Finished My New Tele Project (Experiment)

[tdowns]

Some of you may know I like to experiment with installing a middle pickup in a Tele (did my first 20 years ago). I finally did something I had been wanting to do for quite a while. The Tele is my big love of course, but I like to get a Strat tone for versatility at times. All of my middle pickup Teles are close but don't have the true Strat "Quack" (the comb filter effect of 2 pickups blended together resulting in nulls in the frequency spectrum). I knew the bridge pickup slant of a Tele and Strat differ. The Strat bridge pickup slant is about 10 degrees and the Tele bridge pickup is slanted about 17 degrees. So, I decided to slant the middle pickup to match the pole piece spacing of a Strat. I was quite pleased as I got more Strat quack than ever, especially on strings 3-6.

The blend knob allows the middle to be mixed to the bridge (or neck) to achieve the "Brent" mode. The blend pot is in rheostat mode backwards to achieve more control and be less senstitive to movement.

I thought I would share and open the discussion and welcome flames.


High res version



High res version


Pickup area closeup

Headstock

Compensated middle pickup geometry

A little info about the guitar

• Blue transparent alder body (4.6 lbs)
• 50s Fender maple neck - 7.25R - U contour
• All Seymour Duncan - Vintage Tele Stacks, Classic Strat Stack
• 5 way pickup switch
• Concentric pot - Tone on Neck pu only - Blend of middle pu to output (positions 1 and 5 only)
• Volume - 250K push/pull middle pickup series vs. parallel wiring
• White pearloid pickguard - pu adjustments in body

[teleduster]

Does that pickup get in the way of your pick?

[Essex Boy]

Really nice.

[pirana]

That's a cool little axe you got there. I don't think i've ever seen an alder body finished in trans blue. Is that the Reranch trans blue?

[maestrovert]

Nice job there T.
you noted the relationship between the middle and bridge Pups, but i'm just wonderin' bout how the middle sounds in relation to the neck Pup ?

[Eric Karonen]

Terry:

That's an interesting approach to getting a strat sound out of a tele. I've got the conventional three pu configuration with an added toggle switch, and as you note, it doesn't quite capture the strat quack - close, but not that close.

Any chance you could post some soundbytes of your new tele? There's probably a lot of people here who would love to hear how it sounds.

Thanks,

Eric

[Essex Boy]

The word 'qauck' to describe a strat tone seems totally alien to me, as does all onomatopoeic language to describe guitar tone, lol.

[moonshiner]

She looks mighty purdy..

On my Nashville, I lowered the middle pickup so that the top was flush with the pickguard and... holy quack-city batman... It's an idea...

But man... that looks sweet... GAAASSS

[JohnnyAtomic]

terry you always come up with the most fascinating ideas. that's a really interesting take on that situation. BTW the guitar looks great too.
johnny atomic

[tdowns]

Thanks for the responses.

Originally Posted by teleduster

Does that pickup get in the way of your pick?

No, I guess I never noticed.

Originally Posted by pirana

Is that the Reranch trans blue?

Nope

Originally Posted by maestrovert

you noted the relationship between the middle and bridge Pups, but i'm just wonderin' bout how the middle sounds in relation to the neck Pup ?

The middle and neck is not quite as Strattish as the bridge-middle combination. The slant seems to help the middle-bridge combination most.

Originally Posted by Eric Karonen

Any chance you could post some soundbytes of your new tele?

I can do that, and I plan on it sometime this weekend.

Originally Posted by Essex Boy

The word 'qauck' to describe a strat tone seems totally alien to me, as does all onomatopoeic language to describe guitar tone, lol.

I tried to describe it as the comb filter effect of 2 pickups blended together resulting in nulls in the frequency spectrum

Originally Posted by moonshiner

On my Nashville, I lowered the middle pickup so that the top was flush with the pickguard and... holy quack-city batman... It's an idea...

I my experience the relative amplitudes (Pickup height and blending) make the nulls in the spectrum deeper, but the position determines where the null frequencies are. I'll try to find time to post analysis plots of that. So, in your case you may have found a better amplitude match to your other pickup. Another note: my pickups appear high, but the neck is shimmed, so everything is a little high.

Thanks Johnny :)

[tdowns]

Here is a MP3 demo of the guitar per request. It's just the guitar plugged into a Line 6 POD into the computer. It samples the pickups like this:

1. Bridge with just a little middle blended in
2. Bridge and middle
3. Middle and Bridge
4. Neck

I didn't select the middle pickup alone.

Blue Tele Demo

[Johnny Isaacs]

Man 0 Man Terry D - Great stuff! Not only great looking Tele, but that clip sounds great too!

Congrats!

Johnny Isaacs

[Redd Volkaert]

Sounds great & looks reeeeeal cool too! 8)

Good goin' Terry!
Redd

[zane]

I saw this this morning thanks to an email from BW....that's a cool deal! I dig the way it sounds. I play a S style guitar also (when I ain't Tele picken) I've never noticed the middle pup getting in the way, dought this'n would. I like the way the adjustment screws ain't visible. Looks great, sounds great, good picken!

[0le FUZZY]

Terry, I haff did this in several variations over the years. Knott tew sure I got the "Degrees" rite but as I gaze at that beautiful thang I wunner-------

Did yew mount that middow P/U with reverse polarity of the mag-a-nutes tew the neck and lead?

I haff found in my spear-mints that it really enhances that "Strat quack" whence yew dew use reverse polarity mag-a-nutes with the same winding direction as the neck and lead.

Course reverse windin will haff an affect/effect also but sumetimes tew much.

Nice job yew rascal!!



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[J-man]

Wow that thing sounds incredible!
I love the finish too!

**Puts jealousy hat on and sulks**

[kerc]

Great job. Very pro.

[kickz28]

Thats a beautiful Tele!! I mean, really really great looking! And it sounds awesome. What kind of amp are you using?

joe

[J-man]

Originally Posted by kickz28

Thats a beautiful Tele!! I mean, really really great looking! And it sounds awesome. What kind of amp are you using?

joe

He says he's using a line 6 POD into his computer. :)

[kickz28]

Originally Posted by J-man

He says he's using a line 6 POD into his computer. :)

Doh!! I'm really tired right now, I hate over-time at work :D

[tdowns]

Johnny,
Thanks my friend. I assumed you would reply to this, so that first little solo/rif was just for you (the acoustic version played on electric).

Redd,
Thanks for the kind words. We could just imagine what the blue Tele might sound if you got a hold of it. But your hands could make bailing wire on a 2x4 sound good.

Zane,
I sent this to Buddy Whittington, but he just replied with a smart alec comment about my nulls in the spectrum. I'll get him back next time we pick together. Thanks for the comments. I figured if the neck PU had no visible screws, then the middle shouldn't either. It's more work when cutting the pickguard, but what the heck. I had no deadline.

Fuzzy,
Thanks a bunch for the reply. I just put those See-more Dunkins in right out of the box. I've never even thought about checking the magnetic polarity of the pole pieces. Now you got me thinkin'. Do you use one of those StewMac polarity checkers?? Tell us more about your spear-mints. I posted a pic of the headstock just for you!!!

J-man and kerc,
Thanks so much for the comments.

kickz28,
I read thru posts and miss stuff like that when I don't work overtime!! I have a Line 6 POD as part of my computer, so I can record very easy. I'm not really set up to record thru an amp in my computer room, but I have before. The Line 6 ain't no Fender tube amp, but it is an amazing box. I just dialed up a black face amp, 2x12 cabinet, and a little reverb. I use N-tracks software to record. Thanks for asking.

It sure is fun messing around with Telecasters.

[tdowns]

I finally got around to making the response plots to show the difference in the slant vs. no slant. I thought some of you might find it interesting. Please excuse the image quality as I'm limited to 500 pixels.

Here is the treble E string (slant not effected)



The A string with no slant. Notice sharp nulls in the 1 to 2 kHz range.



The A string with the slant. Notice the region between 1 and 2 kHz scooped out even more. More quack. This scoop out is accomplished by not only by the spacing, but the slightly reduced relative amplitude of the middle pickup.

[reverbbb]

Terry:

You are gonna have to explain what those graphs mean. I see the data, but I am not connecting with what that means and what are the parameters.

BTW, I enjoyed your pickin' Sunday night - great as usual. It was funny to watch Buddy asking you "what was that lick you just did".

I want to know when you gonna sell me the blue Tele?