The Wanderer
TDPRI Member
Hello everybody
A short story of the curious way of how I finally achieved the sound of my dreams with my 24" scale Tele.
A year ago I built a 24“ short scale Telecaster from a very cheap but surprisingliy good Tele copy (Fazley) and the neck of a Squier Mustang Bullet. I replaced the not-so-good pickups with EMGs. I'm not a fan of batteries in the guitar, but the sound (very close to a good single coil) and the noiselessness convinced me. After installation, my Tele sounded much better than before, much more defined, clearer and brighter. However, I found that the bridge pickup was somehow too balanced, too tame and uninspired. Probably good for Pop, Rock or even Heavy Metal but not so much for crunchy Blues and Blues-Rock. The ultimate snappiness and crispiness were missing, as was the famous ‘groove’ of the middle position. I tried thicker strings and adjusting pickup height, but that didn’t help much. Changing the electronics (pots, caps) is not really an option with EMGs. So was this the price I had to pay for the 24“ scale and the noiseless pickups?
I did not want to change the pickups as there are very few affordable noiseless pickups and the differences in sound are not very big in my opinion. Then I remembered that I still had an unused Tele bridge. I also realised that the bridges of Telecaster-style guitars can have very different distances between the bridge pickup and the saddles, from about 2 to 5 cm. This should make a significant difference in sound, maybe even more so than different pickups. Moving the pickup closer to the saddles should make the sound crisper and harsher (losing a bit of volume too). If it’s too close though, it will start to sound really thin and „anemic“. The distance between the front end of the bridge pickup and the saddles on my current bridge was over 3 cm (1.2 inches) compared to 1.5 cm (0.6 inches) on the new bridge. The angle of the bridge pickup was much lower than usual, which the new bridge would also remedy. The new bridge was also much more massive and had different saddles compared to the old one.
Here is a picture of the old bridge (still with the original pickup) and the new one:
To install the new bridge I had to re-drill all the holes and fit really long saddle screws which I found on some old light switch fittings (!). I also had to sand down the individual saddles on the sides to turn the 54 mm bridge into a 52 mm one, which was necessary for the slim 24" Mustang neck.
I positioned the bridge pickup very close to the strings (3-4 mm is no problem with EMGs) to compensate for the volume loss. The sound is now quite raw and full of character. The trebles are more aggressive and the basses growl big time. Even the middle position is now as groovy as it comes. I am totally thrilled and relieved that I finally found the mojo of my beloved Tele.
A short story of the curious way of how I finally achieved the sound of my dreams with my 24" scale Tele.
A year ago I built a 24“ short scale Telecaster from a very cheap but surprisingliy good Tele copy (Fazley) and the neck of a Squier Mustang Bullet. I replaced the not-so-good pickups with EMGs. I'm not a fan of batteries in the guitar, but the sound (very close to a good single coil) and the noiselessness convinced me. After installation, my Tele sounded much better than before, much more defined, clearer and brighter. However, I found that the bridge pickup was somehow too balanced, too tame and uninspired. Probably good for Pop, Rock or even Heavy Metal but not so much for crunchy Blues and Blues-Rock. The ultimate snappiness and crispiness were missing, as was the famous ‘groove’ of the middle position. I tried thicker strings and adjusting pickup height, but that didn’t help much. Changing the electronics (pots, caps) is not really an option with EMGs. So was this the price I had to pay for the 24“ scale and the noiseless pickups?
I did not want to change the pickups as there are very few affordable noiseless pickups and the differences in sound are not very big in my opinion. Then I remembered that I still had an unused Tele bridge. I also realised that the bridges of Telecaster-style guitars can have very different distances between the bridge pickup and the saddles, from about 2 to 5 cm. This should make a significant difference in sound, maybe even more so than different pickups. Moving the pickup closer to the saddles should make the sound crisper and harsher (losing a bit of volume too). If it’s too close though, it will start to sound really thin and „anemic“. The distance between the front end of the bridge pickup and the saddles on my current bridge was over 3 cm (1.2 inches) compared to 1.5 cm (0.6 inches) on the new bridge. The angle of the bridge pickup was much lower than usual, which the new bridge would also remedy. The new bridge was also much more massive and had different saddles compared to the old one.
Here is a picture of the old bridge (still with the original pickup) and the new one:
To install the new bridge I had to re-drill all the holes and fit really long saddle screws which I found on some old light switch fittings (!). I also had to sand down the individual saddles on the sides to turn the 54 mm bridge into a 52 mm one, which was necessary for the slim 24" Mustang neck.
I positioned the bridge pickup very close to the strings (3-4 mm is no problem with EMGs) to compensate for the volume loss. The sound is now quite raw and full of character. The trebles are more aggressive and the basses growl big time. Even the middle position is now as groovy as it comes. I am totally thrilled and relieved that I finally found the mojo of my beloved Tele.
