Adjectives fail me…

Warm - The highs are attenuated on most Tele neck pickups. Most of them don't have the snap on top that most Tele bridge pickups have.

Compressed - I think Koch is using "squishy" to describe the compressed tone that comes from the physics of the thing. It's a small, short coil wound full with 43 guage wire. It doesn't have the dynamic response of the bridge pickup and tends to smooth and compress the dynamics.

Small Full - A Tele neck pickup's tone is small full. Not big full like a humbucker.

Strat pickups can be distinctively different between types, but usually they're the same basic pickup in 3 positions. This produces 3-5 tones within a range.

What many Tele players like is the big difference between neck and bridge tones. A Tele with a 3-way switch has 3 distinctively different tones. Each position responds differently to picking dynamics.

 

Woofy

 

He said he liked it, so yeah, it would be positive. Alternately he might have said "it has a squish that I don't like", which would be negative.

My point being that squishy, in of itself, is neither positive or negative -- whether it's good or bad depends on the nature of the squishiness and the expectation of the player, e.g how it responds to the way he or she plays it.

Keep in mind those Wildwood videos are trying to sell you something, and Greg Koch is a great player that makes them all sound good, and being in a sales video he would emphasize the positive and not the negative. I would take any adjectives he makes with a grain of salt.

 

Boring, underwhelming, mediocre... i could get a thesaurus.

 

First off, while I am not a Tele neck pickup lover, I am not here to trash this thread. I want to say thanks for posting it, because I’m interested in what others DO like about that sound.

And right off the bat, the first response is full of well-presented, thoughtful detail. It helped me better understand (“internally define?”) my own preferences, and that’s helpful.

Thanks to you both, and I am watching with interest.

 

I share your dilemma, Larry, but for ALL descriptions of musical things. I've written here before that I'm mostly in the dark when people throw any term like squishy, chimey, woody, etc etc......around. Many of you guys may understand completely with those words and what the refer to......but I'm in the dark.

 

A certain amount of compression is a good thing if you play finger style. The unwound strings are plucked whereas the wound strings are strummed or rolled over with the thumb. This accentuates the timber and loudness differences between the wound and unwound strings. Telecaster neck pickups go a long way to bring balance between strings. I never thought of it as compression but I plugged my Telecaster in and listened. I’m thinking that “squish” meant in a good way is probably compression, also in a good way. Finding words to describe sounds is almost impossible if you aren’t using words that describe easily recognizable sounds.

 

Coming from Gibson land for most of my life, I find them “chimey” like a strat, but with less bass, less highs, so a more “mid-forward” sound than a strat. maybe that character contributes to the squish for some, but being used to a 335 neck HB, I definitely don’t find them squishy. Personally I like a strat neck much better for rock, but everything else the tele neck wins.

 

Let's be clear first about which neck pickup type, brass covered or not. Because there is a world of difference right there and I see no mention of it.

 

Non articulated low artifact presence.. except for my neck pu.

 

I've forever given up trying to describe tone of guitars/amps....and I usually don't get it when other folks use word to describe tone.....it goes beyond, is in the ear of the listener to determine.

 

Well, the best I could do is to describe the sound that I want: warm and clear, without losing the highs.
In comparison, I would want to hear more harmonics and some dirt (overdrive) from the bridge pickup.

Some adjectives (eg woody,acoustic) tend to describe how the mid's are handled, others (eg glassy, harmonic) how the highs are handled, and others the bass (eg muddy). Glassy and muddy don't usually tend to be positive traits. Some adjectives (eg vintage, hi-fi) tend to draw users from specific genre's.

The variability between neck pickups (manufacture, type, etc) is both a source of joy and difficulty.

 

Love my Cavalier Lion King and my Fender neck pickup in my AV58.

Describing a sound is like trying to describe a color to someone that's never had sight.

I grew up with the plated brass covers. Then came the nickel silver.

Oh, that's what it's supposed to sound like.

 

@JL_LI, that’s an interesting point, and makes me want to go play through a Tele neck pickup and check that effect out for myself.

I can relate somewhat; for me pick selection is important because I want picked notes to be as close as possible in attack and timbre to fingertip-plucked notes. Having some of that effect come from a pickup configuration is not something I’d considered before.

 

I have a set of entwhistle pickups in mine. The neck PU is 'schmoove'.
I can't define it, but whenever I get to play funky or bluesy riffs the neck is where it sounds best.

 

Warm.