Is that a strat pup or is the cover removed from a tele neck pup? It looks kind of small to be a strat, but that could just be me..Gilmour done it.
Strat Pickup in Tele?
- Thread starter Squiretele777
- Start date
I built this one just so I could put a strat pickup there, it sounds great.
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h34vy d1st0rt10n
TDPRI Member
Basically I consider bridge pup in neck position is a last final fix of the tele design, after individual string adjustment bridge or compensated bridge and locking tuners installed. I have a shrill and brittle ceramic pup in neck position, unlike on the picture where an alnico is visible. The shrillness and icepick is disappearing in neck position, but it still chugs 95% tight when palm muting compared to a bridge single coil in a strat for example, very decent attack and pleasant round sound. It is quite hard to tell what is it like, but the closest is probably a P90 in the neck position. What is amazing now the middle position, rich fullrange sound, quite even low/mid/high, I use in-phase series wiring.
Zappastectomy
TDPRI Member
I have two in mine. It’s an American pro body and WD baseball bat neck.
The neck PUP still sounds very Tele though. All are Fralins. Blues Special in middle and bridge, vintage hot in neck. Love it! It’s my Gilmour/Hick machine!
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You might go straight to guitar.com and use their search function entering “Clarence White”. That article will pop up at the top of the list.
I posted the link from my phone and no telling what mischief that embeds itself on that path. It’s really a good article about Marty Stewart - and how he became the custodian of an amazing guitar.
zeke54
Tele-Afflicted
I did this with my Esquire back in the '70s , it was ok but I still used the bridge pup the most . This Esquire had been used a lot and abused a little ! By the late '70s I had it restored and removed the Strat pup . This Esquire sounds so good , it doesn't need a neck pup , never missed it . But try it and be the judge yourself , a lot of people like it, I'm just an Esquire guy !
Thin69
Friend of Leo's
I did it to an original 1969 Thinline after the neck pickup failed and I wound up putting a DiMarzio FS1 strat pu in the neck. That original Tele neck pu had always driven me nuts because the output was very low compared to the bridge. After installing the FS1 I had to lower it all the way as is a pretty high output pickup.
Installed the FS1 without the pickup cover and very carefully filed the top of the bobbin to be almost flush with the windings. The only mod done to the guitar was to elongate the pickup hole in the pickguard. Added pickup mount hole to the pickguard and mounted the pickup to the pickguard. Didn't have to touch mod the body as the pickup barely fit in.
I loved the very full low end and touch sensitivity when using this pickup. Was able to get matched loudness between the bridge and neck pickups which delighted me.
bruceb5
NEW MEMBER!
tubeToaster
Tele-Meister
Bill Lawrence Wilde Keystone Telecaster neck pickup sounds very Strat like also.
Despres
Tele-Afflicted
I have a Jerry Donahue tele (Made in Japan) that has a strat neck pickup - I have a Cavalier Fat Lion bridge and Cavalier SRV neck pickup in it, with a 5-way switch and sometimes I wonder why I own other guitars it sounds so good.
Johnnypops
TDPRI Member
I did that, if you take the cover off a strat pickup it fits perfectly into the neck position and for me is a perfect match made as neck is my fave strat pickup and I’m not a huge fan of tele neck pickup preference is middle position on tele.
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Johnnypops
TDPRI Member
No, that's an uncovered strat pickup, I have same in mine
Teleguy61
Friend of Leo's
OC Duff Big Boy Tele neck is very close in sound to a Strat pickup, no mod needed.
ocduffpickups.com
Big Boy Tele® Neck Pickup – O.C. Duff Pickups
ocduffpickups.com
BassMan10
NEW MEMBER!
guitartwonk
Tele-Holic
And the JD Tele has a strat pickup at neck of course. Funnily enough, I got hold of a JD Tele neck also from 92 I think, and bolted it to my Tele partscaster. This has quarter pounder at bridge (about 14 kOhm) and a nice powerful strat pickup at neck, a Yorkshire Jack (about 11kOhm), made by AxesRUs. Then I have a five way switch to give bridge only, b+n in parallel, b+n in series, b+n in series + resistor, then neck only. It also has a TBX in place of tone control, and a switch to engage a WDMusic Tone Choke, which has the effect of taking those overwound pickups and making them sound more like a traditional tele.
So, yes, a strat pickup works amazingly well in a Tele. For me, I found a Tele pick guard with strat pickup sized hole, also from AxesRUs.
I don’t know if you’ll need to rout a bigger cavity though as this already had a larger one from when it used to have a humbucker in a previous incarnation.
myfenderissues
Tele-Meister
The tele neck pickup is voiced for the metal cover, taking it off changes the tone. A strat pu coil is larger, wider, so that shifts the tone darker. Removing the metal cover from a tele neck doesn't make it sound like a strat pu in that location. The tele neck coil is taller and much narrower thaN a strat coil. Taking the metal cover off makes the pu too bright even though people claim metal covers in general only reduce output and not high end tone
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