What makes a Tele pickups, well, Tele pickups?

[David PNW]

Listen to some Tele players who also play strats. They can get the same twang out of a strat. Maybe more metal in the bridge, and picking closer to the bridge also gets a twang from a Tele. So is it the pickups, maybe, but I have had people pickup my Tele and get a lot more twang out of it than I can. Still believe it is style.

 

[David PNW]

Last evening Friday 7/18/25 I went to a concert in Mount Vernon with Marty Steward. He is a country musician. Now both Marty and his guitar player were using Tele's with B Benders. Twang, Yes all the way. Then his guitar player switched to a strat, TWANG! He also used a Danelectro, and that also had the tele twang. It is style, where he picked, very close to the bridge, and going through Fender amps.

 

[fozhebert]

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Last evening Friday 7/18/25 I went to a concert in Mount Vernon with Marty Steward. He is a country musician. Now both Marty and his guitar player were using Tele's with B Benders. Twang, Yes all the way. Then his guitar player switched to a strat, TWANG! He also used a Danelectro, and that also had the tele twang. It is style, where he picked, very close to the bridge, and going through Fender amps.

Twang appears to be a state of mind...

 

[fretknot]

Tone bobbins.

 

[Antoon]

One thing I consider typical for Tele pickups is the big tonal difference between the neck and the bridge pickup, in terms of loudness and high content. This large difference gives the impression of a very trebly and powerful bridge pickup and very mellow neck pickup, whereas the Tele bridge pickup is in fact less trebly as a Strat bridge pickup. The Tele bridge pickup is also further from the bridge compared to a Strat.

 

[David PNW]

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Twang appears to be a state of mind...

Twang is a state of talent and fingers!

 

[unbridled]

Fingers and style! Listen to Albert Lee on his Strat!

I disagree with this. Although he sounds incredible, his tone was much better when he played Teles.

 

[Zarkon]

I can twang on all of these (except the lap steel, and it’s still got a bit in the twang category with certain licks).

Some make it easier than others.

View attachment 1392697

That is a fantastic looking F-100 on the couch there! I've always wanted to play one but haven't come across any in the wild.

 

[Rokdogguy49]

There is no good evidence that a steel plate under the bridge pickup makes any real contribution to the bridge pickup's sound.
guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/7728/measured-electrical-popular-telecaster-pickups

The bridge plate also has no real effect, unless it is made of brass ... which some Fender bridge plates are (difficult to tell because it's under surface plating). But those brass plates reduce the Q factor (due to eddy currents), so that would make the pickup less treble-y.
https://guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/8499/telecaster-bridge-plate-testing-brass

This shows otherwise…

 

[David PNW]

I disagree with this. Although he sounds incredible, his tone was much better when he played Teles.

It is all perception and what you like. But if you listen to all players playing Telecaster guitars, not every player gets twang sound. (Old time country twang) Some players get a rock sound, Springstein, Richards, even Gilmour. And then Jimmy Page used a Tele on the first album. (Far from twang) Some of these players used standard pickups. Now Brad Paisley, plays fast on Tele's, but not the Tele twang. But he most likely could. The Police, did not twang and Andy played Tele's. I have heard so many people live playing Telecasters and no twang, and my style even with 4 Tele's do not get the twang that some players do. So I vote style! Tone though is another preference!

 

[Rokdogguy49]

Sometimes I wonder how much of a role expectations play in the guitar tones we hear. I'm a firm believer in pickups being the largest contributor to electric guitar tone with body type, (Solid, Semi-Hollow and Hollow), probably being the next followed by bridge / tailpiece types. Sure. Everything else contributes in one fashion or another. Types of wood used. The material for the nut and saddles. Internal electronics. Fret and String types, (metals utilized, size, thickness and construction). You can drive these into the slightest of tonal variations when you start including glue, binding, inlays, etc. etc..
In my opinion a big reason a Telecaster sounds like a Telecaster is because we see a Telecaster and our mind immediately puts us on a path to hear Telecaster tone. Yet, even with that mental expectation a set of pickups can completely cave that expectation and take us to tones our minds would have never expected. On an Electric guitar pickups are the first stop shop for tone.

Note* I've found that leaving the plastic back plate off the Stratocasters rear tremolo cavity will cause the middle pickup to adjust in a way that adds more air and reduces glassiness when in the 2 or 4 switch position on a Strat. Of course we're talking about Telecaster tone so that observation holds no water in this discussion.

And don't get me started on 1, 3, and 5 ply pick guards.

I want more glass not less.

 

[Rokdogguy49]

It is all perception and what you like. But if you listen to all players playing Telecaster guitars, not every player gets twang sound. (Old time country twang) Some players get a rock sound, Springstein, Richards, even Gilmour. And then Jimmy Page used a Tele on the first album. (Far from twang) Some of these players used standard pickups. Now Brad Paisley, plays fast on Tele's, but not the Tele twang. But he most likely could. The Police, did not twang and Andy played Tele's. I have heard so many people live playing Telecasters and no twang, and my style even with 4 Tele's do not get the twang that some players do. So I vote style! Tone though is another preference!

To me this is twang…listen at 3:20

 

[David PNW]

To me this is twang…listen at 3:20

Like I posted, yes, he most likely can twang. Great player. The recordings I have and the times I have watched videos, he basically did not do the twang sound. Just played FAST!
Even on the Dr Z site, did not go for the twang while doing the demos.

 

[Fiesta Red]

That is a fantastic looking F-100 on the couch there! I've always wanted to play one but haven't come across any in the wild.

It was my first electric guitar…here’s part of the story behind it…

My First Acoustic, Electric and Amplifier

*This is a long read, so if you’re not into that, skip down to the pictures like the illiterate savage you are (just kidding…mostly…note the use of Sarcasm Font) Summer of 1989. I was 19. I had just survived a pretty rough motorcycle wreck (which led to some severe health consequences a couple...

www.tdpri.com

And you’re right—they’re getting harder to find in the wild—I used to see them a lot more.

 

[David PNW]

To me this is twang…listen at 3:20

To me at 3:20 just sounds like Brad's playing extremely fast! I decided to google the meaning of twang, "Twang is a bright, almost metallic sound, with a strong emphasis on the high frequencies. " Yes the definition fits, but that is just IMO his style. Usually with a Tele playing near the bridge gets that sound along with a bit of style and talent.

 

[David PNW]

Twang, try this short youtube video

 

[unbridled]

This used to be the definition of twang...

 

[TimTam]

That's a strat pickup not a tele bridge pickup. The evidence I presented was for the thin copper-plated steel plate under a tele bridge pickup. Typical strat pickups are different to typical tele bridge pickups, as the resonant frequency chart I posted showed. That's mainly due to differences in coil geometry as I said ...

Zollner, M. (2014). Magnetic pickups. Ch 5 in: Physics of the Electric Guitar. https://www.gitec-forum-eng.de/the-book/

The resonant frequency reduction due to that steel plate under the tele pickup was only ~300 Hz in the example I linked, which is relatively trivial. There was a similarly small reduction in the Q factor, and a small increase in inductance.

Zollner writes further about the tele plate ....
"... a metal plate positioned underneath the coil is - according to advertisements - supposed to shield, and to "reflect" the magnetic field. Duchossoir describes the material of this approx. 1,2 mm strong metal sheet as "tin" although this should not translate into actual sheet tin. "Tin" can also stand for tin-plated steel which is more likely to have been used since solid tin is not magnetic. Fender brochures refer to a zinc shielding plate, i.e. a galvanization. That's also fine. From 1951 a copper-plated steel sheet is used which is dropped in 1981 without any replacement. [later re-introduced] Presumably people at Fender realized, too, that the strengthening of the magnetic field towards the strings is so insignificant that the plate may as well be dropped. Another possible reason may have been movements of the plate which could lead to microphonic noise and feedback. Measurements do not confirm any magnetic shielding effect: the presence of the plate creates merely a difference of 0,1 dB in the interference in the parallel field. The signal level is increased by the plate by only 0,6 dB which is too little to be noticed much. Similar results occur for the resonance frequency (3% change) and the eddy current dampening (approx. 1 dB difference)." (p 5.6)
Zollner, M. (2014). Magnetic pickups. Ch 5 in: Physics of the Electric Guitar. https://www.gitec-forum-eng.de/the-book/

 

[bigben55]

I think it's the bridge pickup components, specs and geometry along with the bridge/saddles and 25.5" scale length that makes the twang. I dont think it's the bridge pickups baseplate. I have a strat with Fralin Blues Specials and the bridge pickup has their baseplate. It does not twang. Fralin says their "Prepped Baseplate adds power and bass to your Strat’s bridge pickup. This easy-to-install modification will provide a slight boost in volume and power when installed. You’ll notice more low-mid frequencies." I agree with all of that. If anything, it reduces twang.

 

[David PNW]

I think it's the bridge pickup components, specs and geometry along with the bridge/saddles and 26.5" scale length that makes the twang. I dont think it's the bridge pickups baseplate. I have a strat with Fralin Blues Specials and the bridge pickup has their baseplate. It does not twang. Fralin says their "Prepped Baseplate adds power and bass to your Strat’s bridge pickup. This easy-to-install modification will provide a slight boost in volume and power when installed. You’ll notice more low-mid frequencies." I agree with all of that. If anything, it reduces twang.

Did you see my post above, how to get twang video? Now tone is another avenue, but twang should be a style like the video shows.