Too low of output

[anubis]

Hey all,

So I bought a used Am.Std tele last month. It's a 1992 and as far as I can tell, it's all stock. I've played it at home and love the tone. However, I never had a chance to play it during band rehearsal until last night. It sounded good, but the pickups were just WAY too low powered to keep up with the rest of the band.

I have a Fender Tweed Blues Junior with new JJ tubes, and if I play my Strat or Les Paul, i normally have the main volume at 4 and the master at 5 - plenty loud enough. With my Tele, however, the main volume was at 6 and the master was on 8, just to keep up with the band.

I don't like running my amp that hot, I'm afraid I'll burn out the tubes too quickly. I don't want to have to crank the amp just to hear it. So, I'd like some advice on hotter pickups please.

I don't want a super loud pickup, I like a nice, clean sound. It just needs to be loud enough so I don't have to crank my amp to hear it. I play mostly classic to modern rock, including the Police and Coldplay (obviously, why else play a Tele?). Not looking for twang. In fact, I think that Jonny Buckland's guitar tone is one of my favorites (I know I should have gotten a thinline, but too late for that now!).

Noise cancelling is OK, or standard single coil - I don't really mind. Again, nothing too hot, not really playing terribly hard rock. My primary dirt pedals are all tube screamers and OCDs.

Thanks!

 

[PumpJockey]

Before anything else, check your pickup heights. If they are too low, crank them upwards.

 

[waparker4]

Can you measure your pickups with an ohmmeter... They might be busted
Are they set up very far away from the strings?

 

[bluescaster72]

Sounds like you need a hotrails pickup in your telecaster. I have one and it gets a nice lush clean tone, but gets that dirty tone when you put the gain to it. Almost like marrying a Telecaster to a Les Paul . I Love Fender guitars , but Strats and teles are low out put beasts that sound best cranked so if the stock ones don't work you need something like a stacked bucker. The other thing and I had one years ago was a Seymour Duncun quarter pounder . It had the Tele twang, but man the volume that thing put out was unreal !! So if you want the best of both worlds that might be the ticket. Either one will work . I love Fenders , but need the umph of a Gibson . Nothing worse then going for a lead and not having enought to put yourself over . If you like the overall tone you can also get a volume pedal or use an overdrive pedal as a boost pedal and crank the level , but leave the gain low so it doesn't distort bad. Just a thought .

 

[waparker4]

Tele should be as loud or louder than your strat, if the strat has vintage type pickups in it IME. Much quieter would indicate something is wrong. But also, they put those numbers on the amp volume knob for a reason, so you could use them. I have two teles, one with HB and one with single coils. the HB is louder.. if I use the other one, I turn the amp up, or use a boost pedal.

 

[Tele-phone man]

You won't "burn out" your amp by turning it up. A volume or gain control does not turn the tube on harder. I just gives it more signal to amplify. However, as the others have said, you need to check your pickup height. It should be similar to your Strat.

Stay away from the Hot Rails pickups. They don't sound like a Tele, at all.

 

[anubis]

Thanks everyone. I should say my Strat has a humbucker in the bridge, a Dimarzio 36th ann. PAF.

Pickup height of my tele bridge pup is 3mm bass side, 2mm treble. I've always had trouble with the pickup sounding thin. Perhaps it is a dud?

I've had hot rails on my strat, never liked the sound. If it's going to be a stacked bridge pup, it will need to sound good clean.

 

[Tele-phone man]

If you love the tone of your pickups, and noise isn't an issue, keep them and turn the amp up or get a clean booster pedal. Honestly, one thing I've learned the hard way is that tone and performance trump output every time. You can always remedy output, but you can't make a loud, toneless pickup sound good with a pedal.

 

[telemnemonics]

It can take some adjusting to get used to a Fender SC bridge pup after playing just HB bridge pups for a while.
Like already stated, turning the amp up to get the same volume from the lower output bridge pup is just how it works, and the amp isn't working any harder to get the same volume.
To some degree if you put in hotter pups to allow you to set your amp knobs lower, you'll lose the Tele sound and end up with a third guitar that sounds a lot like the other two.
I like the clarity and cut of a Tele bridge pup, and every hotter pup I've tried lost a measure of bright clarity for every measure of output it gained.
If you get something like a Fralin Blues which is I think around 7.2k you'll get a little more output and lose a good amount of treble response, but still not have the output of a full size HB.

 

[Frodebro]

I don't like running my amp that hot, I'm afraid I'll burn out the tubes too quickly. I don't want to have to crank the amp just to hear it. So, I'd like some advice on hotter pickups please.

You won't "burn out" your amp by turning it up. A volume or gain control does not turn the tube on harder. I just gives it more signal to amplify. However, as the others have said, you need to check your pickup height. It should be similar to your Strat.

I concur with Tele-phone man. If the amp is putting out, say, 80dB with the master on five with the Strat, but the master has to be on seven or eight with the Tele to reach that same 80dB, you are running the power section at the exact same level in both scenarios, because the output of the power tubes is the same. All you are doing is increasing a couple of gain stages in the preamp to compensate for the weaker output signal of the Tele. That won't affect the life of the power tubes any differently with either guitar.

 

[Derek Kiernan]

Thanks everyone. I should say my Strat has a humbucker in the bridge, a Dimarzio 36th ann. PAF.

Pickup height of my tele bridge pup is 3mm bass side, 2mm treble. I've always had trouble with the pickup sounding thin. Perhaps it is a dud?

I've had hot rails on my strat, never liked the sound. If it's going to be a stacked bridge pup, it will need to sound good clean.

Just to make sure: from the strings or the body? You want to start adjustment by having them as high as plausible to the strings, with the neck pickup backed off to be tonally (and hopefully volume-) consistent with the bridge.

 

[JKjr]

If you love the tone of your pickups, and noise isn't an issue, keep them and turn the amp up or get a clean booster pedal. Honestly, one thing I've learned the hard way is that tone and performance trump output every time. You can always remedy output, but you can't make a loud, toneless pickup sound good with a pedal.

Sage wisdom.

To echo others and offer my own .02, I use my ears to set pickup height and use specs as a suggestion. There's a sweet spot there, your ears will find it. Volume is an afterthought, albeit an important one.

A good clean boost is it's own reward. It will give you your tone, just bigger and with greater playing dynamics. My favs are a Bob Burt or a Duncan Pickup booster but any decent one will do the job. Are you one of the millions that have a TS-9 based pedal sitting around gathering dust? You might want to try it with the gain turned down and the volume turned up. I don't care for them with a strat, but there's magic with a tele.

One more old school thought and then I'll shut up. Back in the day (uphill both ways) we'd set up our amps for our single coil guitars and just roll back the volume knob on our (usually) Gibsons. End result: more sparkle and clarity from our humbuckers, and that overdrive was just a finger roll away, no pedals,amp tweak, or boost channel needed.

 

[anubis]

If you love the tone of your pickups, and noise isn't an issue, keep them and turn the amp up or get a clean booster pedal. Honestly, one thing I've learned the hard way is that tone and performance trump output every time. You can always remedy output, but you can't make a loud, toneless pickup sound good with a pedal.

Thanks, I do like the tone. I'll just learn to turn up the amp more to drive the signal. I also have a Barber Tone Press lying around collecting dust somewhere, I think I'll throw that back on my pedal board. I think I can use that as a clean boost as well.

It can take some adjusting to get used to a Fender SC bridge pup after playing just HB bridge pups for a while.
Like already stated, turning the amp up to get the same volume from the lower output bridge pup is just how it works, and the amp isn't working any harder to get the same volume.
To some degree if you put in hotter pups to allow you to set your amp knobs lower, you'll lose the Tele sound and end up with a third guitar that sounds a lot like the other two.
I like the clarity and cut of a Tele bridge pup, and every hotter pup I've tried lost a measure of bright clarity for every measure of output it gained.
If you get something like a Fralin Blues which is I think around 7.2k you'll get a little more output and lose a good amount of treble response, but still not have the output of a full size HB.

I've been using humbuggies for so long, I guess I have forgotten what life was like with single coils! I'll continue to keep the volume up on the amp.

I concur with Tele-phone man. If the amp is putting out, say, 80dB with the master on five with the Strat, but the master has to be on seven or eight with the Tele to reach that same 80dB, you are running the power section at the exact same level in both scenarios, because the output of the power tubes is the same. All you are doing is increasing a couple of gain stages in the preamp to compensate for the weaker output signal of the Tele. That won't affect the life of the power tubes any differently with either guitar.

Rock on! Good to know that I'm not hurting my amp.

Just to make sure: from the strings or the body? You want to start adjustment by having them as high as plausible to the strings, with the neck pickup backed off to be tonally (and hopefully volume-) consistent with the bridge.

That distance was measured with the low and high E strings depressed at the last fret. I always thought 2 and 3 mm was the closest you could go without the negative effects of magnet pull? Should I try moving them closer?

Sage wisdom.

To echo others and offer my own .02, I use my ears to set pickup height and use specs as a suggestion. There's a sweet spot there, your ears will find it. Volume is an afterthought, albeit an important one.

A good clean boost is it's own reward. It will give you your tone, just bigger and with greater playing dynamics. My favs are a Bob Burt or a Duncan Pickup booster but any decent one will do the job. Are you one of the millions that have a TS-9 based pedal sitting around gathering dust? You might want to try it with the gain turned down and the volume turned up. I don't care for them with a strat, but there's magic with a tele.

One more old school thought and then I'll shut up. Back in the day (uphill both ways) we'd set up our amps for our single coil guitars and just roll back the volume knob on our (usually) Gibsons. End result: more sparkle and clarity from our humbuckers, and that overdrive was just a finger roll away, no pedals,amp tweak, or boost channel needed.

Actually, I have two Analogman modded TS9s and they are my favorite pedals. I use them for everything. I sort of use one of them as a clean boost already by keeping the drive all the way down and turning the volume up. It's just not really clean, but it's a really smooth OD that doesn't sound like a pedal at all.

Good advice on the amp suggestion. I use my Gibsons as well, never thought to crank the amp and roll back the volume.

Thanks again everyone, I think I'll just keep my guitar as is.

 

[simonsp]

Danelectro Fish & Chips. Works great as a clean boost or you can shape your sound with the eq. Cheap and efficient. Especially if you like the sound of your pickups but just need more output.

 

[slauson slim]

All above suggestions excellent - clean boost, pu height, amp settings, tone controls. AmStds are fine guitars.

Also, check internal wiring, pots, etc. All solder connections good?

Does it have a regular tone pot or the TBX stacked pot with a detent? Has the TBX been replaced with a regular tone pot?

 

[anubis]

All above suggestions excellent - clean boost, pu height, amp settings, tone controls. AmStds are fine guitars.

Also, check internal wiring, pots, etc. All solder connections good?

Does it have a regular tone pot or the TBX stacked pot with a detent? Has the TBX been replaced with a regular tone pot?

It has the TBX stacked pot. I prefer to keep it in the "normal" area, just south of the detent.