looks like this:

NECK N/BR BRIDGE BR/MID MID
I______I______I______I______I
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

[Lost_N_Austin]

I'm unimpressed with the sound of the Strat p/up in the middle position
so I was shopping for a replacement pickup for the middle p/up
for my new Pawnshop find.

I'm thinking about a Blade style. Anyway the guy shop I was in in Tulsa
told me the middle p/up is wired so that the tone control does not have
any effect when in the middle position.

I got back and tried it and sure enough it is wired that way.
I'm open to any suggestions based on someone's experience with this guitar.

[robt57]

I got a Dimarzio Virtual Vintage on eBay, can't wait to hear how it sounds, I'll do a par/ser/split switch for it...

[Tele295]

Anybody tried another Tele neck pup in the middle? How would that sound?