Custom Esquire with pickup centered between neck & bridge?

I can’t think of any ones made with just a center bridge pickup but, There’s a mim classic player custom shop designed telecaster (say that 3 times real fast) that was made with 3 bridge pickups the easiest way would be to get one of those and take the neck and bridge pickup out , or to route your own body
I’m also interested if anyone has one or tried this

 

I have a test guitar w a swimming pool rout. I was listening w a friend as he moved the p-up while I picked or strummed. Right at the 8 th harmonic (1/2 way between the 24 the fret and the bridge) the sound became big, w a huge sound stage and a great best of both worlds harmonic content. Traditional Middle is at the second node of the 13 th harmonic which gives it it's squirrelly or "quacky" sound.
The seventh harmonic is kind of bluesy to my ears.
The sixth is sweet.

I d definitely do a mock up to see where to put it, since a 1/2 inch or even less makes a big difference.

 

Well one of us HAS to do it now.

 

Fun project

 

Innovation comes from experimentation... Edison

... Maybe said something similar ..

 

After we found the sweet spot I plucked the various harmonics and it was centered on the eighth. I have a 1 p-up guitar and that's where the rout is. Generally I just try to give information about the OP because what I like might not be what they want. But I definitely do recommend that placement. It's got it all ,such that by picking nearer to the bridge gives a bridge p-up vibe, nearer the neck, a neck p-up vibe.

 

Take one of the standards that already is routed for a middle pup, throw out the bridge pup and move the neck into middle position. I guess the hardest part is finding a bridge plate and guard without holes for pups in neck/bridge position.

 

So, would that sweet spot be located at the theoretical 36th fret then?

 

Yes

 

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Remember that the 'sweet spot'/'harmonic' positioning is purely open strings. Once your fret something the magic positions move.

Best example of 'only a middle pickup' is many SRV tunes on that Strat middle pickup of his. So it's easy to test with any Strat. Borrow a Strat and drive it around on the middle pickup for a while and see if you like it long term or not, and then you can hog out some wood.


I have this Esquire-H that I split the coils to a 4-way switch and I can fake a neck pickup (with a little tone knob nudge), get twang on the 'bridge' single coil, #2 quack in parallel, or a hot humbucker LP.





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The first paragraph isn true, if it was, depending on the key, the various p-ups would change their flavor. Even in a key where the middle p-up is 1/4 of the way from the bridge, it doesn't t develope a neck type sound.
The eighth harmonic position isn t like a Strat middle. That cocked wah vibe isn 't there, more like a thru the air unamplified balanced sound.

 

How about cutting a standard tele bridge plate just in front of the saddles, creating a G.E. Smith-type short bridge, mounting the pickup to the front section of the bridge plate, and placing it halfway between the neck and the bridge saddles? That way you wouldn't lose the magnetic connection with the pickup and the bridge plate, which theoretically enlarges the magnetic field and is part of the traditional Tele sound. Use a cosmetic plate to cover the original pickup rout. A steel cover plate might expand the magnetic field even more, which may or may not be what you're looking for.