Nashville tele middle pickup?????????

[UPtele]

I want a to convert one of my teles to a Nashville tele and the only one that has a middle pickup route is my partscaster with a SD Jerry Donahue bridge and twang king neck.

This combo is perfect and I can't believe I'm messing with it but I can't leave anything alone

I would love some suggestions for a middle strat pickup. The strattier the better

 

[Mike M]

Area 58 for middle

SD Mini in neck. Push/Pull Tone knob to get all 7 pick up configurations

 

[Cali Dude]

When I did the Nashville mod on my Tele back in the 90s I used a Seymour Duncan antiquity Texas hot Strat pickup in the middle. It was a fantastic guitar. I combined it with the Texas special Tele pickup set. Wish I still had it.

 

[stormsedge]

One of my Nashville Deluxe Teles has a Blue Lace Sensor at the middle. Sounds great.

 

[misterdontmove]

Min has a Bootstrap Sun City (I think that's what it's called) wound to 7.5K to keep up with a Cavalier Nashville and Fat Lion King,

 

[moosie]

I have OC Duff Buckaroos in mine, and run an OC Duff Fillmore (late 60s Strat pickup) in the middle. Between the pickups and the electronics, it sounds more Stratty than my CS Strats.

 

[drmordo]

I can't suggest a PU, but I do suggest you wire the middle PU to a push/pull pot switch rather than losing your classic Tele sounds that you already love.

 

[SparkleFart]

I want a to convert one of my teles to a Nashville tele and the only one that has a middle pickup route is my partscaster with a SD Jerry Donahue bridge and twang king neck.

This combo is perfect and I can't believe I'm messing with it but I can't leave anything alone

I would love some suggestions for a middle strat pickup. The strattier the better

I too can't leave anything alone & recently converted my 1999 American Deluxe. I pulled the original Bardens I'd had in there since 2000 & am giving a Bill Lawrence (Wilde) L280TN neck & L290TL bridge plus a Lollar Sixty-four in the middle a whirl.


I have to admit my strat experience is pretty shallow, but the Sixty-four sounds pretty stratty to me.
Before


After


And here's my latest victim next to his brother from another mother.


Whatever way you choose to go, best of luck with your project!

 

[stormsedge]

I can't suggest a PU, but I do suggest you wire the middle PU to a push/pull pot switch rather than losing your classic Tele sounds that you already love.

Alternatively…both of my NDeluxe Ts are wired with a push/pull on the tone that provides the N/B and all three pickups in addition to the five way settings.

 

[dougbgt6]

What is the middle pick up in a standard Tele Nashville? Standard Strat middle, or something else?

Doug

 

[11 Gauge]

What is the middle pick up in a standard Tele Nashville? Standard Strat middle, or something else?

Doug

I have an older one that I got with the stock pickups pulled, and it was just the standard MIM-type with the plastic bobbin and alnico polepieces.

I had a couple of SSS Teles years ago, although I also had a Strat pickup in the neck position. What I personally concluded was that really any standard/traditional Strat pickup worked fine in the middle, so I'd end up using like a SD SSL-1, or the MIM alnico Fender Strat pickups, or anything similar. I never ever played on position 3 of the 5-way selector switch, though. I really liked the Tele bridge and Strat middle in parallel, possibly even better than with a Strat.

 

[Matt Sarad]

I bought a set of Ron Ellis pickups for my Strat.
It came with Onamac Windery. Tele in the bridge and 2 strat.
The Ellis set are a '50 Broadcaster and 2 '64 Strat.
I found I preferred the Onamac and took the Ellis out.
I have a Squier pine Tele with a MIM neck. I'm going to put the Ellis pickups in it next month.

 

[Gsweng]

I picked up a used Nashville tele sometime back. I think it had a Mighty Mite in the center with a strat like 5 way switch. Not bad but one thing I noticed is there was no noise cancelling going on in positions 2 and 4. Turns out all three pickups were North (or South) up. So if a noise cancelling position is important to you get a pickup with a different magnetic polarity in the middle (assuming the other two are the same).

 

[sjtalon]

My '06 Dlx. Nashville CURRENTLY ( I get bored sometimes and switch pups) has Keystone N&B and the middle is a Custom Shop'69.

P/P tone pot for neck on.

and with these Nashville animals, I post this can of worms :

Two (and three) pickups 101

Remember that RWRP is a relative term, one pickup to its mate. A pickup per se is not RWRP.

The real term should be RC RP; that is, reverse CONNECTED. How a pickup is wound doesn't really mean jack. What matters is how the MANUFACTURES wire them. That is, what color leads they use so that when wired, they are correct with each other PHASE WISE. For instance, Fender is usually white (or Yellow) positive, black ground (coil negative).

There is no standard as far as connection, OR polarity in the industry of a SET, so it's a crapshoot when you mix brands.

One can get any two pups IN PHASE by reversing the coil leads on ONE pickup of the set. Sometimes a modification to the pickup has to be done to make it a three-wire, if one of the leads is connected to a cover (Tele neck) or bridge metal baseplate, which is often done to both ground the coil, and cover or baseplate with one lead to a pot.

If you want noise reduction, ONE of the two pickups must be of opposite polarity and CONNECTED in reverse (or opposite how the wind is as far as its positive lead vs. its mate pup).

If you don't care about the noise reduction, then POLARITY doesn't matter, they can both be the same, only the correct connection (of leads) so the two are in phase with one another.

What stinks about a Nashville is you can't have the best of all worlds noise reduction (NR) wise (RC/RP pup in the set) if you want 7 way. So on Stratocasters with a FENDER NR set, the neck and bridge are NORTH top and the middle south. So on 2 and 4 you have NR. Deluxe Nashville Teles (also Strat-O-Tone) are wired the same.

If a person wants the Telecaster option of Neck and bridge and NR with a Nashville, you would have to decide which "Strat" tone you prefer, usually Neck and middle (#4), then have those opposite for the NR, with the bridge opposite the neck.

When you do that, your middle and bridge will be the same polarity wise so no NR there. Not the end of the world anyway, some pups aren't that noisy like that, or if you don't use # 2 it doesn't matter anyway.

 

[jvin248]

.

I have the Fender Triple Telecaster and it has Nocaster pickups in all three spots with a regular Strat circuit five way switch. It does the Strat things. So you could find a Nocaster pickup.

Strat tones are enhanced by setting the middle pickup lower than the other two. Weaker output that way when just middle alone. Plus more Quack with parallel unequal strength pickups. One Strat I put a low wound 3kohm SC pickup in and that gives a lot of Quack when paired.

What I'd do with your Tele:
-Pull the existing control circuit and jack in one piece to bag/tag for easy reversion later.
-Measure actual volume pot kohms across the outer lugs to find a close match since you like the guitar tone now.
-Wire up the Strat five way switch with your three pickups, but swap the middle and neck hot wire solder points on the switch.

This will give you a 3-way conventional Tele switch with two middle pickup tones at the end, middle alone and #2 Quack. If you want #4 Quack then swap the other two pickup hot wires at the switch instead.

On standard SSS Strats you can physically swap a pair of pickups in the pickguard to exchange a Quack for the Tele neck plus bridge tone.

Or just do a push/pull tone pot to add the neck pickup in parallel to whatever the 3-way is set at. No middle alone but both Quacks.

.

 

[FenderLover]

I call my 'Nashville' a 3-pickup Tele because it has the standard Tele PU's for neck and bridge. The 4-way switch keeps standard Tele in 1, 2 and 4. Position 3 adds middle+neck. '90's Squier Strat middle, '62 RI neck, unknown (but nicely balanced) bridge (from an Asian tear-down).

 

[moosie]

I enhanced Strat tone on my Nashville build by wiring a resistor from hot to ground.

Initially I used a 250k, wired to position 4 on the switch (super switch). The idea was to mimic the double tone pot load that happens in this position on a typically wired Strat (one with tone 1 wired to neck, and tone 2 wired to middle).

But I auditioned more values, and I think I finally settled on a 100k. Smaller resistor, the circuit "sees" a smaller (aka darker) volume pot. But the sound isn't 'dark'. It's 'softer', more Stratty. To my ear at least.

Finally, I liked it so much, I wired it to all the positions, and it sounds great across the board. As I said earlier, it sounds more Strat-like than my Strats.

I set Strats up with a decked trem. I've always thought I need a Strat "just because". It's a unique tone. But this wiring setup and the OC Duffs, has me thinking I could dump the Strats and never notice.

The Nashville is wired with a super switch and an S-1. The "up" position on the S-1 is the five Strat settings. "Down" has the two other parallel positions, N+B, and N+M+B (which I actually like). The other three positions are series combos, which I don't use much, but a lot of other folks would.

 

[ZiggyZipgun]

The Nashville is wired with a super switch and an S-1. The "up" position on the S-1 is the five Strat settings. "Down" has the two other parallel positions, N+B, and N+M+B (which I actually like). The other three positions are series combos, which I don't use much, but a lot of other folks would.

Mine had a similar setup for the past few years, except that I used a Freeway 10-way switch for all of those same combinations, and the S-1 was just a phase switch for the bridge. I've just replaced it with a 5-way super switch and... early '60s Jazz Bass wiring!

 

[ZiggyZipgun]

I've gone through a lot of invasive pickup changes, but for a while I had a Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Wide Range Humbucker and an Antiquity I Jazzmaster that kept trading places in the neck and middle positions. Both had their advantages in each spot and always worked well together. The WRHB sounded great in the middle and was especially useful when split for the 2 & 4 combos, but the Antiquity had a very special tone when solo'd in the middle position, and added some very nice beef to the 2 & 4 combos. There's currently a Lollar P90 residing there, but nothing is permanent.

 

[Flaneur]

I have a '50s style O.C. Duff Strat pickup, in this one. Alnico 5, low wind.....