Save me from routing out my body

[schwa]

Hey, tele people,

I've found myself in possession of a Squier tele, and it's become the only electric I play. The problem is that it has a humbucker in the bridge.

I like the sound of the humbucker on its own, especially for the louder rock I sometimes play, but switching between the neck single coil and the bridge humbucker feels unnatural-- like the two sounds don't belong to the same voice. The humbucker always feels too dark, which I can deal with with EQ/ tone knob, and too compressed, which I can't. (I know there's some debate about whether pickups can technically be more or less compressed, but from a subjective perspective, the humbucker seems to have a smaller dynamic range than the SC. It doesn't clean up as well, and doesn't seem to translate as much right hand pressure into volume.)

The obvious solution is to throw a HB sized SC in the bridge, but some of the venues I play make hum-cancelling a necessity. I've tried throwing a bright HB in the neck for a better match-- no dice. Can't do without the neck single coil. I've switched to the brightest, lowest output HB I've got (a DiMarzio Air Classic Neck is currently in the bridge position), I've lowered the pickup and brought the pole pieces up, I've turned the bass all the way down on the amp (a '65 Bandmaster-- not a muddy amp by any means,) and yet the mud and compression persists.

Before I resort to drastic measures and route the damn thing for a tele bridge, are there any miracle cures I haven't mentioned? I'm open to new pickups, creative wiring, homeopathic creams... Thanks, all!

 

[Peegoo]

@schwa Get an adapter plate and stick a Duncan Rails pickup in there. It is a humbucker, but the narrow field enhances highs and it stays bright.

The simpler option is to install a vintage-voiced (not too hot) 4-wire humbucker in it, and install a small switch (or a push/pull pot) to switch the humbucker from series to parallel. Parallel operation retains noise-canceling properties but make the pickup sound like a single coil. Andf it sounds better than splitting the pickup.

Check this out...it shows you what a parallel-switched humbucker sounds like:

 

[jvin248]

.

0.047uF cap in series with the muddy pickup hot lead.

You can put the humbucker coils in parallel, still noise reduction, brighter output.

1meg vol pot.

.

 

[schwa]

@schwa Get an adapter plate and stick a Duncan Rails pickup in there. It is a humbucker, but the narrow field enhances highs and it stays bright...

I hadn't thought of the adapter plate... It's definitely odd looking, but this guitar is already sort of a mongrel

.

0.047uF cap in series with the muddy pickup hot lead.

You can put the humbucker coils in parallel, still noise reduction, brighter output.

1meg vol pot.

.

This is a 1 volume 1 tone guitar, so sadly neither the series cap nor the brighter volume pot will work without messing with the neck pickup (running a pre-tone control series cap turns the tone control into a volume control for the capped pickup)

EDIT: Forgot to say, I've yet to try parallel wiring. I'll give it a shot, but it's always been my impression that parallel HBs tended towards a more delicate, Stratty sound, where what I'm after is clear but meaty...

 

[cousinpaul]

Put the series cap between the humbucker's hot lead and it's connection to the switch. I agree .047uf is a good place to start. Bear in mind, anything you change with the HB will change the sound of both pickups combined.

 

[gonzo]

6 wonderful choices here:

Single-Coil-Sounding Humbuckers - Fralin Pickups

These are our Humbuckers that have a brighter, snappier sound. They are more reminiscent of Single Coil pickups, with no hum. They are ordered from the cleanest and most articulate to the dirtiest and darkest. If you are looking for more of a traditional Humbucker tone, visit our Traditional...

www.fralinpickups.com

 

[gonzo]

i personally have a fralin p-92 in the neck of a custom tele build,
it sounds wonderful...
i think it'd be perfect in a bridge position, with a little hotter overwind maybe.

 

[Peegoo]

I thought this thread was gonna be about your impending first colonoscopy.

Never mind

 

[schwa]

Those Fralins look enticing... I'm a little hesitant to spend that much on a pickup, but then, I've never heard anything but great things about Fralin's designs

 

[Beebe]

Is it a strings-through (the body) bridge?

If so, switching to a top loader might help loosen up the strings over the bridge pickup.

And Alnico 3 magnets are known by some to be the most expressive / least compressed.

It looks like that DiMarzio pickup Is Alnico 5 and 8.34 Kohm. This is in the P90 output territory. You can go a good bit lower in resistance to move the resonant peak frequency higher.

Filtertron's are in the 4k ballpark, so low resistance has precedence in humbuckers.

Look for a similar output to the neck.

If you go with Alnico 3, it is the lowest output of the popular magnet types. Keep that in mind along with the neck magnet type and resistance when trying to balance output.

You could look for a wide range humbucker in a traditional humbucker size. This is another low output humbucker. It is used on Tele Deluxe's, so there should be plenty of examples of how this should sound out there.

I believe the WRHB uses pole magnets and has them offset with a coil around the three top ones and a separate one around the three bottom ones.

If this isn't how the wrhb is built, than try one that is built that way.

EDIT. The pole stagger on the WRHB helps give it it's wider range. Like the angle of a Tele bridge pickup does. This could translate to a less compressed feel.

 

[gonzo]

Those Fralins look enticing... I'm a little hesitant to spend that much on a pickup, but then, I've never heard anything but great things about Fralin's designs

and for good reason.

i shopped quite a bit, and demo'd pickups left and right...
zero complaints for spending just a little more for something that does exactly what i wanted.

 

[schwa]

Is it a strings-through (the body) bridge?

If so, switching to a top loader might help loosen up the strings over the bridge pickup.

And Alnico 3 magnets are known by some to be the most expressive / least compressed.

It looks like that DiMarzio pickup Is Alnico 5 and 8.34 Kohm. This is in the P90 output territory. You can go a good bit lower in resistance to move the resonant peak frequency higher.

Filtertron's are in the 4k ballpark, so low resistance has precedence in humbuckers.

Look for a similar output to the neck.

If you go with Alnico 3, it is the lowest output of the popular magnet types. Keep that in mind along with the neck magnet type and resistance when trying to balance output.

You could look for a wide range humbucker in a traditional humbucker size. This is another low output humbucker. It is used on Tele Deluxe's, so there should be plenty of examples of how this should sound out there.

I believe the WRHB uses pole magnets and has them offset with a coil around the three top ones and a separate one around the three bottom ones.

If this isn't how the wrhb is built, than try one that is built that way.

EDIT. The pole stagger on the WRHB helps give it it's wider range. Like the angle of a Tele bridge pickup does. This could translate to a less compressed feel.

I'd never even thought about going top-loader-- thanks for the idea! Makes sense that that might impart a little more snap.

Somehow I had it in my head that the Air Classics were lower output than they really are-- I'm comforted to know that the answer may be as simple as going to a more open sounding HB, or one with a different construction

 

[RPadTV3000]

Fralin's Big Single comes in humbucker size, as does a few of its P90 offerings. Another option would be using a Filtertron with an adapter.

 

[schwa]

I've also been looking at the Wilde L90 (in either the 2.8H or 4H inductance) as an option-- people seem to have good things to say about their clarity. Any experience here balancing a bridge L90 with a neck single coil?

 

[Sax-son]

My solution is a little off base for some people, but if I have a guitar that is routed for a specific combination of pickups, I just buy a new body with the routings that I like. I save the old bodies in case I want to sell later. With Squire guitars in general you can buy a pre painted body for around $100.00 all day long. Then you can put whatever brand or style of pickups you want. I am done trying to turn a body design for one thing into another. It just screws up the body and makes it worthless. I have done it in the past and I don't like it. Most times it's the neck that people bond with and the body is secondary with the tone of the guitar. You can transfer all the part over as long as the specs are the same.

 

[schwa]

My solution is a little off base for same people, but if I have a guitar that is routed for a specific combination of pickups, I just buy a new body with the routings that I like. I save the old bodies in case I want to sell later. With Squire guitars in general you can buy a pre painted body for around $100.00 all day long. Then you can put whatever brand of pickups you want. I am done trying to turn a body design for one thing into another. I just screws up the body and makes it worthless. I have done it in the past and I don't like it. Most times it's the neck that people bond with and the body is secondary with the tone of the guitar. You can transfer all the part over as long as the specs are the same.

Yeah, that is certainly on the table. As nice as the PAF sound us for certain applications, I am starting to wonder if it doesn't make sense to just go with a traditional Tele setup. Might be better off trying to get a fat rock sound out of a clear pickup than trying to get clarity out of a fat rock pickup

 

[BB]

I wonder how a Harmonic Design Z-90 would sound in the bridge slot? I've had one for years, but have never installed it in a guitar.

 

[Bruxist]

Yeah, that is certainly on the table. As nice as the PAF sound us for certain applications, I am starting to wonder if it doesn't make sense to just go with a traditional Tele setup. Might be better off trying to get a fat rock sound out of a clear pickup than trying to get clarity out of a fat rock pickup

And there are more and better noiseless options than ever now.

 

[robt57]

If HB is 4 wire, connect coils in paralell instead of series. If that doesn't do it for you, go to next step.

 

[schwa]

If HB is 4 wire, connect coils in paralell instead of series. If that doesn't do it for you, go to next step.

Hopefully that works, and all this theorizing is for nothing, haha

Well, this certainly gives me a lot to chew on. Thanks for sharing your experience, everybody!